The wind caught her door, flinging it open. She whooped as she grabbed at it, fighting against the wind to close it.
He sighed. Utter madness. He followed her out onto a path leading to the beach. The wind whipped at his hair, tugging at his shirt. She stopped at a shelter containing a basic vending machine.
‘What is that?’ he asked, as she exchanged coins for two bags.
‘You’ll see,’ she said. He didn’t see anything beyond the loosened tendrils of her hair whipping around her face in the wind. ‘I’ll show you.’
She led him down towards the water, kicked off her sandals on the sand, and waded into the water. She looked back at him, while he was still wondering what the point of this was. The wind was still wild, clouds building, whitecaps mashing on the sea. The sea was a mess. It would rain later, the forecast predicted. ‘What are you waiting for?’ she yelled over her shoulder. He could barely hear her over the gusting wind. He was still waiting to discover the point of this mad venture.
She threw out one arm and whooped, or was it a scream? Suddenly, the water around her bare legs frothed and churned and it looked like whatever it was under those turbulent waves was trying to eat the Princess alive.
Did they even have piranha in Australia? Or was it one of those ancient horned turtles that hadn’t died out after all?
‘Princess!’ he called, tossing off his shoes and ploughing into the water, determined to get to her. He hadn’t put up with all he had to lose her now. He reached her and swooped her into his arms, but something was missing.Blood.There was no blood. Surely if she was being attacked, there would be blood.
And surely, he’d be being attacked right now too. And while something down there bumped and nudged his legs, there was a remarkable absence of teeth.
‘What are you doing?’ she laughed, grinning madly in his arms.
Good question. What was he doing?
‘Put me down,’ she said, laughing. ‘The fish are missing the tourists.’
Fish?
And the nudging and bumping into his calves suddenly made sense. He put her down and she handed him a small bag. ‘Here, take this.’ He looked at it. Tried to make sense of the label. Fish food. That’s why they were standing in the shallows while the tail end of a cyclone whipped the air around them? They were here to feed fish? She had to be kidding.
But he could feel the slap of warm bodies against his ankles and shins before he could discern them in the choppy water. ‘You see,’ she said, laughing as she scattered around some of the fish food. ‘Look!’
The water whirled and swirled around his knees, whipped up by the wind, but yes, he could make out the fish crowding around his legs. Big fish, small fish, some silvery and sleek, some long and fluid, some brightly coloured, more fish than he’d ever seen in one place in the wild, but all of them angling for a treat. And with every wave breaking on the shore, it brought still more fish.
‘So feed them,’ called the Princess.
And through the turbulence of the last two days he remembered something that Tom Parker had mentioned on his whistle-stop tour of the island—Ned’s Beach, where he could feed the fish. He’d paid scant attention at the time—it had made no sense—and yet, here he was now.
It was crazy. This was seriously the most ridiculous thing he’d ever done. The most pointless. But he dipped his hand into the fish food, scattering it all around him. The water erupted in a fevered flapping rush of silver and scales as open mouths fought for the food. Fish buffeted his shins, their bodies sleek and surprisingly warm, swept back and forth by the tide, swept up in the fight for the food.
It was like nothing he’d ever experienced. It was unimaginable. It was almost like the fish had been so well trained that they were waiting for bare legs to appear so they could rush into shore and be first for the feed.
He scattered another handful, and then another, entertained by the feeding frenzy and reminded of another day, long ago, when he and Sophia had celebrated the end of their university studies by taking a holiday in the United Kingdom. They’d hired a camper-van and criss-crossed the country. They’d stopped at St Ives, in Cornwall, treating themselves to cod and chips from a takeaway near the harbour. Sampling the local cuisine. Playing at being locals. They’d sat by the harbour wall and tried to eat their fish before the diving gulls could fly over their shoulder and pluck their meal from their hands. Competitive and determined, the gulls seemed to work in tag teams, one distracting you, the next taking advantage of an outflung arm bearing treasure.
It was a contest to see who would prevail—the humans or the birds. In the end, it was more of a draw. The gulls had won some points, but the best bit was when Theo and Sophia tossed the rest of their chips skywards and watched as the gulls engaged in a chip war with each other, any hint of cooperation or tag-teaming thrown asunder, the sky over them filled with the raucous flapping creatures.
They’d laughed so much. And when they found the signs afterwards requesting visitors not to feed the gulls, they’d realised their tourist faux pas and laughed even more. It had been one of the best days of their holiday.
Feeding these fish was a similar experience—except apparently here feeding the wildlife was allowed. Even actively encouraged.
The fish danced and darted around his shins, fighting for the food, fighting for supremacy, and it was so mad, so out of his world, that he did something that he couldn’t remember. He felt it coming, bubbling up inside him, a feeling so unfamiliar that he didn’t at first recognise what it was. Until delight erupted from his mouth in a bubble of laughter.
How she heard over the wind whipping around them, he didn’t know. ‘Do you see?’ the Princess yelled over the wind. ‘Isn’t it fabulous?’
Theo couldn’t deny it. And yet, as he scattered the fish food into the water, it wasn’t just fabulous, it felt cathartic.
It was therapy. Laughing at the antics of the fish. Letting go.
It was—fun.
A fish nibbled one of his toes, taking a chunk of skin out of it. ‘Ouch,’ he said, but he was laughing, and when he looked up, he saw her watching him, and he stilled.
