Sirens and Scales

by Kellie McAllen

  I took a last look at the wreck, now beyond the visibility of human eyes. My siren eyes pulled the rock around the wrecks forward and sharpened the edges. A flash of movement behind the rock formation that looked like a giant chain caught my eye. A purple sheen caught the sun. Purple with dark brown stripes toward the tail fin. I knew those colors and that pattern.

  Aris was here.

  Her brown face appeared through a hole in the rocks. She looked directly at me. Her rich brown hair, floated up behind her face in a cloud. She knew that at this distance, I'd be able to see her, but the men wouldn't. The look on her face was priceless.

  You're a mermaid. What the hell are you doing in scuba gear?

  My mouth twitched and a wide grin broke out on her face, her bright white teeth stark against her skin. I couldn't help but smile back. Aris and I had spent some time traveling together during my eight years at sea. We'd explored underwater caves and blue holes off the coast of Belize, and discovered dozens of wrecks in the BVI's. Aris was from Iran originally, but hadn't been anywhere close to home in decades.

  Valdez and Nathan were waiting for me so I turned and swam toward the boat. As soon as we surfaced, Nathan pulled up his mask and spat out his respirator. "What happened, Mir? You took your mask off. You okay?"

  "Just sprung a leak," I answered, kicking off my fins and tossing them into the boat.

  Valdez helped us to board and take off our gear. He looked into my eyes. "Stinging?"

  I shook my head. "I'm okay." I looked at Nathan. "Wasn't that incredible?"

  "Oh, man! Did you see that huge eel snake out of the cannon?" Nathan went on about the shipwreck the entire boat ride back to The Red Star, and all afternoon. Which worked well for me because my thoughts kept going back to Aris. What was she doing here? Had she been looking for me, or was it just an accident?

  "Mir."

  I blinked and realized Nathan was staring at me as we stood at the door of the restaurant waiting to be seated for dinner. "What? Sorry, yes?"

  "What's going on, you've been distracted all afternoon?" Nathan put a hand on my waist.

  A man from the wait staff appeared. "You guys must be hungry after your dive today," he said in a Jamaican accent. "Did you enjoy it?"

  "It was awesome," I said, and Nathan smiled down at me. "Have you seen it?"

  "Many times. I never tire of it," he said. "Follow me to your table, please."

  Every evening, we'd been seated at a different table for dinner, and with different people. The crew wanted to encourage the guests to get to know one another. There were only 130-some people on board.

  My stomach did a little flip when we approached our table. The young red-headed woman who had caught me the night before looked up at us from the booth and smiled, a champagne flute in her hand. "Well, hello." Her brown eyes caught mine and she smiled. She spoke with an English accent. "Have a seat. Garret will be back from the loo shortly. I'm Anna, and you are?"

  Nathan and I slid into the booth and Nathan and Anna immediately struck up with the human activity I sucked at - small talk.

  Anna's eyes would dart to me every so often but I couldn't say why. I relived the night before, trying to find some hole in my command that her memory could slip through.

  My thoughts went to my father, how he seemed to be remembering things he shouldn't remember. I didn't want to sit through dinner and wonder the whole time if something might be faulty with my siren voice. I snatched the fabric napkin from my plate, placed it on my lap and waited for a break in the conversation.

  "They say she's almost three hundred years old," Nathan was saying. "I think its the coolest thing I've ever done. I mean, I grew up on the ocean, but its the North Atlantic so its not ideal for pleasure diving. Plus, who has time?"

  Anna nodded. "Well, good for you. You're braver than I. I don't mind snorkeling but anything more hard core than that and I'm outta there."

  "So, what did you get up to last night?" I blurted.

  Nathan and Anna blinked at me for a second before she answered. "Actually, last night I couldn't sleep and it was so lovely out that I stayed up late and watched the stars. Out here on the ocean, stargazing is a whole other level of incredible."

  There was no hesitancy, no awkwardness or look of confusion from her. I let out a breath and began to relax. My voice had worked. So far, anyway.

  The slender, bespectacled Garret appeared and rubbed his hands together as he slid into the booth beside Anna. "Excellent, I was wondering when we'd get seated with you two," he said. "We'll have some good craic tonight, I expect. Don't get me wrong, I love the seniors, they're hilarious, but Anna and I have been craving some dinner conversation that didn't reference kidney stones and constipation." He held a long-fingered hand out to Nathan. "We haven't been properly introduced, I'm Garret. I'm from Dublin and Anna here hails from Bath. Where are you fine folks from?"

  "East coast of Canada," Nathan said, as we shook all around.

  "Canucks," Anna said. "I think you're the only Canadians on the Star, actually. You enjoying the tall-ship experience?"

  "Yeah, we don't really want to go home," Nathan laughed. "You?"

  "Definitely. Anna here had a little bout of seasickness the first night, didn't you?" Garret elbowed Anna and she nodded and blew her cheeks out like a blowfish. "But after that, its been smooth sailing. Are you guys going to the beach party tomorrow night?"

  "The one on Tortuga, right?" Nathan said.

  "That's the one. Only one resort on the whole island. Should be a fun party."

  "Think so," Nathan looked toward me. "What do you think, Mir?"

  I nodded. "Sounds like fun."

  "It's a white party. Do you have a white dress?" Anna asked me, moving back against the booth seat as a waiter set a plate of steaming whitefish and roasted vegetables in front of her.

  "No."

  "I'll lend you one. I have a white sarong you can use." Anna said. "Have you ever worn a sarong? They're cool, you can tie them into a million different shapes..."

  I nodded and listened politely, but in the back of my mind I was thinking of Aris. Would she follow The Red Star to Tortuga? Was there something she wanted from me, or was her finding me just an accident?

  41

  Tortuga was a small island with a long stretch of beach. We were taken from the Red Star to the beach by motor boat and told they'd be there to taxi anyone back to the ship at any time. Sparkling fairy lights winked at us through the palm trees and swingy piano music floated over the wind. The music slowed to an end and was followed by applause.

  "Gershwin," said Nathan as we crossed the deep sand in bare feet. "Haven't heard this kind of music in years."

  "Gersh-who?" I asked, stepping up onto the wooden deck and stooping to put on my sandals.

  "The composer," Nathan said. "Don't you know Rhapsody in Blue, Mir?" Nathan took my hand and we wandered through the crowd toward an empty table. Low tables and benches covered in candles cast a warm yellow light on the guests. The white clothing seemed to glow blue under the moonlight.

  "Look at their clothes, Nathan!" I said.

  "Yours too," he said, looking down at the white sarong I had borrowed from Anna. She'd shown me how to make a halter dress out of it. The white fabric glowed with an ethereal blue light.

  "Wow!" It reminded me of the color and light of bioluminescent algae. I could make this same glow under my skin when the pressure of deep water got heavy enough. Humans had figured out how to mimic it, somehow. "How is this done?" I asked, awed.

  Nathan pointed to some fixtures above our heads. "Black lighting. You never did much clubbing when you were younger, did you Mir." He elbowed me and gave me a grin.

  I laughed. "Your teeth are blue, too! Do my teeth look like that?"

  "Yep. You look like you've been sucking on a glow-in-the-dark popsicle," Nathan said as we collapsed into a large glowing beanbag.

  "What a clever invention," I said, running my hands over the fabric beneath me, enjoying how dark
my skin looked by contrast. "It even looks like I have a tan." I looked up and caught Nathan staring at me, bemused. "What?"

  "Sometimes I think you must have had the most sheltered childhood possible," he said. "What did you do all those years after you ran away from home? Live in a cave?"

  I was rescued from having to answer this by shouts of our names in an Irish accent. "Nathan! Mira!"

  We looked around and spotted Garrett and Anna seated in the middle of an enormous white bean bag not far from the white piano. They had coconut drinks with tiny white umbrellas sheltering the contents. We left our bean bag chairs and joined them.

  "Bean bags and black lighting," Garrett cried as we approached. He raised his skinny arms and legs up and out like a starfish. "My life is complete. I can die a happy man."

  "We have plenty of room," Anna said. "Why don't you join us on our bean bag."

  "Sarong really looks lovely on you, Mira," said Garrett, patting the expanse of bag next to him. Anna's eyes caught on me, watching. I hesitated to sit as there wasn't quite enough room for Nathan and I to sit together.

  Anna got up and slapped Garrett on a thigh. "Move over, you big scarecrow. Let the lovebirds sit together. They're on their honeymoon, remember."

  "Ah, yes." Garrett moved over so there was enough room for Nathan and I. "You haven't tired of one another yet. Best enjoy it while you can. Ooof!" Anna thwacked him in the stomach with the back of her hand.

  A waitress dressed in a white skirt and blouse approached with two more coconut drinks. "These are courtesy of The Red Star crew." She set two coconuts on the small table at our knees. "Get you anything else?"

  We ordered some ceviche and guacamole dishes to share and by the time the food came, we'd gone through more coconut drinks and the piano music had been replaced by dance music.

  "You girls going to dance tonight?" Garrett asked, waggling his eyebrows.

  "No, I..." I began. The skin across my shoulder blades prickled with awareness and I looked over my shoulder into the palm trees.

  "Yes, and so are you," said Anna, yanking Garrett up from the bean bag with difficulty.

  With half-hearted complaints from the men, we moved onto the dance floor, which suited me fine because standing and moving around allowed me to scan the bushes and shadows behind them. The feeling of being watched intensified.

  The music slowed and Nathan pulled me close. I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my cheek to his shoulder, still watching. We rotated gently to the music. The suggestion of a face materialized in the trees beyond the deck and gooseflesh swept my skin. Aris. Her face pressed forward until the light made her recognizable. Her dark skin and dark hair made her difficult to see. We made eye contact. I gave her the subtlest nod and her face melted away into the night.

  As the slow song came to a close, I kissed Nathan and said, "I'm just going to slip off to the bathroom. Want to try the pineapple drink?"

  "Absolutely. I've never been a big fan of coconut. I'll go ask." Nathan went to the bar and I headed across the deck toward the washrooms. I passed the ladies toilet and stepped off the edge of the deck and into the sand. I went through the palm tree grove and onto the beach. The Red Star glittered with fairy lights out in the bay, and the distant hum of a taxi-boat dwindled as the crew delivered guests back to the ship. I walked down the beach. A cluster of boulders jutted out into the ocean from the beach and I approached them. The hairs on my forearms stood up.

  "Hello, Aris," I said to the shape that stepped into the moonlight from the shadow of the rocks. "Last time I saw you, we were off the coast of Belize. Did you swim around the southern tip of South America, or cross at Panama?"

  Aris' teeth and the whites of her eyes gleamed in the dark. "I swam of course. After you went north, I stayed in the Caribbean a while, and then swam around Cape Horn." Aris had a rich middle eastern accent and a deep resonant voice. She padded across the sand towards me, naked. She was as lithe and wiry as I remembered. Her dark curly hair was long and heavy with seawater, dripping water down her skin.

  I dropped my eyes deferentially as she approached. She put a fingertip to the hollow between my collarbones and I allowed her to keep it there a moment. My pulse throbbed under her finger. Aris was an elemental, and far more powerful than me. The small gesture was siren etiquette and it was all the acknowledgment she needed. She pulled me into a wet embrace, and I hugged her back.

  "Is this an accident?" I asked, drawing back.

  "Somewhat," she said. "I wasn't looking for you, but when I sensed you in the water I thought I might ask if you'd like to join me. Of course," she laughed, "that was before I saw you trussed up in diving gear and realized you were with a human party. I have never seen anything so ridiculous before."

  I smiled. "It is even more ridiculous to be the one wearing the gear. Believe me."

  "You must really love him," she said.

  "I do."

  "The big one? With the red hair?"

  I nodded. "We're married."

  "That does answer my question then," she sighed. "I congratulate you," she said, but her voice had taken on a melancholic cast.

  "You don't sound congratulatory."

  "Oh I am, I just... Know what it's like. Land cycles have been few and far between for me, but they have always been difficult. The leaving part."

  I raised my chin. "I'm not going to leave him."

  She put a hand to my cheekbone and the moonlight fell across her face, her brows drew together. She didn't believe me.

  "I won't," I said, stubbornly. The surety that I would never leave Nathan was like steel forged to my spine, every vertebrae. "I won't, Aris," I said, my voice hard.

  She was quiet for a time. Then, "I'm Polarisin, now. Not just Aris." We turned toward the waves and let the salty water lap over our toes.

  "Polarisin?" I blinked.

  "The sea has finally given me my siren name," she said.

  "Siren name..." I trailed off, confused.

  She hooked my elbow with hers. "I forget that you lost your mother so young. There was so much she didn't have time to teach you."

  My heart gave an ache at mention of my mother. Now that I was in my land-cycle, the grief of my mother's passing was never far from me.

  "One day, when you're in your salt-cycle," she explained, "you'll hear yours, too."

  "I don't know what you mean. My name is Mira."

  She shook her head. "Mira is the name your mother gave you, but all sirens are christened by the sea. It took decades for me to hear it, but I finally did." She gave a laugh. "My mother was right, it sounds like a powerful current. You know when you're not far from a hot current and you can hear it whooshing through the water. It's like that. Your name won't change completely, it'll just get... swallowed up. Surrounded by the sea. Thus, Aris to Polarisin."

  I wasn't sure what to say. This was the first I had ever heard about the sea giving a name to a mermaid. I had never heard a current whisper my name. "Congratulations?"

  She chuckled, "Thanks. And actually it's part of the reason that I wanted to talk to you before I continued on my journey. I had wanted to see if you wanted to come to the gathering with me. But, if you haven't been given your siren name yet, then I guess you won't have gotten the call."

  Call? It didn't matter. I wasn't going anywhere. "What gathering?"

  "It happens to named sirens every decade or so. We're called together for a sort of season of socialization, I think."

  "Socialization?" I said, astonished. Mermaids are either solitary, or they travel in twos, usually mother daughter pairs, but not always.

  "Hard to believe, I know. I don't quite know what to expect, this will be my first one. I was hoping for a companion, but I guess the timing is poor for you. And you're not named yet anyway."

  I made a noise of agreement. Aris was way older than me. I tried not to let it make me feel inferior, but truthfully, that's what I was - an inferior siren. I wasn't an elemental, I was barely into my twenties, and I didn't ev
en know that the sea named its sirens. I had only ever spent a week with Aris, swimming in the Caribbean and South Atlantic. She'd demonstrated a superior strength, so I could accept that she was an elemental. This naming business was new to me, though. Another thought occurred.

  "Aris, have you ever heard of a human getting his memory back?"

  "After a siren has used her voice on him?" She leaned away from me, her dark eyes wide. "No, never. It's not possible. Why?"

  "My father... I think he's starting to recall something he isn't supposed to."

  She halted us in the sand and turned to face me. Her face melted, "Ohhhhhh." She made a sound of understanding.

  "What?"

  "Your mother, what was her name?"

  "Trina."

  "She died. It's why you left home so young."

  "Yes."

  She faced me. "When the siren who has given a command dies, the command dies with her. Not at first, but it slowly fades over time. It loses its grip on the human mind it was given to."

  I took a sharp breath. Hal really was remembering. What would he do with the knowledge when his memories came free?

  "It's a rare thing," Aris said. "After all, barring accidents or tragedies, we always live longer than the humans we mystify. in the case of your mom..." She left blank air for me to fill.

  "She died of cancer."

  "I see. That couldn't have been an easy memory to face."

  She was sharp, I'd give her that. It had been one of the most difficult emotional periods of my life, the memories of my mothers death flooding back to me when I began my land-cycle. "Is there anything that can be done?"

  "Well, yes. You're alive and well, you can replace her faded commands with your own. As long as you are alive, they will hold."

  I nodded. "Thank you, Aris... Polarisin," I said. "I'm glad we ran into each other. I should be getting back to my husband. Have a safe journey to wherever this gathering is going to be."