This is the sixth FMF from the list of titles that Tigs sent me at the beginning of May. I’m going to need a new list soon. Though (spoiler) one of the titles I haven’t used yet will become the first in a trilogy. Writing this in the Bronx at An Beal!
A adolescent girl named Tasha walks through her rural neighborhood. She hears them howling first and turns to see a group of young boys on bikes barreling at her. We get the sense that this isn’t the first time this has happened. She runs off away from them and they are gaining on her until they abruptly stop. They seem worried and ride off talking about how they shouldn’t be here and that they’ll get her another time. She turns to see she has actually hopped the fence into the disheveled yard of an ancient looking house. The front door creeks open.
Tasha steps slowly towards the house weary but interested. She steps in through the front door and is surprised to see the interior very much does not match the exterior. Sure the décor is old fashioned but it is clean and nice. She hears music and turns a corner to find an old woman in a wheelchair. Her legs are covered with a blanket. She introduces herself as Tess Sweetwater. The music comes from an old record player with a line of records high on the shelf.
She invites Tasha to sit down and starts telling her about her life. There are posters hailing the squid sisters all around the room. She tells her about how her and her twin sister Ella being born to swim. We zoom in on Tasha and start to see the story in her imagination. The two young sisters swim at an alarming speed across a lake in the back of the house. Their mother calls them in and we learn they don’t know who their father was. Their mother always told them he was from the sea.
Through the story weaves through their rise to fame in traveling shows. They high dive, water dance, and race boats across the country making a good amount of money. Their mother ends up dating a talent agent who gets them working even more but they don’t enjoy the life anymore. Their mother pushes them further and the new guy seems to be stealing from them. Tessa then skips over and says after the cops left…
Tasha questions her about how the story skipped and Tess says that the talent agent disappeared and that Tasha doesn’t have to worry about that. She starts to skip over a lot of time and we hear how her sister Ella was less happy and their relationship was strained. Their mother’s mood is getting worse as she acquired some drinking and drugs issues from the agent. Once again Tess skips ahead again and the mother is no longer in the story.
The relationship between the sisters continues to be strained and Tess tells about how Ella dies. She gives very little details and just say that it happens. She brings her sister to the sea and tells Tasha that their father came to shore to take the body of her daughter back with her. Tasha tells her to stop and the she no longer believes the stories she is being told. She doesn’t like to be lied to. She thanks Tess for her time but she really should head home.
Tess wheels herself to the record player as the doorbell rings. The poilice are there and they ask if Tess as seen a young girl, named Tasha, who has been missing for a few days. Tess tells them she stays inside and knows nothing. She heads back to the living room and we get the sense that we jumped ahead in time without knowing. She wheels herself back to the record player. The blanket parts and a long squid tentacle reaches up the shelf grabbing a record. The tentacle passes the record to her hands and she places it on the player as the music begins.