Us, Colliding

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The thing about Sulani is that no matter what the weather is doing, it's hot.

Today is overcast - the dense forests which lie high up on the mountains are barely visible, a thick grey fog covers the trees like a blanket and the mountain top peers out from low lying cloud.

The air is heavy and if it weren't for the AC I reckon my clothes would be stuck to my skin right now.

After breakfast I say goodbye to my dad - he has calls to contend with today but he promises we'll spend time together later in the evening - apparently there's a drive in cinema which sounds awesome. They're showing some 90's classics.

I'm nervous about spending time with him, he might be my dad but he's still a stranger, more or less.

It feels awkward because I like him already and although I know that's good, it also feels like a betrayal of my mother, somehow.

I know that's dumb.

Mum sent me here, after all.

I meet Neri at the cove but she is a little distant, nothing like her usual self. There's not much chatting and she seems content to sit, scratching the sand with a large stick.

As usual she wears cut off denim shorts - they're stonewash today and I think they used to be jeans because white pockets hang out the bottom and long wispy threads touch the tops of her thighs.

An oversized tee depicts a band logo of which is unknown to me and her curls are piled up on her head in a messy bun.

I don't mind hanging out with her but I have stuff I could be doing back at my dad's - I found his old acoustic guitar and am eager to play - it's been too long.

"You ok?" I ask, sitting beside her, the rough surface of the rock scratches the backs of my thighs through my thin black trousers.

"Do you ever think about death, Myra?" Neri asks me, pressing the end of her stick into the sand.

"I guess," I say.

"I think about death," Neri says, "I don't understand it."

I frown.

It'd odd hearing Neri talk this way, I wonder where it's come from.

Neri mystifies me - she's something else.

"I'm not going to die until I'm 84," Neri says with certainty, as though she knows without any shadow of a doubt that that's what will happen.

"84?" I say, "why 84?"

"I don't know, it seems like a good age," Neri says, "I'm going to die in my sleep."

I nod slowly.

This conversation is weird.

I do think of death, but not like this.

I know it will happen but if I think about the how and when's of it, I'll start losing my mind.

We fall silent, the only sound the rushing waves, the creaking of the palm trees and the singing of the tropical birds.

As we sit there I hear a twig snap under the weight of something heading our way, I turn and see a boy and a girl emerge from the trees.

It's Hanu and Luana.

My stomach drops.

"We should go," I whisper to Neri, my face is hot and I allow my long hair to slide over my cheek, obscuring their vision of me.

I stand up, brushing grit and dirt off of my trousers.

"Hey," Hanu says as I walk by him, I say nothing but I meet his eyes.