To Will and Cait

 

                                                                  The Indigo Children

To Will and Cait

Wordcount 1595 words

By Ross Ian Fleming

Once upon a time there was a busy little sperm called Bluey and the very first thing he ever felt was a deep happiness that moved him from Marvin into Mary and all that his tiny heart knew was that he must now swim and so he swam and he swam and he couldn't stop swimming and he didn't look behind him he didn't look before him he just wiggled his wiggle and looked to the future he didn't know where the future was located but my goodness he knew forward was the way to go there were no words there was only the soft pink shadow that changed colour as he got nearer and he was so excited that he was winning the race and kerboom he landed with a lovely sound on the outer surface of Pinky and then he dived down towards the heartbeat of this lovely soul and he found her inner child lying sleeping there at the bottom of the pool and so he tenderly, gently lifted her up and in that beautiful moment the heart of Bluey fused with the soul of Pinky and a kind voice from The Above said I christen you Mauve it’s your true and proper name and Mauve remembered this throughout the rest of the time he spent inside as he transitioned through old wrinkled monkey to aqua-aerobic dolphin and basic beginners then finally fully fledged flying flamingo and after this full to bursting set of interesting episodes he became the centrepiece for Mary's stork party where by mistake her waters broke when she laughed at Marvin's joke about getting a brain transplant and Marvin had to rush the pair of them one inside the other to the maternity ward but she was only three centimetres dilated and so Marvin brought Mary home and she relaxed in the bath with a glass of rose but Margery came storming into the bathroom and started using words like dangerous and dry-birth and oxygen-deficiency and brain-damage and foetal alcohol syndrome and all these words meant nothing to Mauve he just quietly waited for someone to tell him when to come out but nobody really noticed that he was waiting and they all continued arguing regardless and then next thing he knew someone was shouting Push and then he did a cartwheel and saw the light at the end of the tunnel and floated down to the bottom and all he knew was an urge towards the light and then there came the sudden shock as his warm unused lungs experienced cold oxygen and nitrogen and carbon dioxide otherwise known as air and he coughed to clear his throat and shouted Hi I'm Mauve  it’s my true and proper name pleased to meet ya but nobody realised what he was shouting about and so they slapped him around a bit to bring him to his senses and then he slept on Mary's boob her milk hadn't come in yet but it was a happy place with her heart beating close to his and he started to settle down and his breathing slowly steadily gentled into a rhythm and his heart calmed and he was glad that that little experience was over and right there and then he resolved to tell the whole story to his best friend at his first birthday party he couldn't wait but then sadly he forgot and the story stayed untold until today.

It was late in the day and Merve was a long way from home. He had missed the bus back to Goodwood from Cape Town. The kids shouting Merve, Merve the Mongol Perve had distracted him and he had lost his ticket and so he had realised that he would have to walk home. He was now in Kenilworth trudging along 2nd Avenue when he heard the words Help Me glug glug come over the wall. Being in grade 6 he realised that sometimes one must act to save a life and so he sprung onto the pedestal where the cat statue still to this day stands guard over the corner of Smith Street and 2nd Avenue and he looked over the wall. He spotted a little stream of bubbles in the water of a kidney shaped swimming pool now I don't know what shape swimming pools are in your country but in this land where Merve lived they were kidney shaped. God is a mysterious being with a deeply ironic sense of humour and in the country where you are living he may make swimming pools of every shape and size and colour but down here in Cape Town every pool is kidney shaped and coloured deep midnight blue. All will be revealed when you visit us here but just trust me. Kidney shaped pools, deep blue, are the way to go.

 

So Merve jumped the wall and dived into the water and took a quick breath and swam down to the bottom of the pool where he found a little toddler dressed in a pink tracksuit saying Penny FartingH and the Purple People - her seamstress mom was slightly dyslexic-- resting on the floor of the pool so as gently as he could he took her in his arms and swam her to the surface and got her into the recovery position on the poolside and softly got the water out of her lungs and then he just as calmly checked her breathing and pulse and was very, very happy that she was alive. Just then a huge St. Bernard called Mad Marmaduke came round the corner and padded towards him and licked his hand. Normally Mad Marmaduke would savage the ankle of anyone who came onto the property and bark in his deep masculine voice and scare the living daylights out of them but today he held his peace and welcomed Merve into the family with lickies and love.

 

If you have ever wondered how Japanese pearl divers manage to hold their breath under the water for long periods of time, you are not alone.  In fact, never dive alone is the refrain of one lullaby that has been used by the Ama mothers for over 3000 years. Or certainly for as long as Maruna’s grandmother had been around.

 

Maruna had been told from a very young age that she would, in her 21st year, discover a hugely valuable pearl in an unlikely place and bring great beauty into the world. Well so much for the prophets of the city. This is just what you might expect from a bunch of old fogeys who spend their days resting on their recliners instead of partying hard, was her  humble opinion. Maruna was intent on living life to the full and drinking deeply of the draught and having a total blast. Prophecy schmoffecy was her angle.

 

Mauve had spent three years making moolah in Hollywood after Penny's rich but slightly  dyslexic mom had paid for him to go and learn. You saved my daughter’s life. Go. Have a ball.

High functioning Down Syndrome kids had prime position on the requirements lists for actors there. He was bright. He had a future. This trip to Tokyo  was his reward to himself at the end of a frantically busy year. He looked over Tokyo Bay and along the side of the fishing boat he was privileged enough to be able to charter. As he looked across at the stunning view of the bay he saw a similar charter boat at rest next to a jetty and as he glanced across he saw a young girl about to be mugged. As he watched her, two men knocked her over the head and took her cell phone and flashing pink peak cap and quite unceremoniously pushed her over the side and into the waters.

 

Without thinking Mauve threw his wallet and cell phone to Miko, his helmsman and dived into the beautiful warm water. The boat wasn't going terribly fast, and he was quick to reach the spot where the girl went under. He gulped air then dived downwards. He felt around in the darkness and found her slender wrist and gently pulled her close to him then brought her to the surface. His chartered vessel had circled back and Miko pulled them both onto the deck. Merve put her into the recovery position and gently coaxed the water out of her lungs until she opened her tired eyes and met the midnightblue gaze of Merve anxiously watching her.

The joy just bubbled out of him and he remembered ‘I'm Mauve. It’s my true and proper name pleased to meet ya’ were his first words to her.

‘Hi Mauve, my name is Maruna, and it’s really cool to meet you, too.’ Mauve realised  that Maruna was the friend he had meant to discuss everything with at his first birthday party. He now remembered everything. ‘There is so much I need to tell you,’ said Mauve, and Maruna totally, totally understood and they began to chat the day away. Miko, who was sensitive to colour,  watched this little performance and realised there was a gentle indigo, purple, pink, blue, mauve, maroon circular bubble  that was growing around the boat and the surrounding sea and that the two kids were the centre of this slowly expanding circle. They had always listened to the same music from the very beginning. It was meant to be.  The first thing Mauve  taught Maruna was how to swim. My Goodness I never realised it was so easy she laughed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_children