The Turning Tides

CHAPTER Twenty-Nine

MERMAIDS



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The early morning light found us entwined, a tangle of arms and legs topped with a mound of blankets. I woke up first, stealthily sliding my arm out from under Ethan’s head and crawling out of bed to slip into a pair of jeans. He muttered something incoherent and fell back to sleep.

I washed up and fed Stumpy, leaving a note for Ethan and hurrying out the front door. I drove down the coast, past fertile fields of strawberries and artichokes, finally pulling up at a familiar little compound. I slid out of the car into a bracing new day, and came across a familiar figure making its way purposefully up a gravel path towards me.

“Hello water girl,” Lue said, his eyes full of mirth.

~

A couple of hours later I was back, mission accomplished. All of the loose ends were coming together, and I could see my future, looming bright and shiny in the distance. I bounded up the stairs with a bag of groceries and a satisfied smile to find Ethan out front, leaning on the rail. He was barefoot, clad only in his drawstring pants, his messy hair making him look like he just rolled out of bed.

“Good morning sleepyhead!” I teased him, planting a big kiss on his cheek.

“You look happy this morning.”

“I am.” I waved the bag at him, “I got cinnamon rolls.”

We settled in at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and looking at the paper. Stumpy skittered around under the table, attacking my shoelaces with wild eyes. He started running up and down the hall with his unique bouncing gait.

Ethan looked at him and back at me with a smile, “He hops like a little bunny.”

“I was thinking about re-naming him Cabit,” I said.

Ethan shook his head, “Nope. It’s too late. He knows he’s a Stumpy cat.”

“Oh, come on. Nothing is set in stone.”

He moved his chair closer to mine, leaning in to kiss my cheek. His warm breath tickled my ear, “Some things are.” He squeezed my knee and leaned back in his chair, taking up the newspaper.

He snapped a section open, “Whoa!”

“What?” I asked.

He read aloud, “The burned out vehicle found abandoned at an east side industrial park has been identified as belonging to the university’s marine biology program. The tanker truck had been specially equipped to transport large marine mammals, and was completely destroyed in a fire that appears to have been deliberately set.” Ethan looked up at me with raised eyebrows.

“Whoa,” I echoed him.

He smiled mischievously, “Way to go Yuri!”

I grimaced, thinking about the last time I’d seen the truck in question. I remembered lifting Nixie out of it, and I started worrying about her again. It must have shown on my face.

“What’s wrong? I think it’s good that they can’t use it anymore!”

“I need to go check on Nixie.”

He paused, “I know.”

“I was thinking about going today… like, right now.”

He looked troubled, “I have to work today… And Dad and Abby expect us for dinner.”

“I can be back in plenty of time. I’ll be fine, you don’t need to come.”

He looked serious, “Yes– yes I do…I really want to. Can you go with me to just one quick job first?” I hesitated, but he looked so worried I caved in immediately.

“Okay,” I nodded, thinking about how I had mistakenly blamed myself for his driven nature, “Sure.” He sprang up to go get dressed.

It wasn’t too much later that we were pulling up to a lonely, rocky stretch of coastline in Ethan’s truck. “There’s no way anyone followed us,” he said, climbing up to scan the surroundings from the truck bed. He tossed his bag out and hopped down lightly, stripping off his clothes and climbing into his wetsuit.

He looked up to see me watching, “Well?”

“Oh,” I hurried to change, starting with surprise when he came sneaking up behind me.

“You look like you could use a little help there,” he said, taking me by the waist.

“Uhm… That’s not really very helpful,” I gasped, as he started kissing my shoulder, working up to my ear. He slowly zipped me up, and I turned to kiss him, seriously considering stripping off my wetsuit and heading straight back home.

A cool rush of salty air blew over us, bringing me back to reality. I pulled away with determination, and we each took our boards and headed for the sea. I started to think about calling Lorelei to me; visualizing her face, imagining speaking to her. We picked our way through a shoreline strewn with boulders, paddling out to wait in a kelp bed. Black and white seabirds that looked like tiny penguins dove underwater as we approached them.

“Lorelei?” I called, “Please come to me.”

Ethan sat up on his board, watching me while I focused on the waving strands of kelp. All at once a dozen heads popped up from the depths. A band of curious otters had heard what sounded like a mermaid, but most of them disappeared with a splash when they saw me and Ethan.

“Wait!” I called out to the bold few that hung back to observe us, “Have you seen Lorelei?”

They circled us, angrily chirping and hissing in alarm, but try as I might I couldn’t understand them.

“What’s going on?” Ethan asked, his head on a swivel.

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen them act like this!”

“Marina!” Lorelei burst forth, smiling as bright as the sunny day she emerged into. A dozen otters surfaced alongside her, surrounding her with a chattering mob.

“Do not worry,” she told them, “It is not a trick.”

“Lorelei!” I smiled with relief, knowing that Nixie had given her the message, “How are you doing?”

“Doing what?” she asked innocently.

I laughed, “How is Nixie… Is she alright?”

She swam up to my board, her eyes glued to Ethan.

“Don’t worry… Remember my good person? He knows Nixie…he helped her too.”

“I know.” She turned to me, “Do you want to go wave riding?”

“I want to see Nixie. I need–”

A sea otter slithered under her chin, chirping something in her ear. Easily distracted, she started rolling in the slippery kelp with the family of otters. Her presence had restored their playful nature, and they started jumping onto our surfboards, sitting up to get a different vantage point, and diving onto one another’s heads. Ethan was charmed, and he met my eyes with a grin.

“Lorelei! I want to know how Nixie is. Can you please take us to see her?”

“Will we go wave riding with Nixie?” she asked, eyes sparkling with excitement at the prospect.

“Yes, yes. Show us Nixie please!”

She patted the heads of a few otters, swimming over to position herself between our surfboards. Ethan watched as her sparkling hand reached up and took hold of his board. He caught my eye, a question in his.

“Hold on tight,” I told him. “Here we go.”

This time, Ethan was prepared, and he went prone on his board. He smiled at me through the spray, putting his faith completely in us as Lorelei swam our boards swiftly into the open ocean. The water grew rough and choppy, and before too long we had arrived at the rugged and remote island chain I knew to be Nerissa’s home range.

Lorelei submerged, ducking under the blue-green sea to find Nerissa and Nixie. Ethan looked around wide eyes, taking it all in. The only other time he’d been out here it was dark, and in the bright light of daytime, the area was spectacular in an entirely different way.

“I’ve seen pictures of this place, but I never thought I’d be out here!”

Sharp, rocky ridges abruptly pierced the ocean’s surface, creating a raw, untouched wilderness of craggy peaks and arches. Thousands upon thousands of nesting seabirds encrusted every possible foothold, filling the air with a noisy cacophony of screeching cries. A small pebbled beach hosted a colony of harbor seals, eyeing us nervously as we bobbed in the relatively calm waters.

Three heads burst into the bright sunshine, and my heart leapt with relief, “Nixie!”

Her tinkling laugh filled the air, and she swam over to embrace me, nearly knocking me off my board and into the water.

“Sister! I wanted you to come, and you came!”

I smiled and sighed, finally convinced it was really over. Just as I had hoped, the resilience that Nerissa had shown was shared by her child. Nixie seemed happy, the same as she ever was. If her brush with captivity had scarred her in any way, it didn’t show.

I hated to bring it up, but I had to, “Did you tell all the sisters about the boats and the tricks they use?”

“Yes Marina,” the three of them chimed in at once.

“We had a council meeting!” Nixie said excitedly, “I saw many sisters!”

“They will not trick us again,” Nerissa added solemnly.

Almost as soon as the mermaids arrived, the harbor seals dove into the water, surrounding us with an army of bobbing heads. Playful and relaxed, they behaved like larger versions of the sea otters we’d seen earlier. Ethan and I struggled to stay upright when a couple of the bolder ones tried to haul up on our surfboards.

“Could we go surfing now?” I asked.

“I know a place!” Nerissa trilled, and within a few moments we had been towed out to the north side of the island chain.

“Check out that break!” Ethan said in awe. “I wonder why nobody boats out to surf here.”

Fifteen foot waves were surging every few minutes, beautifully formed and frighteningly large. I watched them peeling majestically from one side to another, and excitement started building in the pit of my stomach.

“These are prime great white feeding grounds,” I told him. “Very dangerous waters.”

He looked wide eyed at the mysterious depths, smiling back up at me, “I guess I came with the right group then.”

We took turns getting towed out on wave after spectacular wave, surfing with wild abandon. When we got tired, I asked Lorelei to take us back to the quiet cove, where Ethan and I sat up on our boards, taking in the view and resting. Lorelei started to play with the seals again.

Nixie seemed particularly curious about Ethan, circling around him repeatedly to get a view from every angle. I could see she was making him nervous.

“What’s she doing?” he asked me.

“She’s curious about you,” I told him. A little too curious, I thought. She seemed drawn to him, and it occurred to me that she might be imprinting on humans. Maybe bringing Ethan around her was a mistake.

“Nixie,” I warned her, “Not all people are as nice as this one.”

“I know, Marina,” she rolled her eyes sarcastically, exactly like a snarky little mermaid version of Cruz. She flipped her tail in the air before going back to play with the seals.

“Oh!” Nerissa suddenly exclaimed, “I have something!” Her eyes flew open wide, and she disappeared underwater, her fin slapping the surface as she dove. After a few minutes she returned, flopping a soggy leather bag onto my board.

“What is it?” Ethan asked.

“It’s my purse.” I held it up, barely recognizing it.

“Purrse.” Nerissa repeated.

“How did she get it?” Ethan asked.

“Paul threw it over the cliff,” I said, looking inside it. Given the mermaid’s obsession with the detritus of human civilization, it made perfect sense that she would have retrieved it.

“Better check your wallet,” Ethan muttered, tongue in cheek, “I hear they can’t be trusted.”

“They are kinda light fingered,” I replied with a laugh.

Nerissa remembered something else, “Oh!” She dove again, coming back up waving a gun around. Ethan’s eyes flew open, and he reeled back.

“It’s okay,” I told him, “It’s empty.”

I took the gun from her and popped out the clip. Sure enough, it was bullet-less, just as Paul had rendered it; I remembered the look on his face when I tried to shoot him. How odd it was to think that being shot would have been a kinder fate than the one he met just a few hours later.

If he’d only left me alone, he’d still be alive.

“Is that your gun?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah,” I said morosely, “I thought it would make me safe… A lot of good it did though.” It occurred to me that the gun was symbolic of my stubborn insistence on self-reliance; a positive trait that I somehow always managed to take too far. I drew back my arm and flung the gun as far as I could throw it.

“I guess I never really needed it,” I said.

I opened the purse and pulled out the ruined Taser, handing it to Lorelei, “For your collection.”

She held it up like it was a precious object, turning it around in her hand. When I pulled out my sodden wallet I smiled up at Ethan.

“At least I have my driver’s license back.”

I took the ammunition clips out of my purse, and emptied the bullets one by one. We watched them twisting and twirling as they tumbled down into the clouded depths.

Ethan maneuvered his board closer to me, taking my hand and squeezing it sympathetically, “So, you’re not going to be packing heat anymore.”

I smiled, leaning towards him, “Only for you… only for you.” We met each other halfway for a soft kiss on the gently rolling sea.

I felt the prickly sensation of being watched, and withdrew from Ethan to see all three mermaids staring at us. Nerissa came close, taking my hand and inspecting my sparkling engagement ring. Lorelei swam up to join her, laughing with delight as she held up her hand to capture the beams of light bouncing from the facets.

Nixie watched them, nodding wisely, “That’s for scraping things.”

I laughed, telling Ethan what she’d said.

He looked serious, “I’m glad it came in handy.”

I studied it closely. The ring was the catalyst that set a series of events into motion, just as my necklace had done a few months before. “Funny,” I mused, “All the things you give me end up bringing me back to you.”

“I’ll have to keep giving you jewelry,” Ethan said seriously.

I smiled wryly at him, “That’s not what I meant.”

I couldn’t help wondering. There was definitely a pattern there, but what did it mean? I was a scientist’s daughter, and I could understand the desire to know– to experiment, measure and quantify. But there were some things that simply could not be explained by science. Even the unpredictability of muse magic couldn’t explain it fully.

It had to be love, and love alone. Ethan’s gifts represented his hard work and sacrifice, but most of all, his love. It was love that made my mother give up her life to present me to my father, and love that made Abby struggle to raise Cruz on her own. If I didn’t love Ethan, I wouldn’t even be here; love was the only thing that enabled me to resist the irresistible siren song of the sea.

Evie was right– love was the most powerful thing in the world.

The afternoon breeze picked up, making the seabirds hovering above us look like they were hanging on a wire. Wind whipped my hair around my face, making it hard to catch a breath. I remembered that we were supposed to be at Dutch and Abby’s soon.

“We better go now,” I said. It was the first time I could remember wanting to leave before I was thoroughly exhausted, and that had to be a good sign.

After we got home, Ethan and I rinsed our wetsuits out together, hanging them out to dry side by side.

“We have about an hour before we have to get going to Abby’s. I’ll take my shower first,” I told him when we stepped inside. I started towards the bathroom.

“Wait a sec!” he exclaimed, stopping me in my tracks. “That’s not very green… and I know you wouldn’t want to be wasteful.”

I turned to look into his laughing eyes.

His brow furrowed thoughtfully, “Don’t you think we should conserve water?”

I ran down the hall squealing with laughter, Ethan hot on my heels.





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