The Black Hand-- Part 2

I have been working on this story and decided that I would go ahead and post the next part. Tell me what you think of it. Are the hints about Marina and her real life too confusing? I am trying to make them a little ambiguous so that I can develop her with the story but I don't want the reader to get lost. Any help?

The Black Hand--Part 2

I took a longer look at the building where my Marine Biology class was the next day. It was only large enough for four classrooms and they wrapped around forming a hollow circle. I wondered what was in the middle of the building, especially since I had not seen any entrances. I pointed it out to Calvin while we were waiting for the teacher to arrive. He agreed that it was strange and added that it was rather inconvenient for him because he had to look around a curve in order to see the teacher. The building looked neat from the outside but whoever had designed it only had a taste for the unique and not the practical.

“Please get in your seats!” Professor Jins boomed out at us and I jumped. I was standing very near the door, but I had not seen him come in, he was just suddenly there in the room. Inwardly I shrugged my shoulders deciding I had been preoccupied and hurried to my seat.

“Have any of you ever heard of the mutualistic relationship between the Oriental Sweet-Lips and the Blue Wrasse? It is a very unique and interesting one—“

I certainly had heard of this relationship and after seeing the real thing take place in my own back yard a couple hundred times I had lost interest. Majoring in Marine Biology was a laugh to me but that was what every Aqua in training did because it was something they didn’t have to work at. We all lived it, were taught it and had it bred in our blood. 

A sudden and very loud noise jerked me out of my reverie and I felt every nerve in my body contract in preparation for a spring. But nothing happened. No one else in the class room seemed to have heard it, they were all still staring dumbly at the teacher who was in full sail and nearly and looked nearly out of breath.

I stole a look at Calvin but he was studiously taking notes and obviously had heard nothing. Perhaps I had been imagining things? I slowly began to relax.

Then I heard it again and there was no mistaking it. The sound was of metal sliding on metal and then an annoying and insistent beeping. Where was that coming from and why was no one else acting like they heard it? I closed my eyes to concentrate on the sound. There was something higher and a little fuzzy, I knew I was familiar with it but I could not quite pen point it.

“Hey Frog Girl, wake up! It’s not winter hibernation time quite yet.” I felt the girl next to me hiss as she kicked my leg.

At first I was irritated with her immaturity but then a sort of calm began to surround me as I realized it didn’t really matter. There was nothing wrong with being a frog and humorously, they were closer then they thought. Webbed toes were not my only frog-like gift.

 I smiled good humoredly at her."Thanks for waking me up."

She looked at me narrowly and then decided I really was dunce enough to not understand she had been picking on me.

After class Calvin caught me and asked me if I was going to the café next. He said he and Amy would like to sit with me if I did. After getting our food we chose a quite corner table and began to eat.

“Hey, I forgot to get some water.” Calvin stood up, “Do either of you need something to drink?”

I had chosen to get some crackers that day and I was in sore need of the water when he finally returned and put a large cup down in front of my plate.

“Thanks.” I said trying not to blow crumbs everywhere and grabbing the cup and took a large mouthful and stated spluttering.

“Are you alright?” Amy looked up from her salad and saw my disappointed face.

“Uh, yes, yes I’m alright. Could you pass me the salt? Thanks!” I dumped a generous amount in my water. That would taste much better, before it had tasted like the Rio Negro. I took a tentative drink and then gulped down the whole cup. Feeling much better I picked up two crackers and sandwiched and generous slice of cheese between. Then I noticed that Amy and Calvin had both frozen and were staring at me with their forks in mid air.

“What? Do I have crumbs on my face?” I grabbed a napkin and hurriedly passed it a few times over my mouth.

Amy put down her fork and looked at me curiously. “No dear. But you just guzzled that whole cup.”

“Oh,” I dropped my head and curled my toes. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“You weren’t rude.” Calvin was studying me too. “But what we’re surprised about is the fact that you just drank a cup that was about one fourth salt.”

Oh, so that was it? How could I have been so obvious!

“Uh, yeah. Sorry. I’ve always liked my water salty I guess.”

“You sound mineral deficient.” Amy still hadn’t eaten that bite of food and I was irritated with myself for attracting so much attention.

“Oh, I’m fine. It’s just a funny little habit of mine.”

“Are you sure? I am a nutritionist. What do you eat a lot of?”

I twisted my fingers together nervously. I wished she would stop making such a big deal of the whole thing.

“Well, mostly fish, crabs, sea weed, oysters; I like sea food.”

“Sea weed? That’s one I’ve never been able to stomach. I guess you really do like sea food.”

“Yeah. Hey, I don’t mean to be rude but I’ve got to leave. I have a class in ten minutes and it’s clear across campus.” I grabbed my backpack hurriedly before she could ask me any more questions. “Thanks for eating with me! How about Friday? I’ll have class with Calvin again that day, you want to grab lunch again?”

“Love to!” Calvin smiled enthusiastically. “Have a good day!”

It was only as I was opening the door of my classroom that I realized I had never told Calvin about the strange noises I was hearing during Marine Biology. Maybe Friday, if  I didn’t do something absurd again and make them ask too many questions.

The Black Hand

I watched pensively as the waves washed over my home.  I was leaving everything I had ever known behind; even the Black Hand on the sun that had told me it was time to go was quickly fading. This was only supposed to be a little trip to expose me to the world and get me practice on interacting with humans but somehow, as I looked ahead to the mainland, I felt as if there was a dark cloud hanging over my excursion.

“How long had you been out there waiting for a boat?” The boat driver’s incredulous voice broke in on my musings.

“Oh, not too long, maybe an hour.”  I gave him what I hoped was so dazzling a smile that he would ask no further questions and turned to look over the edge again. Somewhere, way down there, so far that even I couldn’t see it, there was the normal life of my country, continuing on. No one, except my instructors, knew or cared that an orphan Aqua had just entered the human world and was learning skills and tactics that could have an enormous impact later in life.

“You been floating on that suitcase the whole time?”  He turned the wheel a little and then relaxed in his chair in the half closed pilot house and began to study me.

I sighed, my smile had not worked. “Oh yes. It’s a big suitcase so I wasn’t uncomfortable. I actually think I would have eventually washed ashore if you hadn’t seen me and been kind enough to give me a lift.”

“Well, you’re lucky. I have never seen a suitcase float like that! It saved your life--“ I smiled to myself at the idea of my life being in danger when I was in the ocean. “--but I still don’t really understand how you ended up out there in the first place. Did you fall off a ferry boat?”

I dropped a mask of pain over my face and turned my watery blue eyes up to him. “You have been so kind, sir, to give me a ride to the University on your boat but, if you do not mind, I would rather not talk about my past.”

He gave me one long curious stare and then turned back to the wheel. “Alright. I did not mean to be rude but it’s not every day that I find a young lady surfing the ocean on a suitcase. You know, you gave me a bit of a turn wearing that dress. It’s not a color I could identify but it matches the water perfectly. And your hair too, it’s that blue black color, you just seemed to sort of be part of the ocean.”

Three days later---

I dropped my blue backpack on the floor under an empty backseat desk and sat down curling my toes inside the teal converses. The chatter of the class room began to die down as the professor stood up and faced the class.

“Good morning class. I am Professor Jins. I live here in Jarndice and I have three lovely boys in high school. Now we are going to go around the room and I want each of you to tell us your name, where you live and something interesting about you. We’ll start right here on my left and work our way to my right.”

A guy stood up, “My name is Jessie, I’m from right here in Jarndice too and I was the top football player last year in high school.”

Another guy stood up next and I my mind began to wander as he gabbed out his life story. This room was rather strange. It curved around in such a way that it looked like a crescent moon cut in half and then I remembered that the building itself was round. It was a strange way to shape the class rooms and I suspected it would be hard to see the teacher if I was sitting in the left hand corner. I turned curiously to see if the student sitting there was having trouble and was surprised to see a man wearing slacks and a polo craning his neck to the right. Glancing around I saw just how much he  stuck out in a room of young carelessly dressed people. His hair was combed and gelled neatly and I could see it had several grey streaks. I decided he must be a non traditional student and while I was looking at him he suddenly turned and smiled at me. He looked nice and I decided I would try and speak to him later. Then I realized that everyone else was looking at me too and I stumbled, embarrassed to my feet.

“My name is Marina Aqua and I live off the coast.” A roar of laughter caught me and a got no farther.

“I would wear that green-blue ocean color too if I had a name like that!”

 “She lives off the coast in an aqua marina I bet!”

The professor looked sternly at me. “This is not a time for joking young lady. What is your real name?”

“Excuse me sir, but it really is Marina Aqua.” I felt my face being washed by waves of red and my eyes were swimming.

“And you live off the coast? Sure.” His voice mocked me sarcastically. “Do you have a sail on your back? Or gills that you breathe out of? Alright, tell us something interesting about you!”

I tried a hesitant smile, “Actually sir I…I…” For some reason I turned and looked toward the man sitting in the corner. He was no longer smiling, in fact he looked angry. When our eyes met he raised an eye brow expectantly and motioned towards the teacher. Confused I looked up at the teacher and then back at him.

“Don’t stand for it.” He mouthed the words and I felt relief wash through me. He was not mad at me, he was mad at the class for making fun of me. This man was going to be nice.

I took a deep breath. “Professor Jins, my name is Marina Aqua, I live off the coast and the interesting thing that I have to say about myself is that I have webbed toes.” I spit it all out and then stood defiantly facing the wave of laughter.

As I left the class room the other students pushed passed me, rudely bumping me and pushing me back so that I was the last one to leave the room.

“Bye Frog Girl.” One called over her shoulder and the class all laughed loudly, then the door banged shut behind them.

I had thought I was the last one but when I reached for the door handle I saw another hand grab it first. I looked up and there was the man with streaked grey hair, holding the door open for me.

“I like the name Marina.” He smiled encouragingly, “And I don’t know why they all thought it was such a big deal. There are much funnier names. I used to know a guy named Joe King. No one ever took him seriously.”

I smiled and walked through the door. “Thank you. So what are you majoring in?”

“Economics. I actually have another degree but I decided to come back to school for the fun of it.”

“Really, so what was your other degree?”

“Oh, it was just—hey look! There is my wife; she’s taking a class here in Logic. Come meet her!”

I followed him to where a lady was sitting on a bench studying a large book while leaves from the tree above her drifted down. Her hair, too, was streaked with silver but as she stood up and greeted her husband affectionately I could see she was quite nice looking.

“Marina, this is Amy my wife.” He beamed proudly as he presented her and Amy’s accepting smile immediately made me feel at home.

“Good to meet you Amy but, I have a request to ask of you.”

She raised her eye brows and nodded encouragingly.

I smiled widely, “Could you introduce me to your husband? I’m afraid I don’t know his name.”

Amy laughed at my request and then straightening her face tried her best to look sternly at her husband. “How unthoughtful of you sir. His name, Marina, is Calvin.”

 

More coming next month!