Pacific Morning

A cool breeze blew over the surface of the water, sending tiny ripples dancing toward the shore like rows of soldiers rushing into battle. He pushed his hand into the glass-like surface and moved his fingers, letting the coarse saltiness of the water massage his skin. The liquid was clean and clear and he could see through it, to the bottom of the sea where brightly colored garibaldi swam through green forests of broad leafed kelp, their golden skin flashing like eyes of a giant cat, hiding playfully in the tangled, undulating garden of sea plants. He looked at his toes through the water. His skin shone back at him, pale and white. He kicked his feet back and forth slowly, stirring the ocean with this legs, and the movement warmed his body as the radiant glow of the rising sun poured out over the sea, stretching from the valleys and past the mountains, playing across the water and lighting up the surface of the sea like a sheet of black velvet covered in glistening diamonds. In the distance, out toward the deepest depths of the sea, a soundless something began to rise from nowhere, and he became suddenly aware of the subtle change in the atmosphere, even though he couldn’t put it into words; something was different. He turned away from the sun, toward the endless ocean, and looked into the distance, toward the growing something, toward the feeling he had in his chest and his stomach and his arms and legs. Instinctively, he lay flat on the hoary, wax covered surface of his board. It stretched long past his head and feet so that he was a part of it, as if it were alive and he was just some appendage attached to it; a set of arms and legs that moved it as it willed. It became alive, then, and cut through the water like a porpoise, moving purposefully toward the dark depths of the ocean, away from the shore and the sun and the smell of the earth. A wind gusted quickly across the water, blowing past him and over him as it hurried toward the shore, as if escaping from the nameless shapeless something that was swelling like a child in the womb of the sea As he pumped his arms in roaming arcs that bit into the ocean and then streaked through the air, the shifting bumps and divots of the wax encrusted board felt comfortable and familiar even as they irritated his sun kissed chest and stomach. After a few moments, he stopped moving his arms, and the board glided to slowly to rest, and he looked out, toward the belly of the ocean, and the something that had been growing invisibly had suddenly taken shape and he could make it out, just barely, on the horizon, moving toward him with remarkable speed. A feeling of dread welled up inside his stomach and for a moment he was frozen, unable to move or think or feel. He lay there like a stone, floating on the surface of the ocean. Then a fin popped up beside him on his left, and another on his right. He let out a gasp and pulled his arms away from the water, so that he lay on the board, barely touching the water, except for where it came over the surface of the board and touched his belly and his chest. He watched the fins move in a wide circle around him, cutting through the calmness of the water with a menacing, surgical precision. As he watched, a third and fourth fin appeared, joining in the pair slowly circling him, like silvery vultures circling a putrid corpse rotting in the hot sun. He moved his face timidly toward the edge of the board, to peer into the water, to see the bodies that moved the fins, but as he did, a long nose pierced the surface, inches from his face. He pulled back, nearly falling off the board, and the dolphin let out a squeal of delight, spinning in place before falling backward into the water with a splash. As if on queue, the other three dolphins broke the surface, jumping high into the air and crashing back into the ocean gleefully. He smiled as he watched the dolphins play, then swim away like speeding bullets, toward the horizon. As he watched the dolphins swim away, he realized that the horizon was growing, stretching upwards toward the sky, and moving quickly toward him. He plunged his arms back into the water and began paddling wildly, turning the board back toward the shore. But as he paddled toward the shore, he could feel himself being sucked back toward the ocean. All around him, the water had become alive, moving like a living sheet toward the swelling horizon. He cocked his board the the left, cutting across the streaming surface of the ocean, his arms pumping in and out of the cool water, his heart pumping wildly. Just then, the ocean swelled up beneath him, grabbing the board and pushing him forward. He jumped to his feet reflexively, shifting his weight toward the nose of the board so that he began to fall, cutting a foamy white trail across the face of the ocean as it roared behind him like a wild beast. The salty spray of the water hit his face and chest, mixing with the golden rays of the rising sun so that he shone like a gilded god, gliding across the water, flying over the ocean. He pushed his toes against the rail of the board and cut up the face of the wave, then let himself fall again back toward the foot of the wave. He moved back and forth, up and down, abandoning himself to the motion of the sea, until, at last, the wave collapsed in on itself. He continued to glide for a few moments before collapsing like the wave, and settling with his belly flat against the uneven surface of the board. Facing the shore, bathing in the warmth of the sun, he laughed to himself, then turned the board back toward the depths of the ocean, toward something unseen and unheard, something growing slowly on the horizon.

First Post

Hey, welcome to my blog! I'm a writer of science-fiction, science-fantasy, speculative fiction, slipstream, and whatever else happens to come out when I start typing. If you're here, then you've probably already read something I've written... but in case you haven't, I invite you to check out my author page on Amazon where you can find a listing of everything that I've published.

This blog will be updated relatively frequently with information about new and upcoming work, events where I'll be, and my general musings about writing, science and technology, politics, and life in general.

I'm going to keep this first post short, so I'll cut it off now. Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you'll be back soon!