Rottnest monster

 

I’d been on the Aperols since early afternoon. We all had. And it was hot, so the sun was frying our brains and we had Tay Tay cranked so high she was literally crooning in our ears. The cheese platter had melted and we were picking at Dorrito crumbs and wilted pieces of carrot. First day of holiday and all of us fired up, shaking off the work week like an itchy coat. Hopping to crank things up and get a bit blind.

      I leaned my elbows lightly on the balcony and balanced my wine glass on the balustrade. That’s when I saw something in the water. A churning darkness just off the shore.

    ‘Hey, Joe, did you see that?

    ‘Just the wind love,’ he said planting a beer-soaked kiss on my neck. But I kept watching and it didn’t look like a wind gust to me.

    ‘Mind if I use your binoculars?’ I knew Joe would’ve packed them. He loves twitching. I don’t tell many people, because it’s kind of lame, but he spends hours looking at all kinds of birds through those damn things.

   ‘Quick, before it disappears.’

   I looked through the viewfinder, first with one eye closed while I focused them and then with both eyes, but still everything was blurred.

‘These things are shit, Joe.’ Then suddenly it cleared, and I could see a patch of choppy water that was darker than the area around it. It was like there was a storm brewing just in that one spot.

   ‘Right there,’ and I pointed. But he was inside spraying sparkling wine all over the goddamn kitchen, and everyone was squealing and licking their wet faces.

   I turned my eyes back to the ocean, but the clouds covered the sun for a moment and it all went dull and black. I kept watching, but I couldn’t see it again, and I wondered if maybe I’d imagined it. Then Joe was saying, ‘hey babe, come dance’ and I turned away from the ocean. Dropped the binoculars on the table and slipped into his arms.

   We heard choppers later that night, but didn’t think anything of it. We were too far gone to think much of anything. It was only the next morning, that I heard the news. I staggered up to the general store to buy coffees and Berocca, and the girl at the cash register said in a hushed voice, ‘did you hear about the boat?’ I shook my head.

   ‘Vanished. With a family on board. It was moored right there in Longreach Bay.’

   ‘What do you mean? How can a boat disappear?’ She leaned forward as if she was sharing state secrets.

   ‘ They’re saying there was something in the water. That pulled it down. Was a big launch too. Reckon it would’ve weighed close to 10,000 kilos.’

   ‘What kind of something?’

   She shrugged her shoulders as she swiped my credit card. But as I thought back to that black, churning water, I knew.