Florence and Laurent stroll down to Anse Douce. The sun bright in the sky and the day becoming humid and sweaty. Anse Douce, 'peaceful cove', unspoiled half-mile crescent of tangled sea-grape bushes, sweeping white sand beach washed by clear blue waters. A scattering of fairy-world rocks terminating in a gully filled with huge chunks of coral like a castle.
No one except seekers of privacy went down to Anse Douce and certainly no one swam there, which was a pity as it had a certain beauty.
The air smelled fresh, salty, that faint odour of fish that clung to everything in Pointe Pierre washed away.
Any tracks from last night have been washed away by the tide. Walking the shore Laurent sees one clump of seaweed that seems suspicious, he pushes it apart with a foot but it's only a ragged T-shirt left by some youngster, or perhaps dropped off a boat and washed ashore.
Further along there is a bulky amorphous shape lying at the edge of the sand with the water lapping against it and towards the end of the bay there is a rocky gully and Florence can just make out a flash of red.
Florence tries to think back, as long as she's lived in Dame Marie she can't remember anyone swimming in Anse Douce, young lovers coming down for a few hours of privacy, but no one swims. She's not sure why, they just don't. Maybe something to do with the currents, or the lack of waves. Certainly the beach up past Pointe Pierre is much more popular, that's where she'd go
At first the bloated shape at the shore reminds Florence and Laurent of a human body, but looking closer it is the remains of some kind of animal. They're not too sure what it is but there's a chunk taken out of its side, like something has bitten it, something big.
There's no trail of blood that he can see. From the state of the body Laurent thinks it probably died out at sea and washed up here. It seems at least partially decomposed.
"Very likely," Florence agrees. "It looks a bit like a pig. Do these sirèns keep them for food?" She shivers slightly as she realises her question just assumed the sirèns are real.
Thinking back to Labas and his talk of sirèn they look a bit closer at the body. It does look rather like a pig, or a cow, and they realise it is probably a manatee. Maybe the white men aren't too far from the truth.
Although the bite mark looks old they can still discern some features. It is a large, single bite, the edges of the wound suggest many small, sharp teeth. Larger than a reef shark, and they don't usually attack anything this big, maybe a bull shark. It's strange, Laurent can't really recall having ever heard of shark attacks on manatees before.
Florence can't have lived in Dame Marie her whole life since the town was destroyed and resettled 25yrs ago.
Walking further up the beach there is a wide gully of coral boulders running down from the seagrape bushes to the water's edge. At the near end of the gully there is a tree lying in the water, a whole rose apple tree — a big one — obviously washed ashore.
