She said she’d never had sober sex, and at the time we laughed, but six years later I wondered where she was in what they used to call Yugoslavia. I’d seen photos from Bled and Ljubljana, her hair longer and blonder than ever, her men all handsome, strong and angry.
As girls we’d quoted Lonesome Traveller, held hands as we hopped off buses, panting—all streets leading to the beach, no—rather, all days leading to a night of stoned laughter. And occasional kisses, cheeky tongue flickers in between childish, overloud whispers.
One day she wrote to me of the Adriatic sea, of how it was the most magnificent of seas, of how there was no place more meaningful, transcendent, and how she had finally found some semblance of permanence, and I thought of how she had forgotten me, and our Indian ocean sea-salt breeze, and our grainy skins creating fire and urgency, and our lips that spilled secrets, our hearts that clasped up tightly around our sweet, messy memories.
Although, then, I was overcome with loneliness, with the loss of the girl, the littered life I left behind as a lonesome traveller, hopping off buses onto streets that all led to the beach, and the nights of stoned laughter and occasional kisses, I still wrote her back: about my husband, my flat, my job, my pregnancy.
Six months later I wondered where she was in what they now call Croatia. I’d seen photos of a lake, a mountain, her hair shorter and darker than ever, her men unloved and undone and her, the girl, the whispers, the laughter—gone.
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Read – The Knotty Plot – A Flash Fiction by Bradley Mayuba, Kenya
Adrian Fleur is a South African writer based in the United States. She has been published in Decolonial Passage, The Write Launch and Silver Rose Magazine. Her other work has been longlisted for Fish Publishing’s Short Memoir Prize and The Masters Review’s Fiction Awards, shortlisted for New Millennium’s 49th Writing Awards, and placed as a semi-finalist in the Short(er) Fiction Contest by American Short Fiction.
Adrian is currently finishing up her first novel, Zithande, which is set in a remote village in the Eastern Cape—home to many beloved activists and leaders such as Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Archie Sibeka, Oliver Tambo, Florence Matomela, Govan Mbeki, Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Mama Winnie and Madiba. The novel explores the power of women’s friendship across class and racial lines, collective resilience in the face of grief and poverty, and the deliberate act of seeking joy.
I thoroughly enjoyed where Adrian Fleur’s “The Girl” took me in my head: how where we are and who we are changes, and there is loss. I look forward to reading more of her writing.