Belinda's Rings (4 page)

There's
vital
research going on right now, she said, slapping the magazine shut. Biological tests and such. We're going to be collecting the samples.

I see, Bartleby nodded. It occurred to Belinda that perhaps she was being intimidating. Oftentimes when she got into the particulars of her research interests, she came off sounding overly erudite until it was too late and the person had shied away. She felt sorry for Bartleby and his outdated navy pinstripe suit, which was already suffering horrible creases at the waist.

So what do you do, Bartleby? she asked, not altogether interested. Perhaps if she engaged him in his own interests, she thought, he might feel less intimidated.

Oh, well I — he began, then paused for a guttural throat-clearing. Actually, he continued, I'm a biologist.

Ah! Belinda said. A thickness rose up in her chest. She hoped that Bartelby couldn't see her cheeks reddening in the dim lights. So you do. . . research also? she asked.

Yes, he said. I study marine life.

A Marine Biologist! Belinda replied, and gave her hands an approving clap. My daughter wants to be one of those, she said. She quickly realized that it was an insipid thing to say. Practically every child, at one point or another, dreamed about being a Marine Biologist. It was a typical phase.

But she's very dedicated, Belinda added. Her face burned with heat. I mean, she knows more about the ocean than most adults, she said. All those strange creatures — she knows all the names.

Uh huh, said Bartleby. Well, my research is in phycology.

Psychology? Belinda asked.

No. No.
Phy
cology, he enunciated. It's the study of algae.

You study algae? How interesting, she said, and meant it. After all, who knew one could base an entire career on studying green slime? He was probably paid quite well. Now that she'd been conversing with Bartleby, she could see how he was rather handsome. He had thick dark hair and a defined jaw-line. Even in his seated position she could tell he was tall; his feet were pushed under the seat in front of him and yet his thighs still appeared to float at a cramped angle. She imagined him standing on his long legs, wearing a white lab coat and glasses, and pouring solutions from test tubes into beakers. He could be quite dashing.

Bartleby smiled weakly. He'd probably been teased by countless incredulous strangers about his research on algae. Actually, he said, there's a lot to know. Marine vegetation is very diverse.

Of course, Belinda said, nodding her head seriously. I'd believe it. I'm working with a biologist who specializes in plants. Land plants, mind you. I think he's very highly regarded. Marshall V. Longfellow?

I'm afraid I don't really deal with those — types of scientists, Bartleby said.

Oh, yes of course. Belinda swatted the air dismissively. You wouldn't, would you. It's all very specialized, isn't it? Her voice had begun to flutter.

I suppose you could say that, Bartleby said.

Yes, well, what do you reckon about this film? Belinda pointed to the screen at the front of the cabin. I've heard good things, she said. On the screen, Kurt Russell was pacing determinedly through a grand hall instead of sprinting shirtless and brandishing a handgun as she expected. Belinda hadn't heard anything about this film.

Bartleby shrugged. Sorry, I don't really follow the movies, he said.

Well I think I'm going to watch it, Belinda said, smiling as though she were about to indulge in a butterscotch sundae. She couldn't unravel her headphones fast enough; it felt as though an eternity of speechlessness hung between them while Bartleby stared at her and she fiddled with the audio jack.

3
The Rings

MUM LEFT HER WEDDING
ring behind. She said she didn't want to lose it on her trip.

We're going to be in the fields, she said, and we'll probably have to collect samples. I'm not supposed to wear any jewelry.

Yeah okay, I said, rolling my eyes. Maybe they're afraid that if you wear metal you'll get sucked into the circle's vortex by the magnetic force field.

Oh stop it, Grace, Mum said.

Gray, I said.

Crop circles don't suck people in, Squid said. It's not like a black hole.

How do you know? I said. Have you ever seen one? What if the aliens are actually making booby traps, like in
The Goonies?
And all these people get curious and start doing experiments on the crop circles and doing tours like Mum, and then one day —
sssschwwuuuuuup
— sucked into oblivion.

Squid curled his finger around his nose. He always does that when he's worried. When he was really little he used to curl his finger around his nose while he sucked his thumb, but now he just squishes his fist against his lips when he does it.

You remember
The Goonies,
Squid? I asked. He lowered his eyes, looked at the floor.

Those guys had skulls for those traps, he said softly into his fist. And big rocks. They didn't get sucked into anything.

Squid's been funny about skulls ever since we saw the
homo
erectus
skull at the Tyrrell museum and I told him the brain was still in it. It wasn't even a real skull, but he believed it. Once he believes something, he can't un-believe it, not matter how hard you try to convince him.

But I saw it, he'd said, I saw the brain! I asked him what it looked like and he said tofu covered in blood. Mum calls it a vivid imagination.

The day before Mum's flight, Squid wanted to help her pack for the trip. Mum let him help for about five minutes before she told him that's enough, he was driving her insane, 'cause he kept taking things out of her suitcase.

But Mummy, these pants have a zipper, he kept saying, and that shirt has a metal button on the pocket.

Mum called me into her room, told me I had to play Hungry Hungry Hippos with him to keep him occupied. Squid perked right up, Yesssssss, ran to his room to get the game. I followed him out, glaring at Mum as I went. Playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with Squid meant sitting there for practically ten hours, letting Squid hammer madly at three hippos against my one hippo (always the yellow one, 'cause Squid hates yellow), and
still
just pretending I was actually trying to win. Squid got the game from his closet, was grinning at it like it was a triple-layer chocolate cake as he carried it with both hands, out of his room and down the stairs.

We had to pass by Mum's room to go down the stairs, and she'd left the door wide open and had turned on some music to listen to while she was packing. Tina Turner. Makes me wanna dance, she always says. As I was passing by Mum's room, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. The wooden jewelry box that Jess and I got Mum for her birthday years ago. It was one of the best presents we ever got her 'cause it had little compartments especially made for earrings so that they wouldn't get all tangled together. It had cost us forty bucks, which was a lot for two little kids. Mum had said it was brilliant, almost cried 'cause she knew how much it had cost us. That was a long time ago, so ordinarily I wouldn't really think twice about it. But the reason I noticed the jewelry box that day as I was walking past Mum's room was because it wasn't where it usually was. Usually, Mum kept it in her bathroom on the counter with the lid open. Since she never moved it, it would get stuck to the counter because of all the toothpaste and soap scum and hairspray that would build up around it. Instead of seeing the box stuck to the counter, I had seen it in Mum's hand. I had seen her tucking the earring box between two piles of clothes in her suitcase, letting it hide beneath loose folds of fabric. So much for not bringing any jewelry.

Her wedding ring really did stay behind. She'd stuck the ring inside one of those blue velvet boxes you always see people in movies holding out when they're proposing. She put it under her sink, beside the mouthwash she never used because it was unflavoured and tasted like whiskey. The reason I know is because the morning after she left, I wanted to use her curling iron and saw it there. She'd taken the curling iron. When I opened the box it made that little cracking noise just like in the movies. I think they probably test them in the factories to make sure they crack when you open them so people feel all glamourous when they get one, even if the thing inside is cheap.

I was surprised when I saw three rings inside instead of just one. Her first engagement ring, the one from Da that was yellow gold with one round diamond in the middle, the engagement ring from Wiley with the emeralds that matched Mum's eyes, and the silver band that matched the one Wiley had. All three were stuffed into the slot in the middle of the box. And since it was only really big enough for one ring, they were crammed in on top of each other, and the slot had been stretched out so that there was an ugly gap when you took out the rings. They only fit on my pointer fingers, so I put the two from Wiley on one finger and the one from Da on the other. I wondered if Mum had thrown away the wedding band from Da, tossed it into a well or off a bridge or into the river when they got divorced. Or maybe Da kept it.

It's funny to think that humans are some of the only animals that prefer to stick with one mate for their whole lives. There are actually some species of deep-sea fish that keep the same mate for life. Bony fish of the order
lophiiformes.
Commonly known as anglerfish. I prefer
lophiiformes,
mostly 'cause if you say it with an Italian accent you can fool people into believing you can actually speak Italian. I once told this kid who lives down the street, Dustin, that I knew Italian and he said, Okay, say something in Italian. Lah-FEE-a-FOR-mees! I said, pressing my fingers to my thumb and shaking my fist like they do in
The Godfather
. I told him it meant
your goat is hairy
. He totally believed me. He's only seven — same as Squid — but still.

Besides having a cool name,
lophiiformes
fish look like Pac-Men from hell. And on steroids. Most species are about the size of a grapefruit. The first thing you notice about them is their teeth, 'cause they've got these huge jaws with massive underbites, so their mouths are hanging open all the time. And the teeth attached to the jaws are spiny and see-through, like shards of glass. You can't help but imagine those jaws snapping shut like the evil-looking bear traps you always see in cartoons. The reason it's called an anglerfish is because of this funny arm sticking out the top of its head. The arm has a flag of skin on the end called an esca that flutters in the water, and the fish uses this as a lure, like on a fishing rod, to attract unsuspecting prey. It reminds me of when you play with a cat and all you have to do is dangle a piece of string with a pompom on the end and the cat'll go nuts, batting away at the thing for no particular reason. The cat's not dumb enough to think the pom-pom is actually a mouse or something, it's just that he can't help it. He sees a pom-pom on a string and he wants to check it out, get his paws on it. You can probably guess what happens when the little fish come to check out the curious flag that the anglerfish is waving back and forth,
comeandgetit comeandgetit
. Snap. Fish fillets.

Anyway, like I said,
lophiiformes
fish have the same mates their entire lives.

So you mean they're monogamous, Wiley said when I told him and Mum. Depends, I said, on whether you can call them monogamous when they don't have a choice. I don't think Wiley knew the answer to that. But it's true, once an anglerfish chooses her mate, she's stuck with him for life. Literally. When scientists first started studying
lophiiformes
fish, they couldn't figure out why all their specimens were females. And wasn't it funny, they thought, how almost all the specimens they'd found seemed to have parasites attached to them? Turns out that the parasites were actually the males. They'd permanently suctioned themselves to their girlfriends' bellies so that they could survive off whatever she ate. It's kinda like how a baby can eat its mother's food through the umbilical cord, except these are full-grown males who make their own umbilical cords. Typical, Mum said.

It all sounds like a pretty sweet deal. The males just get dragged along and can suck up all the food, as long as they fertilize their girlfriends every once in a while. But don't worry, I told Mum, the female gets her revenge, 'cause as she gets fatter and fatter, her blubbery belly starts to grow around the male fish. Eventually, the male gets totally swallowed up inside her flesh. I imagine it like the Wicked Witch of the West, melting, melting, until there's just a pile of goo leftover. You can call that monogamy if you want.

When you think about it that way, and when you remember that humans are animals too, it all seems kinda silly. But when I was sitting on the floor of Mum's bathroom and admiring how her rings made my fingers look skinnier, I suddenly got this funny feeling in my stomach. Almost like the big drop on a roller coaster. It was the same kind of feeling I got the time I'd stolen a spritz of Rose's mum's perfume when Rose was in the bathroom, and I accidentally dropped the bottle on the floor. I'd stood there with bits of glass around my feet, the spilled perfume soaking into my socks. And that feeling. Roller-coaster gut.

Suddenly I wished I had told Mum I believed her instead of laughing at the
UFO
picture she drew. It's a spacecraft, she kept correcting me.
UFO
has too many bad connotations.

Now I know all this kinda makes Mum sound like a whack-job, but it's really not that nutty. It's not like she wears a tinfoil hat and tells stories about being abducted or probed or anything dumb like that. See, Mum thinks she saw a UFO. A spacecraft. When Mum tells the story she insists it was the witching hour, when everyone was asleep but her. Cheesy, I know. Anyhow, the way it goes is she can't sleep, so she goes outside for some reason — Mum would say she felt
compelled
— and stands on the driveway. It's a cloudy night and barely any stars are out. She just happens to be looking up at this particular part of the sky when these lights zoom across it, in a sort of zigzag. Three lights, in the shape of a triangle.