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Wishful Thinking (The Common People)
Jan. 14th, 2005 07:08 amNOTE: These are writings from 1997, which means they are over a decade old. Thus they lack a certain- hmm, 'polish?', but they are also fond memories of my days on alt.comics.fan-fiction and I wouldn't trade them for the world. ^_^
_______________________________
Wishful Thinking
"The sky a deep and sandy blue
The waves a dash of white
The ship a bird on canvas wings
A step away from flight."
Carrie was not a mutant, not exactly. At least that was how her parents had explained it. She was, she thought, more of a genetic quirk, the long-ago remnants of some deity's joke. As her father had explained it, a mutant was a chance happening, a once in a lifetime event, and she was far from unique.
She looked out across the wavetops, squinting to find the faint line that divided sea and sky. Somewhere out there was the reason she had braved the growing swells. Somewhere was the other half of her heritage.
********
"You", her father had explained, "are the lucky inheritent of a local legend." Her mother had given him a dirty look, and he smiled as if it were some inside joke.
"What locals." Carrie grumbled in reply. "Were stuck in the middle of nowhere. I don't see why we have to spend all of summer vacation here out here anyways."
"That is what we are trying to explain," Her mother replied firmly. "Now be quiet and listen." Carrie sank into the sofa and her eyes glazed over in a typical teenage rebellion.
"Seven generations ago my family lived in the lighthouse on Harbor Island," her mother began. Carrie's eyes unglazed slightly. "As you know, the breakers of Harbor had sunk nearly a hundred ships before the lighthouse was built, but when your seven-times-great-grandparents moved in there hadn't been a wreck in forty years."
"Wait a minute," Carrie interrupted suspiciously, "this isn't the one about the storm is it?" Her mother nodded. "But Grandma's told me that one a million times, so what?"
"She told you the legend. I'm telling the truth."
"So she was lying?"
"No, she was telling a story. Now listen...."
********
Carrie watched the ocean slide by, wave after wave rolling under the sailboat in an timeless rhythm. She sighed and relaxed against the mast, her eyes fixed on the unreachable horizon.
********
"It was your great-grandfather's first job, and he was determined to do well at it. The previous Keeper had retired with a spotless record, and your grandfather swore to continue it.
"Your great-grandmother was somewhat less awed by the idea of spending the rest of her life on an island in New Brunswick, but she loved your grandfather and resigned herself to a less than ideal lifestyle.
"But in time both adapted to life in the Lighthouse, and they grew to love the silent rhythms of the sea. Your great-grandfather had keep his oath and not a single ship had broken on the rocks. But now the two watched worriedly as a stray hurricane worked it's was up the eastern coast.
"They watched and hoped, but the storm danced in and out of the cold fronts and continued northwards.
********
There. Carrie reached for the binoculars hanging around her neck. Yes, there. She shifted the sails and headed for the barely identifiable forms.
********
"The day the storm hit your great-grandfather was no longer worried. The hurricane warning had been broadcasting for days, and no ships were due to pass the island.
"The storm raged in during midday and plunged the sea into darkness. Winds whipped the pines and howled around the lighthouse. Rain thundered on the roof and fell in heavy curtains. Your great-grandfather had lit the light, but they could see the beam reflected and bent by the wind-blown rain.
"For the first time in decades the waves crested above the islands cliff, and battered against the trees. The storm continued for hours, but then it began to quiet as the eye of the hurricane passed over the island.
"Your grandfather climbed the spiraling steps to the top of the lighthouse. All through the storm the radio had been silent. Now he scanned the jagged rocks out of habit, expecting nothing. But he was wrong."
"There, hung up on the storm-battered rocks was a small boat. Your grandfather froze, and then slowly lifted his flashlight. In the growing dusk he blinked it at the boat. Hoping guiltily that there would be no answer. He paused a moment, and flashed again. This time he could see movement on the boat's deck as two figures crawled up out of the hold.
"The eye of the storm would pass in minutes. Shakily your grandfather worked his way back down the stairs. Your great-grandmother saw his expression and sank down in a chair. After a moment she rose again, and slipping the bright yellow raincoats the two headed out the door and towards their small rescue boat.
********
The bobbing shapes grew closer and Carrie dropped the binoculars onto the deck, wincing guilty as they hit. Then she turned to take down the sails. She was close enough now, they would come to her.
********
"Your great-grandparents piloted the small boat through the rough seas, dodging in and out of the menacing rocks. They could just make out the other boat, and it's stranded occupants. Your grandmother called directions and depths as your great-grandfather brought the first boat up along the second. But there was still a ten-foot gap between the boat. Ten feet of rolling ocean and jagged rocks.
"They paused for a moment, and your grandmother could see the pair clearly across the gap, a man tall and wiry, and a woman with flowing white hair that danced in the storm winds.
"Your grandfather called to other couple to swim across. There was no other way. The pair on the stranded boat argued back and forth as the storm grew closer, and then without warning one of them dove into the water.
"Slowly, carefully he swam over to your grandparents boat, his partner on the other boat yelling at him to hurry. Then he was aboard. Your great-grandmother looked for a moment at the newcomer. He was shivering from the cold, and his eyes were a wild, frantic blue. He looked back at your grandmother pleadingly, and she gazed deep into his eyes. Then she wrapped him in a towel and sat him down.
"He called happily to his partner, who paused a moment and then leapt into the sea. And vanished."
********
"...and then the white dolphin shows up and saves her, so?" Carrie interrupted again. "So far this is just like Grandma's story."
"Shush."
********
"Your great-grandparents turned to the man sitting in the boat. He blinked wide blue on blue eyes and shrank against the hull. Your grandmother stopped your grandfather when he would have thrown the other overboard.
"'Look.' and she pointed off the bow, just behind their waterlogged passenger. In the building waves leapt and danced a dozen silver-grey forms, and in the midst a single white shape. The same bone white as the woman's hair.
Your grandmother turned back to the man. 'A person needs neighbors,' she said calmly to your great-grandfather, and turned to head the boat into shore.
"When the storm had passed, your grandmother loaned the blue eyed man their rowboat. 'Town is that way,' she pointed to a stop on the mainland, 'and.. be careful, some people are picky about neighbors.' The man smiled and touched her hand, 'A gift for a gift, a life for a life.'
"He left soon after and as she watched him go, a silent white form rose from the ocean to lead him. Your grandmother was never quite the same after that. While your great-grandfather refused to talk of the storm, and the strange blue-eyed man, your grandmother spent many hours puzzling over his gift.
"Then one day, several years later your great-grandmother fell overboard during a wave-torn rescue. And vanished.
"She re-appeared three days later, much to your grandfather's relief, but she never told anyone where she had gone.
"A little later than that a pair of twins were born to your great-grandparents, one of whom was your six times great-grandmother. Soon after the twins' fourteenth birthday, the twins fell into the sea, the brother dragging his sister over in his panic. Quietly your great-grandmother watched as a silver-white dolphin carried the boy back to the boat.
"I will assume you can guess the rest of it." her mother finished.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Carrie objected angrily, "You think I'm gonna buy that? 'Gee sweetheart, you're some kind of mutant sealife!?!'
"Told you." Her father noted, and looked unhappily at Carrie. "She isn't kidding."
"So all of my cousins are fish?!"
"Dolphins are not fish, but the gift only follows the maternal line, and then only the firstborn female. But once it didn't work, that was your grandmother. She stopped telling the truth, and started telling a story. I didn't find out until I was twenty-seven, and then it was too late."
"Too late?"
"I couldn't believe. It still works, but only when I am unconscious, awake I fight it and nothing happens." her mother shrugged unhappily.
"Gee, I lucked out didn't I?" Carrie glared at her mother. "So what are gonna do? Go dump me in the ocean and see if I swim?"
"Something like that...."
********
The sails down, Carrie turned and lugged the anchor to the side and then rolled it over. It sunk with a deep sploosh, and vanished from sight. The boat paused in its flight, and tugged at the line hopefully. Carrie watched the shapes as they headed for her. She shivered. How much of the story had been truth, and how much had been the wishful thinking of seven generations?
She thought guiltily of the town she had left behind. If the story was true... who would believe it? She thought of her friends, neighbors, classmates, then shook her head. Somethings were meant to be secrets.
A playful splashing brought her back to the present as the silver-grey shapes came close enough to frolic around the boat.
< here goes nothing, > she thought and slipped out of her clothes. The wind had been cold before, now it was freezing. < god i hope this works. > She shivered and then, before she could talk herself out of it, leapt over the side and into the ocean.
< cold! > she curled up in shock, her mind drifting into the grays of unconsciousness. < only wishful thinking... >
< thinking wishful! > a voice chirped back at her.
< thinkwish! > another sang happily.
< thinkful wishing? > yet another queried.
Slowly Carrie drifted back into the present as the others chirped and sang meaningless repetitions of her last thought. She stretched out reveling in the absence of the intense cold she had felt moments ago.
< cold? >
< coldcoldcoldcold! >
< thinkcold? >
She rolled sideways so she could see the sky. But she had sunk too far and the sky was shaded with the green-blues of the ocean. The silver-grey shapes danced around her happily. She eyed them, and then flipped her tail and dove after them.
< playplayplayplay? > they queried happily, as the pod raced across the sea, pausing to dash madly for the surface.
< it was true. > Carrie thought, still a little dazed from the shock.
< truetruetrue! > the dolphins answered.
< i am a legend. > she chirped wonderingly at the pod.
< iamiamiam! > they answered happily, not understanding.
Carrie laughed, < i am a legend > and followed the pod out to sea.
********
"This is US boat ME 33346, US boat ME 33346, can anyone hear us?" David repeated hopelessly into the mike.
"There isn't anyone out there Dave." Jason snapped. "Give it up. We are doomed to float in this shity example of a boat till we hit something and sink."
"Always the optimist." Sara answered, and looked up at the roof of the lobster boat. "Whose idea was this again?"
"Dave's of course." Jason snapped. "Everything is Dave's idea."
"Even the fog?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's pretty impressive."
"I've done this a thousand times," David objected, "and this is the first time I've ever gotten lost. Ever."
"First time for everything."
"Shut up Jason." Sara snapped. "The fog will go away eventually. After all stuff this thick can't be normal."
"I..." Jason's retort was cut off by splashing outside. "What the hell?"
The three ducked out of the cabin and scanned the fog. For a moment it was silent, and then the chirring squeaks of the pod rose out of the grey and the silver-grey shapes leapt into sight.
"Dolphins?"
David shrugged.
"Hey look!" Sara pointed. "I think they're trying to push us!"
"Push us?"
"Well, look."
The dolphins were more or less congregated by the right side of the boat, and in between chirrpings, were pushing. A silver-white dolphin leapt off the left side squeaking impatiently.
"Didn't that fisherman say something about a white dolphin? Some legend or other about them leading ships to safety?" Sara asked quietly.
"'Timmy's in trouble?'" Jason looked skeptical.
"May as well." David shrugged, and headed for the wheel.
Sara leaned over the side of the boat and looked at the lone dolphin. "Hope you know what you're doing...."
********
Carrie returned to the sailboat several days later, and carefully climbed back on board. "Damn it's cold again!" she complained, and grabbed for the abandoned clothes. Outside the pod leapt and splashed, calling her back to play. "Sorry guys, reality calls." she smiled, as she turned the boat back towards the distant shore.
"But a lot can be said for wishful thinking..."
_______________________________
"X-MEN" is owned, (TM) and © by Marvel. All rights reserved. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied.
Technorati tags: writing | fan fiction | fantasy | x-men | the unforgotten country | fanfic
Wishful Thinking
"The sky a deep and sandy blue
The waves a dash of white
The ship a bird on canvas wings
A step away from flight."
Carrie was not a mutant, not exactly. At least that was how her parents had explained it. She was, she thought, more of a genetic quirk, the long-ago remnants of some deity's joke. As her father had explained it, a mutant was a chance happening, a once in a lifetime event, and she was far from unique.
She looked out across the wavetops, squinting to find the faint line that divided sea and sky. Somewhere out there was the reason she had braved the growing swells. Somewhere was the other half of her heritage.
"You", her father had explained, "are the lucky inheritent of a local legend." Her mother had given him a dirty look, and he smiled as if it were some inside joke.
"What locals." Carrie grumbled in reply. "Were stuck in the middle of nowhere. I don't see why we have to spend all of summer vacation here out here anyways."
"That is what we are trying to explain," Her mother replied firmly. "Now be quiet and listen." Carrie sank into the sofa and her eyes glazed over in a typical teenage rebellion.
"Seven generations ago my family lived in the lighthouse on Harbor Island," her mother began. Carrie's eyes unglazed slightly. "As you know, the breakers of Harbor had sunk nearly a hundred ships before the lighthouse was built, but when your seven-times-great-grandparents moved in there hadn't been a wreck in forty years."
"Wait a minute," Carrie interrupted suspiciously, "this isn't the one about the storm is it?" Her mother nodded. "But Grandma's told me that one a million times, so what?"
"She told you the legend. I'm telling the truth."
"So she was lying?"
"No, she was telling a story. Now listen...."
Carrie watched the ocean slide by, wave after wave rolling under the sailboat in an timeless rhythm. She sighed and relaxed against the mast, her eyes fixed on the unreachable horizon.
"It was your great-grandfather's first job, and he was determined to do well at it. The previous Keeper had retired with a spotless record, and your grandfather swore to continue it.
"Your great-grandmother was somewhat less awed by the idea of spending the rest of her life on an island in New Brunswick, but she loved your grandfather and resigned herself to a less than ideal lifestyle.
"But in time both adapted to life in the Lighthouse, and they grew to love the silent rhythms of the sea. Your great-grandfather had keep his oath and not a single ship had broken on the rocks. But now the two watched worriedly as a stray hurricane worked it's was up the eastern coast.
"They watched and hoped, but the storm danced in and out of the cold fronts and continued northwards.
There. Carrie reached for the binoculars hanging around her neck. Yes, there. She shifted the sails and headed for the barely identifiable forms.
"The day the storm hit your great-grandfather was no longer worried. The hurricane warning had been broadcasting for days, and no ships were due to pass the island.
"The storm raged in during midday and plunged the sea into darkness. Winds whipped the pines and howled around the lighthouse. Rain thundered on the roof and fell in heavy curtains. Your great-grandfather had lit the light, but they could see the beam reflected and bent by the wind-blown rain.
"For the first time in decades the waves crested above the islands cliff, and battered against the trees. The storm continued for hours, but then it began to quiet as the eye of the hurricane passed over the island.
"Your grandfather climbed the spiraling steps to the top of the lighthouse. All through the storm the radio had been silent. Now he scanned the jagged rocks out of habit, expecting nothing. But he was wrong."
"There, hung up on the storm-battered rocks was a small boat. Your grandfather froze, and then slowly lifted his flashlight. In the growing dusk he blinked it at the boat. Hoping guiltily that there would be no answer. He paused a moment, and flashed again. This time he could see movement on the boat's deck as two figures crawled up out of the hold.
"The eye of the storm would pass in minutes. Shakily your grandfather worked his way back down the stairs. Your great-grandmother saw his expression and sank down in a chair. After a moment she rose again, and slipping the bright yellow raincoats the two headed out the door and towards their small rescue boat.
The bobbing shapes grew closer and Carrie dropped the binoculars onto the deck, wincing guilty as they hit. Then she turned to take down the sails. She was close enough now, they would come to her.
"Your great-grandparents piloted the small boat through the rough seas, dodging in and out of the menacing rocks. They could just make out the other boat, and it's stranded occupants. Your grandmother called directions and depths as your great-grandfather brought the first boat up along the second. But there was still a ten-foot gap between the boat. Ten feet of rolling ocean and jagged rocks.
"They paused for a moment, and your grandmother could see the pair clearly across the gap, a man tall and wiry, and a woman with flowing white hair that danced in the storm winds.
"Your grandfather called to other couple to swim across. There was no other way. The pair on the stranded boat argued back and forth as the storm grew closer, and then without warning one of them dove into the water.
"Slowly, carefully he swam over to your grandparents boat, his partner on the other boat yelling at him to hurry. Then he was aboard. Your great-grandmother looked for a moment at the newcomer. He was shivering from the cold, and his eyes were a wild, frantic blue. He looked back at your grandmother pleadingly, and she gazed deep into his eyes. Then she wrapped him in a towel and sat him down.
"He called happily to his partner, who paused a moment and then leapt into the sea. And vanished."
"...and then the white dolphin shows up and saves her, so?" Carrie interrupted again. "So far this is just like Grandma's story."
"Shush."
"Your great-grandparents turned to the man sitting in the boat. He blinked wide blue on blue eyes and shrank against the hull. Your grandmother stopped your grandfather when he would have thrown the other overboard.
"'Look.' and she pointed off the bow, just behind their waterlogged passenger. In the building waves leapt and danced a dozen silver-grey forms, and in the midst a single white shape. The same bone white as the woman's hair.
Your grandmother turned back to the man. 'A person needs neighbors,' she said calmly to your great-grandfather, and turned to head the boat into shore.
"When the storm had passed, your grandmother loaned the blue eyed man their rowboat. 'Town is that way,' she pointed to a stop on the mainland, 'and.. be careful, some people are picky about neighbors.' The man smiled and touched her hand, 'A gift for a gift, a life for a life.'
"He left soon after and as she watched him go, a silent white form rose from the ocean to lead him. Your grandmother was never quite the same after that. While your great-grandfather refused to talk of the storm, and the strange blue-eyed man, your grandmother spent many hours puzzling over his gift.
"Then one day, several years later your great-grandmother fell overboard during a wave-torn rescue. And vanished.
"She re-appeared three days later, much to your grandfather's relief, but she never told anyone where she had gone.
"A little later than that a pair of twins were born to your great-grandparents, one of whom was your six times great-grandmother. Soon after the twins' fourteenth birthday, the twins fell into the sea, the brother dragging his sister over in his panic. Quietly your great-grandmother watched as a silver-white dolphin carried the boy back to the boat.
"I will assume you can guess the rest of it." her mother finished.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Carrie objected angrily, "You think I'm gonna buy that? 'Gee sweetheart, you're some kind of mutant sealife!?!'
"Told you." Her father noted, and looked unhappily at Carrie. "She isn't kidding."
"So all of my cousins are fish?!"
"Dolphins are not fish, but the gift only follows the maternal line, and then only the firstborn female. But once it didn't work, that was your grandmother. She stopped telling the truth, and started telling a story. I didn't find out until I was twenty-seven, and then it was too late."
"Too late?"
"I couldn't believe. It still works, but only when I am unconscious, awake I fight it and nothing happens." her mother shrugged unhappily.
"Gee, I lucked out didn't I?" Carrie glared at her mother. "So what are gonna do? Go dump me in the ocean and see if I swim?"
"Something like that...."
The sails down, Carrie turned and lugged the anchor to the side and then rolled it over. It sunk with a deep sploosh, and vanished from sight. The boat paused in its flight, and tugged at the line hopefully. Carrie watched the shapes as they headed for her. She shivered. How much of the story had been truth, and how much had been the wishful thinking of seven generations?
She thought guiltily of the town she had left behind. If the story was true... who would believe it? She thought of her friends, neighbors, classmates, then shook her head. Somethings were meant to be secrets.
A playful splashing brought her back to the present as the silver-grey shapes came close enough to frolic around the boat.
< here goes nothing, > she thought and slipped out of her clothes. The wind had been cold before, now it was freezing. < god i hope this works. > She shivered and then, before she could talk herself out of it, leapt over the side and into the ocean.
< cold! > she curled up in shock, her mind drifting into the grays of unconsciousness. < only wishful thinking... >
< thinking wishful! > a voice chirped back at her.
< thinkwish! > another sang happily.
< thinkful wishing? > yet another queried.
Slowly Carrie drifted back into the present as the others chirped and sang meaningless repetitions of her last thought. She stretched out reveling in the absence of the intense cold she had felt moments ago.
< cold? >
< coldcoldcoldcold! >
< thinkcold? >
She rolled sideways so she could see the sky. But she had sunk too far and the sky was shaded with the green-blues of the ocean. The silver-grey shapes danced around her happily. She eyed them, and then flipped her tail and dove after them.
< playplayplayplay? > they queried happily, as the pod raced across the sea, pausing to dash madly for the surface.
< it was true. > Carrie thought, still a little dazed from the shock.
< truetruetrue! > the dolphins answered.
< i am a legend. > she chirped wonderingly at the pod.
< iamiamiam! > they answered happily, not understanding.
Carrie laughed, < i am a legend > and followed the pod out to sea.
"This is US boat ME 33346, US boat ME 33346, can anyone hear us?" David repeated hopelessly into the mike.
"There isn't anyone out there Dave." Jason snapped. "Give it up. We are doomed to float in this shity example of a boat till we hit something and sink."
"Always the optimist." Sara answered, and looked up at the roof of the lobster boat. "Whose idea was this again?"
"Dave's of course." Jason snapped. "Everything is Dave's idea."
"Even the fog?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's pretty impressive."
"I've done this a thousand times," David objected, "and this is the first time I've ever gotten lost. Ever."
"First time for everything."
"Shut up Jason." Sara snapped. "The fog will go away eventually. After all stuff this thick can't be normal."
"I..." Jason's retort was cut off by splashing outside. "What the hell?"
The three ducked out of the cabin and scanned the fog. For a moment it was silent, and then the chirring squeaks of the pod rose out of the grey and the silver-grey shapes leapt into sight.
"Dolphins?"
David shrugged.
"Hey look!" Sara pointed. "I think they're trying to push us!"
"Push us?"
"Well, look."
The dolphins were more or less congregated by the right side of the boat, and in between chirrpings, were pushing. A silver-white dolphin leapt off the left side squeaking impatiently.
"Didn't that fisherman say something about a white dolphin? Some legend or other about them leading ships to safety?" Sara asked quietly.
"'Timmy's in trouble?'" Jason looked skeptical.
"May as well." David shrugged, and headed for the wheel.
Sara leaned over the side of the boat and looked at the lone dolphin. "Hope you know what you're doing...."
Carrie returned to the sailboat several days later, and carefully climbed back on board. "Damn it's cold again!" she complained, and grabbed for the abandoned clothes. Outside the pod leapt and splashed, calling her back to play. "Sorry guys, reality calls." she smiled, as she turned the boat back towards the distant shore.
"But a lot can be said for wishful thinking..."
"X-MEN" is owned, (TM) and © by Marvel. All rights reserved. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied.Technorati tags: writing | fan fiction | fantasy | x-men | the unforgotten country | fanfic
