Murky Waters

A response to Three Things Challenge #803 by pensitivity101 Prompt Words: COASTAL FRAME PICTURE

Wading through the murky waters, debris swirling around my ankles, my face mask feeling as if it strove to suck the life out of my lungs; I trudged forward awkwardly.

Something bumped my leg hard. I stopped, peering through the convoluted layers of man made garbage laced through with what the sea had vomited upon me, upon everyone. I could see nothing. Hope dimmed, I couldn’t see my feet through the undulating waters burped up by this last coastal hurricane.

It had to be here. I gauged from memory, where my living room had been. Mucking through muddy debris, another bump on my leg then a sharp searing pain in my ankle.

Lifting my leg, attached to the outside of my ankle, is a little baby nurse shark. My detached thought processes pondered how adorable, this cute little thing has bitten off more than he can chew. However, my survival instinct of fight or flight kicked in with a rush and I began pulling on the sandpaper skin of the shark, trying to dislodge it.

Unsuccessful, I jabbed my fingers through the teeth clamped onto my skin and pried the little shark off of my body. A stream of blood erupted from beneath the dark water, swirling around my leg momentarily before it followed the path of the little shark back to the sea.

That’s when I found it. Just in front of me, the most beautifully framed picture of mother ocean I had ever seen. The edges of the Earth’s horizon hugging the fading blue line of water now tinged with a swirl of red fluid, donated by my little shark and me.