Flash fiction by Judy Darley

Bluespot Ray 

Their second date was at an aquarium where a green turtle swam with lemon sharks. She picked the setting. Her friends said it was a safe choice where they could make small talk while oceans lapped in tanks.

Small talk didn’t interest her – what she wanted was deep dives where the only light came from biofluorescence. 

She’d once seen a nature documentary about wafting sea creatures glimmering quietly far from the sun’s rays. She imagined it would be like drowsing in the warmth of someone’s arms while the day unfurled behind drawn curtains.

On their first date in the coffee shop he’d told her his favorite color: blue, and then listed his preferred shades: cobalt, Egyptian blue, ultramarine.

She waited for him to ask her favorite color, but the question never came.

“My birth stone is aquamarine,” she said, and he blinked as though she’d interrupted the current of his thoughts.

“Why would you even see him again?” her friends asked, and she shrugged. 

When they’d exited the coffee shop into a downfall, he opened an umbrella and held it above them. She’d caught herself noticing how his dark hair shone with stray droplets.

They walked together to the bus stop and he waited with her until the bus arrived. His body blocked the breeze whistling through the shelter’s broken window. They stood together in a pool of silence that felt warm despite the afternoon’s chill. 

When she boarded the bus and the vehicle pulled out, she watched him watch her leave.

No one had been that careful with her since she left her childhood home. The instinctiveness of his kindness moved her.

At the aquarium he was in his element, naming fish species with a joy that seemed almost reverent. In the glow of the Great Barrier Reef tank, she wove her fingers through his. He jumped at her touch, but then smiled down at her and asked: “Which is your favorite?” 

She thought of the pinktail triggerfish that had caught her eye, but pointed instead to the bluespot ray. “This one.”

He looked at her intently and she couldn’t read his gaze. “Did you know these rays are loners? The blue spots warn other fish to keep their distance.”

“Oh? But they’re so pretty they make me want to come closer.” She squeezed his hand and stood on tiptoe so they were nearly the same height, almost eye-to-eye.