Two young women sunbathing on a raft in a bay,and a predator lurks in the water. By the way, this idea may resemble something seen on commercial television, but I am the one who did it first, the one who did it first is me. There can be only one who does it first, and that is I, because the one who did it first is me. :-)
The Raft
by Py, � 7/21/2000,
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A large heavy raft made of plywood and empty oil drums underneath was anchored about 50 yards off shore of a private beach. in a small remote bay. It was large enough for 6 to fit on comfortably, but due to the nature of the private beach owned by a small group of people, only a few used it, and these days it was almost exclusively used by Alexis and sometimes her friends. Alexis was a tall brunette, and today she was on the raft, sunbathing in her Black bikini, her best friend Margaret with her. Alexis was on her back trying to read a book while taking in the sun on this day which offered few clouds, when she sat up. She was hot from the sun, and feeling her own arms her skin also felt dry to her. Looking down on Margaret, she saw that her friend had fallen asleep on her stomach. As usual the top of her bikini was undone to prevent tan lines, and Alexis could see that Margaret was not near the point of burning yet, so she let her sleep. Alexis stood, shaded her eyes as she looked around, then dove into the water.
Alexis could hold her breath a long time, and she loved the silence of swimming in the cool water at the bottom nearly 30 feet down, or at lesser depths. She would sometimes dig in the mud with her hands, looking for clams and leaving them in a small bucket on the raft until she went into shore, but she didn't like cutting her finger on something sharp hidden in the bottom mud as today. She headed for the surface, the water was making her skin feel better.
The beast detected blood in the water, hardly any but more than enough to trigger it's ancient instincts. It leisurely turned in the direction it's senses told it, and swam slowly and gracefully. It could sense the prey from a long distance, diving then surfacing, then repeating, spending much time on or near the bottom, and slowly growing farther from the thing that floated on the surface. It didn't really care about the thing that floated nearby, it didn't move, but it's instincts told it that the further from the floating thing the better. Close now, the prey was moving towards the surface.
Alexis broke the surface and took a huge gasp of air as she treaded water. She was feeling better, and thought she would do one or two more dives before climbing back onto the raft. Some instinct alerted her to danger, Alexis used her arms and legs to whirl in the water. She saw the fin cutting through the water not 20 feet away and heading straight for her. She went under, quickly followed by the fin. The water thrashed, an arm broke the surface briefly, then the waters were still. Slowly the bluish green waters of the bay began to take on a reddish tone in the area of the brief struggle, spreading silently as small waves lapped against the raft.
Margaret stirred slowly in her sleep, an instinct told her that something had just happened. She raised her blonde head to look around, noting that Alexis was not on the raft, and assuming she had gone for a swim. She could see that Alexis's book, small transistor radio, sun glasses, and her small beach blanket secured with rocksfrom the beach, along with the bottle of sun tan lotion, and a watertight bag were all still here, and it all told Margaret that Alexis planned to return soon. Margaret reached with one arm and fiddled with the dial on the radio, and froze as she saw the spreading pool of blood in the water.
She sat up, tying the straps to her yellow bikini top, then stood. Removing her sunglasses and shading her eyes from the sun she slowly peered in every direction, then looked down and saw nothing but seawater and the spreading bloodstain which was growing fainter as time passed. Margaret sighed and sat down, fiddling with the radio again, finally finding a station she liked which was currently playing top 40's music. She lay back on her blanket, adjusting her sunglasses and rolling her arms slightly to get the sun on the inner parts.
Margaret was almost asleep when the ladder to the raft creaked, and the center of balance shifted slightly, so that briefly the raft was not following the rhythm of the small waves buffeting it. Margaret turned her head towards the ladder, and saw Alexis climbing out of the water. Alexis ran her hands through her long hair, shedding extra water back into the sea, then she took several steps to her blanket where she sat down. Alexis began putting a fresh coating of sun tan lotion on her exposed skin, humming slightly, then burping. Margaret sighed, "Shark again?" Alexis hummed an affirmative. Margaret clucked her tongue, "I keep telling you, there's easier ways to get shark cartilage in your diet."
The End
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By Py