By Ondrej Austin-McDonald
“Jared, look,” I exclaimed softly. I was lying on my stomach, at the edge of a cliff overlooking the beach, pointing towards the dark-skinned girl with flowing red hair.
“What am I looking at, exactly,” my partner asked, crawling up beside him and scanning the beach, “All I see is a girl.”
“That’s her!” I whispered, “The soucouyant we’ve been hunting!”
“Oh, so she really does exist..?” Jared sighed, looking at her through the binoculars he’d just bought, “How can you be sure that’s the soucouyant though?”
“Take a look at the grass on the other side of the beach,” I said, tapping him on the shoulder, “It’s scorched. And whose footprints can be seen coming from that direction?”
“Oh, I get it now,” Jared said, slowly getting to his feet, “Guess I’m going home then.”
“What? Why?” I asked, getting up after him, “We’ve been hunting her for the past week! Our job’s almost done.”
“It’s more about the journey than the reward,” he said, “I’ve seen enough movies to know what happens next to someone with my skin color.”
As he left, I looked back to the girl who’d disappeared. I never saw Jared again.
Ondrej collects. Presenter – poet Dotsie Isaac Gellizeau.
Ondrej Austin-McDonald was a participant in the 2014 CODE creative writing workshop facilitated by Joanne C. Hillhouse. Ondrej is a Best of Books Promising Writer pick in the 2015 Wadadli Pen Challenge.
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