Destiny and Mollusks

She tapped on the glass. Gently, but firmly. Nothing happened. She tapped again, a bit more firmly. A woman behind her said “no tapping on the glass!”. Turning to sneer at the woman, she tapped again. This time, it was more like knocking on a door. Loud and abrupt. The woman shook her head in disgust and walked briskly away, she muttered as she went. “Some people’s children, such a shame”. The young lady raised her fist to the glass wall of the aquarium tank and stared longingly into the teal water. She leaned forward, and rested her forehead against the tempered glass. Sighing, she felt the great well of despair rise up inside her again.

“Tap tap tap”...

She felt it more than heard it.

Raising her head, inches from the thick glass wall, she looked, and there he was. Her octopus lover, one long tentacle grasping a shell. He raised it again, and tapped the glass. One eye was turned to her, and it saw right through her. Looking around to see who else might be witnessing this, she realized she was alone in the octopus viewing room. How convenient, she thought. Pressing her palm against the glass, she took another deep breath. The octopus laid a curled and suckered arm against the wall of his wet prison and her palm. They stayed that way for a while. Woman and mollusk. Forever destined to live apart, forever connected through the heart.

Suddenly she ripped herself out of their daydream. Her octopus hovered in the water, watching her and waiting for her next move. She seemed confused, and angry. She stamped her foot and ran to the side of the viewing room. A door in the corner caught her eye. She yanked on the handle, expecting it to be locked, and it opened. Nearly falling backwards, she made a surprised noise of excitement.

The octopus was not against the tank glass anymore, he was no longer visible. “Shit” she said aloud. “I’ll find you!” she called out to the empty room and the turquoise water. Through the door she went, her eyes adjusting to the dimly lit hallway. The sound of burbling water drew her forwards and around a corner. She came to a few concrete stairs, and as she went up them she felt water splash her head. Looking up, she saw a tentacle dangling over the edge of a wall.

Racing up to the top, she came to the surface of the aquarium tank. Her octopus was there. If he had a mouth to kiss her with, it was smiling. She fell to her knees, and reached for him with both arms. He slid into her embrace and wrapped his eight appendages around her in every direction he could. “I will die without you” she said to him. He squeezed tighter. “I want to die in your arms if I can’t live with you” He squeezed even tighter. Pulling on her, he moved backwards into the tank. She leaned forwards, half in the water now. Looking into his rectangular eye, she knew what he offered her.

“If I give you my heart, my body, my soul, will we be connected forever?”

The octopus pulled on her harder. His pupil dilated and constricted. She stared at him. Longingly, lovingly. Kneeling at the edge of his tank, she knew. She knew the only answer was to give herself to him. To shed the flesh suit she wore and become energy, become light, become part of him.

She nodded, and so did the octopus. Exhaling, she dove into the tank. The octopus and the woman sank to the bottom. Her body resisted, convulsing in his grasp. She kept nodding at him, mouthing the words “I love you” as bubbles escaped from her lips.

Her bones were found weeks later, when the divers that cleaned his tank once a month did their scheduled job. Deep in the tunnel where he hid from daylight, he was holding her rib cage close to his center. His colour was different than it had ever been. A new deep purple was emanating from his core, a colour deep and painful like heartbreak and love.

The aquarium was unable to identify her remains, and the octopus was eventually released back into the wild. His tank was filled with innocuous creatures, safe and secure. The aquarium renamed the viewing room, and the world moved on like there had never been a mollusk and his lover forever entwined in a deathly grasp of love.