Existing (under editing)

Chapter 10*

Plop, plop, plop.

I sat on a log as Alma was trying to skip rocks, observing lazily on the shore in the cool evening. I was leaning in with my chin resting on my hands as my elbows sat on my knees with my legs crossed. She was swinging in front of me with the water up to her knees, her skirts' rim occasionally brushing the water as she tried to fling the rock from her hand, ripple of water expanding out and thinning with the water's current like a catalyst along the its surface, circulating her. Her sun kissed hair fanning out around her with the force and weight of her thick dreads. To anyone else her appearance may have seemed strange. A girl almost wild, with dread locked messy hair and bare feet, always, with a smile shadowing at the edge of her lips waiting to shine at any moment like a child. But her beauty was exotic with her pale skin that was pastel like but freckled with amazing vibrant eyes and smile. Her small frame of her body build finally filling out over the past weeks, she was something of a dream, a fairy tale. A woman and I just becoming a man. Nothing like the women back home who were run down and timid, tiered from the day's work of hard labour. Alma was unknowing to herself. She in her heart was still a child but she was the same age as me almost, like she was stuck in a body that was lingering on the cusp of adulthood. Everything she was just... got to me. The way she would frown with one cute little dimple in her right cheek as she would paint and puff her cheeks in frustration then showed her white perfect teeth when she believed something was wrong and the dimple would come out. The way she trusted and appeared unhurt by anything that had come her way. How she would ramble on about her knowledge of vegetables to me and get her words mixed up and not notice. She was getting to me. The way she would smile at me would make my heart stop. It's embarrassing and makes me feel so boyish, but then there was those feelings of manliness, wanting to protect her because she was important to me, but then all my feelings loop around as to why I could feel this way for a girl then all my questions would melt away when she would call my name, like a melody or tune bringing me home.

The afternoon sun was casting shadows on as the heat bet down brutally but we stayed cool under the protection of the trees and the cold of the wind. The start of summer was here and already hitting us. Even though the bark beneath my feet was still toasty from the mid-day direct beams it wasn't that bad.

She tied her dress skirt up in a knot to stay out of the way as she kept trying. She was bending down, gathering up rocks again and cradling them in one arm as she, time after time, failed to successfully skip a rock. Pepper sat beside me, watching as the rocks landed hopelessly in the water with a slash. She proceeded to endure, unfazed by how bad she was with that cute frown again playing on her expression. It was painful to watch.

"She's never going to skip it is she?" I asked Pepper. He sneezed then shook his head, still watching her. His old grey whiskers swaying with his nose.

After a few minutes of her persistent, failed attempts, I pulled off my shoes and rolled up my shorts.

"Firstly," I said, coming to join her, bending over with her to collect more rocks as she watched me. "You have to find the perfect rock."

I felt around in the cool water and located a flat oval shaped one, pulling it to the surface showing it to Alma as she gazed at it, gathering up a whole new pile, picking ones simular to my own.

"Then you have to throw it like a disk so it bounces on the flat surface." I flicked it, letting the stone lick the surface of the water, skipping five times before landing. Pepper barked from the shore, leaning back on his hind legs, bringing his front paws together, like a clapping motion.

"Wow! How do you do that? Teach me!" Alma eagerly said bringing over her pile of rocks.

I picked one good one out and put it in her right hand, spinning her around, shadowing her from behind putting her into the right position, circling my arms around her tiny body. "Ok, so you have to make sure you have a tight hold on it, and you have to throw it in a horizontal direction like this," I guided her arm, "Now I want you to try, make sure you flick you wrist with it and let it go." She looked back over her shoulder up as me and I felt myself getting caught up in her scent of lavender so to be safe I stepped back a little, giving her some room. She brought it back and then let it launch, skipping two and a bit times on the water's surface.

"Yes!" she dropped all her rocks into the water, flinging them all places as she waved her hands up in the air, cheering. Pepper barked his applaud and I laughed along with her. She spun around, clapping and jumped, splashing around everywhere getting me wet. She jumped and hugged me in the excitement, almost falling. Her smile radiant on her face, her perfect white teeth on full display as she giggled. Then as we held each other laughing she started to calm down, looking up into my eyes. We just stood there. Her arms around my neck and my hand on her waist, her fingers playing with the little curls behind on the back of my head. I leaned in closer, slowly, water droplets shined as they dripped from my nose, her eyes serious now but shined a different kind of light as all I could see was her, and nothing but her.

Pepper barked his interruptions to us. Alma looked up hearing something, letting go of me and stepping back. A giant flock of ducks, a whole fleets worth, perfect V shapes, came flying overhead, all coming down to settle in the water. Pepper still barked as the all quacked, some landing near. Alma approached a group, their feathers smelt like smoke and the lighter coloured ones had patches of black on them, trying to wash themselves. Even as I looked back at Pepper, he was getting worried from where he barked from the shore, not daring to come into the water.

"What happened?" I asked Alma as she listened to the ducks speak. Quacking had erupted all around me as I felt like I had been brought to duck heaven or something.

"It's the city. The one you come from, it's not that far from here." she turned back to the ducks, listening more. "It's like people are rioting. A whole half of the city has been burnt out. The ducks got caught in the smoke as they came through."

I watched as the groups of migrating ducks recuperated. "Does it know anything else?"

She listened in as the duck continued to quack its response and then swam of to join the rest of the group.

Alma was silent as she turned to me again, fidgeting with the now wet edge on her dress. "Apparently they are starting to enforce the rules more violently... they're starting to shoot at random and giving even less food as payment. Lucas, people are trapped and dying there."