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!