Sunday Short: Freshwater Dreaming by Jane Jervis-Read

I remember. Her fingers trace the labyrinth of a river-softened root network. The eucalypt’s body is silent and anchored, weightless in death. It arched from the bank long ago and water flooded its veins. The girl pries the root fingers. She is looking for something. Pointed vertebrae ridge strangely under the skin of her back and she is naked. From the bank, with scabby feet in scrubby grass, I am watching her. A wooden boat hangs from my hand. The girl hears something I do not hear and turns suddenly, sees me. Her pupils constrict into two black stripes, but she holds my gaze. I look at her and she looks at me, sees me, sees through my clothes and my hat and the wooden boat, sees through my skin and bones and heart to what I am. I am twelve and my life will warp in focus around this point. 

I'm a total sucker for a good mermaid story, and man, is Freshwater Dreaming by Jane Jervis-Read a good one. Straddling the line between academic, logical, heart and fantasy, she tells a story about obsession and whimsy and those strange connections we make with the fantastical. It's a beautiful piece of writing, and it so wonderfully encapsulates the myth of the mermaid and the reality of the Murray River.

You can read 'Freshwater Dreaming' over on the Meanjin website here.