Mayim watched the broadcast of the evening news in a reclining chair so she could see all parts of the curved screen around her room. She wondered if the flooding this year would occur with the same controls as in the past seven years. The global parliament mandated personal and professional curfews, but they had to agree upon implementation of the directives every August.
The speakers on the ceiling of the dome-shaped tv room sounded with the report. The projection on the white wall surrounding her made the reporter’s head seem twice it’s actual size.
“This year, environmental calendarists have proposed curfews should begin mid-September, claiming the ice depletion is at a record high. Tides in our streets have risen a quarter-inch in the past week and we are expected to see an increase in volume until the rapid wave of cap-water. Experts expect the cap-water deluge to hit earlier than last year, although draining of the excess almost never occurs prior to the end of October and seldom recedes to the pre-deluge levels. We saw salinity levels peak exactly forty-five days prior to the cap-water flood in the past seven years. So, when will it occur this year? With the test requiring a two week analysis, we may have already seen the peak of air-salts. Labor unions are in negotiation to require employers amnesty for time missed lessening the strain on the economy. Increasing a shut-in time to a month and a half has folks concerned about food and air supply as well as their earnings.”
A reporter appeared on the screen with a microphone standing on a floating barge. “I’m here with just one of many concerned citizens who are opposed to increased curfews.”
She pushed her microphone closer to his face and he began to speak, “I’m already losing a month of work every October. I can’t afford to lose another half.”
The reporter brought the microphone closer to her mouth again, “But it’s being said that this year the rising waters are going to be more dangerous than any of us remember. Isn’t your life worth increased isolation?”
“Not if I starve to death! The Department of Calendars are a bunch of,”
The television went blank and the anchor appeared on the screen. Mayim assumed the producer did not want to have this gentleman representing the masses. The anchor recovered quickly from the unexpected outage of feed. “I think there was some technical difficulty there. If we can go out live again later in the broadcast, we will.”
She turned her chair while another camera picked up a different angle of her face. “Another disappearance of diners occurred today. This time at The Battery. Five friends who are seen here in a snapshot at the restaurant for a birthday party, ordered the cake, but were no longer there when it was time to blow out the candles. The manager of the restaurant, known for it’s deep fried seafood said it’s not the first time he experienced dine and dash where folks order food and leave before paying, but he had never known them to bring a cake for a celebration before the prank. Close relatives of the five youth filed missing persons reports with police. The birthday girl’s parents said it’s unlikely she left her boat in the parking dock if they were to go on an abrupt birthday adventure. This is the seventh such disappearance of folks dining in seafood restaurants leaving no sign of their whereabouts since June. This is the first occurrence at The Battery.”
A commercial appeared on the screen and was louder than the news program. A man wearing an antique diving suit floated into the viewable area of the screen. His breathing sounded labored through the apparatus. “No matter how high the waters get this October, Nautical Cross will delivery your staples until the last minute allowed by law.” A police officer carrying an over-sized time piece pulled up to the diver in a boat and shook his finger in the air gesturing to the time. “Order now and choose your delivery date! Discounts available for any deliveries scheduled before parliamentary decision.” The screen changed to a family feasting on a big meal, while out the porthole windows of their home, there was seen people bobbing in the water, knocking on the glass to ask for help. “Be sure to stay high and dry when the deluge comes. Get Nautical Cross to bring your provisions in vacuum sealed, water tight packages.” The jingle played while the contact information flashed on the screen
Another commercial for a water filter, that changes salty water into potable drinking water, played with flashing lights and people retching from drinking unclean water. The folks with the filter sparkled and smiled without any discomfort.
Mayim shook her head. Every year, the provisioners get their commercials broadcast earlier and earlier. Parliament just reconvened, she thought.
“Finally tonight, Ollie is here with the weather.”
“Thanks Shirlene,” the meteorologist turned to a large board showing a map with red, yellow and green lines marking up the variances of the land that will soon be affected by the flooding. “This year, we’re seeing a three percent increase in temperatures and a request has been submitted by surveyal calendarists to expand the month of August. This conflicts with the projections from environmental calendarists who believe increasing the days of the summer season as proposed will move the month of October into non-flood days causing catastrophic ramifications to the economy.”
Ollie moved his hand along the map. “So for the next five days, we have increasing humidity through all regions and temperatures rising up to 104. It’s gonna be a hot one Shirlene!”
“You’re right about that Ollie,” Shirlene said when the camera pointed to her. “And that’s all we have tonight in the newsroom. Stay tuned for Marius Coburn with the Daily Review. Tonight’s guest is Dr. Nerida Meridith who will discuss the increasing global heat and the melting ice caps.”
Mayim switched off the controls for the television projector and dressed for dinner with colleagues. For years now Barrah, Darma, Zelena and Mayim had gotten together for dinner. They were teamed up at the Bay Guardian Esturarine to research methods of flora preservation in a time when nature looked to drown any new growth on the earth.
Mayim slathered on a eucalyptus-scented petroleum based lotion to protect her skin from the dry salt in the air. She dressed in thin linen clothing and switched off the controls to balance the ph in the air while she was not home. As soon as the motor stopped, she felt her pores open to sweat. She pulled a cap to cover her hair that was cropped short and wrapped a cotton scarf around her neck to sop up the sweat as needed.
Mayim pulled galoshes on her feet that extended above her knees and turned a knob to open a door to an airlock chamber. Shut in the chamber, she pressed buttons on a control panel that washed an ultraviolet light over her body and then opened another door that provided access to the outside. Mayim walked over a bridge to a stairwell she descended to a wooden dock where her motor boat sat alongside others.
The streets of the world had filled with water. Many homes were erected on pylons pushed deep under the rivers now the foundations of cities. Mayim’s home was an experimental dome floating on a cushion of air and anchored in place with cables fixed to a concrete bridge allowing a short walk to the marina.
Mayim engaged the ignition and the engine whirred. She pressed controls on the dash board and brought the machine to life. Mayim drove through the wet streets to pull into another dock near Suolaa.
Suolaa remained from the time before the streets were flooded. It sat atop a wooden dock over a water way that had been present for as long as anyone could remember.
Mayim walked from the dock, over the bridge to a bit of land without any walkway remaining. She sloshed through the space, assuring each step she took had footing beneath the water.
In the vestibule of the restaurant Mayim stood as an ultraviolet light washed over her skin once again. The lights were required in all doorways as a means to control illness. When the waters started to rise, an increase in inexplicable illness occurred. Microorganisms no one had heard of were causing illness from intestinal discomfort to sudden unexplained death.
Mayim was welcomed by her colleagues and they were seated by a host who also wore little clothing and tall galoshes. The restaurant was made of stone and the walls were adorned with old parts of massive sailing vessels. Mayim pulled off her cap and wiped her moist brow with the scarf she wore.
“I like the blue,” Barrah said referring to the tips of Mayim’s very short hair. Most of her hair was bleached white and she changed the color on the ends monthly.
Mayim smiled and said, “I have to decide what color I’m doing for lockdown this year.”
“Who’s staying with me? You guys know I don’t like being alone that long,” Zelena said.
Barrah said, “I’ll stay with you. Clothing optional, right?”
“I should be offended, but it always winds up that way in the end,” Zelena responded.
Mayim said, “Did you say he always winds up in your end?”
Zelena swatted at Mayim with her napkin.
“Why don’t you just get a roommate?” Mayim asked the same question every year.
“You know I don’t want someone living with me. I just don’t like to be alone.”
Mayim shook her head.
“What do you think of these disappearances?” Darma put the menu she had been studying down. “Does anyone know if this is one of the restaurants that people have gone missing from?”
Barrah replied, “It’s all seafood restaurants. Why is it all seafood?”
Most restaurants served seafood. The fact was, the only food that remained on earth was hydroponically grown fruits and vegetables and seafood. Ground farmers relied primarily on rice. Canopy farmers used a series of netted harnesses to harvest fruits and legumes from taller trees, but when the air-salts changed and the salinity became out of balance, the pores in the bark of trees expanded and caused the natural irrigation for the edibles to dry up even though they sat in water. There was the rare experimental farmer who tried to raise birds and water fowl as well as tree dwelling critters, but without effective means to contain the animals during their growth, it’s little more than a hunting trend among those who can afford delicacies.
Mayim read through the menu items again. The same four co-workers had been meeting in the same restaurant once a month for years, except Octobers. All of them knew the menu. Mayim knew she was getting the rice noodles with vegetables in a pineapple and hot pepper gravy. She just let her eyes poke around the words until everyone else decided what they wanted.
“I heard the disappearances are making the calendarists consider longer curfews,” Darma announced.
“There’s no regularity to the disappearances,” Mayim responded. “How can they impose longer curfews without knowing for sure when people are in danger?”
Barrah said, “I think they should lift all curfews. Don’t you feel like you’re being locked up? Like you’ve done something wrong? Every October, doors and locked and not opened until November 1. Last year, they kept moving the day so we couldn’t even plan for the time shut inside too.”
The server approached the table and asked for each diner’s order.
Barrah asked, “How is the spiny dogfish prepared?”
Mayim groaned.
“What? They’re delicious!”
Mayim said, “It’s a shark.”
“I know. They’re delicious.”
Mayim sank into her chair. She growled, “You shouldn’t eat things that can eat you.”
Barrah closed his menu and turned to the server. He said, “It’s decided then. I’ll have the spiny dogfish.”
“Very good sir.”
Mayim called out her order and then saw a shift in the wall behind the server. She squinted looking closely at the wood and paint and saw nothing. She rose from her chair and walked slowly to the wall.
At the table, her colleagues whispered. They didn’t know where she was headed.
“Where is she going?”
“What is she reaching out for?”
“Why is she moving so slowly?”
Mayim reached out to the wall and let out a scream.
“What’s wrong?” Barrah and Darma rushed to Mayim’s side. Zelena hid behind her menu.
“There was something there,” Mayim reached out again and felt the wall. She squinted her eyes and looked around the room looking for any anomaly in the decor. She saw nothing. “I think it moved.”
Barrah and Darma pulled Mayim back to her chair. “Well, whatever it was is gone now.”
“Come on, the food’s here already.”
A bowl of battered and fried squid were placed on the table with a spicy dipping sauce. Mayim’s eyes kept looking in the corner she was certain she saw something and yet, she saw nothing.
Zelena poked her fork into Barrah’s plate. “I think Mayim’s right. You shouldn’t eat things that could eat you.”
Barrah took a forkful of the fish and put it in his mouth. He exaggerated the sound, “Mmmm.”
Zelena and Mayim groaned.
Barrah’s hazel eyes twinkled as he spoke with his mouth full. “You ordered octopus. They can eat you.”
Zelena shook her head. She held up her fork with an octopus smaller than the palm of her hand. She said, “This is the whole thing. How would it eat me?”
Barrah responded, “You know there are some octopuses that are bigger than that, right?”
Zelena said, “Octopuses don’t eat people. They’re food.”
Mayim saw another movement on the opposite side of the restaurant. She gasped and her eyes shifted, holding her stare long enough to determine there was nothing in her line of sight before looking at another corner of the room.
Barrah and Zelena continued to talk about sharks and octopuses. Darma noticed Mayim’s discomfort and looked to her friend to see the invisible things she was seeing. She stared at Mayim and squinted to focus her vision. Darma saw nothing.
And then, before Mayim’s eyes a table of two was disrupted. A man and woman who had finished eating and had ordered dessert disappeared. But they didn’t disappear, Mayim thought. Their bodies were erased. Mayim first saw the woman’s head disappear and then her shoulders, her torso, and last her legs. Her chair toppled over no longer supported by her weight. And then the same thing happened to her companion. From his head to his toes, he seemed to vanish from the chair. Mayim saw the odd movement she noticed in the corners of the restaurant around the disappearing couple. She steadied herself in her chair and dug her feet into the floor. She squeezed the tablecloth and hoped the strength she mustered was enough to get her through the night. To no avail, she tried to recall if the disappearances reported were of whole rooms in restaurants or isolated to individual tables. Mayim could not believe everyone in the restaurant was just continuing with their meals. She could not believe the people with whom she dined had not seen what she saw.
Darma furrowed her brow. She tried to discern what was upsetting Mayim. Darma saw Mayim twist the tablecoth in her fingers and reached out to her. Mayim recoiled and fell from her chair.
“What is wrong with you?” Barrah knelt down to the floor to help Mayim right herself on her chair.
An alarm sounded through Suolaa. Diners panicked. An announcement sounded through a public address system, “Please find your way in an orderly fashion to the nearest exit. You will not be charged for your meal. For your safety, you must leave the premises immediately.”
Mayim was frozen in her seat. Barrah had to lift her and usher her out in his arms. He put her in his boat. “I’m not going to let you drive home.”
Mayim didn’t respond. She stared blankly while she sat in the passenger seat. Darma and Zelena climbed into the boat as well.
“I think we all should stay together tonight.”
Zelena cried out, “People disappear after they eat out. I don’t think we should stay together.”
Barrah said, “I’m taking Mayim to my house. She can’t be alone.” Barrah fastened Mayim’s seat belt and engaged the ignition. “Who else is coming with me?”
Darma said, “I think Zelena is right. Maybe we should split up?”
Zelena pulled Darma’s arm. “You come with me.”
Barrah looked behind him to see Zelena climb into Darma’s boat and when he was satisfied they were on their way, he leaned over to Mayim and squeezed her knee. “Are you okay?”
Mayim heard his words and turned her head slowly to look blankly into his eyes.
Barrah grew concerned with her silence. “Hey, Mayim.” He reached to the key to turn off the engine.
“Just take me home,” Mayim said.
Barrah shifted the gears and asked, “Your home?”
Mayim responded, “It doesn’t matter.”
Barrah explained that he was driving to his house because she was behaving a little strange and he would prefer his own home. “I’ll make sure you sleep. We’ll go to work together and then we’ll pick up your boat tomorrow night.”
Mayim nodded and sat in silence the entire ride to Barrah’s house.
Barrah supported Mayim’s weight when standing in the vestibule for the ultraviolet anti-germ light to flash over their bodies.
Mayim settled in on a long sofa and asked to turn his television on while he prepared drinks for them. She wanted to know if there was a report of the restaurant alarm on the news. She wanted to know if the thing she didn’t see in Suolaa had been another mysterious disappearance.
Shirlene from the earlier report had been in the middle of a story when Mayim switched the control on. “…had been swimming in a restricted area of Rekin Gulf when he saw a sand tiger approach.” The report switched to footage in the water with a man who looked bruised and scraped saying, “I know it sounds crazy, but a giant octopus attacked the shark. It saved my life.”
The screen showed a scrolling bar reading, Man attacked by shark, saved by octopus.
Shirlene brought the cameras back to focus on her and said, “Mr. Waktu claims the incident will not discourage him from swimming in the Rekin Gulf.” She paused and the scrolling words on the screen changed to read, Diappearance at Suolaa Reported.
“Barrah, get in here!”
Shirlene raised her eyebrows while she read the prompter, “The scene of the latest disappearance was Suolaa Restaurant. This time a couple enjoying a weekly date night were reportedly there one minute and gone the next. Suolaa management was not taking chances and claim they had in place an emergency plan requiring the business to evacuate patrons and lock doors to prevent others from being affected by this strange phenomenon.”
Barrah slid his body on the sofa next to Mayim. “That’s what happened.”
Mayim nodded.
“We were there,” Barrah said softly. “I wonder who it was.”
Mayim reached to squeeze Barrah’s arm.
“Did you,” Barrah paused. His face screwed up with realization. “You saw it! That’s what you were looking at all night isn’t it?”
Mayim nodded.
“What'd you see?”
Mayim took a big gulp of her drink and exhaled deeply. She whispered, “There was just movement, but nothing was there. And then it seemed like they,” Mayim stopped talking and started crying. “I don’t know what I was seeing!”
#
Mayim looked at the schedule when arriving at the estuary with Barrah. She felt emotionally hung over. Her head spun and her mouth was dry. Her stomach felt empty and her nerves were shaky. The two didn’t sleep very much throughout the night. Every time Mayim closed her eyes she saw the inexplicable movement in the shadows of her dreams and woke. She hallucinated in the dark and Barrah had to turn on lights in his home to quiet her anxieties.
Barrah squeezed Mayim’s shoulders and encouraged, “You’re gonna be great. You love the kids.”
Mayim rolled her eyes. They were working with a classroom trip with middle school students.
Mayim leaned down and removed her galoshes. “I’m so tired of these boots. My feet are so gross.”
“They’re feet.”
A tear came to Mayim’s eye. She knew she was just feeling overwhelmed by everything but her feet felt moist and sweaty encased in the rubber. Removing the shoes was the one thing she felt she could control this morning. She fanned out her toes and pressed the balls of her feet into the cold tile floor. She wished she had brought her house shoes which were little more than a leather sole with straps to hold it in place beneath her toes.
Barrah yawned and said, “I’m gonna get some coffee for us. You gonna be okay?”
Mayim nodded. She didn’t want to tell Barrah that she was hallucinating. She didn’t want to admit how frightened she was even though it was evident. “No sugar in mine,” she called back to Barrah. She then went to a cabinet to pull out supplies for the school kids. Mayim pulled out a stack of papers and a box of pens listing the name of he estuary. She pulled out a set of test tubes and gram scales for each lab table in the classroom within the cinder brick building. While she reached into the cabinet for a large glass jar labeled NaCl, something brushed along her leg.
Mayim jumped with a start and dropped the glass jar of salt. It cut her feet and burned at the same time but she was not concerned with what her skin felt, she was concerned with what she could not see. There was another of the strange movements in the corner of her eye. She stood frozen in place. She felt like she couldn’t move at all and at the same time if she remained in her stance, her body would fall away from her. Mayim shifted her eyes to see if she noticed the invisible movement. She closed her eyes to tune her other senses. Maybe the air changes or there is a smell, she thought.
And as she stood in the broken glass, bleeding and dizzying, Barrah walked in to the classroom with coffee and saw Mayim standing with her eyes closed. He was frightened and moved cautiously toward her. When he brushed along her shoulder to rouse her back to the moment, Mayim remained in her stance. Her heart raced and her fear escalated, but she remained with her eyes closed until she could steady her breath. Slowly she opened her eyes and saw Barrah standing next to her.
“I,” she said, but couldn’t continue.
Barrah looked into Mayim’s eyes and asked, “What happened?”
Mayim shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know.”
“Maybe you should sit here. I’ll clean up. just drink your coffee.” He looked at her bloody legs and feet and saw her blood was clotting around the slivers of glass. He was more concerned with her state of mind.
“We need more salt,” Mayim breathed with a monotonous tone.
Barrah nodded. “I’ll take care of it.” He swept the mess from the floor and turned a dial that controlled a suction hose attached to the wall to clean the tiles. He ran the broom a second time over the floor and again the suction hose to ensure the glass had been removed as was policy in the event of a spill.
Mayim’s body shook with an involuntary movement. She felt something alongside her again. “Barrah, there’s something in here with us.”
Barrah sighed deeply. He didn’t know how to respond to her. He didn’t want to negate her feelings, but it was clear that the two were alone in the room. Finally Barrah gave Mayim a task so that she could leave the classroom and occupy her thoughts with something more than her hallucinations.
Barrah used a communicator with a flat dark panel that illuminated Darma’s face to ask for assistance with Mayim. “She needs to calm down. If you could get her to refill supplies or something,”
Darma whispered and cocked her head to see around Barrah through the screen. “Is it the same thing as last night?”
Barrah waited until Darma took Mayim away to finish setting up the room for the arrival of students. When Darma brought Mayim back with another glass jar of salt, the students had arrived and were in their seats listening to Barrah.
“And here she is with the,” Barrah announced.
The students responded in unison, “Sodium Chloride.”
Mayim pushed the jar on the table and pulled a measuring cup from a drawer. She pulled a stack of small cardboard boxes from a shelf and began portioning out the salt for each table.
Barrah continued the lesson. “Now, like I said, this estuary is the very place where fresh water turns to salt water. It’s home to life forms you’re not going to see anyplace else in the world.
Mayim seemed to be moving in the background without being noticed by very many as Barrah held their attention.
“The elodea is just one of the life forms that filter the water. We’re going to use the test tubes to change the salinity concentrations and report on the effects to the plants that came from the same area.”
Barrah motioned toward Mayim and she pushed a cart to the front of the classroom holding an aquarium full of muddy water. She then pushed another cart to the front that was full of oysters. Barrah pulled thick rubber gloves over his fingers and forearms. He pulled a handful of oysters from the one tank and dropped them in the muddy water. Before their eyes, students saw the water transform into clearer water. “It doesn’t happen immediately, but we’re going to leave this tank here so you can see the clarity over the course of the day. These oysters use their gills to suck algae, nitrogen and other pollutants to filter the water. How much water do you think each oyster can clean in one day?”
The students called out estimates.
Mayim noticed two students were whispering and pointing to a corner of the room. Mayim then noticed the invisible movement. Mayim rushed over to them and said, “Can you see that?”
The two shook their head. Barrah stopped talking. He walked to Mayim and supported her weight seeing that the color washed out of her. “What is it?” Barrah tried to see but couldn’t focus his eyes.
Mayim whispered, “I think we should go.”
Barrah told Mayim to lead the students from the classroom and take them out of the building.
“You can’t stay in here alone,” Mayim said.
“I’m coming with you.”
When the door was closed and all the students were in the hall being led away from the classroom, there was a crash in the room. Mayim and Barrah rushed to look through the window! They saw the aquarium full of oysters had been smashed and watched as the oysters seemed to disappear. One after the other, the oysters were gone.
“There must have been seventy-five mollusks in there,” Barrah whispered. “What happened to them?”
Mayim shook her head. She said, “You’re watching the same thing I am.”
“What am I watching?”
Mayim whispered, “I don’t know.”
The speakers on the ceiling of the dome-shaped tv room sounded with the report. The projection on the white wall surrounding her made the reporter’s head seem twice it’s actual size.
“This year, environmental calendarists have proposed curfews should begin mid-September, claiming the ice depletion is at a record high. Tides in our streets have risen a quarter-inch in the past week and we are expected to see an increase in volume until the rapid wave of cap-water. Experts expect the cap-water deluge to hit earlier than last year, although draining of the excess almost never occurs prior to the end of October and seldom recedes to the pre-deluge levels. We saw salinity levels peak exactly forty-five days prior to the cap-water flood in the past seven years. So, when will it occur this year? With the test requiring a two week analysis, we may have already seen the peak of air-salts. Labor unions are in negotiation to require employers amnesty for time missed lessening the strain on the economy. Increasing a shut-in time to a month and a half has folks concerned about food and air supply as well as their earnings.”
A reporter appeared on the screen with a microphone standing on a floating barge. “I’m here with just one of many concerned citizens who are opposed to increased curfews.”
She pushed her microphone closer to his face and he began to speak, “I’m already losing a month of work every October. I can’t afford to lose another half.”
The reporter brought the microphone closer to her mouth again, “But it’s being said that this year the rising waters are going to be more dangerous than any of us remember. Isn’t your life worth increased isolation?”
“Not if I starve to death! The Department of Calendars are a bunch of,”
The television went blank and the anchor appeared on the screen. Mayim assumed the producer did not want to have this gentleman representing the masses. The anchor recovered quickly from the unexpected outage of feed. “I think there was some technical difficulty there. If we can go out live again later in the broadcast, we will.”
She turned her chair while another camera picked up a different angle of her face. “Another disappearance of diners occurred today. This time at The Battery. Five friends who are seen here in a snapshot at the restaurant for a birthday party, ordered the cake, but were no longer there when it was time to blow out the candles. The manager of the restaurant, known for it’s deep fried seafood said it’s not the first time he experienced dine and dash where folks order food and leave before paying, but he had never known them to bring a cake for a celebration before the prank. Close relatives of the five youth filed missing persons reports with police. The birthday girl’s parents said it’s unlikely she left her boat in the parking dock if they were to go on an abrupt birthday adventure. This is the seventh such disappearance of folks dining in seafood restaurants leaving no sign of their whereabouts since June. This is the first occurrence at The Battery.”
A commercial appeared on the screen and was louder than the news program. A man wearing an antique diving suit floated into the viewable area of the screen. His breathing sounded labored through the apparatus. “No matter how high the waters get this October, Nautical Cross will delivery your staples until the last minute allowed by law.” A police officer carrying an over-sized time piece pulled up to the diver in a boat and shook his finger in the air gesturing to the time. “Order now and choose your delivery date! Discounts available for any deliveries scheduled before parliamentary decision.” The screen changed to a family feasting on a big meal, while out the porthole windows of their home, there was seen people bobbing in the water, knocking on the glass to ask for help. “Be sure to stay high and dry when the deluge comes. Get Nautical Cross to bring your provisions in vacuum sealed, water tight packages.” The jingle played while the contact information flashed on the screen
Another commercial for a water filter, that changes salty water into potable drinking water, played with flashing lights and people retching from drinking unclean water. The folks with the filter sparkled and smiled without any discomfort.
Mayim shook her head. Every year, the provisioners get their commercials broadcast earlier and earlier. Parliament just reconvened, she thought.
“Finally tonight, Ollie is here with the weather.”
“Thanks Shirlene,” the meteorologist turned to a large board showing a map with red, yellow and green lines marking up the variances of the land that will soon be affected by the flooding. “This year, we’re seeing a three percent increase in temperatures and a request has been submitted by surveyal calendarists to expand the month of August. This conflicts with the projections from environmental calendarists who believe increasing the days of the summer season as proposed will move the month of October into non-flood days causing catastrophic ramifications to the economy.”
Ollie moved his hand along the map. “So for the next five days, we have increasing humidity through all regions and temperatures rising up to 104. It’s gonna be a hot one Shirlene!”
“You’re right about that Ollie,” Shirlene said when the camera pointed to her. “And that’s all we have tonight in the newsroom. Stay tuned for Marius Coburn with the Daily Review. Tonight’s guest is Dr. Nerida Meridith who will discuss the increasing global heat and the melting ice caps.”
Mayim switched off the controls for the television projector and dressed for dinner with colleagues. For years now Barrah, Darma, Zelena and Mayim had gotten together for dinner. They were teamed up at the Bay Guardian Esturarine to research methods of flora preservation in a time when nature looked to drown any new growth on the earth.
Mayim slathered on a eucalyptus-scented petroleum based lotion to protect her skin from the dry salt in the air. She dressed in thin linen clothing and switched off the controls to balance the ph in the air while she was not home. As soon as the motor stopped, she felt her pores open to sweat. She pulled a cap to cover her hair that was cropped short and wrapped a cotton scarf around her neck to sop up the sweat as needed.
Mayim pulled galoshes on her feet that extended above her knees and turned a knob to open a door to an airlock chamber. Shut in the chamber, she pressed buttons on a control panel that washed an ultraviolet light over her body and then opened another door that provided access to the outside. Mayim walked over a bridge to a stairwell she descended to a wooden dock where her motor boat sat alongside others.
The streets of the world had filled with water. Many homes were erected on pylons pushed deep under the rivers now the foundations of cities. Mayim’s home was an experimental dome floating on a cushion of air and anchored in place with cables fixed to a concrete bridge allowing a short walk to the marina.
Mayim engaged the ignition and the engine whirred. She pressed controls on the dash board and brought the machine to life. Mayim drove through the wet streets to pull into another dock near Suolaa.
Suolaa remained from the time before the streets were flooded. It sat atop a wooden dock over a water way that had been present for as long as anyone could remember.
Mayim walked from the dock, over the bridge to a bit of land without any walkway remaining. She sloshed through the space, assuring each step she took had footing beneath the water.
In the vestibule of the restaurant Mayim stood as an ultraviolet light washed over her skin once again. The lights were required in all doorways as a means to control illness. When the waters started to rise, an increase in inexplicable illness occurred. Microorganisms no one had heard of were causing illness from intestinal discomfort to sudden unexplained death.
Mayim was welcomed by her colleagues and they were seated by a host who also wore little clothing and tall galoshes. The restaurant was made of stone and the walls were adorned with old parts of massive sailing vessels. Mayim pulled off her cap and wiped her moist brow with the scarf she wore.
“I like the blue,” Barrah said referring to the tips of Mayim’s very short hair. Most of her hair was bleached white and she changed the color on the ends monthly.
Mayim smiled and said, “I have to decide what color I’m doing for lockdown this year.”
“Who’s staying with me? You guys know I don’t like being alone that long,” Zelena said.
Barrah said, “I’ll stay with you. Clothing optional, right?”
“I should be offended, but it always winds up that way in the end,” Zelena responded.
Mayim said, “Did you say he always winds up in your end?”
Zelena swatted at Mayim with her napkin.
“Why don’t you just get a roommate?” Mayim asked the same question every year.
“You know I don’t want someone living with me. I just don’t like to be alone.”
Mayim shook her head.
“What do you think of these disappearances?” Darma put the menu she had been studying down. “Does anyone know if this is one of the restaurants that people have gone missing from?”
Barrah replied, “It’s all seafood restaurants. Why is it all seafood?”
Most restaurants served seafood. The fact was, the only food that remained on earth was hydroponically grown fruits and vegetables and seafood. Ground farmers relied primarily on rice. Canopy farmers used a series of netted harnesses to harvest fruits and legumes from taller trees, but when the air-salts changed and the salinity became out of balance, the pores in the bark of trees expanded and caused the natural irrigation for the edibles to dry up even though they sat in water. There was the rare experimental farmer who tried to raise birds and water fowl as well as tree dwelling critters, but without effective means to contain the animals during their growth, it’s little more than a hunting trend among those who can afford delicacies.
Mayim read through the menu items again. The same four co-workers had been meeting in the same restaurant once a month for years, except Octobers. All of them knew the menu. Mayim knew she was getting the rice noodles with vegetables in a pineapple and hot pepper gravy. She just let her eyes poke around the words until everyone else decided what they wanted.
“I heard the disappearances are making the calendarists consider longer curfews,” Darma announced.
“There’s no regularity to the disappearances,” Mayim responded. “How can they impose longer curfews without knowing for sure when people are in danger?”
Barrah said, “I think they should lift all curfews. Don’t you feel like you’re being locked up? Like you’ve done something wrong? Every October, doors and locked and not opened until November 1. Last year, they kept moving the day so we couldn’t even plan for the time shut inside too.”
The server approached the table and asked for each diner’s order.
Barrah asked, “How is the spiny dogfish prepared?”
Mayim groaned.
“What? They’re delicious!”
Mayim said, “It’s a shark.”
“I know. They’re delicious.”
Mayim sank into her chair. She growled, “You shouldn’t eat things that can eat you.”
Barrah closed his menu and turned to the server. He said, “It’s decided then. I’ll have the spiny dogfish.”
“Very good sir.”
Mayim called out her order and then saw a shift in the wall behind the server. She squinted looking closely at the wood and paint and saw nothing. She rose from her chair and walked slowly to the wall.
At the table, her colleagues whispered. They didn’t know where she was headed.
“Where is she going?”
“What is she reaching out for?”
“Why is she moving so slowly?”
Mayim reached out to the wall and let out a scream.
“What’s wrong?” Barrah and Darma rushed to Mayim’s side. Zelena hid behind her menu.
“There was something there,” Mayim reached out again and felt the wall. She squinted her eyes and looked around the room looking for any anomaly in the decor. She saw nothing. “I think it moved.”
Barrah and Darma pulled Mayim back to her chair. “Well, whatever it was is gone now.”
“Come on, the food’s here already.”
A bowl of battered and fried squid were placed on the table with a spicy dipping sauce. Mayim’s eyes kept looking in the corner she was certain she saw something and yet, she saw nothing.
Zelena poked her fork into Barrah’s plate. “I think Mayim’s right. You shouldn’t eat things that could eat you.”
Barrah took a forkful of the fish and put it in his mouth. He exaggerated the sound, “Mmmm.”
Zelena and Mayim groaned.
Barrah’s hazel eyes twinkled as he spoke with his mouth full. “You ordered octopus. They can eat you.”
Zelena shook her head. She held up her fork with an octopus smaller than the palm of her hand. She said, “This is the whole thing. How would it eat me?”
Barrah responded, “You know there are some octopuses that are bigger than that, right?”
Zelena said, “Octopuses don’t eat people. They’re food.”
Mayim saw another movement on the opposite side of the restaurant. She gasped and her eyes shifted, holding her stare long enough to determine there was nothing in her line of sight before looking at another corner of the room.
Barrah and Zelena continued to talk about sharks and octopuses. Darma noticed Mayim’s discomfort and looked to her friend to see the invisible things she was seeing. She stared at Mayim and squinted to focus her vision. Darma saw nothing.
And then, before Mayim’s eyes a table of two was disrupted. A man and woman who had finished eating and had ordered dessert disappeared. But they didn’t disappear, Mayim thought. Their bodies were erased. Mayim first saw the woman’s head disappear and then her shoulders, her torso, and last her legs. Her chair toppled over no longer supported by her weight. And then the same thing happened to her companion. From his head to his toes, he seemed to vanish from the chair. Mayim saw the odd movement she noticed in the corners of the restaurant around the disappearing couple. She steadied herself in her chair and dug her feet into the floor. She squeezed the tablecloth and hoped the strength she mustered was enough to get her through the night. To no avail, she tried to recall if the disappearances reported were of whole rooms in restaurants or isolated to individual tables. Mayim could not believe everyone in the restaurant was just continuing with their meals. She could not believe the people with whom she dined had not seen what she saw.
Darma furrowed her brow. She tried to discern what was upsetting Mayim. Darma saw Mayim twist the tablecoth in her fingers and reached out to her. Mayim recoiled and fell from her chair.
“What is wrong with you?” Barrah knelt down to the floor to help Mayim right herself on her chair.
An alarm sounded through Suolaa. Diners panicked. An announcement sounded through a public address system, “Please find your way in an orderly fashion to the nearest exit. You will not be charged for your meal. For your safety, you must leave the premises immediately.”
Mayim was frozen in her seat. Barrah had to lift her and usher her out in his arms. He put her in his boat. “I’m not going to let you drive home.”
Mayim didn’t respond. She stared blankly while she sat in the passenger seat. Darma and Zelena climbed into the boat as well.
“I think we all should stay together tonight.”
Zelena cried out, “People disappear after they eat out. I don’t think we should stay together.”
Barrah said, “I’m taking Mayim to my house. She can’t be alone.” Barrah fastened Mayim’s seat belt and engaged the ignition. “Who else is coming with me?”
Darma said, “I think Zelena is right. Maybe we should split up?”
Zelena pulled Darma’s arm. “You come with me.”
Barrah looked behind him to see Zelena climb into Darma’s boat and when he was satisfied they were on their way, he leaned over to Mayim and squeezed her knee. “Are you okay?”
Mayim heard his words and turned her head slowly to look blankly into his eyes.
Barrah grew concerned with her silence. “Hey, Mayim.” He reached to the key to turn off the engine.
“Just take me home,” Mayim said.
Barrah shifted the gears and asked, “Your home?”
Mayim responded, “It doesn’t matter.”
Barrah explained that he was driving to his house because she was behaving a little strange and he would prefer his own home. “I’ll make sure you sleep. We’ll go to work together and then we’ll pick up your boat tomorrow night.”
Mayim nodded and sat in silence the entire ride to Barrah’s house.
Barrah supported Mayim’s weight when standing in the vestibule for the ultraviolet anti-germ light to flash over their bodies.
Mayim settled in on a long sofa and asked to turn his television on while he prepared drinks for them. She wanted to know if there was a report of the restaurant alarm on the news. She wanted to know if the thing she didn’t see in Suolaa had been another mysterious disappearance.
Shirlene from the earlier report had been in the middle of a story when Mayim switched the control on. “…had been swimming in a restricted area of Rekin Gulf when he saw a sand tiger approach.” The report switched to footage in the water with a man who looked bruised and scraped saying, “I know it sounds crazy, but a giant octopus attacked the shark. It saved my life.”
The screen showed a scrolling bar reading, Man attacked by shark, saved by octopus.
Shirlene brought the cameras back to focus on her and said, “Mr. Waktu claims the incident will not discourage him from swimming in the Rekin Gulf.” She paused and the scrolling words on the screen changed to read, Diappearance at Suolaa Reported.
“Barrah, get in here!”
Shirlene raised her eyebrows while she read the prompter, “The scene of the latest disappearance was Suolaa Restaurant. This time a couple enjoying a weekly date night were reportedly there one minute and gone the next. Suolaa management was not taking chances and claim they had in place an emergency plan requiring the business to evacuate patrons and lock doors to prevent others from being affected by this strange phenomenon.”
Barrah slid his body on the sofa next to Mayim. “That’s what happened.”
Mayim nodded.
“We were there,” Barrah said softly. “I wonder who it was.”
Mayim reached to squeeze Barrah’s arm.
“Did you,” Barrah paused. His face screwed up with realization. “You saw it! That’s what you were looking at all night isn’t it?”
Mayim nodded.
“What'd you see?”
Mayim took a big gulp of her drink and exhaled deeply. She whispered, “There was just movement, but nothing was there. And then it seemed like they,” Mayim stopped talking and started crying. “I don’t know what I was seeing!”
#
Mayim looked at the schedule when arriving at the estuary with Barrah. She felt emotionally hung over. Her head spun and her mouth was dry. Her stomach felt empty and her nerves were shaky. The two didn’t sleep very much throughout the night. Every time Mayim closed her eyes she saw the inexplicable movement in the shadows of her dreams and woke. She hallucinated in the dark and Barrah had to turn on lights in his home to quiet her anxieties.
Barrah squeezed Mayim’s shoulders and encouraged, “You’re gonna be great. You love the kids.”
Mayim rolled her eyes. They were working with a classroom trip with middle school students.
Mayim leaned down and removed her galoshes. “I’m so tired of these boots. My feet are so gross.”
“They’re feet.”
A tear came to Mayim’s eye. She knew she was just feeling overwhelmed by everything but her feet felt moist and sweaty encased in the rubber. Removing the shoes was the one thing she felt she could control this morning. She fanned out her toes and pressed the balls of her feet into the cold tile floor. She wished she had brought her house shoes which were little more than a leather sole with straps to hold it in place beneath her toes.
Barrah yawned and said, “I’m gonna get some coffee for us. You gonna be okay?”
Mayim nodded. She didn’t want to tell Barrah that she was hallucinating. She didn’t want to admit how frightened she was even though it was evident. “No sugar in mine,” she called back to Barrah. She then went to a cabinet to pull out supplies for the school kids. Mayim pulled out a stack of papers and a box of pens listing the name of he estuary. She pulled out a set of test tubes and gram scales for each lab table in the classroom within the cinder brick building. While she reached into the cabinet for a large glass jar labeled NaCl, something brushed along her leg.
Mayim jumped with a start and dropped the glass jar of salt. It cut her feet and burned at the same time but she was not concerned with what her skin felt, she was concerned with what she could not see. There was another of the strange movements in the corner of her eye. She stood frozen in place. She felt like she couldn’t move at all and at the same time if she remained in her stance, her body would fall away from her. Mayim shifted her eyes to see if she noticed the invisible movement. She closed her eyes to tune her other senses. Maybe the air changes or there is a smell, she thought.
And as she stood in the broken glass, bleeding and dizzying, Barrah walked in to the classroom with coffee and saw Mayim standing with her eyes closed. He was frightened and moved cautiously toward her. When he brushed along her shoulder to rouse her back to the moment, Mayim remained in her stance. Her heart raced and her fear escalated, but she remained with her eyes closed until she could steady her breath. Slowly she opened her eyes and saw Barrah standing next to her.
“I,” she said, but couldn’t continue.
Barrah looked into Mayim’s eyes and asked, “What happened?”
Mayim shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know.”
“Maybe you should sit here. I’ll clean up. just drink your coffee.” He looked at her bloody legs and feet and saw her blood was clotting around the slivers of glass. He was more concerned with her state of mind.
“We need more salt,” Mayim breathed with a monotonous tone.
Barrah nodded. “I’ll take care of it.” He swept the mess from the floor and turned a dial that controlled a suction hose attached to the wall to clean the tiles. He ran the broom a second time over the floor and again the suction hose to ensure the glass had been removed as was policy in the event of a spill.
Mayim’s body shook with an involuntary movement. She felt something alongside her again. “Barrah, there’s something in here with us.”
Barrah sighed deeply. He didn’t know how to respond to her. He didn’t want to negate her feelings, but it was clear that the two were alone in the room. Finally Barrah gave Mayim a task so that she could leave the classroom and occupy her thoughts with something more than her hallucinations.
Barrah used a communicator with a flat dark panel that illuminated Darma’s face to ask for assistance with Mayim. “She needs to calm down. If you could get her to refill supplies or something,”
Darma whispered and cocked her head to see around Barrah through the screen. “Is it the same thing as last night?”
Barrah waited until Darma took Mayim away to finish setting up the room for the arrival of students. When Darma brought Mayim back with another glass jar of salt, the students had arrived and were in their seats listening to Barrah.
“And here she is with the,” Barrah announced.
The students responded in unison, “Sodium Chloride.”
Mayim pushed the jar on the table and pulled a measuring cup from a drawer. She pulled a stack of small cardboard boxes from a shelf and began portioning out the salt for each table.
Barrah continued the lesson. “Now, like I said, this estuary is the very place where fresh water turns to salt water. It’s home to life forms you’re not going to see anyplace else in the world.
Mayim seemed to be moving in the background without being noticed by very many as Barrah held their attention.
“The elodea is just one of the life forms that filter the water. We’re going to use the test tubes to change the salinity concentrations and report on the effects to the plants that came from the same area.”
Barrah motioned toward Mayim and she pushed a cart to the front of the classroom holding an aquarium full of muddy water. She then pushed another cart to the front that was full of oysters. Barrah pulled thick rubber gloves over his fingers and forearms. He pulled a handful of oysters from the one tank and dropped them in the muddy water. Before their eyes, students saw the water transform into clearer water. “It doesn’t happen immediately, but we’re going to leave this tank here so you can see the clarity over the course of the day. These oysters use their gills to suck algae, nitrogen and other pollutants to filter the water. How much water do you think each oyster can clean in one day?”
The students called out estimates.
Mayim noticed two students were whispering and pointing to a corner of the room. Mayim then noticed the invisible movement. Mayim rushed over to them and said, “Can you see that?”
The two shook their head. Barrah stopped talking. He walked to Mayim and supported her weight seeing that the color washed out of her. “What is it?” Barrah tried to see but couldn’t focus his eyes.
Mayim whispered, “I think we should go.”
Barrah told Mayim to lead the students from the classroom and take them out of the building.
“You can’t stay in here alone,” Mayim said.
“I’m coming with you.”
When the door was closed and all the students were in the hall being led away from the classroom, there was a crash in the room. Mayim and Barrah rushed to look through the window! They saw the aquarium full of oysters had been smashed and watched as the oysters seemed to disappear. One after the other, the oysters were gone.
“There must have been seventy-five mollusks in there,” Barrah whispered. “What happened to them?”
Mayim shook her head. She said, “You’re watching the same thing I am.”
“What am I watching?”
Mayim whispered, “I don’t know.”
