The Fate of the Muse

chapter TWENTYSEVEN

UNITE





We paddled out together, swimming towards the setting sun.

“We have to get pretty far away from the beach,” I told him, and he nodded, his long arms and even strokes easily outpacing me, making him pause every so often to stay even with my board. When I felt we were out far enough I stopped, sitting up on my board. Ethan pulled up close to me and looked around.

I squeezed my eyes shut, bowing my head and focused on calling Lorelei to me, hoping she could sense the urgency behind my summons. Within a few minutes I could hear her thoughts in my mind, wondering, “Why is there more than one?” I called her to me again, trying to reassure her. When I looked up Ethan was watching me, long golden rays of sunlight reflecting in his concerned eyes.

“Marina!” Lorelei burst forth, startling both of us. She took one look at Ethan and slipped back down below the surface.

“Lorelei! Don’t go! It’s important!”

I could sense her hovering deep below us, finally slowly swishing to surface on the far side of my board, “Why did you bring one of them?” she asked me with huge, frightened eyes, “It is forbidden.”

“It’s alright,” I reassured her, “He’s the one who helped us to get away from the bad people… remember?”

It was rule number one in the mermaid playbook to avoid people, and with good cause, but I was neither entirely mermaid nor human, so if anyone could bend the rules, I figured it would be me.

She peeked over my board, and upon seeing Ethan, her face broke into a delighted smile. She cocked her head from side to side, inspecting him, “It is the nice one! He’s very pretty to look at.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, and turned to see Ethan watching us with a strange look on his face. I turned back to focus on getting Lorelei’s attention, for now she was becoming playful, flipping and twirling in the water with a sweet tinkle of laughter.

“Lorelei, we came to warn you that the bad people are coming to try and catch you.”

She thrust herself out of the water, turning completely around to scan the horizon. I almost felt sorry for Ethan, who was trying desperately not to stare at her breasts.

“I don’t see anyone,” she said.

“Listen to me! They’re not here yet… but they’re coming, and they will try to take Nixie away.”

“No!” she cried, looking around again in a panic.

“It’s true,” I said, “But I don’t know when. Please take us to Nerissa and Nixie so I can tell them too.”

She nodded her agreement, and positioning herself between our two boards, she took one with each hand, her webbed fingers sparkling and iridescent in the last light of the day.

“You’d better lie flat… and hold on tight,” I warned Ethan, demonstrating the best way to get towed in the sea by a mermaid.

Lorelei put her head down and started thrashing her mighty tail, sending us flying through the water swiftly and smoothly. I looked across at Ethan’s face through a veil of saltwater spray, remembering how I’d felt the first time she’d towed me away from Aptos. Now I had someone I could talk to about it, and it occurred to me just how lonely a thing keeping secrets could be.

The minutes passed quickly, and before I knew it we had arrived at the rocky little island nursery where Nixie liked to play with the other youngsters. Lorelei deposited us in a protected spot, and we sat up, bobbing in the gentle swells. Ethan moved his board close to mine, keeping his wet-suited leg in contact with me. Birds screamed and rose in the air upon our arrival, angry about being disturbed from their evening roost.

“Don’t be afraid,” Lorelei called to them, and we watched as the ruckus slowly subsided and the birds landed back on their nests one by one.

I turned to Ethan with a smile, “She’s fast, huh?”

“You can say that again,” he said, looking around in amazement, “We’re way past San Francisco!”

The sun dipped below the horizon, darkening the skies to a rich indigo. It was the gloaming, the magical minutes between sunset and darkness when time felt strangely suspended; my favorite time to be out on the sea. I leaned over and took Ethan’s hand, unbearably happy because for once I wasn’t the only person here to experience it.

I scanned the water for Nerissa, and Lorelei dove under to search for her. A few minutes passed, and I was starting to get a little fearful, but all at once both of their beautiful faces rose from the depths. Nerissa reeled back when she saw Ethan, keeping her distance even as recognition dawned in her sparkling emerald eyes. Her hair fanned out all around her in the darkening water, glossy and black as an oil slick.

Ethan gasped, shocked at the change in her appearance.

“Why did you bring your person?” she asked me, her eyes darting back and forth between us nervously, “It is forbidden.”

“We came to warn you about the bad people,” I said urgently, “Do you remember how they took you? Well, they want to come and take Nixie too! You must leave this place and go somewhere far away.”

She listened, but a familiar skepticism rose in her eyes. I was reminded of the time when Lorelei dismissed my vision, ignoring my warnings of her imminent capture.

“Don’t worry, I already told Nixie to never go close to any boat,” she said vehemently, “They will never catch me again.”

“They want Nixie,” I warned her in the most serious of tones, “And they will come here to look for her. You must go to a different place.”

“No, this is the best place to be,” she replied confidently. “All of our friends will warn us if the bad ones come.” She gestured gracefully all around, and a seal surfaced next to her as if to punctuate her point.

It made sense, I thought, thinking about the the fur seals, dolphins and sea lions that frequented these waters. They were wary and cautious creatures, and I’d already seen how far they’d go to protect the mermaids that they loved. The birds alone were an excellent alarm system.

“See?” said Nerissa, who had apparently been reading my thoughts, “You know that I am right.”

“Maybe…”

I couldn’t help thinking what Barbara said about how they were closing in on Nixie, and I racked my brain for the exact words I’d used in describing her location to Evie. I’d gone over my surfing gear with a fine toothed comb, so I knew that I wasn’t being tracked. Still, I was suddenly afraid, with a haunting feeling that I might be missing something.

“Where is Nixie?” I said in a panicked voice, scanning the water frantically.

“What’s wrong?” Ethan asked.

“I don’t know… It’s just–” At that precise moment a pair of sea lions came zipping through the water towards us, towing a giggly little mermaid with her baby arms wrapped around their necks.

“Whee!” she cried with glee, “Marina!”

Once again I was shocked at the growth she’d managed in the short time since I’d last been out to see her. The sea lions saw our surfboards and melted away into the sea, leaving Nixie hovering in the water a few feet from us. Her olive green eyes flew open wide when she saw Ethan.

“Eeek!” she shrieked in terror, flying into Nerissa’s arms, burying her face in her shoulder.

“It’s alright,” Nerissa crooned soothingly into her tiny shell of an ear. “This one is good. This one does what Marina tells it to do.”

Nixie peeked back up at Ethan, and dove underwater, surfacing behind him. She circled us, studying Ethan from every conceivable angle, and when her curiosity was finally satisfied she launched herself onto my board, wiggling onto my lap and taking my face in her cherub hands.

“This one is why you won’t swim with us,” she said gravely, surprising me with her insight.

I smiled bashfully and nodded, and Nixie turned her head to cast a dimpled smile at Ethan.

His eyes met mine, his eyebrows raised, “Whoa,” was all he could manage.

Nixie looked back at me, “Now let’s go wave riding!”

I looked at Ethan hopefully, “Are you up for a surf?”

He swallowed hard and nodded yes, still speechless.

The mermaids towed us out to the wave break, and as the sky darkened a perfect moon rose on the horizon, casting its glowing light on the mysterious night waves. The mermaids began to glow too, luminous and wraithlike under the water as they twirled all around and beneath us.

“Are you okay?” I asked Ethan, worried by his silence.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice husky, “This is… It’s just so…”

I reached out and squeezed his hand. I knew what he meant, for there were simply no words that were adequate to describe the otherworldly experience. I don’t think I’d ever felt happier than right at that moment, sharing all the beautiful things I’d been privileged to see with the one I loved.

“Watch this,” I said, lying down on my board as Lorelei took me out to deposit me onto the biggest wave of the set. I surfed with abandon by the light of the moon, getting retrieved at the base of each wave and swiftly towed back to where Ethan sat watching.

“It’s fun… You should try it,” I told him with a smile.

He nodded again, and I could see the whites of his wide eyes in the dark.

“Will you take him out on one?” I asked Lorelei, sensing a beautiful set coming towards us like a slow train. She nodded, grabbing his board and towing him out to the perfect spot.

“Be careful with him,” I called out to her, watching as Ethan popped up and rode a beautiful wave in his own expert way. The moonlight cast its magical spell, and I held my breath until I saw Lorelei retrieve Ethan and tow him back to me.

He was exhilarated, sitting up next to me excitedly “I’ve never surfed in the dark before! That was intense!”

I giggled with joy, for I knew exactly how he felt. He suddenly got quiet, leaning over to give me a salty kiss. I met him halfway, and we rocked in the sea, our arms locked tightly around one another. His lips were warm on mine, the exact opposite of the frigid sea and dark night that surrounded us. All I could think about was how much I loved him; I knew that I’d feel this way always.

Lorelei popped up in front of us, “You’re just like Adria,” she said with distaste, leaping out of the water like a dolphin, and splashing us with an expertly aimed swish of her tail. She went back to tumbling in the water alongside Nixie.

“What did she say?” Ethan asked.

“Nevermind,” I said, “There’s another good set coming.”

Nixie started joining me as I surfed, lying flat at the nose of my surfboard with her arms stretched out ahead of her. She laughed, giddy with delight, as I cut back and forth across the waves like a ship with its own little mermaid figurehead. I watched Ethan surfing, dancing with the sea in the silvery moonlight, and I shivered with happiness. I wished it could last forever.

The fog rolled in, obscuring the moon and making it hard to see anything more than a few feet away. Ethan drew closer to me, and I sensed him wanting to stay in contact more and more.

“Aren’t you thirsty?” he finally asked, and I realized that we’d been out here for hours, and it was getting late.

I was grateful that he was there. When I surfed with mermaids, I became oblivious to my body’s signals, and would keep going, surfing again and again until I was literally too weak to stand. They never tried to stop me, ignorant of the fact that no human could compete with the stamina of a mermaid.

Ethan hadn’t complained once, and it made me love him even more.

“Let’s go home,” I said.

After a swift tow back to Aptos, I thanked Lorelei, warning her to be extra cautious. Ethan and I paddled back to the deserted beach in silence, slipping out of our suits and packing our bags in the foggy darkness. He handed me a bottle of water out of his bag, insisting that I go first, then polishing it off. He bent down to take our bags and his board and we walked up the stairs in complete silence. When we got back to Abby’s the lights were out and Dutch’s car was still in the driveway.

“Where’s your truck?”

He pointed to where he’d parked it a little ways down the street.

“Are you alright?” I asked. He seemed dazed, and he moved slowly, like he was in shock. I started thinking the whole thing might be too much for him to accept, and his silence must be a sign that he was freaked out by the experience. I suppose it’s only fair, I thought. After all, hearing about it and seeing it were two different things.

“I don’t think I’m gonna be able to sleep tonight,” he said. He didn’t sound happy.

My heart sank, for as beautiful and magical as I found night-surfing with mermaids to be, it hadn’t occurred to me until now that Ethan might see it very differently. My profound supernatural experience might be his dangerous freak show. Tonight was the ultimate reality check; fair warning to get away from me while he still could.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked quietly, wondering if I should tell him about the meeting I had planned with Evie.

“I have to work,” he stopped himself, adding, “But maybe I can get started late…”

“Oh… Well… You should try and get some rest then.”

He just stood there silently, watching me. I realized that I’d probably mistaken his shock for awe, and falsely assumed that wordlessly sharing moonlit surfing felt as intimate to him as it did to me. I realized then, just how much I’d really wanted him to accept that half of my family.

“I’ll walk you to your truck,” I said, setting my bag on the porch.

He moved down the dark street slowly, like he was thinking about what to say. His silence made me increasingly nervous, and my stomach tightened up. He put his things in the back of his truck and turned to face me.

“Are you okay?” I asked again, only getting a nod in return.

I leaned in for a quick hug and was surprised to be seized in a sudden ferocious embrace. He pulled me as close as he could, his breath warm in my ear.

“Thank you,” he whispered harshly, “Thank you for showing me,” he stopped to catch his breath, “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen… ever done in my life.”

“Really?” I asked, looking up at him, “I was starting to think–”

He cut me off with a passionate kiss that left me panting, finishing off sweetly, brushing his lips across my cheek to whisper to me again, “I don’t see how I can get by without you tonight.”

I laid my head on his chest with a sigh, relieved. Something inside of me surrendered.

“Wait here,” I said, untangling myself from him and rushing back to Abby’s. I crept in, silently packing a large bag.

“You win,” I said under my breath as I slipped back out, locking the door behind me.

Ethan was leaning against his truck in the misty moonlight, and when he saw me coming back with my bag he smiled from his head to his feet.

“Let’s go home,” I said.