A Spark that Gathered
It’s about to be 2026. I spent 2022 building something. The object meant something to me that kept a story in my head. In 2023, I submitted the below story to Tatou Publishing for their Fua anthology.
It was reviewed by Lani Wendt Young. Good story, but not the right fit for a YA sci-fi collection. It was an interior story with existential musings on mortality, no it wasn’t meant for a YA audience. It was recommended that I submit it to other publications.
Driving across the Mojave desert this past April I came up with where the story belonged. 2026 is the creation of something over three years in the making. I’m sharing it here for those that are helping me and those that have heard about the progress.
Afloat
1000 AD
'Au stared out at the waves. She was late to the harvest offerings, but with the entire village and all neighboring villages in attendance, she doubted her presence would be missed. Hanging across her forearm was the small basket with her mother’s offering. The animal had been cut and cleaned and it was 'Au’s job to bathe it in the ocean before heading to the ceremony. This would usually take her moments, but the basket was close to forgotten this afternoon as she stood transfixed by something in the water.
The ocean had great beasts, but this one was different. It observed her as much as she did it. It had the body of an anga, but with an extra-long neck. Its head would rise above the water and tilt from side to side, curious about something on shore. She didn’t know how long she stood there, but soon the creature turned to leave.
Alarm shot through her. If she could just get a better look she would have a story for her family. She ran into the water, the basket forgotten in the sand as she dove into the waves. She swam. She’d never been farther than the shore and even then, she was never alone. Today she swam out towards the horizon and kept on swimming until her arms felt like they would fall off. She was determined to see the creature up close.
'Au realized too late that she was intruding. She felt the cold of the water and finally noticed how it was now taking all her strength to keep her head above water. The creature turned and looked at her. Seeing it up close, she wasn’t scared, but she knew she should be. Could she reach out to touch it? Something brushed past 'Au’s feet, and she shrieked in shock.
Two things became very clear: she was in very deep waters and there was something swirling beneath her and the creature. She turned back towards the shore but could no longer see it. Was she lost? The excitement of seeing the creature was gone as she thought about her family and wished she was still standing on the shore.
Whatever had brushed by her earlier was now tugging on her leg. She was pulled underwater. She looked up to see the creature staring at her, still curious. There was nothing else for her to do. She closed her eyes and surrendered.
A sharp pain ripped through her arm. She opened her eyes to see that the creature had sunk its teeth into her forearm, tugging on her. Her legs were being pulled deeper into the water by one force and the creature was yanking her back up towards the surface. The creature won and used its long neck to fling 'Au across the water.
She was sure she would drown. Undercurrents would pull on her. Not as hard as the dark waters the creature had rescued her from, but enough for her to know she was still too weak to do anything about it. She floated for a very long time. The day turned to night and day once again. Finally, 'Au found the strength to open her eyes. Her arm was still throbbing. She was hungry. She was homesick. She was in the middle of the ocean.
'Au stayed afloat for a very long time.
Wave after wave washed over her. They no longer scared her. She was just waiting for her set. It finally arrived and she surfed it back to shore. She dropped her board with her towel and sat on the beach to check her phone. She was low on data, but she didn’t have any missed messages or calls. With only two days left before her flight to Auckland, she was making the most of her trip, like today at Ha’atafu Beach.
“You surf great,” a local girl complimented.
“Thanks, lots of practice and a bit of luck,” she replied.
“I haven’t seen you around here. Just visiting?”
'Au smiled. “I’m from here, but yes, just visiting now.”
“Then you have to know,” the girl proceeded to list out family names.
“I don’t believe there are any Tongan families I wouldn’t know,” 'Au said. It was a simple answer, but it was also truer than the girl would ever understand.
“Great that you’ve come to visit. Get back to your roots.” She waved goodbye to 'Au and returned to her group of friends.
Interactions with people, no matter how fleeting, were always important for her.
She grabbed her things and put her EarPods back in. She’d rented a scooter to get around the island and she needed some tunes for her ride back to town. She reached for her surfboard but thought better of it and left it on the beach. 'Au had a long-standing tradition of leaving something behind every time she went into the water.
She drove until she completed Lanzilotti’s Sola album. A stone caught her eye and she pulled over to have a closer look. It was a cemetery.
'Au walked up to the above-ground gravesite. The sun reflected off the red headstone. She could feel the energy around the site. This woman had been loved. She had been cherished. 'Au had been around long enough to know an altar when she saw one.
She knelt and she gave her thanks. She prayed to gods that had been forgotten. She offered up everything in her possession to the gods that gave her the gift of her extraordinary life and she included the woman with the red stone in her thanks as well. She quietly chanted in words that were no longer used or had changed in meaning. If someone had overheard her, the only thing they may decipher was that her prayer was to the tune of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere.
'Au chose a place of reflection every few centuries as a marker for her return trips to Tonga. She tried to visit every quarter-century and for the foreseeable future, this red rock would be where she would give her thanks and leave her offerings.
After her prayers, she stood up and placed a small seashell at the base of the headstone. She turned to see an old woman walking past the cemetery. 'Au smiled and waved. The woman nodded her head but kept on walking.
“Malo tau lava,” 'Au said.
“Malo e lelei,” the woman replied as she picked up her pace.
The young were curious when they met her. The old? Something about 'Au’s mannerisms and movements made them cautious. Though their lifespan was a blink of an eye for her, they had learned enough to know there was something very different about 'Au. They kept their distance like the woman walking past her.
'Au looked at her forearm. She sported a small tattoo over the ancient bite mark that was still there. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply with her face directed at the sky.
She was a nineteen-year-old Tongan girl, and she would be a nineteen-year-old Tongan girl for the rest of time. Well, for a while longer she believed. What happened that fateful day is now more a dream than a memory. Was it the deep waters she had been trespassing in, the bite from the creature, or simply seeing the creature?
'Au had traveled the world and lived hundreds of lives. There were no answers. She never saw the creature again. She never met another Tongan like herself. She waited for death. She watched for aging. Neither came and she would forget about it for a while longer.
It was during her return trips to Tonga that she would become retrospective and wonder about everything and her place in it. There were never any revelations or answers. She came, she gave her thanks, and she left to live another life until she would start all over again.
It was time for a good lunch. Tomorrow she would return for one last surf before leaving for Auckland, a pit stop before she would roll the dice and find a new place for her next life.
Every time she went into the water she thought about the creature. Like the gods that she now alone prayed to, did it no longer exist? She didn’t believe so. If they were truly gone, then surely, she would have been taken under into the swirling darkness with them, but they never came back for her.
Maybe one day a wave would return with the creature and that would be the end. Right now in Nuku’alofa, that day was not today. 'Au continued to live. Every so often, she would look out at the water to see if the creature was out there, looking back at her.