Chapter Fifty

Major to Minor

The Atlantic pressed her to the rock with unimaginable power for long seconds and then relaxed its grip for longer. The water descending, she was left wedged in the rocky roof of the cave, and as the water left her ears the roar of the oceanic pressure below was without doubt the most awful sound she would ever hear. Her sensitive vision had saved her life before, but this was a subterranean world; rock and cold salt water. Touch brought pain and hearing brought the immense rumbling breath of the sea.

But if she could hear the water preparing for its next upward thrust then there must be air around her. Now touch was everything. She tries to think outside the pain that came from the many cuts the rough rock had inflicted. There on the surface of her skin, moving against the tiny hairs on her forearms was a shiver of gas moving away from a point to her left. So gentle.

Gone.

The sea was likewise momentarily hushed and then the roar began. The black mass of liquid surging upwards again with the coming tidal thrust. She focussed on the gentle air to suppress panic and the air led the way, now pushing left quickly as it was ejected from the temporary space in the cave. Kay squeezed into a space that terrified her, but head first she could breath warm dry air. As the water came she let it push her hard into the gap and lift her. She tried to grip the rock so that she could resist being sucked back down as the wave subsided, but the stone was smooth. She kicked against the water to keep her face in the air and he foot found a wedging point. The ocean tugged, was almost insistent, and then fell away.

Kay crawled into the dry airspace and realised that there was light. Bluish moonlight filtered from above, showing her a pile of sand which descended from her position to a pale floor about three metres below. She rolled down to the flat surface and stared up into the moonwashed haze. She felt the memories as malignant tendrils connecting neurons: the cage in Frank’s Cafe, the dry earth tunnel that she had taken to escape the oven. Further back there was the space behind her father’s hi-fi system where she had first witnessed the inhuman appetites of his circle. That surely was where the nightmare had begun; the long nightmare that was her life.

The light became a little less blue and slightly stronger. Kay imagined the moon gradually moving around this point in the earth. The rhythm of the sea continued, slower than her heartbeat, slower than her breathing in the adjoining cave system. Her skin dried, blood stiffened over cuts. Tears pooled in her eyes but could not flow. Here she was truly impervious. She had found her haven. Neither Frank nor the dwarf nor any of their friends could find her here. She curled like a foetus and remembered with absolute clarity the blinding light and terrific pull of gravity as she took her first breath and turned into her mother’s arms.

Some hours later she rose and was able to explore the cave in the brighter light provided by the dawn. She found a wide iron pipe poking out from between the rocks, easily big enough for her to crawl into. As soon as she was inside she saw light ahead and following this light she arrived at a rectangular concrete drain. Above her was an iron grille which took a huge effort to lift. She used bits of broken brick that had fallen into the drain to prop the grille open enough to allow her to escape.

Quietly replacing the grille she took in her surroundings. She was in a disused building with a corroding metal roof. A massive boiler lay, partially dismantled beside the grille and beyond this several enamel baths sat between rotted wooden partitions. It was a seaweed bath-house, but clearly not the thriving one she had observed from her position on the cliff the previous day. A fragment of mirror shocked her by reflecting her grazed face and body; her shortish hair matted with grit and dried green slime. Having no clothes also worried her. She would have to go back down the beach and recover them from the first cave.

She left the bath-house, climbed a wall and heard laughter. A group of six people, younger than her but not too much younger, had made a camp fire and had obviously spent the night drinking. They too were naked, or getting naked and running down to the sea for a swim. She ran after them and splashed into the waves at the same time. A young man stood up in the water “That’s fantastic!” he cried, and then realising that she was not one of the gang, hurriedly tried to cover his genitals.

Kay smiled and then laughed for the first time in years. She had no desire to cover herself. “Yes, it’s fantastic; really fantastic” she replied, and swam again.