Turn of the Tide | ONC 2023

[4] A Quick Spin

    University did nothing to stem the flow of Sally's rushing thoughts. Day after day of seminars, protracted study sessions in the library, and a series of lectures on the deliciously intimate, candle-lit indoor playhouses of seventeenth-century England all passed her by in a haze. If Ronan or her mother had caught her slumped beneath her blanket, they would have been right to tell her off for dozing. It was not woolly sleepiness that clogged up Sally's mind, however. It was Flick.

    The girl was an enigma, almost less a person than a force that swept through Sally's life. Even through the messy feelings that blazed through her body, it had not escaped Sally's notice that Flick had dodged the question about her friend back home. It may have been a simple rush of impulse that cut off her answer, or a relationship that hurtled off the rails and was now a touchy subject. Whatever it was, it contributed another thread to the shadowy weave around Flick, shrouding her past life and present thoughts from Sally's eyes. Flick was a mystery to her.

    And Sally liked the mystery. It was frustrating, irrational, and unsustainable, yet it was also irresistible enough to melt all her words away whenever she thought about it, about her. Trouble or not, Sally enjoyed being at Flick's side, and she was not about to give that up to appease her parents.

    It was late morning, and Sally's eyes scanned through another page of the scholarly article she had meant to finish reading last night. The piece's focus on the transformative power of wonder was right up her alley, but the words evaded her gaze, or maybe her gaze avoided the words. She checked her calendar and thanked the stars she did not have to be ready for class today.

    As she knuckled down for a third attempt at reading the page, her bedroom window rattled in its frame. Sally set her printed sheet down and crawled onto her bed, another rattling sound quickening her pace. She glanced outside to see Flick bouncing on the path to her house, her hand already flapping in a fierce wave. "Were you throwing rocks at my house?" Sally cried through the window as she opened it.

    "Well, you never gave me your number, sailor. What did you want me to do? Send smoke signals?" Flick was back in her red flannel shirt, making her stick out like a stoplight against the thick green lawn. She stopped rocking on her feet and shoved her hands into her back pockets. "I knew you were a cat-lover."

    Sally narrowed her eyes at the girl's distant shape. "How's that?" Looking around, she spotted the trail of silhouette cats knitted into the hem of her oversized jumper, igniting tiny fires in her cheeks. "What are you doing here, Flick?"

    "Checking up on my friend, that's all. I totally didn't get into a mad argument with Auntie Pol that ended with her kicking me out." Flick's fingers fiddled with her plait, her other hand set on the camera bag at her waist. "Up for a trip? I brought Miri!"

    The article on Sally's desk would not read itself, but all Sally could do now was stare at it, praying the content seeped into her brain. "Let me get dressed, and I'll be down with you."

    Flick saluted and smiled. "Nice one. Shout if you need a hand, yeah?"

    Her friend might have been kidding, yet Sally's thumping heart was all too serious. She heard her shuddering chest through her coat and scarf, saw her wayward step onto the house path, and felt her mouth dry at the first close-up sight of Flick's face. "Where's the car?" Sally asked as she noticed the vacant spot by the fence.

    Swaying to Sally's side, Flick shook her head. "We don't need it. I've got a better idea." Suddenly, she took Sally's hand and led her to the gate, laughing as Sally stumbled to keep up with her bounding pace. "Come on! We're burning daylight, sailor."

    A fact of riding in a car with someone was that you both moved at the same speed and at the same time. Sally gained a deep appreciation of this fact during her and Flick's run, and she soon gave up guessing where her friend led her to focus on keeping her balance over the slipperier spots of stone pathway. As Flick skidded to a halt and squeezed her hand, Sally looked up to see they had reached the bay.