Two Fish

twenty five || alaska

Alaska woke up to an empty house, a note on the door telling her that Noah had gone to a friend’s house and her parents were out shopping with Minnie. After reading it, she took a bowl of cereal upstairs and revelled in eating in her room without the remote risk of getting caught. When she dropped a cornflake on her carpet though, she had a mini panic attack. If her mother saw, she would fly off the hook. While Mrs Gouramie could be a friendly, easy-going woman, she also had a set of standards to uphold. Food in bedrooms, mostly applying to wet food, was not allowed. Cereal, with its sticky tendencies and incredible ability to adhere itself to a surface forever, was forbidden. The cornflake came right off though. Alaska was saved.

Gordon was happily floating in his tank. She dropped in a couple of his odd-smelling flakes and he dived for them.

“I’m sorry I’ve been away so much,” she said, gazing into the tank. Gordon swam under a plastic fern, flapping his tail at her. “And I’m sorry Elver’s scared of you. I’m sure we can change that.” She put a finger on the tank. Gordon swam to it, intrigued by the whorls showing through his glass. Alaska could see her face reflected back to her, distorted by the water. Her hair was all over the place and even after nearly ten hours of sleep, she looked tired.

Under the powerful shower jet, Alaska allowed her mind to wander. She thought about Gordon, and what it must be like to live underwater. She loved being submerged under the spray and whenever she bathed, she dunked herself beneath the surface until she couldn’t hold her breath any longer. A water baby at heart, she could make it to a little more than a minute, but combined with her hatred of being confined, she rarely stayed under for more than thirty seconds at a time.

Her phone ringing next door brought her back to her senses, but she was warm. She let it go to voicemail. Halfway through washing her hair, with suds in her eyes, it rang again. One ring was ignorable. Two was important. She dashed out of the still-running shower and slipped on the floor, crashing down onto the hard tile floor. She swore, loud and unrestrained, scrabbling for the phone just before it ended.

“Hello?” she panted, an untowelled heap on her bedroom floor.

“Uh, hi?” came a voice Alaska knew all too well.

“What do you want, Hannah?”

“You’ve been ignoring my calls.”

“If I’d known this was you, I wouldn’t have answered.” She winced at her throbbing behind.

“What did I do?” Hannah asked, but her voice was toneless. She didn’t really care.

“It’s more what you didn’t do,” Alaska said. “You didn’t do the right thing and you weren’t a good friend.”

“How?” Hannah asked.

“If you don’t know that already, then I can’t help you.” She hung up and threw the phone down in frustration. Slowly, she pushed herself to her feet. It hurt to walk and she could see in the mirror that she was already bruised. The shower wasn’t so relaxing after that – standing was painful but her hair was full of soap and the rest of her was unwashed.

Being home alone was suddenly more boring than Alaska remembered. She was angry at Hannah for making her fall over and for ringing and for generally being. She was annoyed with her parents for not waking her up and for leaving her. She was annoyed with herself for not knowing what to do. But then, she did.

There was still a vague, lingering memory of the way to Elver’s house. It had only taken a few minutes in the car and some of that had been taken up by traffic lights. Alaska knew she was looking for a red front door and a fancy black car, but none of the houses she was passing after twenty minutes of painful walking had either. She was on the verge of giving up and crying when, through a thick crop of green, she caught a flash of red and she knew it was the one.

Something was stopping her from knocking. She had been standing on the doorstep for a whole minute, too scared to knock. She was sure it was the right house: it was definitely Elver’s car outside, but she couldn’t bring herself to lift her hand to the wood.

But she didn’t have to. Elver opened the door to collect the post and came face to face with Alaska.

“Hi,” he said, fumbling with the door. He had caught his sleeve on the handle. Alaska smiled.

“Hi.”

“Why’re you here?” he asked.

“Oh, I can go if you’re bu-”

“No, stay. Come in.”

Alaska stepped in, wincing when she lifted her foot over the slight ledge.

“Are you ok?”

“I, uh, fell out of the shower. Banged my arse,” she said. Elver glanced down before realising what he was doing. He blushed and turned away.

“Well, come through,” he said, leading her to the kitchen.

“It’s very quiet,” Alaska said, peering round every corner.

“My parents are away, for their anniversary, and Cathy’s ill.” Elver nodded towards his sister, fast asleep on the sofa. One leg hung over the edge and her blanket had been kicked onto the floor when she had overheated.

“Is she alright?”

“She’ll be fine.” Elver poured Alaska a glass of lemonade, and orange squash for himself. “But, I’m sorry if you wanted to go out or anything. I need to stay here, really.”

“No, no, that’s fine,” Alaska said. She sipped the lemonade, wonderfully chilled. It was hot outside. She regretted wearing jeans. “I just wanted to see you.”

Elver’s mouth broke into a grin before he realised what it was doing. “Really?”

“Yeah.” She hopped up onto the kitchen table. “Plus, my arse really hurts. I don’t want to be walking around much at all.”

“You’re in the right place.”

“Will your parents mind?”

“Mind what?”

“Me being here, without them around?”

“Not at all. Mum likes you already. Plus Cathy’s here. We could watch a film?”

“I’d love to.” Alaska slipped her bag off her shoulder and let her slip-ons fall off. Elver went to the loo and Cathy woke up. She stared at Alaska. They had yet to meet.

“Who’re you?” she asked in her post-sleep, bug-infused daze.

“Alaska,” she said. Cathy’s face brightened.

“Wow,” she said to herself. Alaska smiled. “Why’re you here?”

“We’re watching a film,” she said, perusing the titles that filled a couple of shelves behind the television. Cathy grinned and sat up. She was as white the ocean’s foam and her eyes were underscored by heavy bags, but her pale lips were lively.

Elver came through and seeing that Cathy was awake, brought her a glass of water.

“What’re we watching?” he asked. Cathy couldn’t stop beaming, looking from her brother to Alaska. Alaska produced a DVD from behind her back.

“This,” she said.

“What is it?” Cathy asked.

 “The Little Mermaid.”