Dimidius : Chapter Two

COCAINE

AS KET’S LIPS MOVED AGAIN, COCAINE MADE A NOISE IN THE BACK OF HIS THROAT.

Ket smiled, glancing over Cocaine’s shoulders then back at Cocaine’s white-rimmed eyes. Her mouth was moving, which informed Cocaine that she was speaking. Yet, he couldn’t hear it, and he knew that it wasn’t because of the thick glass wall that separated the tank from dry land.

His black eyes studied the repetitive movement of Ket’s lips, interpreting what she was saying. The slick tail of a killer whale roused the water below him. He tapped his palms against the glass wall of the gigantic tank when he finally understood what Ket was saying. Water bubbles formed in front of his mouth.

Behind him, Opium was circling the bottom of the tank. Pey was following him restlessly, her eel tail swishing and trying to tap Opium’s back. Even though Cocaine knew how harmless Opium was to any other members of the Dimidius division, he couldn’t help but avoid his long, sharp teeth of a shark. Cocaine never understood how Pey could joke and play with everyone, even Opium, and still remain alive.

Ket abruptly turned her head, causing Cocaine to look where she was looking. Yet, all he could see in the moment was Ket’s brown and white wings.

Behind Ket, the door to the tank room swung open and Mescal poked his head in. He seemed to be asking something, and Ket answered back. Cocaine frowned, unhappy at how he couldn’t read Ket’s lips and figure out what she was saying. Mescal smiled at both of them and his head exited the room.

Cocaine tried to catch Ket’s attention, who finally looked at him. He brightened, and pointed at the door, then at her, then made a questioning motion with his hands and shoulders. Ket mouthed something slowly, and Cocaine tried to catch up but failed.

Laughing silently, Ket said it again, slower.

‘Asking about Meth,’ she seemed to be saying.

Unsure if he had interpreted it right, Cocaine drew a curing tail behind his back with a finger, and two ears on the top of his head, one side missing most of the appendage. Ket laughed again and nodded.

During the current week, and the week before it, and the one before it, Meth hadn’t walked into the tank room even once, but he had used to. He had used to visit the Sea Squad every day. Cocaine couldn’t help but feel resentful. Meth had used to be one of the constant visitors to the tank room. Even though the gigantic tank full of water and smaller sea creatures was heavenly, it often got lonely in the thing, being separated from the rest of the world by a glass wall, watching air bubbles and other squad members swim around. And Cocaine couldn’t hear anything, which made the experience even worse. He missed Meth’s daily visits.

As if she had read Cocaine’s mind, Ket smiled sadly and shook her head. Her lips formed a sentence, which Cocaine had to strain to read.

‘Not his fault, Cocaine.’

Cocaine made a high protesting noise with his throat. He made a fist with his left hand. Ket shook her head again, this time harder.

‘Not his fault,’ she mouthed again.

Frowning, Cocaine scratched at his fin, which was beginning to itch from the cut he had gotten from a soldier that he was drowning. He made a high cry again, his hand loosening from a fist.

‘Meth,’ he tried to say. ‘Convince Meth.’ He wanted to hear if he had pronounced the words right, but there was no way to check. Ket shrugged, smiling lightheartedly again. Cocaine narrowed his eyes to figure out what she was saying. She said it one more time, and then again.

‘I will.’

Feeling his own face brighten, Cocaine smiled widely. Ket smiled back. Abruptly, her smile froze, and she looked over her shoulder. When she looked back at Cocaine again, she was making a sort of an angry face. She mouthed, ‘Later, I have to go.’

Disappointed, Cocaine nodded. Ket nodded back, and her wings extended halfway as she bounded out of the room in hurry.

When Ket went out of sight, Cocaine sank down onto the bottom of the tank. The only sign that Pey and Opium were playing was the movement of water behind him. He pounded a fist against his ears, made a face, and lay down silently.

__________

For the tank didn’t have a clock, Cocaine didn’t know how many hours had passed since Ket had left. But he could count how many days it had been since Meth had stopped visiting him. And the counting of the days stopped.

Meth sat on a plastic chair right in front of the tank, his long tail curling around his waist like a belt. He was writing on a big notebook. Cocaine watched him, both hands on the glass wall, breathlessly waiting for the notebook to turn.

Just a moment before, Meth and Marijun had walked into the room. They exchanged a collection of words and hand gestures, before Meth nodded and said two words; the only words that Cocaine could make out. ‘Ask him.’ Then Marijun had walked out the door, leaving behind a small wave. As a result, only Meth, Opium, Pey and Cocaine were left.

Finally, Meth lifted the notebook, stood up with a hand against his knees, and brought the paper close to the tank.

[I’m sorry for not visiting.] The messy handwriting said. Cocaine tried to carry the message across that it was fine, that everything was okay. It was true. The moment that his friend had walked through the door, his resentment had melted away in the water.

A faint smile traveled across Meth’s lips. He turned the page, and wrote something down again.

[It was our squad, and some matters about it. I’ll try to visit more often.]

Cocaine nodded enthusiastically. If Meth and Ket could light up his very quiet life of occasional missions, Opium, and Pey he was fine with the word ‘often’.

Meth smiled for real this time.

[I heard that you got an injury, I hope that it’ll heal up good.]

Without looking at Cocaine’s happy nod, Meth hurried to write down something else in the notebook.

[Our squad is going to go on a team mission right now. I’m sorry that I don’t have more time. Don’t worry, it’s just about a dozen or so soldiers.]

He shut the notebook and smiled apologetically. Cocaine swished his tail, trying to show that he was wishing good luck for Meth and the Land Squad. Meth tapped one playful finger against the glass wall, and jogged out of the room without looking back.