Marine biologist shows girls ocean mud.

by LILA MANKAD

The marine biologist pulls a bucket full of seafloor black mud from the side of the boat. She picks through it and hands us creatures- spindly crustaceans, worms like veins through the mud, krill only visible if you raise them to the sunlight. She says feel it, and we pick it up in fistfuls, let it drip through our fingers. One girl dips two fingers in and paints across her cheek. Soon, we are all mud-faced. For some, only a forehead dab, but others drip primordial. “It’s always like this”, the biologist grins. “By the end, they all have warpaint.”

Lila Mankad is a sophomore creative writing major at Houston’s Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She enjoys writing poetry, plays, and creative nonfiction. Besides writing, she enjoys walks along the bayou, running D&D games, and learning about prairies.