Break 005: Swim Deep/Outskirts Dance Cry Dance Break

On this episode of the Dance Cry Dance Break, we open with “Swim Deep,” a story by Eirinie Carson followed by the exclusive premiere of Outskirts, the new single (available July 1, 2022) by Argentinian artist/producer Elhel.
Elhel is the stage name of Argentinian electro-pop artist/producer Yamil Eljel. Originally a Spanish-language performer, Elhel began writing and recording songs in English in 2019. His newest project is a nostalgic take on electronica inspired by the sounds and images from the films of the 1980’s. He signed with Dance Cry Dance records at the end of 2021 and has begun production on an album set to release later this year.
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Eirinie Carson is a Black British Londoner and writer living in California. She is a mother of two children, Luka and Selah. She is a frequent contributor to Mother magazine, and her work has also appeared in Mother Muse and You Might Need To Hear This, with an upcoming piece in The Sonora Review’s Fall edition. She is also the recipient of a fellowship from Craigardan Artists Residency, NY. Eirinie writes about motherhood, grief and relationships and is currently working on her first book about the loss of her best friend, Larissa, and what love looks like after death. 
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Swim Deep
By Eirinie Carson

Cari was a full year older than Rosie, which to an adult might seem like nothing, but to a 19- and 20-year-old was vast. An ocean of knowledge stretched out between them, and although Rosie had done better at school, was getting good grades at college, she felt like an infant around Cari, a fresh born babe who knew nothing, had done nothing. The ocean they found themselves in seemed a bottomless blue, and Rosie was painfully aware of just how far out to sea they were. She didn't like to think of the depths in open water—it made her contemplate the unfathomable map beneath her as she trod water above it: mysterious currents and seismic changes, not to mention the creatures. Blind scaly monsters, impossibly electric with unseen teeth, and smooth beings, getting too close to her legs without her even knowing. 

Cari was buoyant with the ocean, casual, her Wayfarers swept up off her face, holding her wet, jet-black hair like a headband, like that song about the summer, widow’s peak severe and mysterious. Rosie was a strong swimmer, but Cari was stronger, having spent so many summers at the beach as a lifeguard. By the end of each season her already enviable body would look as if it were still wearing a swimsuit when naked, stark and comparatively pale. Cari was one of those girls for whom stripping off was undaunting; she would step long lithe legs out of her sundress, revealing a wet but drying bikini bottom, a taut stomach with abs from days of swimming out past the buoys.

Rosie did not have such a body, and although she was technically covered by the waves and water around her, and should have felt weightless and light like a stray piece of seaweed, she felt large and unwieldy, legs peddling desperately, brushing her stomach’s puppy-fat with each stroke. They had the kind of friendship Rosie assumed people whispered about, wondering how such a vibrant, charismatic beauty as Cari could have found such a dumpy, quiet pal in Rosie. But it felt cosy in Cari’s slipstream, cosy and slightly ominous, like stepping into a freshly peed bit of warm. Rosie would trail in her wake, waiting for something exciting to happen to her, if only vicariously through Cari.

This was that heady type of friendship where often Rosie’s stomach would do a big swoosh when she was anticipating seeing her, where even when Cari wasn’t around, she was still the sole occupier of Rosie’s thoughts. She didn’t think about her boyfriend like that. Sometimes he would step into her dorm room, and she would blink several times as if trying to bring her eyes into focus, as if trying to remember who or what this person in front of her was. She always remembered--alwa