Page 98 of Summer, in Between
‘It’s beautiful.’I hold it up to the light, furtively looking at the price tag.‘Whoa, and it’s a little bit out of my price range.’I hand it back.
‘We’ll take it.’Paul pulls out his wallet.
‘No, it’s all good,’ I say.‘I’m just looking.’
‘And I’m just buying.You want to wear it now, Cat?’
‘Are you sure?’I run a tentative finger over its glossy finish.
‘Done and dusted,’ he says.‘Can you please take the tag off?’
‘You don’t have to do this.’
‘I want to,’ he says.‘Turn around and let’s put it on.’
‘Are you absolutely positive?’I’m already piling my hair on my head.‘Thank you so much.’I kiss him and turn back to the mirror, grinning.‘I love it.’
Seagulls squawk and squabble in packs up and down the beach, fighting for chips.We lean against the jetty railing watching kids jump between fishing lines into the sea, ignoring the ‘no jumping’ signs plastered everywhere.I have an ice-cream cone in one hand, my other is resting against the waistband of Paul’s board shorts, my fingers curled against his skin.
There’s a cheer as a fisher triumphantly lands a calamari.He mock bows right as black ink squirts all over the jetty’s timber, sending a pair of tween boys squealing out of the line of fire.He’s removing the hook, a posse of little kids with their heads peering into his catch bucket when a passerby trips over his rod and the hook sinks into the fleshy base of a small thumb.A little girl’s scream pierces the air and blood spurts, mixing with the squid ink and fish scales.
‘Livvy!’A woman tears across the jetty.She so closely resembles the child that she has to be her mother.She sinks to her knees next to the little girl.A curious onlooker pauses to see what’s happening and the colour drains from her face.Her eyes roll back, and she faints, stopped from hitting the decks by the fisher who’s also holding the child’s arm upright, blood flowing over the fisher’s fingers.Paul’s ice-cream goes into the water as he moves next to the fisher and gently lowers the woman to the deck.
People crowd around, stickybeaking.The blonde girl, who wouldn’t be more than five, is red faced and snot nosed.She wails and reaches for her mum whose mouth is gaping like the fish that are being reeled in up and down the jetty.Ice-cream dribbles down the cone onto my fingers, sticky.I quickly do a cleanup job around the rim of the cone with my tongue while Paul crouches down on his haunches before the little girl.
‘Liv?Is that your name?’says Paul.‘What, is that short for?Olivia?’She nods her head, her wails softening into small sniffles.‘I love that name!It’s weird though, I didn’t know fish could be called Olivia.’
‘I’m not a fish.I’m a kid!’Paul takes a closer look at her finger and her sobs pierce my eardrums.‘It hurts.It hurts.’
‘What?You’re not a fish?Then let’s get you unhooked.Mate, cut us some line?’The fisher slashes through the line on the rod and winds out metres of it.He hands a loop to Paul.
‘Shouldn’t someone call an ambulance?’asks the fisher.
‘Maybe for her.’Paul gestures towards the woman passed out on the deck.A man kneels over her, using a cap to fan her down.‘Help me out, mate?’Paul loops the fishing line around the hook.‘Just press down here for me.Better with your thumb, hold it down flat, not too hard, yeah?Okay, Liv, how old are you?’
‘I’m four!’she wails.
‘Four?Okay, you’re a big kid then, aren’t you?I want you to count to three with me.Can you do that?One, two...’Paul yanks the line, and the hook comes clean out of her skin.
‘Three,’ says Liv.
‘It’s out, little mate,’ Paul says.‘Look!’He brandishes the hook.‘You’re such a brave kid.’
‘No three?’she asks, incredulously.
‘No three!You’re all good.Here, just hold this tight.’He pulls a napkin from his ice-cream cone from his pocket and pads it against her thumb to stem the blood.
‘You are just a bundle of never-ending surprises, aren’t you,’ I say to Paul as he comes to stand beside me, hands awkwardly by his sides.‘You saved that kid’s life.How’d you know how to do that?’
‘I don’t know how many people die each year from a fishing hook in a thumb, but yeah, I’m basically just a hero,’ he says, ‘they’ll make movies about today.Meanwhile, thanks for saving me some ice-cream.’
‘Yeah, sorry about that, I was just too caught up in watching my superhero boyfriend save the day.’
‘You crack me up,’ he says.‘There’s blood everywhere, people are fainting and there’s you, calmly watching it all unfold, eating ice-cream.You’d be an amazing doctor.’
‘It’s weird; I’m okay with blood but no good with vomit.Besides, I knew you had it all under control.Maybe you’re the one that should do medicine?’
‘Yeah, right, as if.’He scoffs.
