by Sarah Matanah
From the cave where Flo and Mo lived, the mountain stretched down to a tiny strip of sand by the ocean. Both Mama G and Mama D loved to go diving after the big fish that lived in the depths, so the family ate fish almost every night. Flo and Mo loved fish. And they loved the ocean and their little beach.
One night Flo couldn't sleep. Usually she felt cozy in the heat rising off Mama D's belly, and the sounds of her mothers' and brother's breathing combining and echoing off the walls of the cave soothed her. But that night, the familiar warmth and sounds crowded Flo until she felt like she couldn't breathe herself. She carefully lifted Mo's tail off her leg and crept outside. The moon was full and low. The shadows of the bushes and rocks stood out as if they were more real than the things themselves. Maybe I've become a shadow dragon, Flo thought. The idea made her feel wild. She plunged down the path to the ocean, jumping into the air and letting herself drift whenever she reached a ledge.
At the beach at the foot of the cliff the moonlight flecked the waves as they came into shore. Flo chased them back into the ocean. As she played with the waves she moved farther and farther down the beach, farther and farther from home and Mo and Mama G and Mama D. As each wave slunk back into the ocean, she danced at it, spinning in circles so her wings blurred around her. Then she had to turn and run from the next one, laughing and swinging her tail just out of the reach of the water.
Suddenly cold slid over Flo's body. Just a few feet from her a terrifying shape with gaping eyes and sharp teeth gleamed out of the shadows. Her wings jerked, but she dug her claws into the sand. She forced herself to examine the scary thing.
After a minute or two, Flo realized that it was the skull of a very large fish. The eyes gaped because they were holes surrounded by bone. She told herself it was just an ordinary dead thing, but fear pushed at the base of her throat. In the moonlight it looked like there was something alive behind those holes. She jumped away from it. The skull seemed to move too, and then went still again, waiting.
"I'm not afraid of you," Flo told it out loud.
She found a piece of driftwood and tried to push the skull into the ocean. It stuck in the sand, and she wished she hadn't ever touched it, but she didn't feel that she could stop. Finally she got it into the water, but it didn't float away as Flo had hoped it would. It just hung there in the water, still looking at her.
"You're dead," she told it. "You're just a thing now. We have fish bones just like you on the floor of the cave after we eat." She couldn't get rid of the feeling that it was waiting for something. As she stayed there longer and longer, trying to prove to herself that she was brave, Flo got more and more afraid.
Finally Flo went back home to the cave, flying faster and faster as if the skull was coming after her. At home, she pushed herself right against Mo, sprawled on top of Mama D. She rubbed her cheek on Mama D's belly so she could feel the rough comforting warmth of her mama's scales. The sounds of breathing still filled the cave, but now she was glad. The sound was like a wall, keeping her fear outside. Finally she slept.
The next day Flo felt better. She took Mo down to the beach to see the skull. It had lodged itself in the sand farther up the beach. They pushed it back out and threw sticks at it.
But at dinnertime, when Mama G dropped a fish on the cave floor for their dinner, Flo couldn't eat. She kept seeing the moonlit skull in her head. Maybe it would be angry at her if she ate another fish.
"What's the matter?" Mo asked her with his mouth full.
"Nothing," Flo said. Both her moms as well as her brother were watching her.
"I bet you're creeped out by that dead fish on the beach," Mo said. "It doesn't scare me."
"Shut up," Flo told him. She shoved her part of the fish at him, hard.
Everyone stared at her.
"I'm not hungry," Flo said. She stalked to the back of the cave and curled up with her face under her wing.
That night Flo couldn't sleep. She kept knocking against Mama D's treasures, accidentally-on-purpose, to make noise so Mo would stay awake. Finally Mama G came and sang a creaking griffin song in her ear until she fell asleep.
The next day Flo slept late. When she woke up, the cave was empty. When she stepped outside, Mo said, "Flo, come here. I have a present for you."
Under his wings Flo could see something brightly colored. As she drew closer, she gasped. Mo had painted the fish skull with rainbows and stars. It looked beautiful now and not at all scary.
"Mama G helped me," Mo told her. "I would have been scared to go in the water and get the skull," he admitted, glancing at her out of the corners of his eyes. "I did all the painting after she helped me clean it."
"Thanks," Flo said. She was glad that Mo had admitted that the skeleton scared him too. She held the skull up to her face like a mask. "Now I can haunt you."
Mo faked a scream. He leapt in the air and flew away from her. Flo caught him easily, even holding the mask. She pretended to chomp him up.
That night at dinner Flo ate more fish than anyone. She put her mask beside her so it could eat too.
Copyright © 2007 by Sarah Matanah. Published by Rainbow Rumpus. All rights reserved.
Sarah Matanah likes to write fantasy and science fiction. She is learning how to play the guitar, but so far she can only pick and not strum. She works in day care and lives in Minneapolis with her wife, children, and adorable Houdini-like mutt. She has told many stories about Flo and Mo, but she can’t remember most of them.
