Washed Up - The Sooth, S1E3
Juniper and Seraphine find something horrifying in the surf, and a meteor might be not a meteor. 6 min read.
New to the story? Start at the beginning.
Previously: Juniper and her sick father investigate the blue pond that should be gray.
Washed Up
Planet: Mariner
“Did you see that man’s hair yesterday?” said Juniper as wiggled her toes into the sand. “I’ve never seen anyone else with hair like mine. He was l’originale, right?”
Seraphine threw two more pieces of scavenged driftwood onto the small pile they had collected on the sand and lit the dried grass and twigs that served as tinder. Before her the gray ocean melted into the hot, colorless sky.
“I almost told Papa yesterday that we’ve been studying with the Sooth school,” said Juniper.
“Juni,” said Seraphine as the flame curled the yellowed weeds, “We’ll know tomorrow if we passed.”
Juniper balled her fists.
“Almost, I said almost” she replied, “It’s been a whole year.”
Seraphine shook her head and flicked sand at her sister.
“Are you a toddler?” she said. “Go find some red root to go with the clams.”
Juniper muttered to herself about the stupidness of patience as she dragged her feet across the empty beach to the small stand of trees behind it. Seraphine would see the lines in the sand. She would feel Juni’s frustration.
At the tree line Juniper turned back, but her sister wasn’t watching. The first sun had vanished already. The second hovered just above the horizon line and threw its reflection across the rippled sea. The red cliff faces that bordered the beach on both sides except waterward glowed in the low-slung light.
Within a few more steps, the thicket swallowed even that, but the moss was soft and springy beneath her feet, and the tang of pine tickled her nose. Red root grew everywhere by the ocean. She dug up four tubers by the loamy base of a sprawling tree, brushed one off on her trousers, and gnawed it on her way back to the beach. Sera could roast hers.
When she returned to the sand, Seraphine was standing by the water’s edge, bent over. Juniper dropped the roots by the fire and came to look at the slim fish that lay at Sera’s feet. Though still meaty, its fins had been mostly chewed off, and it was beginning to decay.
“That’s as big as I am,” said Juniper.
“That’s more impressive for a fish,” said Sera.
Juniper knelt down and inspected the head. A metal harpoon that bolted through the top of its flat snout and flanged out beneath the jaw clamped the fish’s mouth together. A thick wire trailed off from the top of the rod and into the water. They couldn’t see where the line ended.
Juniper looked at Seraphine.
“Who would catch this, bolt its jaws together, and then throw it back?” said Seraphine.
“Why wouldn’t they eat it?” said Juniper. Seraphine shook her head.
“This has to be a mistake,” said Seraphine. “It must have fallen overboard.”
“But the bolt,” said Juniper. She stood up and they both stared at the fish until the incoming tide lapped at their bare toes and lifted the fish. The water had dumped the fish on shore. It would take the fish back out.
Over the fire they cooked their clams and red root in silence, then laid side by side on the sand and stared up at the sky as it deepened and finally blackened overhead.
“Do you remember when the sky was blue?” said Juniper.
“Don’t you?” said Sera. “Maman took us out here all the time when the ocean was blue. When that went gray, the sky did too.”
A white streak slid across the sky.
“Four,” said Juniper.
Seraphine snorted. “How do you have four and I only have two?”
“Five,” said Juniper as another streamed by.
“Why do I have blue hair?” said Juniper. “You, Maman, and Papa all have black. Only l’originale have blue.”
“Three,” said Seraphine.
“Six,” said Juniper at the same time.
“No,” said Seraphine, “I’m counting that one as mine.”
They were both silent for a few moments until Juniper rolled over to look Sera in the face.
“Do you think Papa is l’originale like the test subject?” she said. “Maybe he dyes his hair.”
“How would he dye the gray into it?” said Seraphine.
“Aha, four!” said Seraphine.
“Sera, stop it,” said Juniper. “Why is mine blue?”
Seraphine lay silent until Juniper flopped back on her back. The black sky stretched overhead, and the waves that lapped the sand brought the ripple of coolness with them, drying the sweat from beneath their loose clothes. This was their week-done time, and both Juniper and Seraphine relied on it.
“I don’t think Papa is l’originale,” said Seraphine.
Juniper watched another meteor trail across the sky.
“Seven,” she said. “And it’s not because the sea dyed our hair before the bacteria died off and it turned gray?”
Seraphine laughed.
“I can’t believe Maman thinks that,” said Sera. “Why would everyone’s hair go back to their original color except yours?”
The next meteor not only moved very slowly but looked brighter.
“I’m the only one in town with blue hair,” said Juniper. She spoke so softly that her words barely rose above the hum of the ocean and the buzz of the summer bugs.
Seraphine grasped Juniper’s hand and squeezed. Juniper squeezed back and then laced her fingers through her sister’s just as they had done since they were children.
“I know, Juni,” said Sera. “It’s ok.”
When the high whine started, both girls sat up. Number eight was not the same.
When the fireball streaked over their heads, they glanced wild-eyed at each other and started running for the trail that led out behind the trees.
Before they even made it past the sand’s edge, the deafening boom of impact came, and the air filled with birds startled aflight from their perches in the trees.
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Stay tuned for next week when…
Juni and Sera investigate the fireball and find carnage and chaos instead.
New book chapters posted on Wednesday mornings
Just so you know what to expect. See you then!
Episodes 1 - 3 are free. Things start to heat up after that.
About The Sooth
Juniper “Juni” Beauchard plans to become a Sooth so she can heal her father from his terminal illness. But her skills attract the interest of both aliens who want her to cure their homeworld pandemic and her own Prime Minister who wants Juniper to destroy the aliens. Will she make it back to her father in time?
I am currently revising book one of three and posting it in episodes here. Did you find a plot hole, continuity error, typo, something you really loved or that will stick with you? Please post in the comments! Knowing what is or isn’t working helps me make the story even better. Thank you!