Hello All,

If you like the previous Blue Planet preview vignettes, here is another . . . 

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Dear Diary:
	I went fishing with Remy today.  We didn't catch anything for a long 
time, and I was starting to get worried, since last month's harvest was so 
thin.  Just as we were getting ready to motor over to the South Shoals, our 
nets started tugging like crazy.  We pulled as fast as we could, and up 
came about a hundred sundancers. I think something must have scared 
them, because I've never seen a whole school of them inside the reef.  
After that, Remy wanted to go swimming, but I didn't.  After all the things 
he said about Susan Peterson, I'll be damned if that boy's getting a look at 
me until I want him to.  Besides, whatever scared the sundancers into the 
lagoon was probably still out there somewhere. 

Remy's such a fishhead sometimes.  But Mom is still hunting for someone 
to marry me off to, and he is the best around.  She doesn't know I put in 
for a job the last time we went to town.  It'd probably kill her to know 
that I didn't want to stay here and farm kelp for the rest of my life. Even 
if it is with Remy. I just want to live someplace where you don't have to 
scrape fast fungus of your house every other day, and where your clothes 
don't rot before they wear out.

Speaking of clothes, I finally got a store bought dress on that last trip to 
town.  It is this really pretty green with a yellow flower pattern.  Anna 
said she liked what it did with my hair.  She's usually pretty good with 
those things.  Well, better than me.  As far as I know, all that's good with 
my hair is a bandanna to keep it out the gearbox.  

I can't do this any more.  I need to get someplace where I don't know 
exactly everything that's going to happen everyday.  And I need to meet 
more people than just Anna and Remy and Susan and Eddie and Phylus. Mom 
thinks I should find a man and start having babies.  She doesn't understand 
that it's not like that anymore.  When she was growing up, she and her 
family were all there was on Poseidon.  Well, not really, but I bet that's 
what it seemed like.  That's a pretty scary thought, and I bet that if it 
were true, I'd want to have as big a family as possible, too.  But I want a 
life, not a big family.  And as far as Mom is concerned, the two are 
complete opposites. I don't know what I'm going to do, but whatever it is, 
it sure as hell is not going to involve broken-down old boats, fish, kelp, or 
Remy.

copyright 1996, Jason Werner.