This is the third instalment of ‘Ursula’, a comic by Michael Hawkins we’re currently serialising. Catch up on the first and second chapters.
It’s a Wednesday. The day is getting warmer and gently pulsing. Ishka and I are walking to school.
We walk past this facility, like a community centre or a sports club or something. It emits, as always, the hammy smell of cheap pizza, even though it’s, like, eight am. Maybe that morning we say something about it or maybe not. Of course we have no idea of how it will affect us later. Gulp.
Ishka is talking softly, saying something casual and, like, no big deal but personal and kinda intimate. There’s a smile inside me then a strange anxiety. I have to go away.
I go back in my head to a moment of solitary delirium.
Later we hang out at this place with some friends and it all flows naturally. It feels weird sometimes, how people generally seem to like me and listen when I talk and laugh at my jokes.
Boys I go to bed with seem pleased and melt in my arms somewhat… I never melt.
But something is running hot in all of us, and by the time we make it to this art party at Pirate’s Cove my head is swimming.
We’re high on a vibe. A wind blows in from the sea and the sun sets aqua meringue.
At the thing we meet these boys who, over the following days and weeks, we start dating. I’m not that sure about it, but it feel like at this point I should try something.
Michael Hawkins is a Melbourne-dwelling comic book and visual artist of Tasmanian and U.S. derivation. He believes in mystery.
Keep an eye out for more instalments from ‘Ursula’ in the near future. While you’re waiting, grab a copy of The Lifted Brow #19 to see more of Michael’s work.