She came towards us on the beach, hands waving like she was the only one in the class who knew the answer. I couldn't see who it was but she was too short to be Lorraine. It couldn't be Tonya either. She was too fat to run. I thought for a moment it might be the Chinese exchange student. But it wasn't her. Not unless she'd died her hair blonde since last week.
  I looked up at Dad but he didn't see me. He'd already sucked in his stomach and stuck out his chest. I tried doing that once but I couldn't talk at the same time. Dad can suck in his belly, puff out his chest and talk all at once. I think he learned that in doctor school.
  It was a new one, all flashing teeth and tanned arms.
  "Professor Morgan!"
  That's what they call Dad because he's a doctor but he doesn't make people better. Not by giving them pills and stuff.
  She came close, close enough to pluck out the hairs around Dad's nipples. The sun was setting behind the university tower and the surfers were getting out of the water already. I found a patch of her shadow and waited for her to go away.
  I thought of marbles and sea shells, my two best things in the world. After Mom. Then the shadow moved away and when I looked up she was skipping backwards and waving again. Something about getting together after class.
  "Why are you so quiet?" He'd let his stomach out again and his voice had gone back to normal.
  "I don't know."
  "You really should speak up. You're not a little girl anymore."
  I looked for another shadow to hide in but then I'd have to stand behind him and that would only make him more cross.
  "That was Jamie. Would you like Jamie to come over and spend the night?"
  What did I care? He'd never asked me before.
  "How about Tonya?"
  I kicked up a spray of sand to show I didn't care.
  "And Gillian? You remember Gillian don't you?"
  Something snapped in me at the mention of that name. I dropped my bucket, spilling the marbles all over the sand. I ran into the sea and didn't stop until the water came over my head. 

He went down on his hands and knees. Well, not right away. First he stretched out his right foot under the table, feeling about with his toes. It wasn't there. That's when he went down on his knees. He disappeared under the table like a diver plunging to the bottom of the sea. He was gone for less than a minute and when he came up there was a broad grin on his face. He'd found it and he didn't care the others were looking at him like he was funny. He'd found it and that's all that mattered.

He tied it in a loop around his wrist and made it as tight as he could without cutting off his circulation.
"Are you allright?" he heard someone ask. He turned towards the voice with a triumphant smile. "Of course!" he began to say. Then he looks down at his wrist and it's gone! It does that all the time.

"Are you sure you're allright?" He just waves her away. She won't understand he says. He feels lost as he walks out of the meeting room, not sure where to go although he's worked here for several years. Then he sees it, gleaming brightly ahead of him. He leaps after it and seizes the golden tassels in both fists. And that's when he hears her laughing, that coarse, throaty laugh with merry tinkles on the end. It's her two-tone laugh and she's still got it. He feels her tug on the rope, gently at first and then faster and faster. She must be using an overarm action, with one foot wedged on Mars and the other in a crater on Venus. He catches a glimpse of her and his mind goes blank because he doesn't have any words to describe her. Not one. But she is glowing all over and her hair is as black as the sky. She tosses her head and a strand of hair cuts him across the face.
"It's OK," he says but it's not. It stings like she's poured lemon juice into the open wound.
"Just a little more," he hears her say.
"Why?"
"That's just how it is," and her voice comes to him from far, far away.

He keeps hunting for that silvery thread, the one with shimmering tassels on the end. Sometimes it's as fine as if a spider spun it. At others, it's as thick as the ropes that pull the fishing boats into the harbour. He holds one end in his hand and tugs gently and she always tugs back. With one foot wedged on Mars and the other in a crater, somewhere on Venus.

The writing challenges posted here are set by Allaboutwriting, an invaluable and multifaceted resource in Johannesburg for aspirant writers. The challenge for March was to...
 
"In 150 words or less, tell the story of the origin of the world, as understood by an innocent who’s never been exposed to either religious or scientific explanations."

Here is my entry.

The pilot tugged nervously at the lobe of his third ear. The last thing he’d expected was to be summoned in front of the Great Oompah himself.  He was starting to hope it had all been a misunderstanding when he heard the Great Oompah trumpet his name.
“S..ss… Sir?”
“Your report?” One tentacle pointed at the pilot while another pointed through the panoramic window at the blue orb shimmering in the blackness.
“They drink tea your Greatness.”
“Tea?”
“Yes, then they spend the rest of the time talking about a book.
“Is that all they do?”
“Yes Sir.”  His mind was still reeling with the memory of the crash.  There hadn’t been time to do a proper survey. He’d just hidden in the first dwelling he’d seen.
“So their planet is built on tea?
“No, your Greatness. Not all of them had read the book. I would say it is built on lies.”

The writing challenges posted here are set by Allaboutwriting, an invaluable and multifaceted resource in Johannesburg for aspirant writers. This challenge was to describe a man meeting a woman for the very first time.

Here is my entry.

He pushed through the throng of people at the bar, making a beeline for the woman in the white linen jacket. He timed it perfectly and just as she reached across the counter to take her cocktail, he nudged her shoulder. Ever so slightly. Her glass wobbled and the paper umbrella toppled over in slow motion before disappearing into the shadows underneath the counter. She swore over the pounding bass beat and looked around instinctively, her eyes searching for someone to blame and a tart rebuke hovering on her lips.
This was the moment he was supposed to say the code phrase. But when she looked at him, her grey eyes flashing with anger, his detailed briefing fled from his mind. She paused for a moment longer than necessary, urging him to remember but he'd clean forgot. Then suddenly, his earpiece buzzed with annoyance. "You're a bloody useless spy Jason. Get the hell out of there!"