by Susan Fodor
"That cheerleader movie you all forced me to watch last time?" Tim moaned.
"I can’t believe you're complaining about watching cheerleaders," Dylan insulted.
"There was a lot of talking, none of the girls kissed, and not enough dancing around in tiny outfits," Tim complained.
"That brunette, Eliza Dushku—she was so hot in Bring it On and in Dollhouse." Jaimie sighed. "I'd totally turn gay for her."
It was not an uncommon discussion during movie marathons to discuss which celebrity we’d turn gay for. It was the type of hypothetical conversation we loved to wade into; despite the fact that we all knew we couldn’t choose to be gay.
"I prefer Scarlett Johansson," I added.
"She's really pretty," Tammy agreed. "I'd totally turn gay for her."
"Brad Pitt was totally yummy," Daniel said sarcastically. "I'd do him."
"No, no," Tim replied with animated ardor, "Zac Efron is so much hotter!"
"I just can't choose." Dylan sighed with obvious sarcasm.
"Ha, ha," Jaimie replied sarcastically, "nice to see the ladies are the only ones comfortable enough in our sexuality to admire our own gender."
"It's easier for you to admire your own gender," Tim replied. "Girls are all beautiful and soft...”
"Awwww, you're so sweet," Jaimie cooed, giving him a hug.
"I'm just saying, even ugly girls are hotter than guys." Tim shrugged.
"Not so sweet," I commented, before everyone burst out laughing.
During the break between movies, the boys set about putting the mattresses on the floor in the home theatre so we could all stay together.
Threats were uttered against those who might dare to fall asleep first, the general consensus being that a single eyebrow would be shaved. Fortunately, the threats were never carried out. That minor fear of losing a brow kept most of us awake all night anyway.
Since Julia and Dylan had been a new addition to the event, we didn’t have a mattress for them. While the others prepared snacks or made beds, Daniel and I ventured into the garage for mattress retrieval duty. We located it quickly since it had only been delivered days earlier and not been set up in a guest room because the frame was still unfinished.
“This thing is huge.” I puffed, my breath forming steam clouds. I tried to lift with my legs but it felt like carrying an oversized dumbbell.
When we laid the bulky white mattress wrapped in plastic, against the house to close the garage door, I leaned against it for a rest.
“Should I get Tim?” Daniel mocked playfully.
“Only if you intend to do this with Tim,” I replied, pulling him into a kiss.
“Tim’s a bit too stubbly for my liking.” Daniel laughed.
Tim had been growing facial hair before any of the girls got training bras; he’d started school later than the rest of us, so he had a head start with puberty. Tim had black hair and olive skin with brown eyes; while Jaimie found him irresistible, I preferred Daniel’s blond hair and sea-blue eyes.
“You’re so pretty,” I said contentedly.
“That makes me feel so masculine,” Daniel joked, leaning in for another kiss.
Daniel’s muscled arms encircled me protectively. Suddenly he became unnaturally still. “Did you hear something?” he asked, looking around and searching for a distant sound.
I stopped and strained my ears. I could hear the sea rolling onto the sand and the faint splashing of something walking in the waves.
“It’s probably just a seal,” I told him.
Daniel’s jaw clenched as he turned to look toward the sea. “I’ll just go check it out.”
“I’m coming with you,” I replied protectively; unwilling to let him go running off into the dark alone.
He looked ready to disagree with me, but the sound was approaching the house and Daniel began to run toward the steps that led down to the sand. I followed him, pulling at the waist of my pajamas so the hems wouldn’t drag along the ground.
Daniel jumped into the cold sand and took four huge steps toward the sea before I bounded into the back of him.
He held his hand up and pushed me to stand behind him.
“What do you want?” he demanded with such authority that I was almost scared to see who he was talking to.
“Is that any way to greet your mother?” an unfamiliar melodic voice replied.
another mother
“Hello, Mother,” Daniel greeted coldly. “Now, what are you doing here?”
Daniel’s words rolled around my head like a foreign language, incomprehensible. Sophia was in the house; she’d been hovering to protect our virtue since we’d arrived home. Why would she be on the beach, alone in the dark when the house was full of rambunctious teenagers?
I peeked around Daniel to see a tall woman with silver-blond hair cascading down her naked body. She looked to be in her mid-forties with the face of a soap opera star; she was strikingly beautiful but cold as an iceberg. I’d never seen anyone more terrifying in my life.
“I’m here for you,” she snapped impatiently, before seeing me. She arched a perfect brow in interest.
I forgot that it was the middle of the night in autumn, with the waves rolling up onto the sand, all I could see was the mesmerizing woman before me. Her interest in me was like a drug that made me want to follow her.
“I’m not ready to return,” Daniel replied levelly. “You shouldn’t be here; you could jeopardize everything.”
“Is that her?” she demanded, pushing past Daniel and grabbing my face. Her icecold hands froze my face, and bit into my skin like a vice clamp. In the back of my mind I knew I should run, that she was dangerous, but up close she was even more mesmerizing. Her cobalt eyes were bewitching and her voice was hypnotic. She looked at me like a cat, toying with a mouse.
She cursed. “Reef, she’s an air breather!” She pushed me away, the disgust in her eyes stinging me.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Daniel replied, pulling me from her grasp and folding me in his arms turning my face into his chest. My fear made me numb. The wonder of her voice compelled me to stay.
“Neither should you,” she snapped. “The city needs you, and you’re here with that mouth breather.”
I felt like I was in a nightmare, where I couldn’t speak or move. I could barely breathe; I just wanted to look at the beautiful woman that Daniel called Mother. Daniel held onto me fiercely, as I turned in his arms to survey her further.
“She is my Other,” Daniel said significantly, giving me a firm squeeze.
“So she’s changed and was prevented from returning home?” the woman asked, slightly appeased.
“No,” Daniel replied quietly. “She hasn’t yet changed.” His voice was heavy with disappointment; I turned to look into his handsome face. The moon reflected a sorrow that I’d never seen before. Deep down, I knew it was because I wasn’t what he needed. My failure tore at my heart, but the beautiful woman’s presence stopped the pain from taking over.
“This is why you’re delayed!” she screeched, her cobalt eyes filling with fury. “The selkies sent spies to Atlantis to infiltrate us, and you are here waiting for this airbag to turn. How do you even know it’s her? She’s just a human, or worse, a selkie trying to fool you.”
The accusation cracked in the air like lightning, Daniel’s body stiffened with indignation.
“She is not a selkie,” Daniel replied, hard as iron.
“Don’t clutch at her so,” she said, exasperated. “I’m not going to do anything to her, and she won’t remember any of this as soon as I return to the sea.”
“I don’t trust that you wouldn’t try to force her to turn,” Daniel replied steadily. “I know there are those who have tried.”
“And the girls were drowned in the process, blah, blah, blah,” she replied, bored, and flicking her hand with disinterest. “Reef, you have responsibilities; you need to return to the city. There will be an execution of the spies, and it cannot be finalized till you return; the whole royal fami
ly must sign a death decree.”
Daniel removed an arm from around me to run his fingers through his hair, frustration coursing through his body. I could feel the tension hanging between all of us.
“I can’t leave her here,” he said, his resolve weakening. “What if something happens to her?”
“If she’s your Other, she will be fine,” the woman said, emphasizing “if.” She wanted to take Daniel and be rid of me and my weakness. I wanted Daniel to stay with me, and protect me from her.
"I saw her light on the beach," Daniel stated, unmoved by her doubt.
"That's why you're here living like one of them." She spat the word them, like it left a bad taste in her mouth.
"Be careful," Daniel warned. "When she is queen your words may ring in her ears."
"I've said nothing about her." She smiled, cruelty tainting her entire demeanor.
I shuddered, causing the spell she had over me to weaken.
"It's cold," I said, my voice sounding far away. "I want to go inside."
My mouth felt full of marshmallows and my skin felt sensitive to the wind. Being so close to the beautiful woman made me feel fragile.
"Come on, let's get the mattress inside," Daniel said, turning me toward the house.
"You're not staying!" she replied in horror, grabbing his arm. Her grip was so strong that Daniel flinched at her touch.
"I won't leave Mya," Daniel replied resolutely.
"I've heard of the vapid little mermaids becoming enamored with land dwellers, but this is preposterous," she hissed, her demeanor animalistic. "You know we don't buy into the whole 'merfolk are soulless creatures who need to find true love with a human to achieve redemption' thing anymore."
She argued with fierceness that I’d never seen in a human; I nestled into Daniel’s chest for safety.
"That's easy for you to say; your Other arrived immediately," Daniel replied, his voice tight.
"They usually arrive within a few months of each other, it's true," the beauty replied, "but it was more than two years...”
"That's why I came to find her," Daniel defended.
"She's human and of limited use till she turns." She sighed, trying to find an argument to make Daniel leave with her. "Maybe she already turned and her family kept her; now she’s just a domestic fish...”
"Mother, I have warned you," Daniel replied menacingly.
"Fine." She sighed, stretching her hands in front of her, revealing webbing between her fingers. "Send her in, and let’s return home."
"No," Daniel stated, dragging me another step toward the house. "I'm going to wait for her to turn."
"You don't know if she will; she might just be a regular run-of-the-mill human," the woman argued. "We need you; the whole kingdom is in uproar. The selkie king continues to send messengers demanding the return of his spies. The finfolk want to attack seal rock ... We need you. Your father is too weak to lead an army...”
"I understand, but I'm staying," Daniel said, hoarse from the strain of pulling away from the enchantment that seemed to follow the woman.
"If you insist on this madness, then stay," she spat, "but know that there is a parley before the next full moon. You must attend, or all will be lost."
"I will be there," he agreed grudgingly.
"Farewell." She smiled sweetly, a threatening edge to her voice. "Take care of your Other." She turned and walked into the waves until they reached her waist. Then she dove into the water, arching her back like a dolphin and disappearing into the inky ocean.
My brain felt foggy as I stumbled up the dark beach. I carried the mattress inside dazed.
"Took you long enough!" Jaimie teased, stuffing a handful of popcorn into her mouth. "Did you try it out before you brought it in?"
"Something like that," Daniel replied distracted.
I slumped into a plush tan leather theatre seat, pushed up against the wall. My heart felt frozen, the room was too bright, everyone was too loud. My mind was full of unshakable static. The words of the cobalt eyed woman skipped through my head like a scratched CD.
My head lolled onto the back of the chair, so that my face was parallel to the ceiling. Daniel’s house had no cobwebs, what kind of person had a house without a single cobweb? That should have been enough to warn me that he was some kind of mythical creature.
"Are you OK?" Jaimie asked, interrupting my puzzled internal musing.
Jaimie put her hand to my forehead, the way she used to when we were playing doctor's surgery as children.
I nodded, knowing that I was not ok, but not knowing how to explain the phenomena of a naked woman on the seashore calling herself Daniel’s mother. There was no way to explain to Jaimie what I’d seen, not without sounding crazy. Maybe that was it; I was having a mental breakdown complete with hallucinations.
Seeing the blank look in my eyes, Jaimie immediately sprung to my defense.
"What happened?" she accused Daniel, her hands on her hips.
"The mattress must have been heavier than we thought," Daniel replied sounding guilty. "I should have got Tim to help me."
Jaimie was appeased by the explanation and offered to get me a drink. So quickly her wrath turned to service. It never ceased to amaze me how often people took Daniel’s word for things without question. Even when his explanations were incomplete or illogical, people always believed him. Like he’d dazzled them into helping him. All the kids at school did anything he wanted. Geebong High had become a pleasant place; that alone was evidence of some kind of magical interference.
Daniel was doing something to my friends, to me. Something was not right, seeing that woman on the beach was the epiphany that brought all the pieces together. There had to be more to Daniel’s disappearance than just a skin disease. He’d been gone for two years; he had to have been with that woman. Why would he leave his family for her? Had she kidnapped him? Was she Daniel’s biological mother?
The room spun with unanswered questions. As the lights went out and the next movie started, I felt like I was falling. The ground coming up to meet me, threatened to break my heart into a million pieces.
I mumbled something about a toilet break and locked myself into the bathroom. The cruel face of the beautiful woman on the beach haunted me. The months I’d spent with Daniel flicked through my mind in a blur of images.
Accepting that Daniel had contracted a disease that had caused his parents to euthanize him, seemed plausible, but that woman on the beach was something else, she wasn’t human. Her fingers were webbed, and there was something otherworldly about her. If I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed she was an actual mermaid. I sat on the toilet seat with my face in my hands. It was too much; it was crazy to think that mermaids existed, even crazier to think that I was dating one.
I pulled out my iPhone and googled, Mermaids. There were endless sites about the folklore surrounding mermaids. I’d read them all before, none had contained any hint of humans transforming into mermaids.
Maybe they were like trolls that left their offspring with humans for safekeeping and to inherit their property. That didn’t make sense; what would a sea creature need with money. Wouldn’t the sea sustain them?
My brain felt like it was being pickled as I read about the different kinds of mermaids, shape shifters, tailed or normal humans with underwater breathing capabilities. Some were considered gods, others were evil sea creatures that destroyed humans, still others were benevolent helping lost sailors.
I imagined that woman being a siren leading unsuspecting sailors to their death. I chuckled out loud as my insides felt like they were liquefying.
“This is crazy,” I breathed out loud. “I’m having a psychotic break; mermaids don’t exist, and I’m certainly not dating one.”
My brain didn’t agree with the words my mouth was saying; somewhere deep inside I knew that there was something more about Daniel. He charmed people, he was always cold, and Sophia kept reiterating how much he had changed. Till that point I had thought
Daniel had been ill and the merman diagnosis was a joke. Maybe he hadn’t been sick; maybe Daniel was a mythical sea creature.
son of the sea
I tried to act normal for the rest of the night but I was overwhelmed. My body ran on autopilot, smiling and laughing at the correct times, but my brain was tuned into the dull roar of my own thoughts.
I didn’t feel like myself till I was in my tiny room looking up at the universe of glow-in-the-dark stickers that Mum had stuck up on my ceiling. They had all but lost their luminance over the years, but their presence comforted me. I lay on my sea-themed comforter, reading the different motivational slogans plastered around my room. The ginger kitten hanging from a branch saying, “Hang in there,” did nothing to ease the churning turmoil.
An oval mirror sat on my chest of drawers, surrounded by my favorite photos. I surveyed all the pictures of my family and Jaimie and me. In the past week I had added photos of Daniel and me from a photo booth; while they fit in, I wondered if I had added them prematurely. Everyone had warned me to refrain from getting attached too soon, but I’d gone ahead and done it anyway. Now he could well be a mythical creature, out to serve my family at some mermaid’s banquet.
I couldn’t bring myself to answer the phone or call Daniel for the rest of the weekend. It wasn’t that I was avoiding him, but I was processing what had happened on the beach, and that made me withdraw from him.
Tuesday night Daniel knocked on our front door, uninvited and clearly agitated. Mum and I had reached the door together, and my heart sank when I saw him. His eyes had dark circles under them, and even though I’d only seen him a few hours ago at school, it felt like weeks ago.
“What’s wrong?” Mum asked, picking up on the strange vibe.
“I just need to talk to Mya,” he answered, noncommittally.
Mum looked decidedly worried as we retreated to my cluttered bedroom. I sat on my bed with my back against the pillows, holding my childhood soothing fish in my lap. Most kids had teddy bears, but I had a big bright clownfish that had weathered seventeen years with me and still held the key spot on my bed.
