The Mermaid's Mirror

Chapter 3

"Absolutely. Yes. You're right." Lena's dad, his voice brittle, talked on the phone while Lena stared out the window of the car. Her mind kept replaying the moment when she woke up in that guy's office with a bunch of scared faces looking down at her. She would never forget it, no matter how long she lived. That Karen woman had wanted to call 911! Errgh. She leaned her head against the side window.

"We'll be home in less than an hour," said her dad. "Okay. Here she is." He handed the phone to Lena.

"Hi, Mom."

"Hi, sweetie."

The sound of her mom's voice caused a lump to form in Lena's throat. "I don't want to go to the hospital."

"I know, sweetie. Dad and I talked about it, and we decided it's probably not necessary, but I'm going to call Dr. Feldman."

"Mom, I'm fine!"

"Of course you are. You probably just had a little attack of vertigo, but I still want to talk to Dr. Feldman."

Lena sighed, even though she knew her mom was right.

"See you in a little while."

"Okay, bye." Lena closed the cell phone and handed it back to her dad.

He plugged it into the charger and started the car. "Sorry about the shopping, Leen, but—"

"I don't care," said Lena. Her dad was supposed to take her shopping after the visit to his new office, but now they were going straight home. Which was fine with Lena. She didn't exactly want to start passing out all over San Francisco.

Her dad drove out of the city and headed south on Highway l.

They passed a big green highway sign:



MOSS BEACH 17 MILES

DIAMOND BAY 28 MILES

SANTA CRUZ 73 MILES

Santa Cruz, thought Lena. There's a bunch of surf schools there. It's only forty-five minutes away. Dad's been asking what I want for my birthday...

She looked at him hunched over the steering wheel, his expression taut, and decided that now was not the time to bring up surfing.

***

Her mom did her best to act calm and unworried when Lena got home, but her being home in the middle of the day was proof enough that things were not normal.

"What did Dr. Feldman say?" asked Lena.

Mom kissed her forehead, and Lena knew she was checking for fever. "Her nurse said to make sure you ate something, and to call back if it happened again. Apparently fainting can happen sometimes during puberty. We might want to take you in for a blood test to make sure you're not anemic."

"I'm fine," said Lena, for what felt like the twentieth time. "I just got dizzy. It was so embarrassing!" She cringed all over again at the memory of waking up surrounded by strangers. "At least I didn't puke in front of Dad's new boss."

"Oh, honey!" said her mom. "No one cared about that. They were just worried about you fainting."

Lena's father said, "Yeah, well, you should have seen the Oriental rug in that corner office. I was glad she didn't puke, too!"

"Brian!"

Her dad put his arm around Mom's shoulder. "Kidding, honey."

Cole came crashing down the stairs into the living room. When he saw their parents hugging, he threw his arms around both of them. "Group hug!" he yelled.

Mom held out an arm to Lena. "Come on, you know the drill."

Lena moved into the family circle, putting one arm around her mom, and reaching out with the other to rumple Cole's hair.

He ducked out from under her hand. At six years old, he was starting to resist rumpling. He turned his bright blue eyes—so much like Dad's—up to Lena and asked, "Want to play catch with me?"

"Maybe later, Coley," she said. She heard that question from her brother at least once a day—she and her parents rotated shifts of playing catch with him.

"Okay," he said. "Tell me when you're ready?"

"Sure."

He bounded out of the room and headed back upstairs.

"Have you had lunch?" asked her mom. "Yes," said Lena. "Dad and I stopped at Pink Cottage on our way home."

"You stopped at the Pink Cottage and didn't get me scones?" said her mom, mock-aghast.

Lena left her parents to discuss the lack of scones, calling over her shoulder, "I'll be in my room."

She climbed the stairs and went into her room, closing her door. She logged in to her IM. Pem was online.

Sea_girl: Hey.

PemberLoca: Lena! Ur home early.

Sea_girl: Yeah.

PemberLoca: How come back so soon?

Sea_girl: Umm...

PemberLoca: ??

Sea_girl: This weird fainting thing happened.

PemberLoca: Wha??!!

Sea_girl: Yeah. Felt rly weird, then I fell over.

PemberLoca: OMG scary! Were u with ur dad?

Sea_girl: Yeah, his new work. We were by this huge window way up high n I guess I got dizzy.

PemberLoca: Going to doctor?

Sea_girl: Prolly.

PemberLoca: Too freaky! U ok, bff?

Sea_girl: Yes! Just a one-time thing.

Lena lifted her hands from the keyboard, suddenly chilled. Just a one-time thing. That's what she'd told herself about the sleepwalking.

Sea_girl: Lets not even talk about it, k?

PemberLoca: K. See u tomorrow?

Sea_girl: Yes!

PemberLoca: Bye.

Lena logged off and went back downstairs to get something to drink. As she walked into the kitchen, her mom was saying, "...if the vertigo was caused by something else?"

"She's never had any blood work done," said her dad. "It wouldb e—"

Her parents stood close together, their heads bent. They fell silent as Lena entered the room, and Lena caught the worried expression on her dad's face before he saw her.

Glancing up, he made an effort to smile, then said with fake casualness, "What's up, Lena?"

She hesitated, then said, "Nothing. Just getting a drink."

She grabbed an energy drink and hurried from the room, because she did not want to talk about fainting anymore.

***

Kai was singing into the phone. "Lena said knock you out ... I'm gonna knock you out..."

Lena laughed. Even though Kai looked like the quintessential California surfer boy—whose life would revolve around "brews and bros," and who would only listen to speed metal—he was actually a drama geek who loved all music, from power ballads to punk. Lena had heard Ani accuse him once of having "ludicrously undiscriminating taste in music," to which he had replied, "Love Ludacris!" Lately he'd taken to inserting Lena's name into whatever song was on his brain radio. "I did not say to knock anyone out," she said. "And I think you've reached your limit on oldies for the day, haven't you?"

"Oh, Leen," he said. "There is no limit. Hey ... that sounds like it should be a slogan, doesn't it? And you might as well prepare yourself. Drama Club is voting on which musical to put on. It's down to three: Brigadoon, Grease, and Guys and Dolls."

"Whoa," said Lena. "Those are all really old!"

"Don't be ageist," said Kai. "They prefer the term 'classic.'"

"Why not something like Wicked?"

"I dunno. Hey, how was your trip to the city?"

Lena reluctantly told him about the fainting, and he begged to come over immediately to confirm in person that she was all right.

"Nooo," she said. "I'm fine, I'm fine! No one seems to believe me. I probably just have swimmer's ear, or something." Although I haven't been swimming in over a week, she thought.

"Okay, I believe you," he said. "Let me come over anyway. Just to ... you know."

Lena giggled. "You know?"

"Right. You know."

"Um, I don't know. And I'm almost afraid to find out."

"I want to be alone with you. There. How's that for blunt?"

"That might be kind of tough," she said. "Seeing as both my parents are here, and they're all worried about me now, so they probably won't let me out of their sight."

Exhaling heavily, Kai said, "Man. They're such, like, good parents. Why can't they be all wrapped up in their own problems?"

"I know, right?" Lena laughed. "I'm practically grown. They should just leave me to my own devices."

"I got your devices right here, baby," said Kai in his sexy voice, which made her crack up some more.

"I'll just see you tomorrow," she said.

"Really?" Now he sounded hurt. "I was serious. I want to see you."

Lena paused. She was still adjusting to the concept of Kai being her boyfriend. Friend Kai would have said, "Yeah, catch you later." Boyfriend Kai wanted to see her all the time, it seemed like. "Oh," she said. "Okay. Um, why don't you come over after dinner?"

"Perfect."

"But don't blame me if you're bored once you get here."

"Unpossible," he said. "I'll see you later."