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Claire had a secret best friend.
Secret, because nobody knew about them.
Secret, because nobody would believe in them.
It felt like she had known Ben all her life. Her earliest memories are of the waves, of helping her mom with the boat. Of sneaking away back down the jetty after dark, sitting cross legged at the end of the board walk, as still as she could manage, her eyes trained on the moonlit ripple of the waves, until the dark eyes she had seen that day finally lifted above the surface, staring at her in wary curiosity.
Ben had been like a big brother to her at first. Older, like the boys that helped their dads with the fishing at the weekends, or worked in the tourist bars in the summer vacations. It wasn’t until she realised one day, as she talked excitedly about her thirteenth birthday party plans, that she didn’t know how old Ben actually was.
Or the fact he hadn’t aged a day.
Their escapades in the cove had changed over the years. It started with her paddling in the shallows, watched carefully by Ben, who pulled himself up the sand until the waves were only just lapping over his tentacles enough to keep him comfortable. Once she had managed to convince him that she could swim, they had moved on to her learning to hold her breath for longer and longer, so she could dive and see the creatures on the sea floor, with Ben hovering, holding her hand ready to pull her to the surface or steady her against a strong wave, or bring her back to shore when she tired. Slowly, carefully, Ben had backed off, letting her swim independently, with Ben twirling around her, showing off his elegant tricks and enticing her into somersaults, where the water was deep enough that her toes couldn’t even scrape the floor.
From older brother, teacher and protector, to friend, student and playmate. She had taught him to sign, after they started diving for minutes at a time, and he realised she couldn’t talk underwater the way he could. She had been pleased she knew something he did not, could teach him the secret way she had spoken to her mom on the days when her voice grew too tired and gave up on her. Her mom talked, and talked, and talked all day for her job, and she had told Claire she never wanted to run out of words for her.
But he hadn’t changed. In all that time.
His hand was still bigger than hers when he helped tow her through the waves, or she passed him an extra cookie she had stolen for a snack. Just, not as big as it had been when hers were really small. His smile was still as boyish, his cheeks still as smooth (although she didn’t know if squid-men grew beards, and she never remembered to ask, too caught up in their adventures).
When she had explained birthdays to him, he had been baffled.
“A long time. Longer than your time. Maybe three spans.” Had been the closest he had been able to count his age, guided by the feel of the time he had known her. It wasn’t a lack of counting – he could count the number of fish in a shoal – but the concept of the passage of time being something to measure had seemingly never occurred to him.
So yes, Claire had a secret friend. A mysterious friend with ten limbs, two of the arms-and-hands kind, and eight of the twirling, swirling, powerful squid kind. He was much older than she was, but seemed a similar age to her now, as she approached her sweet sixteen. He never tired of watching the sea life with her, and racing her little sail boat when she’d sail out to the island for the day, or leaping alongside her like a dolphin as she travelled up and down the coast to practice handling her sails in all the different winds and waves she could.
He still brought sea shells to weave into her thick, curly hair when she needed cheering up, and never failed to offer to share whatever he was eating, although she rarely took him up on his offer, vegetarian as she was.
One day, she was going to sail around the world, and Ben was going to come with her. Two best friends, off to see the world, to taste all the different oceans, to ride every wave, and bask below the surface in the sun warmed waters, as they looked for all the wonderful and new fish they had never seen before.
One day, they were going to have an adventure. Claire, her best friend Ben, her Mom’s boat The Rumour, and their shared love of the sea.