The Waiting Tide of Mantas

The mantas enter the lagoon once a year and only onto still water: one splash and the shoal is gone until the next tide. Everything comes easily to Tao and nothing to Alice, and envy is easier than waiting — but friendship here is tested by sitting still without moving a hand.

Once a year, on a single tide, huge mantas come into the lagoon behind the reef to feed. The rule of the place is simple and merciless: they come only onto still water, and any splash on the shallows turns the shoal away until next year. Alice is here for the first time and nothing works: the harder she tries, the further the shadows drift. Meanwhile everything comes easily to Tao, a local boy of the same age — the mantas drift toward him, he dives deeper and holds his breath longer. Envy turns out to be far easier than waiting. When the tide finally rolls into the lagoon, the two of them climb onto the reef with the water rising to their knees. The mantas come — and now it is Tao who cannot hold still, reaching a hand out to meet them. Alice lays a palm on his shoulder and presses them both down into the rock. The shoal passes directly overhead, vast and silent. By the ebb the mantas are gone, and the two on the reef agree to meet here on the next tide.