by Susan Fodor
"Never was there a meaner women," Kerensa spat, making me jump.
"You knew her?" I asked, startled by her abrupt appearance and her menacing tone.
"Arthur's mother," Kerensa answered. "She was the kind of woman only a son could love."
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"There's a reason for all those mother-in-law jokes," Kerensa said bitterly. "Some women don't know how to let go of their sons, and their sons don't know how to be men because of it."
"It's better once they're gone," Sophia agreed. "I promised I'd never be like that."
"I'm pretty lucky then," I replied, putting a comforting arm around Sophia, who kept looking back toward the sea, missing Daniel.
"At least she's been gone a long time, over seventy years," I said.
My mind flashed back to my earlier conversation with Kerensa; all the pieces started to come together. Suddenly I knew where Kerensa's pelt was, and I had a plan to get it back.
Sneaking Around
Mum and Sophia hurried to put on their makeup for the big night out. They had been as excited as a chocoholic in the Cadbury factory, when I’d told them that I’d bought them tickets for the Minack Theatre.
"Are you kids sure you don't want to come to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream?" Sophia asked for the hundredth time.
"There were only four tickets," I lied, "and we couldn't leave Charlie alone; I don't think he's housetrained."
"Hey!" Charlie replied in feigned offense. "A seal has one accident on the carpet and you never live it down."
Sophia laughed and turned back to the mirror to continue beautifying herself.
"What are you up to?" Mum asked suspiciously. She fixed me with the look that when I was younger; I used to believe she was reading my mind. I really hoped that mind reading was not part of her secret selkie powers. I hated telling Mum half-truths, but I knew the truth was too horrible to reveal.
"A kid can't even do something nice for her olds without them being suspicious." I shook my head with dramatized sorrow.
"I'm sorry," Mum said regretfully. "I just have this feeling...."
"That you're going to have a great time!" I enthused.
She searched my face for what I was hiding, but my plan was so uncharacteristic that Mum wouldn’t have believed me capable of such treachery.
"Fine," Mum relented, returning to her self-beautifying mission.
"Everyone in the car," Sophia thrilled. "Kerensa will be waiting for us at the theatre."
As the car drove away I stripped off my nightgown to reveal black tracksuit pants and a baggy black jumper.
"Get changed into any black clothes you have," I ordered Charlie and Daniel.
"Are we dressing up as bogan ninjas?" Charlie laughed at my less than flattering outfit.
"Shut up and do it, Charlie," I fumed, embarrassed by his comment.
"Come on," he smiled fondly. "You look like a Reject Shop cat burglar."
"I didn't pack any clothes with the intention of sneaking around in the dark," I snapped.
"Let's just get this done," Daniel said, becoming the voice of reason to our childish dueling. "The sooner we find the Heart of the Sea the sooner our city can become a hub of modern advancement."
Charlie bailed out of the conversation to get changed, before Daniel's next vision for Atlantis was spun. Since returning from Alamer he'd done nothing but thrill about the underwater city.
"You know they have fashion and music and the whole city is lit by some kind of underwater combustion. The water is airated so the selkies can walk around, but it's dense enough for the merfolk to swim with their tails. It's magical. Once we get the Heart of the Sea, Atlantis will be just as modern. Once you turn into a selkie you can live there with me, you'll be queen; it'll all be perfect," Daniel enthused, wrapping his arms around me.
I felt sick at what he was saying. I didn’t know if we would find the Heart of the Sea, and the death of five people would be on my hands. Even if we did find the relic, there was no guarantee that I would ever morph. I didn't know if I wanted to live in an underwater city, even if I could change. While I was jealous of everyone enjoying Alamer, I was content to be human.
Daniel took my silence as encouragement to continue. "Atlantis is going to be a better place because of our marriage. You know the finfolk and selkies intermarry here, which is surprising because the selkie females are… Well, let's just say the female merfolk and mermaids are hotter than super models. It was so eye-opening to see how advanced they were compared to us..."
"Dan," Charlie broke in, "get ready or we'll never find the Heart of the Sea."
Daniel planted a kiss on my forehead. "It's going to be great!"
After all Daniel’s enthusiasm, I felt like a wet blanket had been dropped on my head to suffocate me.
"Are you OK?" Charlie asked his handsome brow furrowing with concern. He looked ready for a night on the town with his black slacks and matching skivvy. The black leather jacket just made him more attractive.
"We need shovels," I replied, changing the subject.
"Alamer was great," Charlie said seriously, as he looked into my eyes, "but a life on land would be better with you."
His words made my cheeks burn and I looked away, unnerved by his sudden sincerity.
"That's what Daniel meant to say," Charlie said to quell my discomfort. "Now let's get those shovels."
The night was cold and clouds obscured the moon as we walked to the back of the garden. We made our way to the garden shed and found a heavy long handled shovel and a small short handled shovel.
Daniel stepped out a few minutes later looking stunning in black pants, a button up shirt and a fitted wooly jumper.
"Seriously," I complained, "you both look like you're going to a burglars’ fashion shoot, and I look like a schlep."
"I assumed we'd be sneaking around in the dark, so I brought black clothes," Daniel shrugged, handing Charlie and me black beanies, “and five black beanies.”
"Boyscout, huh? Thanks," Charlie said, pulling on his beanie. "I assumed we would be sneaking around too.”
"Are you serious?" I said in disbelief. “It never even crossed my mind that we’d be sneaking around.”
“That’s why I love you so much,” Daniel said sweetly. “You’re just so nice.”
“I’m not nice,” I defended. “I’m bad ass.”
“If by bad ass you mean you help old ladies across the street,” Charlie replied, “then yes, you’re totally bad ass.”
“Who told you about that?” I scowled.
“It’s a good thing,” Daniel smiled, moving on. “So, where are we going?”
“I’ll give you directions,” I hedged, as we loaded the shovels through the centre of the car from windscreen to back window so they would fit.
Since I was the one that was foretold to find the Heart of the Sea, everyone followed my word without question. It was disconcerting, but I was glad that they trusted me, because explaining what I was about to do, would have been difficult.
Daniel drove along the darkened narrow street in silence. Whether Charlie and Daniel suspected what we were about to do was hard to say, but they had become very serious once the car’s engine had rumbled into action.
“What is this idiot doing?” Daniel stated in frustration, as a car drove toward us.
All our eyes focused on the old ute hurtling down the road in our lane. My body froze from the adrenaline anticipating our impending head-on collision.
“You’re on the wrong side of the road!” I yelled.
“No I’m....” Daniel disagreed, as Charlie swiftly reached over the seat and guided the car back into the right lane.
“We’re in the UK, dude,” Charlie corrected quietly.
“Sorry.” Daniel chuckled awkwardly. “Another fun adventure in the quest for the Heart of the Sea.”
“We’re here,” I said breathlessly, making Daniel park immediately.
Charlie stiffened at the location
I’d chosen, but said nothing. Daniel seemed unsurprised by our destination.
With the play running at the theatre, the whole town was deserted, though I assumed the cemetery would have been desolate anyway. The silver moon shone down on us, ducking between threatening clouds, as we picked our way through the headstones.
Everything looked different in the dark, peaceful but menacing. All day the wind had been blowing across the moors, but as night had fallen it was quiet. I wasn’t fond of cemeteries; death seemed so unnatural, being still when we were made for motion. Cemeteries were the home of the unmoving, the unchanging, and it unnerved me. I counted out the headstones, having been worried earlier that I wouldn’t be able to find it in the dark. I checked the headstone before the boys gathered around me.
“I figured that the Heart of the Sea may be buried with Celeste and Adrian,” I said, throwing a bag over the headstone, which clearly stated that it was Kerensa’s mother-in-law’s grave that I intended to dig up. I figured the boys would be more likely to dig up the Conneely’s for the Heart of the Sea than Ennor Park’s grave for Kerensa’s pelt.
“You want us to desecrate their grave?” Daniel said, disgusted.
“I just have a feeling,” I pleaded. “I know it’s in there.”
“I’ll do it,” Charlie said, giving Daniel an out. “You stand guard so you can mer-wow or mer-magic anyone that may come along; they’ll forget you but not us. Princess here can help me since it’s her idea.”
“No, I’ll help dig,” Daniel said reluctantly. “She’s a girl after all.”
“Yeah, a girl who needs constant care and encouragement,” I said sarcastically. “I can dig. Charlie’s right, people will remember me, but your merman thing makes you virtually invisible.”
“Fine,” Daniel agreed, clearly unhappy, “but if someone comes, I want you both to disappear.”
“Aye aye, captain,” Charlie agreed, breaking the surface of the grass that had grown across the grave.
Even with all the force I could muster, I couldn’t budge the grass. Charlie didn’t say a word; he just removed the top layer so that I could work on the soil. I dug less than a quarter heap of dirt to Charlie’s full shovel. I was chewing on my guilt as steam puffed from my lungs; the night air was so cold.
My shoulder’s ached and my hands burned with calluses. It felt like we’d been digging for hours as the hole opened out to about our height. I hoped that Mum was still at the play, though it didn’t really matter; after I found the pelt we would have to confess anyway.
“That’s about six feet,” Charlie panted with exertion. “Whatever was here has disintegrated.”
Uncharacteristically, I cursed.
“Do you want to tell me why we’re digging up Ennor Park’s grave?” he asked seriously.
“You knew but you didn’t say anything?” I asked, surprised.
He nodded. “I guess I was hoping you’d tell me the truth; I thought we were past the lying thing.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, dejected. “I was sure that Kerensa’s husband had buried her pelt in his mother’s grave. She said she hadn’t seen the pelt since 1936; that’s the year Ennor was buried, and Kerensa said she wouldn’t be surprised if he buried her pelt. I figured if I can’t find the Heart of the Sea, at least I could help Kerensa go home.”
“That’s noble,” Charlie said, patting me on the back.
“Yeah, and futile,” I snapped, climbing out of the hole. “It’s not here! This is such a nightmare.” I felt sick from desecrating the grave and being so decidedly wrong. My mistake made me feel numb and hopeless. Subconsciously, I was hoping that finding Kerensa’s pelt would lead to finding the Heart of the Sea, a sign from the universe that I had the capabilities that everyone assumed I had. Instead, I discovered that I was just a silly girl with delusions of grandeur.
“We’ll fill it in, no biggie,” Charlie said, nonchalantly, as he looked up at me.
“Hey you there!” yelled a Cornish voice.
Charlie grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into the hole that was deeper than it looked from where I had been standing moments earlier.
We could hear Daniel conversing with the person who’d discovered us.
Charlie kept his arm around my waist, as we stood silently, trying to hear Daniel’s conversation, which was being carried away by the wind. I could feel the warmth radiating from Charlie’s body. His caramel eyes sparkled with untold secrets and mischief, like a child sneaking a peek at the Christmas presents before his parents were awake. He flipped his head so that his fringe moved out of his eyes.
“Puts a new spin on six feet under,” he whispered.
“This is my worst nightmare,” I replied quietly.
“I’m not that bad,” he said with mock offense.
I grinned. “I mean being in a grave alive.”
“Worst than not becoming a seal?” he asked playfully.
“On the same level,” I deliberated as I shifted out of Charlie’s arms and leaned back against the cold dirt wall behind me.
“You know,” he whispered carefully. “Alamer was beautiful and advanced and a great place for selkies and merfolk, but that’s not all there was. I was talking to another selkie and she told me that most selkies prefer to live above sea.
There’s a selkie city, Escamonte; it’s a floating invisible city under the sun, where merfolk who fall in love with humans bring their beloved. It’s where most of the finfolk work in the mornings, ensuring that the city remains invisible, monitoring boats and aircrafts to ensure that the city remains secret. The finfolk are never grey in Alamer or Escamonte because they stay in the sunlight. It’s incredible, a place where it doesn’t matter what you are, you’re accepted.”
“But there’s no Escamonte in Australia.” I sighed bleakly. “Just Atlantis.”
“There is,” Charlie disagreed. “The finfolk sunk it, but we can raise it to the surface; you and Daniel can be together there. Our people can live there, everything can be the way it was supposed to be.”
“Why do you care so much that Daniel and I are together?” I asked suspiciously.
“I want you to be happy,” he said looking away, unnerved by my question. “What you and Daniel have, it could change everything for our people. It means renewed relations between the selkies and merfolk. It could mean the raising of our city and a whole new life for all the selkies on Seal Rock.” The passion in his eyes filled me with renewed hope. Maybe I’d failed to retrieve Kerensa’s pelt, but finding the Heart of the Sea was foretold by the mermaids and in a vision. It may have been crazy but it was the only hope I had, and I was going to hold onto it.
“Seal Rock’s not that bad,” I said thoughtlessly.
Charlie shot me a look of disagreement.
“OK, it’s pretty awful.” I laughed quietly, remembering the repulsive smell that permeated the perimeter of the seal colony.
“It’s covered in crap. It stinks. It’s cold. Even the caves below are terrible.” Charlie shook his head. “In a few years there won’t be any selkies left; they keep moving to land.”
“Why do the selkies crap all over their home?” I asked, scrunching my nose up.
“All selkies are seals but not all seals are selkies,” Charlie replied with a comical expression.
“So not all seals are selkies?” I repeated, trying to wrap my head around his statement.
“Are all bats vampires?” Charlie replied, deadpan.
“Are any bats vampires?” I asked seriously, my mind spinning at the realization that there was a whole lot that I didn’t know about.
“Are any selkies seals?” Charlie teased.
“Charlie, please?” I asked, punching him softly.
“Anything is possible,” Charlie replied quietly. “The point is that most the seals on Seal Rock are just seals.”
“So you’re going to be king of a few selkies, a lot of seals, and a stinking rock,” I teased, feeling sorry for Charlie.
“I guess if you
choose to live in Atlantis or run away with Daniel to live happily ever after.” Charlie nodded. “But you’re technically next in line.”
“So, are we related?” I asked, blushing at having to ask such a stupid question.
“Geez, no!” Charlie said fervently.
“Hey, I’m not that bad,” I retorted, stung and amused by his denouncement of me.
“That’s not what I meant,” Charlie said. “Selkie law dictates that those of us without pelts are automatically in line for royalty. So you’re first in line due to being princess, then me, then Kia, my sister, and Selena. You’ll meet them eventually.”
“So I guess it all depends on me changing.” I sighed, dejected.
“No,” Charlie replied, looking at me intensely. “If we raise the selkie city, you don’t have to change. Imagine it Mya, our own city, a place where humans and selkies and finfolk can all live together and be happy. Even if we don’t raise the city, you are perfect, just the way you are.”
I exhaled what felt like a week’s worth of breath, as tears welled in my eyes. “Thanks,” I said over the lump of emotion in my throat.
“It’s true,” Charlie replied sincerely.
“You guys OK in there?” Daniel asked, looking into the hole, his brow creased in consternation.
“Yes,” I said wiping my eyes, and carefully walking toward the part of the hole I could climb out of.
“Any luck?” Daniel asked, shooting Charlie a suspicious look.
“Afraid not,” Charlie replied, before he tripped over.
“You ok?” Daniel laughed, as though Charlie had found justice.
“Be nice,” I chided Daniel as I turned to help Charlie up. Suddenly, I saw something gleaming in the torchlight. I pushed Charlie out of the way into the dirt wall and began to pull at the object.
“Thanks,” Charlie said sarcastically, dusting off his clothes, as Daniel chuckled above us.
“It’s here,” I said pulling out an old biscuit tin.
Charlie smiled broadly.
“We found it!” I exclaimed grabbing Charlie in a bear hug.
“We don’t know what it is yet,” Daniel said, a hard edge of warning in his voice.
