Ice Phoenix

It was a sweltering, humid thirty-four degrees and the cool sea breeze did nothing to deter the mosquitoes from buzzing around Terrana. One of them was even brave enough to land on her forearm, but before it could even stick its pointy appendage into that delicious skin, lightning fingers swatted it flat and reduced it to a bloody mess that was quickly flicked into the wind. Its comrades also met with the same fate as super fast hands pulverised them in the air.

Terrana grinned, extremely satisfied with her display. “That makes ten! Two more and I’ll overtake Archie!”

Archie was her older brother and she was referring to his feat of killing twelve mosquitoes in under ten seconds. Right now she was alone, walking along the beach with a destination in mind. She had just passed a small section of mangroves with their large, mangled roots sticking out of the water, and it was here that she had ambushed the mosquitoes. Now, as they gradually faded into the background, the beach became whiter and sandier as gentle waves rolled up and splashed around her bare feet. Pretty sea shells dotted the wet sand while bright yellow and red fiddler crabs scurried across her path, eager to get to the next hole. She let out a contented sigh.

She couldn’t help it. She was happy. The school holidays had arrived and she had eight glorious weeks to enjoy. Most of her friends had taken the ferry to , which was the main city in , where they would no doubt marvel at all the tall buildings, buses, shops, cinemas and other wonderful things they had so often heard about. They had asked her to join them but she had declined, much preferring to remain on the island, where she could swim, climb trees, fish and perhaps practise the tamure dance on her own, without anyone to watch her.

“Okay, whatever,” they had said. “We always knew you were weird!”

Terrana was twelve, soon approaching her thirteenth birthday. She was a skinny child despite possessing a healthy appetite, and her skin was tanned from frequent swimming. Her hair, which fell just below her shoulders, was naturally black but had been bleached brown by the sun. Almond eyes graced her complexion and were an indication of her mixed heritage. They reflected maturity and empathy, combined with a fresh innocence that many people found endearing.

The sweet scent of frangipani flowers drifted her way and she inhaled it appreciatively. On her right, farther up the sand bank, was a green stretch of grass, coconut palms and frangipani trees. The sound of an engine made her look up — a plane was zooming in the distance, a mere speck in the vast blue sky. No doubt it was heading to . She could imagine the excited tourists emerging from the airplane and being greeted by smiling locals singing in their beautiful voices. Later, they would head outside to the arrival area where they would be driven or flown off again to their resort destinations.

“Oi, Terrana! Where you going? Mai ike and break nuts with me!”

Terrana stopped and looked towards the coconut trees. She spotted a dark boy high up in one of them, waving. Epeli was a few years older than she was, with short, frizzy hair and the lean, muscular body typical of boys his age. He had a cane knife in one hand, which he used to lob off the coconuts before dropping them with precision into the palm frond baskets below.

Climbing coconut trees was a feat she excelled at; she had long before mastered the skill of pushing her feet together and loping up the trees like a monkey. Now, she could out-climb any boy on the island. Ironically, Epeli had been the one to teach her.

“Sorry, Epeli, but I’m going swimming now! Mum wants me back by lunch so I don’t have much time!”

“Osoo!” Epeli replied in the typical slang of locals. “You always swimming. How come you didn’t go to the city like the others?”

“I didn’t want to!” Terrana shouted. “There’s nothing for me to do there! Okay, I’m going now. Moce!”

Epeli waved her goodbye and watched as she continued her walk along the beach. “Beach bum,” he said before returning to his coconut lobbing.

Her hand fiddled about in the right pocket of her raggedy shorts, clutching at her goggles. Not far ahead was where she intended to enter the water. It was a special spot for her, a place where both stone and coral beds led out to sea. Cutting through these beds was a narrow passage, wide enough to allow two people to swim through side by side. It started off shallow but after twenty metres or so, it dropped to a depth of around three metres for a short distance before giving way to the deep ocean.

A gateway to paradise was how Terrana liked to think of it. A wondrous world filled with myriads of brightly coloured fish of all shapes and sizes. They ranged from the cute puffer fish with their brown-spotted or striped coats, little anemone fish with their characteristic white stripes and angelfish in blue, yellow and orange.

There were also the larger fish like the groupers. Terrana quite liked these spotted cods — they were delicious. Finally, there was Eddie, the blue ribbon eel who was forever gaping as if he was trying to talk, and Charlie, the octopus she occasionally saw lugging a live lobster to his hole.

She finally reached the little fringed reef and stripped down to an old swimming suit. Donning her goggles, she waded into the water. When she was about waist-deep, she inhaled deeply and dove in. A whole new world enveloped her. Gliding gracefully, she passed over giant clams, fascinating brain corals, sea fans and sea slugs. Scores of fish rushed past her and she dove deeper to avoid them. She even saw Eddie and Charlie. Despite all the wondrous creatures in the sea, they were not why she was here.

No. Instead, she had come to meet her best friend — a beautiful creature she had known since she was two days’ old.

Her parents had been walking along the beach on their way home from the maternity hospital when her mother pointed to the water and cried out, “Mason, look!”

Her father, who had Terrana cradled in his arms, stared at the sea and saw a lonely dolphin calmly observing them. Realising it had gained their attention, it rose from the water and danced on its tail before falling back in.

“Maybe it wants to meet Terrana,” her father had said. Against all her mother’s wishes, he carried his daughter into the water. In a flash, the dolphin was by their side, nudging the baby ever so gently. According to her father, that was the first time she smiled.

When she was about fifteen months, the dolphin taught her to swim. She glided through the water dolphin style, her body an undulating ribbon propelling her forwards at a speed that no one on the island could match. No one could match her record for staying under water, either. She could stay submerged for eight minutes.

She thought about her friend as she propelled herself deeper under water and through the passage that led into a shallow lagoon. A bright silver form sped past, easily gaining at least fifty metres on her. It turned abruptly and rushed towards her. Terrana swam harder, striking for the surface.

She felt its smooth, rubber-like skin beneath her feet and allowed herself to be propelled upwards. At the very last moment, she tensed and broke through the water, like a bird with outstretched wings. She took in the dazzling blue sea and the clear sky, felt the wind on her wet skin before arching her back into a dive. Just before she re-entered the water, she caught a fleeting glimpse of the beach.

She remained under water, using minimal movements to keep herself submerged, and gazed ahead. She hovered on the edge of the lagoon where the light blue waters gave way to the looming darkness of the majestic ocean. One stroke too many and she would be swept away by the currents. But, as usual, the dolphin was watching out for her. There was a sharp pain in her ribs as it prodded her with its snout.

“Ooooooor!” That was underwater talk for ‘ouch.’ Terrana glared fiercely at the dolphin but backed away hastily when she saw he intended to repeat his scolding. Four kicks and she was back in the arms of the shallow lagoon, close to the small reef she had swum through. The dolphin appeared satisfied with this and swum around her happily.

Puddy — that was what she called him — was the largest bottle-nosed dolphin she had ever seen, and he was always alone. The other dolphins that visited the lagoon from time to time were curious about the lonely dolphin; they had tried on many occasions to embrace him into their pods but always left bewildered and without him. No one knew why he did not want to join others of his own kind. Instead, he chose to swim only with Terrana, and avoided all the other people on the island.

She broke through the surface and turned onto her back, releasing a contented sigh. This was the absolute best — swimming alongside her best friend with nothing to disturb them.

“I had that strange dream again, Puddy,” she said after a few minutes had slipped by. The dolphin was almost unmoving by her side, seemingly listening to what she had to say.

“I was floating in that darkness again. I know it wasn’t the sky because there weren’t any stars and it wasn’t in my head coz it was too quiet. There wasn’t any noise at all and even when I screamed I couldn’t hear myself.” She paused and reached out to stroke Puddy. “And then I was at that school again looking at it from the outside. I wanted to go in, and this sounds weird I know, but something was keeping me out. I could only watch from the school’s perimeter. I could see the students — they were so cool!”

A smile played about her mouth as she recalled her dream. “One of them had two antennae on his head and his skin was blue. Another was floating by on his buta, I mean ass, sorry, butt, and he looked like a giant cockroach. Eew, I hate cockroaches!” She shuddered. “It reminded me of the movie Star Trek you know.”

There was a splash as Puddy used his flipper abruptly. “Oh sorry, you don’t know Star Trek.”

She turned over and put as much of her right arm around Puddy as she could. He was, she guessed, around four metres in length and probably weighed close to four-hundred kilos. She rested her face against him, close to his head, and smiled. She could sense his big brown eyes looking at her and she gave him a peck on the side of his face.

“I wish I could stay in the water forever with you! Then we could go exploring the ocean together all the way to the North Pole and meet whales and seals and see everything on the ocean floor! And we could also sabotage those ships that try to catch you for food.”

It didn’t matter that she had said it a million times before. The sea was her home and she wanted to live her life in it with Puddy, exploring the watery world away from humans. And it didn’t matter that he’d done it a million times before — Puddy still raised a flipper and pushed her away as if to say, “Don’t be stupid.”

The push sent her tumbling towards the seabed and she spread out her arms to stop her rapid descent, striking for the surface. She broke through, gasping water.

“Fine,” she said sullenly, “be that way. But just you wait, one day I’ll find a way to spend all my time in the water and then you won’t be able to get rid of me!”

Puddy released a chatter of noises, seemingly laughing. He flipped upright in the water and wagged a flipper. He was pointing to the beach.

“Urrrgh fine! I’m going then! How could you tell it was lunch time?”

They swam towards the shore, but this time bypassing the little reef that Terrana had swum through. It was good exercise for her as she worked on her freestyle, her arms and legs propelling her forwards with the gentle waves that rolled into the lagoon.

She raced the last hundred metres underwater with Puddy, losing as usual, and emerged from the sea. As always, the dolphin turned and left, performing his signature flip before disappearing into the distance. Terrana walked back to where she left her clothes and slipped them on. Then she headed home.

Her feet swept the sandy footpath dotted with lime-washed rocks and withered rose bushes, past the large frangipani tree on the right and finally stood before the weathered, wooden door of her yellow rectangular house. The smell of frying fish, sausages and boiled cassava filled her nostrils and she inhaled it appreciatively. Turning the cheap plastic doorknob, she sauntered into the house.

The sound of her brother’s whining greeted her first.

"Oilei! Where were you, man? Mum’s been looking for you to scrape the coconuts!”

Archie was sprawled out on the sofa watching a video. Three years older than Terrana, he was the bane of her life. Like his sister he was lean, but his eyes were green and his shoulder-length hair was brown and wavy. He possessed a devilish smile that made all the girls on the island laugh strangely.

A natural star in school, he excelled in schoolwork, sports, and dancing — a fact he never failed to rub in. But one day it had all changed; Terrana had thrashed him in swimming and tree climbing, and, ever since, everything had become competition between the two.

Terrana rolled her eyes and huffed. “Why couldn’t you do it?”

“Uh uh, I’m not allowed to.” He grinned. “I’m learning to play the piano.”

“What! Since when?” Terrana was pretty sure that Archie had the musical sense of a farting monkey with bananas for fingers. Crabs were more musically gifted than he was.

“Master Manoa offered to teach me and Mum agreed, but first I have to take it easy on my hands. He said I had too much crescendo!”

A sly smile came over her face. “You mean Father Manoa. The only free time he has is on Saturdays so there goes your weekends. Because it’s Mum agreeing to it, there goes your Sundays too coz she’ll expect you to play in church.”

She watched with satisfaction as Archie’s face changed from smugness to horror. She nodded sympathetically. “Yep, Mum finally got you,” she said in a way that was not at all sincere. “Don’t know how you didn’t see that one coming.”

Archie screamed. ”Muum! You didn’t tell me that Master Manoa was a priest!”

The sound of softly padded footsteps entered the living room. The plump form of their mother appeared, complete with her pink slip-on dress that fell just above her knees, curly dark hair, dark eyes and ruby red lips. She loved lipstick.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” she said innocently. “He’s just come down from the next island and will be serving God here for a year.”

“Eeh? God doesn’t live on this island, Mum! He’s on the other island with all the ulukaus. You tricked me!”

Terrana sniggered. Ulukaus was Fijian slang for village idiots. It resulted in a slap on the head from her mother. “Oouu — what did I do?” she said, rubbing her sore head.

“Go scrape the coconuts. I need some lolo for the fish and bele.” Lolo was coconut milk and bele was a leafy green vegetable rich in iron, two of the most common ingredients for cooking on their island. She looked at Terrana and her eyes twinkled. Terrana had inherited her brown eyes and black hair from her mother, whereas Archie had his father’s colouring.

“All right,” she grumbled, turning to leave. “Guess I’ll be stuck scraping coconuts for the rest of my life now that Archie’s playing the piano. I’m a young girl with dreams you know.” She gave her mum a pointed look. “I plan to be a marine biologist, saving the ocean, and I need to be in the sea looking at sea stuff but nooooo — instead I’m doomed by my mother to scrape coconuts. Where is the love?”

She received only a raised eyebrow in response. “I’m gonna have coconut hands like you, and men will think that I work in the kitchen.” That didn’t work either. Her mother just shook her head and walked back to the kitchen. Terrana scowled and glared at her brother, whose turn it was to snigger.

“Still, it beats spending my weekends in church playing the piano just to impress some stupid girl.”

She succeeded again. Archie was just too easy.

“Akanisi is not stupid! She’s tall, smart and beautiful and she can dance too! Not like you, flapping like a dying fish on the sand.”

“Fine then. I’ll scrape the coconuts and you’ll play the piano every weekend — in church. Did I mention that Akanisi is leaving for next week and will be away for the rest of the holidays?”

Her brother’s face twitched.

“Guess not,” she said, smiling sweetly before walking away. A few seconds later Archie followed, screaming.

“Don’t you dare touch those coconuts!”