Fins

by Ashley L. Knight

  “Good heaven’s no! I haven’t had any cosmetic procedures done, honey. It’s been a while since you saw me. Maybe you just don’t remember what I looked like a few years ago.”

  “I remember just fine, Mom.” I stabbed my salad and shoveled it into my mouth. There was something fishy going on. I could just feel it. Mom shifted in her seat and crossed her arms on the table.

  “Okay. There are just a few things I don’t think you could handle hearing.”

  “I can handle everything just fine,” I objected, nearly spitting out a spinach leaf.

  “Oh really? Like you handled the news of Naira?”

  She had me there.

  She continued. “I love you honey, but I just wish you’d be happy for me and enjoy your vacation.”

  I gritted my teeth and swallowed. Okay, I’d leave it at that. For now.

  When we finished, or rather, when I finished, we drove back to the island. Noticing an enticing little store on the edge of the ocean, I asked Mom about it and she pulled into the parking lot.

  “Let’s not be too long,” she said, holding the glass door for me as we entered.

  The shop was filled with anything and everything to do with the sea. Christmas balls made from seashells, dolphin and turtle key rings, dried seaweed mounted in glass, cups made from conch shells – everything and anything. Mom made her way around the shelves of mother of pearl silverware and I decided to look at the jewelry.

  Scanning the display cases filled with pearls, gold tablets, and coral, a lovely pendant caught my eye. It was a large, emerald cut, deep turquoise blue stone. It was just bigger than a quarter.

  “That’s a beauty,” a scratchy voice cut through the silence. I looked up to see a weathered face peering up at me. “It’s been here for years.”

  I looked back down at the stone. “Why hasn’t it sold?”

  The ancient lady cocked her head to the side, looking me up and down.

  “The right person hasn’t come along. I don’t just sell my things to anyone, you know.”

  I nearly laughed. “This is a store, isn’t it? Don’t you want to make money?”

  She opened the jewelry case. “I’m not into making money, love, rather putting the right things with the right people.” The rock was huge in her shriveled hand. “Sometimes I even give things away to the right person.” She dropped it into my open hand.

  It nearly took my breath away.

  “It’s a blue topaz. Probably the most beautiful I’ve ever seen,” she continued. “It’s yours.”

  Suddenly, Mom snatched it out of my hands.

  “No!” She said and then hastily added, “We’ll buy it, Geiruna.”

  “Nonsense,” Geiruna waved Mom off and placed her hand on her hip. “She can have it as a gift.”

  “How very kind,” Mom said, though I couldn’t hear any gratefulness in her tone, “but I’d still prefer to buy it. How much?”

  Geiruna narrowed her eyes. “Five thousand.”

  “Five thousand?” I shrieked. “For a topaz?”

  “Well, it was free.”

  “I’ll give you a thousand,” Mom said.

  “Forty-five.”

  “Two.”

  “Four.”

  “Twenty-five.”

  “It’s ok,” I interrupted. “I don’t want it anymore!” But I was ignored.

  “Four.”

  “Geiruna, you’re not being very fair.” Mom was getting mad.

  “Thirty-five,” Geiruna relented.

  “Three thousand, that’s the final offer.”

  Geiruna eyed me. “Done.”

  I could have puked. Three thousand dollars for a topaz?

  “Mom, honestly, I don’t want it!”

  “I think you can throw in a chain along with that.” Mom nodded toward a strong-looking silver chain with a toggle clasp. Reluctantly, Geiruna pulled the chain down and wrapped the pendant and chain in white paper.

  I took Mom aside. “Please don’t buy it – it’s way too expensive and I was just looking!”

  “We have to buy it,” she said.

  “No, we don’t!” I pressed and she held up her hand.

  “Morgandy, we’ll talk about this in a minute, ok? Now let me buy it.”

  And it was done. We walked out of the store with a small bag that held the beautiful necklace apparently worth thousands of dollars.

  I followed Mom as she made her way through a small park to the beach. Kicking off her shoes and hiking her dress up to her thighs, she waded into the water. I sat down next to her shoes and watched her. I didn’t know what to do. I hadn’t wanted the necklace that badly. Now I felt guilty. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy wearing it.

  Pulling my knees up to my chest, I lay my arms on my knees and rested my head on my arms. Mom was standing in the water looking out to the sea. She seemed lost in thought.

  After what seemed a good fifteen minutes, I waded in next to her. I took her hand in mine.

  “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  “Don’t be, Morgandy,” she was still gazing out to sea. “It was well worth it.”

  “I don’t think it’s worth that much money.”

  She turned toward me and held my face in her hands. “I would’ve paid a million dollars for that rock.”

  “What?” I was incredulous. “Why on earth would you do that?”

  The wind caught her hair and lifted it up, swirling it about her. She looked so similar to the mermaid statue in her bedroom. She reached up and caught her hair, pulled it down, twisting it until it was in a corded pony tail.

  “Geiruna never gives anything away without a price. If you buy it, then you don’t owe her anything.”

  “Why didn’t we just leave? We didn’t have to buy it at all.”

  “Then we would’ve insulted her and sometimes that’s worse than owing her a favor.”

  “Just who the heck is she?” I asked. “This all sounds too weird!”

  “Morgandy, there’s a reason I asked you to come and spend a few weeks here. There’s a lot I need to tell you and I hope you’ll listen and try to understand. So far, you’ve just gotten angry, so it doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence that you’ll try to be fair.”

  I looked down into the water. It was dark – filled with sand the waves were churning up. She was right. Come to think about it, she had always been right about things. I felt a bit ashamed.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. She heard and smiled.

  “Let’s go sit on the beach and have a chat.”

  We walked out of the water and up the beach to where we’d left our things. Mom sat down, crossed her legs, and faced me. She took my hands in hers.

  “The world I live in is much different from yours and your Dad’s, Morgandy.”

  I almost spoke but decided against it.

  “You’re seventeen now and some changes are going to start to happen.”

  Yeah, hormones and all that crap. I’d already been through it.

  She continued. “These changes are going to be much different from the normal changes that humans go through.”

  Humans? She was speaking like they were a different species.

  “I want to be here to help you along the way. You have already started to notice a few odd things happening. You’ve never been able to figure out why it is you’ve had this ability to know when things are up – when people aren’t being truthful or a situation is about to happen. You also attract odd humans. This has been all your life, right?”

  I nodded. She changed the subject.

  “Have your legs started hurting at all?”

  “Um, no…” I frowned.

  “They will. You must tell me the instant it happens. There’s so much more to tell you.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, for instance, Geiruna. Her name means spear of wisdom and you can take the spear part quite literally. She is old and wise but she is also cunning and you have to be careful around her. Our family has never owed her anything and
she would like that to be different. That’s why I had to pay for your necklace. She would gladly take your soul if she could.”

  I couldn’t stop myself.

  “Take my soul? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? We aren’t from a different world, Mom. We don’t have supernatural powers and turn into fairies or vampires or anything. She can’t take a soul. Do you know how crazy you sound?”

  “Yes,” she answered. Unwrapping the stone and chain, she threaded the necklace onto the pendant.

  “I don’t want you to feel guilty about wearing this, Morgandy. I would’ve bought it for you anyway. I was watching you – you’ve always loved blue stones.” She smiled and reached up toward my neck. “I bought this for you because I love you so much and I know you’ll take good care of it.”

  When she was finished, the pendant hung perfectly just above the middle of my chest. I was surprised at how heavy it was.

  “It is stunning on you.” Mom smiled lovingly and hugged me.

  “Thank you,” I started to say, but her smile stopped me from saying anything else. We both looked out to the sea. I felt a shiver up my back. A black fin cut through the water just a few yards from the beach. Instantly, Mom stood.

  “We have to go home. Now.”

  “Mom, it’s just a shark.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “No!” Mom’s cry pierced through the house. She’d asked me to stay in my room while she found out what was going on. Her cry brought goose bumps to my skin and I wasn’t waiting around anymore. Diving through my bedroom door, running past the pool, and flinging open the living room doors, I came across her lying on the floor in Tammer’s arms.

  “What’s wrong?” I screamed and ran to them. Tammer looked up at me, his handsome face pained. “Has she been hurt?” I yelled at him.

  “No, she’s not hurt.” Gathering her into his arms, he stood and faced me. “Please stay here. I’m going to put her to bed. I’ll be right back.”

  “No!” I cried and Mom held up a feeble hand.

  “Honey, please do as he says,” she said weakly and pushed her face into Tammer’s chest.

  I started pacing. Something was drastically wrong and it obviously involved Mom. I had never heard her like that. She was mournful and it chilled me to the bone.

  One of Tammer’s housekeepers brought me a glass of water.

  “No thanks,” I said. The last thing on my mind was eating or drinking.

  “I’ll take that.” Tammer strode up to her, taking the elegant goblet in his hand. “Thank you,” he dismissed her.

  “Morgan, I’ve got to tell you something. It’d be better if your mother told you, but she’s too distraught.” He plopped down onto the couch. “Do you want to sit?”

  “No, just tell me what’s going on.”

  “It’s your father.”

  I already knew. “He’s dead, isn’t he?” I prayed I was wrong.

  Tammer nodded. “He had a heart attack.”

  I dropped down beside him, the pillows bouncing. A loud ringing started in my ears and I stared into the hurricane lamp on the coffee table. He couldn’t be dead! My dad was strong and unstoppable. Something as stupid as a blocked artery couldn’t kill him. I should never have left.

  “Morgan,” Tammer’s voice snapped me back to reality. “What can I do for you?”

  “Let me see my mom,” I said.

  He stood and held out his hand. Like a little girl, I took it and he led me to their bedroom.

  She lay in the middle of the bed, sobbing. I climbed next to her and lay facing her. Her shoulders shivered and her skin looked a sickly green.

  “Morgandy he’s dead! He’s dead!” She repeated. “It’s all my fault!”

  “No, it’s not. He had a heart attack. It wasn’t your fault.”

  “I never should have left him.”

  I didn’t know what to say. She was speaking nonsense. I just lay next to her as she cried. I couldn’t cry. She cried for the both of us. Eventually, she cried herself to sleep.

  Slowly, I slid out of bed, closed the door, and went outside. I could see Tammer through the giant windows. He was swimming laps in the pool.

  I sat down at the pool’s edge and watched him. He was a graceful swimmer. The water glided around him without breaking into too many ripples. Staring into the water, I started to think about Dad again. What was going to happen now? I was going to have to move here with Mom and Tammer. And my baby sister. What was going to happen to the ranch back home? Who would take care of everything? How was I going to do all this?

  A flash of silver woke me out of my daze. Tammer was treading water a few feet in front of me. For a second I could have sworn his eyes were lighter – almost white.

  “I’m sorry, Morgan.” He swam toward me. Holding onto the edge of the pool, he ran his hand through his hair. “I know this seems a bit strange of me – swimming at a time like this, but honestly, it’s the only thing that brings me back to reality.”

  I was quiet.

  “I’m so sorry about your father.” He shook his head. When I didn’t say anything, he hesitated. “I lost my father when I was eighteen.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “He was murdered.”

  That woke me up. “Murdered?” I asked, stunned.

  “Yeah,” he pulled himself out of the water and sat next to me. “People in the salvaging business can be dangerous. They said he was on their turf, which is nuts because you can’t claim turf in the sea, especially when it’s in international waters. But he found a haul that was worth a lot of money and they decided they wanted it. Both of my brothers and father were killed in that fight.”

  He lifted his arm slightly, revealing a huge scar I hadn’t noticed in the three days I’d been there. It ran from his back around his side down to his hip bone.

  “Spear gun,” he said in a monotone. “It shattered four ribs and punctured my liver. I nearly died. It was your mom who saved me.” Abruptly, he stopped talking.

  “My mom,” I said slowly. “How’s that possible? I thought you guys met just a couple of years ago.”

  A look of anxiety filled his face and he looked at his hands.

  I finally blew and slammed my hand down on the tile. “What the hell is going on? What’s with all this secrecy? You guys act like you’re from another world. Why won’t you tell me the truth?”

  “There’s way too much happening right now. We will tell you.” He stood and offered his hand to help me up. I ignored it. “I promise we’ll tell you.” He grabbed his towel from a chair and walked into the house.

  I swore. This was ridiculous! Dad was dead, my life was in an uproar and to top it off, they were treating me like I was a child. Huge secrets were being kept from me and I’d had it. I felt like I was in a fairy tale. I dipped a toe into the water and watched the ripples radiate outward until they disappeared. Sighing, I stood to go back to my room and then screamed in agony. A sharp pain drove down through both of my legs into my feet, taking my breath away. I grabbed my thighs, feeling faint from the pain and when a second wave of intense fire convulsed through my legs, I collapsed into the pool.

  I tried to fight my way to the surface, but it was as if my legs were paralyzed. I needed to breathe. I tried, but I coughed and sucked in water. Fear gripped me. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, until my feet touched the bottom and I began to feel sleepy and relaxed. Then, strong hands gripped my arm and I was lifted up through the water at an incredible speed. Darkness overtook me, and I drifted away with it.

  Dreams are funny things. Sometimes, I think they’ve got some great meaning, and other times they’re so weird the only thing they prove is you’ve got one heck of an imagination. I had to be dreaming. Are you supposed to think that when you’re dreaming?

  I was standing at the edge of the steps that led into the sea. The water was beautifully clear. The sandy ocean floor was littered with sea cucumbers and starfish a good eight feet below the surface. The seaw
ater felt like bathwater and I bent to touch the surface with my fingertips. A shadow passed over the sand and I was gazing into the face of an angel.

  An impossibly handsome man appeared, suspended in the water, looking up at me. There was something so familiar about him, but I couldn’t place him. Then I realized this was the man who’d appeared to me once in a while in my dreams as a child.

  His short black hair framed his angular, tanned face and his deep blue eyes pierced my heart. A rush of emotions overtook me and I fell instantly in love. I think it was love. I’ve never been in love before, but this seemed like what I’d always read.

  He wasn’t wearing a shirt. My eyes greedily took in his beautifully toned chest and arms. He had a swimmer’s body. I could see his abs contract as he breathed. Breathed? Dare I look lower? I did. Yes, this was most definitely a dream. Just below his hip bones his muscle led to blue - a blue tail. No legs, just a dark blue fishtail. He was a merman.

  I didn’t care. I wasn’t even surprised. He cocked his head to one side and continued to watch me. I didn’t dare look away - afraid if I did, he’d disappear. He reached up with his hand and about a foot below my outstretched fingers, stopped. Clearly, this was my move. I reached into the water and put my hand in his. Gently, his hand surrounded mine and he drew me into the water with him.

  I felt safe and warm, as if the water wasn’t there, but we were instead floating in the air. His placed his other arm on the small of my back and pulled me in close to him. My heart racing, I held onto his arms, feeling the strength in them. Intense energy and power radiated from him, enveloping me. He held me close and time seemed to stop.

  “Morgan,” he said softly, in more of a realization than anything else. I had an overwhelming urge to kiss him, to melt into his embrace and leave everything behind to be with him. Those deep blue eyes searched my face and he lightly ran a finger down the bridge of my nose. It sent shivers down my spine.

  “Thayde,” I said, as if I knew him. I did know him. It was as if I’d always known him. He smiled and then pulled away from me.

  “We’ll be together soon,” he said and slowly disappeared, melting into the water.

  “No!” I started to swim to him but he was gone. “Come back!” I called, reaching into nothingness. A white pilot whale appeared and began pushing me to the surface, back to the steps. I had no clue why, until my air ran out and I started to cough as water tried to force its way into my lungs. The pretty whale gently flipped me out of the water with its snout and the second I hit the top step, I felt a sharp pain in my chest.