Writing

Coins and Rings

"There is a line between beautiful and monstrous, and that line is where the Shuidi reside. Luzhu contemplates this saying among her people while studying Qingyuan, her older sibling. The light that breaks through the surface far above and drops into the depths dances on their scales, which shimmer golden-red and white. Strands connected like whiskers sway about them as if they were seagrass, abiding by the push and pull of the frenzy of other Shuidi surrounding them.

What a silly saying, thinks Luzhu. She is vexed by the scale and desperation of this gathering, how all the others mirror Qingyuan’s pose with webbed hands reaching above. They all have swum as high as they feel safe doing so, and now restlessly push and stretch for the golden discs that drift steadily down into their domain. The gentle shining light reflecting off the metal cannot match the madness of those gathered. We don’t live in a line. She sees someone tear at another’s dorsal fin. We live in a pond."