And I definitely could not waste one more second standing in the middle of Bridget’s Diner while Mom was lost in the vast expanses of Talisman Lake.
It was dark by the time I made it back to the lake. Aspen leaves shook all around me like rattling maracas as I walked along the shoreline, guided by the light of the bridge’s streetlamps.
I stuffed my hands under my armpits to warm them and called over the lake, not daring to yell in case people from the street could hear.
“Mom…Mom…” Was she there, waiting for me to come back? I watched for any ripples or splashes, careful not to get too close to the water. Maybe they were all still there, watching me, just under the surface of the water. Would the Freshies come after me again? I shrank back at the thought. No way was I setting one duck-webbed tippy-toe in that lake any time soon.
Cars rumbled over the bridge on their way home for dinner but Dad’s yellow fog lights were still missing along the road. I pulled branches out of my way to check the creek one more time. Still empty. Mom was gone. Long gone.
I sank to the ground against a moss-covered rock and felt a new wave of sobs collecting in my chest. Why didn’t I stay with her to help fight off those guys when I had a chance? I buried my face in my hands and let the tears flow. Sure I was safe, but what did that matter if Mom was still in there, somewhere, with Finalin and Medora making her life miserable?
Would I ever find her? Would we ever get her back home?
I stood and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.
Dad’s yellow fog lights turned on to Main Street.
“Dad!” I stumbled through the alders, past the park bench, and up the incline to the guardrail skirting the road.
“Dad!!” I yelled again, waving my arm high in the air.
His car passed by Bridget’s and headed toward the bridge. Could he see me? I moved closer to the streetlamp and waved.
“Daddy!”
He looked up and rammed on the brakes. The tires skidded and clinked gravel against the metal guardrail. Dad put on his hazard lights and jumped out of the car.
“What? What is it, Jade? Why are you out here all by yourself?” He reached for me and hugged me. “Are you crying?”
“Didn’t you get my message?”
“What message?” Dad pulled his cell from his pocket. “Oh, sorry. I must have had the music on too loud. What’s the matter?”
I looked up into his eyes. He didn’t know. He had no idea Mom was still alive. That she’d been living in the lake all this time. That I’d found her and hugged her and talked to her.
Then abandoned her.
And now, I had to tell him.
Chapter Eleven
HOW MANY TEARS CAN you cry before your body gets squeezed dry?
I felt completely wrung out by the time Dad and I arrived home well past midnight after combing the banks of Talisman Lake for Mom. Nothing. Not a ring in my ears. Not a trace that she’d been there in the first place. I was seriously beginning to question my sanity.
Dad promised to stay with me until I fell asleep.
“You believe me, don’t you?” I asked into the darkness of my bedroom.
He reached out from the chair next to my bed and found my hand.
“Of course I do,” he whispered.
“She said to tell you she loves you.” My face screwed up as I remembered the last words Mom called out before forcing me out of the water.
“I know, honey. We’ll find her. I promise.” But from the way the outline of Dad’s shoulders shook in the low light of the window, I wondered if we ever would.
The next morning, Main Street looked like it had been covered in a shroud of grey. A fine mist hung in the air, smelling of damp ocean seaweed. I greeted Cori in front of Bridget’s on the way to school.
“Hey.” I handed her a hot chocolate, a Monday morning ritual.
“Hey, yourself, sunshine. You like?” Cori breezed past me. Her hair was stacked high on top of her head like a model from Real Runway. She wore a version of the asymmetrical dress from her sketchbook.
“You finished it!” I reached out and felt the silk material between my fingertips. That expression about something taking your breath away was really true, because I could barely manage the next few words. “It’s awesome…”
“Lainey’s mom wants me to come by her studio this afternoon to show her. I figured I’d get some mileage out of it in the meantime.”
“She’s gonna love it.”
“Hope so!” Cori flipped back the plastic top from her hot chocolate’s lid. She took a sip and winced. “Hey, I thought it was my turn to treat. I was even going to get my free one from Mug Glug’s.” She dug into her satchel and fished out her Frequent Sipper card.
“Save your freebie. We’ll celebrate at Mug Glug’s when Mrs. Chamberlain signs you up for next year’s co-op term.”
I took a drink and sucked in my cheeks at the bitter taste. Yeah, Mug Glug’s would have been a better choice. Bridget’s Diner may have been the waffle fry capital of the world, but their hot chocolate wasn’t going to win any Reader’s Choice Awards in the Port Toulouse Herald.
But I hadn’t dropped into Bridget’s for their hot beverage selection. I needed to see Eddie to try to figure out if he knew anything about Mom. When I got there though, he still wasn’t at the counter. Strange, considering the guy had permanent butt impressions on that stool of his.
“I think he decided to take a few days off while the lock is closed for maintenance,” Bridget had said when I asked where he was.
“Maintenance?”
“Yeah, Eddie had to turn a boat away earlier this morning when the motor blew on the controls as he tried to open the lock. They’ve got a crew out there right now, trying to figure out why the gate won’t open.”
So the stacks of rocks the mers had piled up against the lock had worked! Though, I was pretty sure “Mermish Sabotage” wouldn’t be one of the options on the maintenance crew report.
“How long will the lock be closed, you think?” How would Mom ever get back to the ocean if her only exit was blocked? And how long could the mers keep up the blockade?
Bridget didn’t know, but sure enough, the sound of rumbling trucks and heavy equipment pierced through the cool June morning air as we headed toward school.
Cori took another sip and fell in step with me. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like you got run over by that truck back there.”
“Thanks.” I slapped her arm with my free hand. “I feel like the crud between the tire treads, so I guess that qualifies.”
“Hey, I tried you on your cell last night, but I couldn’t get through so I left a message at your house. Why didn’t you call me back?” Cori asked.
“Oh, my cell is toast and we got in really late…had to drive to Gran’s to help fix her air-conditioner.” I stared straight ahead and tried to shake the lie from my voice. “Then she made us dinner…” I was laying it on a little thick “…by the time we got home, it was way too late to call back. Sorry.” I blew on the hot chocolate and took a careful sip, hoping that part of the conversation was over.
“I wanted to tell you about the music I downloaded. I thought we could do this whole Caribbean theme, you know?” Cori swayed her hips, holding her hot chocolate like she was sipping cool iced tea on a far away beach.
“For what?” I snuck one last glance at Talisman Lake before it disappeared behind Main Street’s buildings.
“For my pool party!” Cori grasped my arm. “You’re still coming right?”
“Um.”
Crap. Pool party. This new mermaid development might put a kink in those plans.
Cori was quiet for a few steps. Then she tugged gently on my arm and turned me toward her.
“What’s going on with you, Jade? It’s like we’re not even on the same wavelength anymore.”
“I, uh.” What could I say?
“Are you mad at me or something?” Cori searched my face.
“No.
No! Of course not.”
“Because it doesn’t seem like you’re that into the pool party anymore. I thought after we found that bathing suit…”
Bathing suit—period—bath—mermaid—Mom.
The thoughts connected in my head like beads on a string. Then I remembered the white stitching with Mom’s name on the tag, making the connection from bathing suit to Mom far closer. The memory set off a flare inside me.
“I’ve gotta go.” Before I knew it, I shrugged Cori’s hand away and took off down Main Street. Hot chocolate sloshed from my cup, burning my hand.
“Where are you going?!” Cori called.
I turned, not long enough for Cori to see the tears streaking down my face. I knew if I stayed with her one more second I’d spill my guts. I ached to tell her everything just to have one more person in the world understand what I was going through. But I remembered the promise I’d made to Dad. If the truth ever got out, who knew where that would lead?
“I forgot! I told Higgins I’d help set up for Sports Day!”
Lie. Lie. Lie.
“Jade!”
The lies chased me past Mug Glug’s, past the post office, past the blurring images of Main Street, nipping at me like rabid dogs. Running away would solve my problem for now, but it didn’t change the fact that I was part mermaid, my mom was alive, and that she was being held captive by an underwater lake monster and his posse of aquatic barbarians.
How could I continue being Cori’s best friend if I had to keep hiding my deepest, darkest secrets from her?
The sun had burned off the morning dew by the time I reached the sports field. A whistle blew farther down-field, urging a gym class through a series of punishing-looking soccer drills. Mr. Higgins was all too happy for the extra help, though he seemed a bit surprised by my sudden enthusiasm for relay games. He dropped a mesh bag full of balls next to the Gatorade table and untied the bag’s drawstring.
“I wasn’t aware you were so invested in sports, Jade. You know, we always need girls for the field hockey team. Or, better yet, have you ever thought of water polo?” He poured the balls on the grass and bunched the bag into his hands.
Water polo. I snorted.
“Oh, sorry. I’m usually not much of a joiner. Just trying to do my good deed for the day. This counts for community credits, right?”
Higgins sighed and started back toward the school for the next load of gym-inspired torture devices. “Just bring your credit form to the office for me to sign,” he called over his shoulder.
“Water polo,” I muttered as I grabbed a stack of pylons and started setting up the obstacle course. “As if.”
“Hey!” Someone called from behind.
“Ah!” I stumbled back, tripping over one of the pylons.
“Whoa!” Warm arms wrapped around me to keep me from falling. The scent of sunscreen and gym class enveloped me in a not-unpleasant way.
“Luke.” I turned in his arms, surprised by how close he was. Heat rose in my cheeks. I looked up into his crystal blue eyes, framed with impossibly long eyelashes. The early June sun cascaded off the sheen of his cheeks…
“I hope you have good accident insurance.” Luke laughed. He let go and stooped to pick up his sports bottle that had fallen to the ground.
“Well, ahem…” I turned off the Sweet Valley High soundtrack in my brain and met his gaze as he straightened from retrieving his bottle. “You’re going to have to come up with a better M.O. than knocking me over every time you want to say hi.”
“Hey, you should be thanking me. I just rescued you from a pylon injury.”
“Well, if you’re playing the dashing young hero angle, you should really shower first.” I waved a hand across my face, but couldn’t help smiling.
“If you think this is bad, don’t go near the guys’ locker room after gym class. It would curl your toes.” Luke got a strange look on his face then busied himself at the Gatorade table, refilling his bottle.
“Do you get many girls wandering into the boys’ locker room?”
Luke snapped the top of his sports bottle shut and laughed. “Sadly, no.”
“Poor you.” I patted his shoulder, a gesture which, in more expert hands, might pass as flirting. But that was Lainey’s department, not mine, so it wasn’t like I had anything to lose.
“Hey, I keep meaning to ask you; did you lose this?” Luke fumbled in his pocket and held out a strip of crumpled paper. “It must have gotten mixed up with my stuff at Dooley’s.”
I took the paper in my hands and unfolded it.
Michaela 2-piece/Swimwear $76.99.
The receipt from Hyde’s. Instant tear alert. What was it with this bathing suit?
“Um, yeah. Thanks.”
“’Cause I figured you might need it. The receipt, I mean. The bathing suit too, I guess.” He took a swig of Gatorade.
Blink. Blink.
“Thanks.” I peeled my eyes off Mom’s name and stuffed the paper in my pocket. “Oh, did you get your phone back?”
Luke pulled out his phone, flicked it open, then snapped it shut.
“So, fluke1019, huh?” I asked. “Is there a story behind that?”
“You saw that, huh?” Luke looked at me for a moment then smiled. “There is a story, but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
I laughed. “Secret double agent for the French Foreign Legion? Deep cover for the KGB?”
“Close.” Luke smiled and shoved the phone back in his pocket. “So, do you swim much?”
“Hate swimming.”
Luke laughed.
I put a hand on my hip. “Well, that’s nice. I might have a paralyzing water phobia for all you know and all you can do is laugh?” It was meant as a joke, but one obviously lost on Luke.
His face fell. He started to talk and stopped a few times before managing a sentence.
“Sorry, that was really stupid of me. I just thought…” He stared at the ground and jammed his toe into the turf like he was trying to loosen the dirt from the bottom of his running shoe. “I heard about what happened to your mom last summer,” he added quietly.
Me and my big fat mouth! Of course he’d feel bad about that, even though it was the first time in a year I hadn’t connected swimming with Mom’s supposed drowning. Why did I have to choose that precise moment to have a lapse in memory? And why, why, why didn’t I have those idiot filters replaced between my brain and my mouth during my last moron tune-up?
“No, no. I was just joking.” I caught his eye. “Hey, listen. The sooner you embrace your inner klutz and the sooner you understand what a smart mouth I am, the better. Let’s just stop apologizing to each other for our glaring shortcomings, okay?”
Luke looked at me with his curvy lip, trying-not-to-smile smile and extended his hand.
“Deal.”
We shook on it.
“But no more talk about swimming or bathing suits or anything aquatic, okay? Makes me wanna barf.”
“Got it. But do sailboats qualify? ’Cause, my family always does this end-of-school boating trip to D’Escousse. Wanna come?”
All my brain filters unclogged spontaneously. My neurons snapped to attention. The fact that Luke was inviting me on a boat cruise registered on boy-girl level, but something else clicked too.
“When?!”
“Last day of school. It’s early dismissal that day so we’ll probably leave around lunchtime. That’s if they have the lock fixed by then.”
That was it! If I knew exactly when their boat was going through the lock, I might be able to get Mom safely to the ocean. Then she could find the tidal pool to help her transform into a human again. Then, she could come home. Of course, I’d have to find her first, but I would. I had to. And hopefully, the Freshies would have run out of rocks by then. But how could I help Mom and be on the boat at the same time?
Think, think…
“So, like a boat cruise?” I filled in the dead air, hoping to buy time so I could sort things out in my head.
> “A boat cruise!” Lainey pranced over, appearing out of nowhere, sporting a jewel beaded crop top and spotless white capris. Cori followed, talking to Trey. She didn’t look my way. I can’t say I blamed her. Lainey grasped Luke’s arm. “That sounds like so much fun. I can’t wait!”
I’m sure the visible tremor working through my body must have looked like I had some sort of neurological disorder, but I couldn’t help it. How did she do it? How did Lainey Chamberlain manage to include herself in every conversation where Luke Martin was concerned?
Unless Luke had already invited her too…
“Yeah, should be a blast,” Trey added. “We’re going to pick up our cousin, Stewart, in D’Escousse. Jade, you coming?”
“Uh…” I did the connect-the-dots on the group dynamics.
Cori and Trey.
Lainey and Luke.
Me and some cousin named Stewart from D’Escousse.
Pity date.
Idiot.
I turned, trying to hide the burning fire in my cheeks. In my usual graceful manner, I bumped the nearby table, toppled over the Gatorade cooler, and sent it careening onto the ground. The top of the cooler popped off and I watched in silent horror as a fountain of orange liquid sprayed everyone within a ten-mile radius.
“Ah!” Lainey’s hands flew up. She looked down at her white capris, now bedazzled in Technicolor orange. “Great. Just great! Good one, Jade. And look what you did to Cori’s dress!”
Cori’s dress! The outfit she’d been working on all spring! It was now splattered in a spray of orange specks as well.
“Oh, no! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…”
Of all the times in my life to be a klutz, this had to be the worst.
“It’s okay,” Cori whispered.
“No…here. Let me help you.” I searched the table for a roll of paper towels and ripped off a large brown strip. “I’m such a jerk. I wasn’t looking…” I dabbed Cori’s dress, my heart in my throat.
“Really. Don’t worry about it.” But Cori’s voice was tight and small.
“Don’t pat it!!” Lainey brushed my hand away. “You’ll crush the fibers. This is going to need a special stain remover. We’ll take it to Mother’s dry cleaner.” She took Cori by the shoulders and led her back to the school. Her voice rang across the school yard, a hundred times more piercing than Finalin or Medora’s screeches.
Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings Page 8
