Death in the Water

A Moment's Rest

With the Peloneustes on their heels, Henry and Katharine made their way out of the water and onto the sandy shore of the river. Seeing its chance gone, the clay swimmer returned to the middle of the river while the two redheads fell to their knees and looked back at the water. They had no intention to go back in as long as that short-necked plesiosaur was in there. They had no intention to go back in the water period. They had seen Carchemish's skeleton was not there, they were fine.

Laying down in the sand, Henry barely uttered: "You know, this is not how I saw this day going."

Laying next to him, Katharine said: "Me too, Henry."

Laying behind them on her stomach, Miao propped her elbows on sand and held her face in her hands. Sighing, she commented: "This isn't how I expected this month to go."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Katharine asked as Henry closed his eyes and took some time to breathe. He was too tired to talk at the moment, he'd let Katharine handle it.

"I... I don't know..." Miao replied. Henry did not need to open his eyes. He could imagine the look of uncertainty. "Have you ever had to share a room with an older sibling?"

That was not something Henry had ever known. While the man he had been named after had been the eldest of six children, Henry himself was an only child. Shaking his head as an answer, he listened as Katharine said: "Actually, yes." Opening his eyes, Henry looked to Katharine, interested in learning more about her. "I have an older sister, she is twenty-four, married and has a six-year-old son. Back in South Africa, I had shared a room with her from the time I was old enough to be out of the nursery to the day she got married."

"I wish I had an older sister that was married. As much I love my brother, I shared a room with him back at our old house and I'm still sharing one with him at our new one. I need some space of my own."

"What's your brother like?"

"He's the same age as you guys, hopes to be a sports star, he can be a bit of a dummy, like how he quotes things he has never read to make himself seem cultured and to fit in with stereotypes, even calls us wontons. He always tries to quote 'The Art of War', 'Journey to the West' or the works of Confucius."

Henry had read "The Art of War", but he had not read the works of Confucius or "Journey to the West", but he was certainly familiar with the story of the latter. When he was an eight, he would watch an animated series that adapted the story everyday on tv. Had it been on everyday? It may have been on a weekly basis, but it felt like everyday. He loved it and wanted to read the original story. He knew the characters Tripitaka, Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy and Dragon Horse... Dragon Horse? He was pretty sure that was the character's name.

"How do you feel about him trying to fit in with those stereotypes?" asked Katharine.

"It makes me think that he is too much like my dad, with his telling us to have perfect manners and always trying to appease his boss and co-workers, like that creep Edmund Smith."

"You've met him?" Henry asked.

"Him and my dad's boss Milledge Magruder." Miao commented, thinking back to yesterday. "Henry, yesterday Smith brought a pie... He said it was apple... It looked like he... Uh..."

"Like he gashed off someone's front and put it on his pie?" Henry asked, knowing fully well how Smith's pies looked. He had attended some potlucks with his parents and unfortunately Smith had been in attendance, bringing with him some of his apple pies. "His pies are disgusting, alarming, abhorrent, the most loathly things I have ever seen, they looked like they are made of human derma and they are charcoal in colour! It doesn't look like Parnell bakes pies it looks like he bakes anathemas! Choose which ever word you want, 'alarm', 'frighten', the fact is that is how people feel when they see one of his pies."

"I just know that if it talks to me before I eat it, I am going to be very agitated." Said Miao.

"If you eat it, you will probably end up accursed." Commented Henry, before asking: "Who is watching our stuff?"

"I asked a nice gentleman to, an albino." Miao replied.

"Are the police coming?" inquired Katharine.

"They said they would send some people." Answered Miao. "Said something about not wanting this thing to not be like that shark in the States."

"Shark?" Katharine was completely confused. "What shark?"

"I heard about that!" exclaimed Henry, sitting up and turning so he could look at Katharine and Miao. "A bull shark had swum upriver and killed a couple of kids. The authorities had tried everything from guns to dynamite, but they never managed to get the shark."

"A shark in freshwater?" Miao could not understand it. Sharks were saltwater fish. How could a shark have possibly swum upriver?

"Bull sharks can swim between fresh and saltwater." Henry explained. "Though they typically prefer tropical rivers."

"How big do bull sharks get?" asked Katharine, rolling onto her side and propping her head with her right hand.

"There is a bit of sexual dimorphism when it comes to body length. Females grow to be an average of seven feet and nine inches long while males grow to be an average of seven feet and four feet in length, both a little bit smaller than our clay swimming friend at ten feet."

"A-Average?" Miao asked. From her tone, Henry could tell she was frightened.

"What is the maximum length for these things?" Katharine inquired.

"Eleven feet." Henry answered. "But there is a record of a female whose length was thirteen feet and an inch." Katharine and Miao could only stare. That was a bit larger than their clay swimming friend. Noticing the flabbergasted expression on Miao's countenance, Henry added: "Don't worry, there has been no cases of bull sharks in Canada, that I know of anyway."

"That you know of?" Miao asked incredulously. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Sighing, Katharine uttered: "Works for me. One set of killer teeth in the river is enough."

"So, who is this albino?" Henry asked Miao. He had no memory of having ever met an albino period let alone in Actaea.

"Well, he's... Oh, here he comes right now!" Turning to her right, Miao saw the albino she had mentioned. He had a swimmer's body, was twenty-four years of age and had a showman's mustache and goatee. His attire consisted of a blue t-shirt, a pair of white shorts and a pair of black sandals. He was definitely not someone Henry had ever met or seen. He was carrying an open umbrella.

"Young lady, I cannot keep an eye on you or your friends' belongings anymore, I have to report to my employer." Said the albino. His accent was not Canadian, nor was it South African like Katharine's. It sounded American and as someone who had been to the United States, to Henry it sounded like it was forty percent southern and sixty percent Brooklyn.