by Kell Andrews
see it."
Coral hesitated, looking over the waves, and he grabbed her hand. Her fingers were oily and gritty, but so were his. He tugged gently, and she followed him, dropping his hand to extend her arms as she balanced over the slick rocks.
Before they made it to the end of the jetty, the lifeguard stood next to Pearl, scowling at them — Colum in particular.
"You know better," the lifeguard said. "The jetty's off limits."
"Yep," Colum said, smiling with narrow eyes. “I know.” He crouched, scrubbed his hands in the sand and rinsed them in a tidal pool at the base of the jetty. Coral did the same.
"We won't do it again,” she said, flicking the water from her fingers. “Sorry.”
The lifeguard turned and jogged back to the stand, as if he had won.
The three children didn’t move. Coral thought she saw a large black shape, a flipper or a back that belonged to something far bigger the baby had been, raising a swirl of white foam over the gray-green water out beyond the jetty. She blinked and the creature was gone, if it had even been there. But the mermaid they found was real. She had touched it. Its fishy musk still filled her nostrils.
"We better head back," Coral said at last.
"We'd better," Colum said, looking at his dirty hands, then letting them swing by his sides as they walked in a row. When they came to Colum's white bucket, he glanced inside, then gave it a push, emptying it as it tipped. The water joined the sea, creatures scrabbling and digging themselves under the sand.
"We're leaving today," Coral said when they started walking again. Colum lurched crookedly beside her, lugging the empty bucket.
"You'll be back," Colum said, as if he knew everything. Coral wished it were true, but he didn’t even know her real name. She decided to fix the one thing she could.
“Caroline,” she said. “My real name is Caroline.”
“Huh,” he said, looked at her from under his bangs. “Mind if I still call you Coral? I’m used to it.”
So she stayed Coral until her mom appeared at the head of the boardwalk with an overflowing car idling behind her. Coral and Pearl’s mother waved her arm at the shoulder, shouting into the wind to call Caroline and Pauline back to their own world.
Later, all that fall and winter, Caroline remembered the mermaid game and how it turned real. And then she was Coral again, holding her pieces of sea glass up to the thin light, promising each one, “I’ll be back.”
About The Mermaid Game
Thank you so much for reading The Mermaid Game. This story was inspired by Hurricane Sandy, my own experiences, and a little bit of fantasy. If you like it, please write a review or tell a friend. To read more about the events and places in the story, including Shark and Minnow, a nonfiction essay that inspired The Mermaid Game, visit https://www.kellandrews.com/mermaid.
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Deadwood by Kell Andrews
Sometimes a lucky ritual becomes a curse.
Seventh-graders Martin and Hannah must lift a curse on an ancient tree before dark magic takes their whole town down with it.
Deadwood is out now from Spencer Hill Press!
Suspenseful eco-mystery for ages 9 and up, available as an ebook and paperback from online retailers and through bookstores and libraries near you.
Locate a copy at https://www.kellandrews.com/deadwood.
Contact Kell Andrews
I’d love to hear what you think! Write a review or contact me at https://www.kellandrews.com, on Twitter at @kellandrewsPA or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kellandrewswriter.
