Ocean Song
an excerpt

The girl ran from the house. She knew that the police would be coming soon. She ran straight out and onto the sand, running around the front of the buildings rather than trying to contend with the inhabitants by going through them. Her hair flicked out behind her; straight, golden and so long. Her breath caught in her chest and she glanced over her shoulder to see if she was being pursued. Her father, mere metres behind her was chasing her. She twisted a little more to see him and she fell. Sand kicked up meeting her face and entering her shoes. She kicked off the sand filled shoes and rushed to her feet. She could hear her father calling for help and the police as he closed the distance between them. Her ivory dress tangled as she reached her feet forcing her down again. This time she bundled it in her hands and climbed to her feet once more. She glanced quickly behind her but didn’t need to, knowing how close her father was by the sounds of his breath. She ran on, the sand softer in places slowing her steps and sapping her energy.

He ran after her as hard as he could. He was by no means fit with his middle age spread and his high cholesterol but he was fuelled by something else. He had entered his house and had seen his youngest daughter standing over the body of his wife; her mother, holding the gun he kept for self defence. She had run off as quickly as though she was never there, using the glass door that led to the beachfront. He had no other thought but to chase her and bring her back.

She ran upwards heading towards the road where she would be able to outrun her father much easier. He tackled her from behind. The sand where they landed was sparse and rocks jutted up through it. He landed roughly feeling the wind leave his lungs brutally at the same time as he felt the girl beneath him crumble. Her head hit a rock and she went limp. He waited and when she didn’t move he checked her breathing and her pulse concluding that she had only been knocked out. He waited till he had caught his own breath and lifted the limp form of his younger daughter into his arms.

He had barely made it to the road when the bundle in his arms roused. She kicked and thrashed and hit him till he had no other choice but to put her down. No sooner had her feet touched the hot pavement then she was off. She ran as fast as she could and entered the nearest building; the swimming centre.

A passer-by and several of the inhabitants of the houses they ran past had noted the calls of the man chasing the girl and had called the police. A police car had arrived at the home, the man was prominent and powerful; someone had recognised him and his daughter. The police knocked continued to knock until after a few minutes they took it upon themselves to enter the house. The sight of the dead woman on the floor prompted the call of an ambulance and the pursuit of the man and girl to determine what exactly had happened. Whilst the two were running along the beach the car with the police inside had cut through the island.

The swimming centre stood at the bottom of a hill and was built into it. A person would enter through the main doors and then would be confronted by the huge Olympic size pool at one end of the building and several smaller pools of varying depths at the other end, used for lessons. There were windows everywhere amongst the cheddar coloured interior making the room seem like a huge dome of glass or a giant greenhouse. There was a gangway around the inside of the building about halfway up its walls. This gangway would open out onto level ground most of the way up the hillside where a person could disappear if they so chose.

Inside the swimming centre the girl moved quickly. She ran around the Olympic size pool and headed for the ladder that led to the watch-gangway around the top half of the building. Behind her she could hear the sirens growing louder. The tiles around the edge of the pool were wet and slippery and being barefoot she nearly fell several times. Her hair kept getting in her face every time she stumbled. Her long dress was torn and stained with blood and dirt. Sand covered her face and blood from her fall was matting in her hair. She slipped and fell again, this time cutting her knees and scraping her legs along her shins and toes.

Finally she reached the ladder as the doors to the swimming centre burst open and her father and the police ran in. She started climbing the rungs frantically fighting with the fatigue in her muscles and the dressed coiled about her legs. The life guards were yelling at her telling her not to climb the ladder while the police and her father were yelling at her to come down and to the life guards to stop her at the top. She reached the top and was cornered by two life guards who looked totally unsure of the whole situation. She challenged them by stepping towards them. They stepped away the same distance. Beams went from the base of the building by the pools all the way to the ceiling. She hid behind one of them as one of the police officers from below through his knight stick at her. It clanged and landed on the gangway at her feet.

“Papa, don’t!” She yelled over the railing at her father who seemed to be pointing at the other ladders dotted around the gangway.

She turned and continued to run. She rushed towards the emergency exit door which was mere metres but seemed kilometres. She continued to slip as she scampered her way towards the exit. There were police on the gangway heading towards her as she reached the exit. Her father was close by.

“Phoenix, honey, don’t do this…” he called to her and her hand stayed at the door handle. Everyone in the building seemed to pause watching the scene.

“Papa…” she whispered and then pushed the door open.

She escaped out onto the hill top and continued to reach the top. The police were behind her again and she felt her legs shaking with every step. At the top of the hill she had to make her final choice: follow the hill to the left and run down the side towards the city where there would no doubt be police; follow the hill to the right and descend into the tropical forest that led to the marina; or finally, follow the hill’s course and run down the back of the hill to the cliff that bordered the south side of the island that bore the brunt of the north bound winds.

Her choice was made; she darted down the back of the hill towards the cliff and stopped as she reached the edge. Her dress stuck to her legs and flapped behind her in the strong wind and her hair that was once stuck to her face now whipped and lashed behind her. The police and her father, now red-faced from the pursuit on foot, stopped suddenly a couple of metres behind her.

“Don’t” her father said.

Phoenix turned. She looked straight into his eyes, her blue eyes showed none of the emotions she was feeling. She turned away and walked towards the edge even as the police and her father rushed to grasp her before she fell. Her body cut through the air and she stretched out her arms and met the coming waters of the ocean.