Acheron — Chapter 1

Reflections

Steve Fendt
4 min readJun 24, 2022
Sky Pool | author image

Blue eyes. Brown eyes. Green or hazel. Why do we even notice? It’s just pigmentation of the iris. It says nothing about the person behind the eyes. Yet it might be the difference between never looking at them, not properly, and never being able to look away.

It’s unfair. My eyes are sort of muddy. Even my wife of thirty-five years would be pushed to say what colour they are. I was short-changed in the iris department.

Unlike Áine.

The first thing I noticed about Áine were her eyes: the colour of the pre-dawn sky. Her gaze was startling, arresting. When I looked into her eyes, I saw — light.

Yes, that’s it: I felt illuminated by her light.

Does that make sense? Probably it sounds daft.

She wasn’t a pretty girl, in the conventional, symmetrically-featured way we see on TV. It was a strong face: a long jaw squared off at the chin; sculpted cheek-bones. Her long nose had a slight downward curve. Thick brows tried hard to meet under a broad forehead over which thick brown hair tumbled, so dark as almost to be black. Large canines gave her wide smile a hint of the wolf.

Pretty or not, Áine had presence.

To me, from the moment I saw her, she was the only girl in the school. The only one who…

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Steve Fendt
Steve Fendt

Written by Steve Fendt

https://stevefendt.substack.com Short stories, serial fiction, memoirs of a possibly quasi-true nature. Stories of the Australian beach and bush.

Responses (5)

What are your thoughts?

Great opening chapter. I lived in Aus for about 5 years altogether. You may know this already, WOGS although offensive to many ears outside Oz, is in fact an acronym and has its roots from Workers On Government Service in connection with the building of the Suez Canal :-))))

You mean it's not Karrkh!? You learn something new every day 🌟😎-- Nice work, Steve!

first up- brilliant pic!
like her (Aine) and the narrator already, Steve, but one question-
will there be a part 12 for the permaculture cat? : )