Messages from the Deep Read Online Free Page A

have
found that there can be variations of these ‘family history’ songs,
and they can sometimes skip many generations and only refer to
those who lived in periods of major events.
    The most often-mentioned dramatic events of
the fairly recent past, besides deaths from whaling, involved
bombs, referred to as being like a large number of whales landing
on the water after breaching, or a combination of a thunderstorm
and earthquake. The period referred to was clearly around the time
of World War 2, and the most notable bombs referred to were
probably the nuclear explosions of 1945 in Japan and later in the
Bikini atoll area. Links were also made with events like major
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and so on. When a reference
was made to the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., it
was realised that the ‘memory’ of whales could go back thousands of
years.”

CHAPTER 2
     
     
    Mariada and Alex are walking on the beach at
Keurboomstrand and pass under the arch of Arch Rock just before the
Matjes River mouth. They climb the path up to the Matjes River Rock
Shelter and read that it is one of five national monuments of Stone
Age sites in South Africa. Later Stone Age people, ancestors of the
Khoisan, lived here periodically from about 12 000 to 1 000 years
ago.
    More than 100 adults and children were buried
here, some with painted stones, bows and arrows and fishing gear.
The middle of the last Glacial Period (Ice Age) was about 18 000
years ago, when the air temperature here was about five degrees
Centigrade cooler, the sea level was 130m lower and this area was,
therefore, about 100km inland. When the polar ice started melting,
from about 16 000 years ago, the sea level started rising until it
reached the present level about 12 000 years ago, when people
started using the shelter.
    Alex wonders, “Who knows what settlements,
and maybe cultures, were submerged by the rising sea, like the
legend of Atlantis? And if our own era of global warming continues,
most of our major cities will become flooded, causing massive
disruptions and an economic melt-down.”
     
    Alex is on the balcony of the research
station, looking out to sea towards Keurboomstrand. The East wind
has been blowing for a few days, bringing colder water and causing
a heavy bank of mist over the sea, so he can’t see Keurbooms across
the bay from town. He wonders if she will disappear from his life
or if he will disappear from hers.
    He SMSs her, ‘missing you lets live for
today’, and she replies, ‘make my day’, so 10 minutes later, he is
on the way there.
    They are at the mouth of the Matjes river
again, but this time the sky has fallen into mist all around them.
The huge rocks near Cathedral Rock swirl in and out of view.
    Mariada says, “You think I may disappear, so
let me disappear and you try to find me after counting slowly to
100. OK?”
    Alex faces the rock and starts to count as
she walks backwards towards the sea, where her steps disappear in
the shallow water. She walks towards the far side of the rock and
then runs around it to the side near where she started. She peeps
over the top and sees him looking at her footprints going towards
him, so he traces them back for a while. But then he stops, laughs
and shakes his head and follows them to the sea. He looks left and
right, correctly chooses left and then disappears behind the rock.
She quickly goes around to the place where they started and sits
down casually. Not long after, he comes jogging around the corner
and nearly falls over her.
    “What?!” he says.
    “I had a swim and then I came straight back
here. Didn’t you see me?” she says nonchalantly. They both burst
out laughing like lunatics and she runs off screaming, closely
followed by him, into the sea. They both disappear but you can
still hear them splashing and laughing.
     
    It is a few days later and the weather is
wonderful again, with the sea deep blue and sparkling. They are
walking around Robberg