The Same Deep Water Read Online Free Page A

twitches with amusement.
    “Seriously, Guy?”
    “Had to be said.” He holds his hand out, palm upwards. “Show me.”
    As Guy takes my note pad, he pushes his list across the table.
    We read, silently, and his list intrigues me:
     
    1. Swim with sharks.
    2. Spend a night ghost hunting.
    3. Visit Hawaii.
    4. Learn another language.
    5. Go skydiving.
    6. See the Van Gogh painting ‘Sunflowers’.
    7. Watch a shooting star.
    8. Watch the snow fall.
    9. Save someone’s life.
    10. Fall in love.
     
    Numbers two and nine are crossed out.
    “Not doing them in order then?” I ask.
    Guy holds his hand up in a gesture to silence me and to indicate he’s still reading, lips pursed. He strokes his chin in an exaggerated pose of a musing professor. “Interesting...”
    “What?” This isn’t a diary, but the words on the page feel as if they shouldn’t be shared.
    “One of our items matches. Almost two. ‘See a shooting star’ is a night together ‘sleeping under the stars’.” He runs a finger down the list. “These are very girlie: ‘swim with dolphins’, ‘kiss in the rain’.”
    “Are you judging me? Look at yours! Ghost hunting? At least plan something achievable!”
    “Yeah, tried that one at Fremantle Prison. Never found any. Maybe when we go to England, I’ll try somewhere else.”
    “We?”
    “The painting I want to see is in England, we’re going to England.”
    “I never said I was doing my list with you!”
    “Not all of them, just the ones that match.” He rakes his hair from his face as he reads. “Look, I can teach you to surf and help with the tattoo, I know some good artists.” Guy lifts the edge of his t-shirt, revealing solid abs decorated with the words omnia causa fiunt. I stare, mostly at his muscles to be honest, before he drops the t-shirt.
    “Shouldn’t we do yours first, if you haven’t got... much time,” I say.
    Guy’s face darkens, and he taps his fingers on the table. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Guy doesn’t look sick, his appearance more alive than people I come across in the 9-5 drudgery. We hardly know each other; whatever illness he has is none of my business. If he wanted to tell me, he would.
    “Yeah. True. But I’m two items ahead of you, and you need to catch up. Some we can finish quickly, locally. What do you want to start with?” He studies my list again. “This is an easy one. ‘Ask a stranger on a date’. I don’t count, by the way.”
    “This isn’t a date! Besides, you asked me weeks ago.”
    “Yes, but you said no. You asked me to meet you today.”
    “This still isn’t a date; this is just a meeting between...” I pause. Between what? A girl who almost jumped to her death and the man who stopped her. “Friends.”
    “Travel buddies.”
    “If I travel with you.”
    “We can travel through our lists together,” he says and hands back my notebook. “Through your new life and the rest of mine. What do you think?”
    I morbidly want to know why and when he’ll die. What if he’s been given a year and his time runs out because the doctors are wrong?
    “So you need to travel soon,” I say.
    “Soon-ish, but it’s the end of January now, and I don’t want to visit England in the winter.”
    “That’s the best time to see snow fall.”
    “Nah, I can see that in Australia, at the snow fields over East. An English summer sounds better. Can you do July?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “If you can’t afford the trip, I’ll pay.”
    The insistence in his demeanour from the night in my darkness returns and I grip onto my assertiveness. “What? No!”
    He shrugs. “I’m loaded, may as well spend all my money before I go.” I can’t help but study his faded t-shirt and the black and blue board shorts. “Yeah, not dressed like I have money, I know.” He flicks his black Havaianas against his tanned feet. “I got the designer version of my bogan footwear.”
    “Very cool.”
    “I am.” Again, the bright grin, but his