The Mermaid's Mirror

Chapter 17

It wasn't until Lena stood panting at the door of her house—safe, alive, far away from Denny—that she registered his words: You saw her. I saw her, too.

Saw who?

But there was only one possible answer.

Denny had seen the mermaid.

Lena leaned against the back door, nearly faint with relief. She's real. Denny saw her. She laughed a little, then sobered. Either that, or I'm as crazy as he is.

But she was glad he hadn't been planning to hurt her. He just wanted to talk to someone else who had seen the mermaid.

***

"I need to borrow your surfboard," Lena told Pem.

"You do? Why? I thought you were using the soft-top from Kai's house."

"I have been. But that's only when I go out with Ani and Kai."

They were sitting in Max's car, waiting for Max to finish a conversation outside with another Mustang owner.

"So you're going to go surfing without Ani?"

"Yes."

"Already?"

"Well, not right away. I'll have one more lesson with her, but once I'm finished, I won't have access to their board. I need to borrow someone else's for a little while, so I can—" Lena didn't finish the sentence. She could not tell Pem that she wanted to get in the water at Magic's.

"So you can what?"

"So I can ... uh, go out and surf when I feel like it."

"Huh. Well, what will I do when I want to go surfing?"

"You haven't surfed in, like, over a month. You've been kind of busy." Lena raised her eyebrows, looking out the window at Max.

Pem didn't answer, just looked back at her without smiling. She twiddled the braid around her ankle and turned away, looking out the front windshield. "How are you going to hide a surfboard from your parents?"

"I'll put it behind some stuff in the garden shed, and cover it with a tarp."

"Won't your mom see it? Isn't she always digging in the garden?"

"No, she's been too busy to garden lately. She hardly ever goes out there anymore. And she already harvested the stuff she grew this summer."

Pem continued to look out the front window. "I'm just afraid they're going to find it. Then I'm in trouble, too."

"No, you're not," said Lena. She made an impatient sound. "You know what? Just forget it. Never mind."

"No, I'm just saying—"

"No, seriously. Forget it."

There was a dense silence.

"You could borrow my brother's board," said Henry.

Lena and Pem both turned to look at him. They were so used to his silence that hearing him speak was like hearing the steering wheel talk.

"What?" said Lena.

"Max has two boards, a long one and a short one."

"He does?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think he'd let me borrow the long one?"

"Sure."

"Henry," said Pem. "I don't think your brother would like you promising his stuff to people."

Henry gave Pem a cool look. "We'll ask him when he gets in."

Lena waited until Pem had turned away, then made an exaggeratedly shocked face at Henry. He smiled.

A moment later, Max got into the driver's seat, grinning and saying, "That guy has a 1972 Mach One."

"Max," said Henry.

"Yeah?"

"Can you do me a favor?"

"What." Max's tone was flat, his famously pouty lips pressed into a thin line.

"Actually, it would be a favor for Lena."

"Yeah?"

"She needs to borrow your long board."

Max whipped his head around to peer at them in the back seat. "What?"

"She needs. To borrow. Your long board."

"Why?!"

"She just does. She doesn't have a board of her own yet, and she needs one. For, uh, a few weeks?" He glanced at Lena, and she shrugged, nodding.

Max cursed quietly and added, "Uh, sorry, Lena, but there's no way. Even if I wanted to loan you my board, you're a total beginner, aren't you?"

"Yes. But Ani says I'm really good."

He shook his head. "Yeah, sure, sorry, but—"

"Let her borrow the long board, Max, or I'll tell Mom and Dad that you've been dumping me at the mall so you can go make out with your fifteen-year-old girlfriend."

Everyone else in the car drew in shocked breaths. No one spoke for a long minute.

Finally Max said, "You little—"

"Who knows? They might even decide to take your car away."

After another stunned pause, Max said, "I'm an adult! They can't take away my car, you f—"

"You're right," said Henry. "You are an adult. Which reminds me of the word statutory. Do you know that word?"

"What the—shut up! I'll deal with you later. All right ... your little girlfriend can borrow my board," he sneered. "For two weeks. That's it. I'm not going to just hand over my board for the rest of the season. The waves are biggest in winter."

Lena waited for Pem to say something in her defense, like "She's not his girlfriend," but Pem remained silent.

"And if you damage my board, Lena..."

"I won't! I'll be really careful. I swear."

He drove her home, blasting Pone on his stereo. He stopped in front of Lena's house and parked. "Bye," he said.

"Um, so when can I have it?" she asked.

"Gee, why don't I rush home and bring it back right now? If it's convenient for you?"

"That would be awesome," she said, giving him a big smile.

His eyes bugged out, then he threw up his hands. "Fine. Whatever. I'll get it now, and your two weeks starts this minute."

Lena got out of the car, looking back at Henry. She put her hands together in a gesture of appreciation.

Henry smiled at her. "See you in a few minutes," he said.

Max squealed the tires as he pulled away.

Fifteen minutes later he roared up in front of the house again, his surfboard strapped to the roof of his car. He flung himself out of the Mustang and began unlatching his board from the rack.

Lena hurried out, glancing at the neighbors' houses.

"Not cool," he was muttering. "Extortion is not cool."

Once the surfboard was stowed safely in the garden shed, behind empty planters and bags of organic fertilizer, covered by a blue tarp, Lena breathed easier. When her mom came home with Cole, she was so deeply involved in her homework that she had almost put the surfboard out of her mind. Almost.