Creature Or Your Life
Pitch black. Beneath my feet, rough sand. And at places, cold, hard uneven rock, like a badly paved cement floor. Between breathing through the regulator and frantic arms stretched out to make sure my team was still with me, I could feel tiny creatures scuttle between my feet, brushing past my ankles and sometimes, a furry fluttering of little wings hitting kamikazi into my calves.
Gross.
Blind, cold, and 2,000 miles under water. That is beyond gross. That is courting death.
Without warning, the lights came on. We were standing in a tight bunch, all 7 of us, at the bottom edge of the kerb that circled this secret aqua-desert. And instead of our wet suits, we had on our everyday clothes. Squinting as my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, I was almost hating myself for choosing that knee-length dress. Those scuttling creatures that gave me the jitters were colourless and transluscent. All of them albino. Their body juices of white against white flowing languidly, pale in colour and unstable in nature. Looking at them and their weak, intricate exoskeletons really made me feel sick. Being touched by them made me cringe with shivers.
We all looked at the leader, a chinese lady with a forgettable face, watching the hand signals that point to the regulator, it was instructions to remove the breathing apparatus.
"Trust." she said.
And we did. It's amazing, this feeling. To be able to breathe like a fish, while seeking out the abyss. The mysteries of the deep, dark ocean felt infinite and intimate. The soul finding temporary comfort in this cusion of water.
SNAPPING JAWS AND GLOWING EYES! The image flashed, a documentary scene on the previously unexplored mysteries of the sea. Sporadically, these alarming images would appear.
I kept expecting to see one of those hideous, light-emitting creatures to charge at us. Them afraid by us being afriad of them. Then...
Sssssss..........slither!
A snake! A black one, a baby serpent struck like lightning right through the middle of the group and vanished at such speeds that my brain stalled. I forgot to breathe. I forgot to move.
As my heart regained composure, the forgettable chinese lady told us to gather in a group. "Take this very seriously." she said, "or we'll be stuck here, forever underground, forever underwater." And we did. We must put the regulator back on, and breathe in sync as a group, this single strand of breath will create a binding uni-omni-energy that will bring us back to the mountain-nurturing, cloud-rolling lands that we know better. As we put it to our mouths, slowly pacing ourselves for one another, we couldn't breathe! We choked on the air that wanted to drill its way down our lungs. It's like breathing water to mammals, and it hurts. Afraid that we'll be banished to this barren aqua-desert forever, we tried it again. Slowly, slowly, to our faces...together...
Plop! Plop!
A palm-sized green creature hopped by. Green and spotted, it had a rather weird tail. It was dark brown and twig-like, and it was connected to a pear turned on its side. As my eyes moved down the pear, there was the creature's legs, stout and stumpy with sticky, webbed feet. The end of the pear, a frog's head. Amazing!
Then... I started choking again.
Gross.
Blind, cold, and 2,000 miles under water. That is beyond gross. That is courting death.
Without warning, the lights came on. We were standing in a tight bunch, all 7 of us, at the bottom edge of the kerb that circled this secret aqua-desert. And instead of our wet suits, we had on our everyday clothes. Squinting as my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, I was almost hating myself for choosing that knee-length dress. Those scuttling creatures that gave me the jitters were colourless and transluscent. All of them albino. Their body juices of white against white flowing languidly, pale in colour and unstable in nature. Looking at them and their weak, intricate exoskeletons really made me feel sick. Being touched by them made me cringe with shivers.
We all looked at the leader, a chinese lady with a forgettable face, watching the hand signals that point to the regulator, it was instructions to remove the breathing apparatus.
"Trust." she said.
And we did. It's amazing, this feeling. To be able to breathe like a fish, while seeking out the abyss. The mysteries of the deep, dark ocean felt infinite and intimate. The soul finding temporary comfort in this cusion of water.
SNAPPING JAWS AND GLOWING EYES! The image flashed, a documentary scene on the previously unexplored mysteries of the sea. Sporadically, these alarming images would appear.
I kept expecting to see one of those hideous, light-emitting creatures to charge at us. Them afraid by us being afriad of them. Then...
Sssssss..........slither!
A snake! A black one, a baby serpent struck like lightning right through the middle of the group and vanished at such speeds that my brain stalled. I forgot to breathe. I forgot to move.
As my heart regained composure, the forgettable chinese lady told us to gather in a group. "Take this very seriously." she said, "or we'll be stuck here, forever underground, forever underwater." And we did. We must put the regulator back on, and breathe in sync as a group, this single strand of breath will create a binding uni-omni-energy that will bring us back to the mountain-nurturing, cloud-rolling lands that we know better. As we put it to our mouths, slowly pacing ourselves for one another, we couldn't breathe! We choked on the air that wanted to drill its way down our lungs. It's like breathing water to mammals, and it hurts. Afraid that we'll be banished to this barren aqua-desert forever, we tried it again. Slowly, slowly, to our faces...together...
Plop! Plop!
A palm-sized green creature hopped by. Green and spotted, it had a rather weird tail. It was dark brown and twig-like, and it was connected to a pear turned on its side. As my eyes moved down the pear, there was the creature's legs, stout and stumpy with sticky, webbed feet. The end of the pear, a frog's head. Amazing!
Then... I started choking again.
posted by Nicolette Yuen at 9:41 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home