MABEL
She tucked the remainder of the shells in her pockets, until the sides bulged and she must’ve looked quite foolish – dipping the parasol around to continue covering the sun. The man’s words brought her further pause though, only strictly in thought and not in motion, wandering along crests and rises in the tides, toes consumed and succumbing for periods at a time, before the water receded. Mabel felt none of the cold, but all of the restlessness, peeling her gaze away from the shoal, and back to Sunjata, one brow cooly, impassive arched.
The notions didn’t correspond to her own alterations on the matter. “Has it not for others?” Naïve, young, and ignorant perhaps; but she and Evelyn had made their choice, had cut the ties, nooses, strands, and tethers their parents had set, and ultimately failed to utilize or prosper. They were their own keepers now, slaves to naught but ambition – no dying fires, no disastrous wake of perished families. Just one and the other, twins honed and poised for something on the horizon. More than they’d ever thought possible.
The notions didn’t correspond to her own alterations on the matter. “Has it not for others?” Naïve, young, and ignorant perhaps; but she and Evelyn had made their choice, had cut the ties, nooses, strands, and tethers their parents had set, and ultimately failed to utilize or prosper. They were their own keepers now, slaves to naught but ambition – no dying fires, no disastrous wake of perished families. Just one and the other, twins honed and poised for something on the horizon. More than they’d ever thought possible.
I bare my teeth
and stretch my claws out
and stretch my claws out
