Agirita put her hands on her hips and raised her shoulders to stretch the tension out of her neck muscles.

She glanced down at the welps and bruises growing on her legs.

She was exhausted.

For some reason, she just remembered the old man had driven away with her share of the fish sales.

Now what was she going to do, broke and starving?

No one seemed interested in buying the squid, which, naturally, was made more difficult by the strange activities that happened to her when the squid was around.

She believed the world was full of magic, where people can disappear into unseen dimensions and travel through time.

Why so many people seemed to disappear recently had no ready explanation in Agirita’s thoughts.

Unless…

Was the squid a time machine?

Was it a portal to another universe?

What made people act so crazy around the squid?

Why did people call it a machine sometimes?

She faced the squid, finally noticing its new shiny, red exteriour.

When had its skin colour changed so drastically?

Agirita walked over to the squid and stared at the drying liquid which had fallen out of its backend.

Was it finally starting to decay?

Although she was no expert, she had seen enough sea animals to know they rarely survived out of water for more than a day or two.

Was this squid like a snail, able to hide its real body inside the soft shell of its head and mantle, having to purge to reduce its size?

Agirita needed to go on.  The heat of the day and the lack of food and water was getting to her.  She had a long way to walk to the other side of town and carrying the squid was no easy task, although it did seem to get lighter and lighter as the day wore on, possibly due to the loss of liquid from the squid that seemed to occur periodically.

She lifted the squid onto her left shoulder to ease the pain of a punch that “Clif” had landed on her right arm.

A warm feeling flowed through her body.

She felt like she was floating on air or lying back in a bathtub full of warm, aromatic water, surrounded by candles, soft music playing in the background.

She imagined a voice telling her that her wounds would soon heal quickly.

She wondered if robots, primates like chimps, dogs or dolphins would receive human-equivalent status first.

A new voice in her head told her not to worry, all living things on this planet have equal value when viewed from outer space, the interconnectedness was more important than a label applied to any one part of the global ecosystem.

She smiled at her revealing thoughts and walked on.

She had never heard that tone of voice in her head before, neither female nor male, almost disembodied, like it didn’t understand the complexities or significance of being a member of her species.

Was it God?

She had prayed to God many times, never getting a real answer, just signs in her life that perhaps God was listening and had granted her wishes but not in the way she had asked, as if God was balancing her selfish needs against those of everyone one.

Was she suffering sleep and food deprivation?

She carried the squid toward a fountain she knew was nearby.  At least there she could get a drink of water and build up her strength.

While she walked, she felt more energised with every step.

The bumps and bruises seemed to have dissipated, she thought, confused.

What is going on with me?

She brushed her cheek against the squid the way her mother’s cats used to rub against her when they were hungry.

She thought she heard, if not felt through her shoulder, an inaudible purring sound.

The squid couldn’t be alive.  Surely not!  Could it?

She paid more attention to the squid’s skin next to her face.

There!  She saw brown dots and white dots pulsing across the skin where it almost touched her face.

It was like…well, it…was the squid trying to match her skin colour?

Agirita blinked her eyes, never slowing her stride.

She had to get to that fountain!