He continued, “Listen, I’ve been wanting to talk to you. You heard about what happened at the beach yesterday?”
Kira nodded her head. “Uh-huh.”
“Well, I have a theory about that rescue. I’ve been doing some research and I thought you might like to hear what I found.”
Kira gave him a suspicious look. She was more interested than she wanted to admit, but still not keen on talking to Cody. Before she could reply, he said, “You seemed so interested in sea life, I figured you might be the only person I know who wouldn’t laugh at me. I mean, you’re not like the other kids.”
Kira’s eyes went wide with concern. Did Cody also suspect who she might be?
“Uh, I mean that in a good way,” he added and smiled shyly.
“Okay,” Kira said slowly.
“So,” he continued, “you want to meet at the park across the street?” He pointed with his free hand. “That bench under the willow? Lots of shade anyway.” He wiped his sweaty brow.
“Okay. I’ll just return these and meet you over there.”
A few minutes later Kira joined Cody under the tree, the thick copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows clutched to her chest. She sat on the other side of the pile of books Cody had set in the middle of the bench. Kira felt her heart racing in anticipation.
Cody launched right in. “So, they said some ghostly girl just appeared out of nowhere and dived into the sea, and next thing they knew, their friend washed up on the other side of the rocks. And the girl was gone, no sign she’d ever been there,” he finished, out of breath.
“Yeah,” Kira agreed. “That’s what I heard, too.”
“There were three of them, and they all said the same thing.”
Kira grinned at Cody. She had never seen him so worked up, and wondered about his theory. “Do you think they were making it up? Just as a joke?”
Cody shook his head and frowned at Kira. “I was there. I talked to them, each one. Kind of like interviews, I guess. And they were serious, and scared, and pretty excited that their buddy didn’t drown. I’m hoping to interview Thomas when he’s out of the hospital. Maybe he saw something underwater.”
Kira looked down at the sneakers on her feet. Her two normal-looking feet attached to two normal-looking legs. Well, maybe a bit more muscular than most girls her age, but still, just legs. “But if he didn’t see anything,” she said, “if he was passed out, you still won’t know what happened. Maybe he just washed up with the waves.”
“No way, I know something happened. Something unusual. The current off that point never spits anything back up. Look,” he said, opening the book from the top of his pile and flipping through pages. “Remember Babbling Bill telling us about selkies?” He pointed to a drawing in the book.
Kira leaned over to see, but she already knew what was on the page. She blushed anyway at the drawing of a nearly naked woman stepping out of a sealskin on a beach.
“Why do they take off their skins?” Kira asked, pretending she had no clue.
“Sometimes they come out of the water at night to dance on the beach,” Cody said, studying the pages. “They’re attracted to humans. And sometimes, a human might see them and he falls in love with one and steals her skin. Then she can’t go back into the water. So she goes home with him and they get married and have kids. And their children have webbed toes and fingers.”
“Oh,” Kira said, and clenched her fists as if to hide her fingers.
“And then there are the finfolk and merrows,” he said and turned to a new page.
“Huh?”
“Everybody’s heard about mermaids and mermen—some call them merrows. But the finfolk are really cool. They’re not as friendly as the selkies and merrows. Here, let me read this bit to you.
“‘Finfolk are notable for their attraction to humans, not for romantic purposes, but to obtain spouses or slaves who will spend their lives as labourers. They will sneak up on unsuspecting fishermen, disguised as sea animals or even plants, then grab them when they are close enough. Female finfolk may disguise themselves as beautiful mermaids with long golden hair and pale skin to lure the men closer. Their human captives are taken to a hidden island, shrouded in fog, where they are kept for the rest of their lives. They are forced into labour, working to make silver, which the finfolk treasure above all else. If they do not produce enough silver, they are punished. The captive humans never return home.’”
“Ooh, that’s nasty,” Kira said, making a face.
“Yeah, but their underwater home is something else. It’s called Finfolkaheen. It’s this huge palace made of crystal, and all around are these amazing seaweed gardens. Look, here’s a picture.”
Kira leaned over again to see the colourful drawings. Seaweeds of all imaginable shapes and incredible hues surrounded a majestic, glittering palace.
“And the place is lit up all the time, even deep down where the sun can’t reach and it’s pitch black. They don’t need electric lights because they have sea glow, billions of tiny phosphorescent sea creatures that never stop glowing. Have you ever seen them?” Cody asked, his own eyes lit up and his smile sparkled with metal.
“Only in that film in science class last fall,” she admitted. She would love to see it for herself sometime.
“It’s very cool. You have to come down to the wharf at night. You just take a paddle or long stick and wave it through the water, and the wake behind it lights up like miniature pale green diamonds. Thousands, millions of microscopic diatoms. It’s awesome.”
Kira sighed. “I’m sure it is. But I don’t believe there are crystal palaces underwater, or some island for finfolk slaves. Those are just stories.”
Cody shrugged. “Maybe. But there has to be some explanation for what happened yesterday.”
“Sure. A selkie jumped into the water, but she turned into a seal and couldn’t come back out again as a human,” Kira offered, holding back a smile.
“Aha! That wouldn’t explain why her clothes disappeared, though.”
“Okay,” Kira agreed. “And if it was finfolk, they would have taken the boy to their hidden slave island, so that doesn’t fit, either.”
“Correct. Which is why I believe it was a mermaid. She jumped in as a human, then swam off after she rescued him.”
“And what about her clothes? They were gone.”
“That’s the problem exactly. I asked the guys where she jumped in, and where they found their friend. Two different places, on either side of a large rock. She would have had time to swim back around, climb out, and run away while they were helping their friend get breathing again. That’s my theory.” Cody had a smug look on his face.
Kira could not tell from his expression if he had any suspicions about her. She had to be careful. “Fascinating theory,” she finally said, “if you believe in mermaids and such.”
Cody’s face fell.
“I mean,” she added, “anything is possible, right? Just because we don’t see something, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, or can’t happen.”
Cody nodded his head, but he wouldn’t look at her as he continued to flip through more pages. She could see she had disappointed him.
“Anyway, I’ve gotta go,” she said standing up. “See you later.”
“Yeah, see you around.” Cody didn’t bother looking up.
Kira hurried home, her head spinning. It was weird enough that she might not be completely human, but the possibility that other more sinister creatures existed under the sea made her head hurt. All she wanted was to get home, shut off her brain and enter Harry Potter’s world. And stay there forever.
Chapter Eight—
A Question of Trust
Harry Potter helped, but when Kira wasn’t submersed in his wizard world, she obsessed about what lay beneath the sea. Who was to say that magic didn’t exist? Caught up in a book of fan
tasy, the characters became living, breathing people and creatures. Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, Snow White and so many stories about mermaids. She now had her own proof that humans could transform into non-human beings. She wasn’t making it up or hallucinating because others had seen her disappear into a strong current that should have drowned her.
But where did she fit into this underwater
universe? Who were her people? Merrrows, selkies? She hoped not those horrible finfolk. Perhaps one of her parents was human and the other one wasn’t. After all, she grew webbed hands and a tail in saltwater. Or if she was human, she could be under a sorcerer’s spell. Anything was possible, even Harry Potter’s world for that matter.
Kira didn’t know how, but she was determined to discover her origins. And she would have to do it on her own. She wanted to trust Cody, but couldn’t yet. Perhaps she could find a way to test him. Once she was sure of him, she’d find a way to let him know he was on the right track. She would not say a word about this quest to her parents, either. She didn’t trust them. They had obviously been keeping things from her. She supposed it was possible, but unlikely, that they were changelings just like her.
Of one thing she was certain—she was adopted. Kira looked nothing like her parents. Her father was a large man with dark hair and squinty, pale-blue eyes. Her mother was tiny in comparison. She had fair freckled skin, large dark-brown eyes, and red gold hair. Kira’s dad, Cillian Cox, had Irish roots; and her mother’s maiden name was Bess MacDougall and her people had emigrated from the Shetland Islands far north of Scotland. Kira had always thought it odd that they never told her stories of fairies and sea sprites, stories she’d read that were common to the island traditions of their Celtic families.
Cody’s trustworthiness came to be tested sooner than she had expected. Every year toward the end of August their village held a celebration for the fishing fleet. Everyone, old and young alike, attended a huge feast in the community hall. The meal was followed by a ceilidh, a Gaelic dance party with traditional fiddle music often accompanied by flutes, guitars, and drums. Many of the older folk dressed up in their kilts and special caps, blouses, and skirts according to their culture—Scottish, Irish, or other Celtic traditions. It was always a colourful and lively evening.
Kira both dreaded and looked forward to the celebration every summer. It was the end of what free time she had, the beginning of school, and a chance to reacquaint herself with her schoolmates. She was naturally shy so she didn’t talk much to the other kids. Many of them had been together at camps over the summer, and some had part-time jobs, usually in their family fishing business. This time was no different, except that Kira had gotten to know Cody a little over the summer.
When he spotted her after the dinner he waved and came over to the table where she sat with her parents.
“Um, Mom and Dad, this is Cody, a friend from school,” she said, blushing.
Cody beamed a metal smile at them. “Cody Gillis,” he added, shaking hands and bowing his head.
“Ah, Dr. Gillis’s boy,” her father said as he gripped Cody’s hand in his large paw.
Her mother smiled at Cody. “And top of the class, I hear.”
It was Cody’s turn to redden.
“There are no secrets in small villages like ours, son,” she said, laughing at his modesty.
After some small talk, Kira and Cody excused themselves, saying they were heading outside for a bit while the fiddlers tuned up. Neither of them was much for dancing, though Kira wished she knew more about the traditional dances she’d watched over the years. When her mother had suggested she take Scottish highland dance lessons, Kira had declined the offer. She thought she’d be too clumsy and she didn’t want to be ridiculed by the other children. Anyway, Kira excelled at swimming and running and that was good enough for her.
Outside the hall, they joined a number of other young people who found the building too stuffy or full of prying adult eyes. Groups of kids huddled together, laughing and talking about their summers. None of them paid any attention to Cody or Kira.
“Hey, Kira, I know what we can do,” he said, his eyes full of mischief.
“What?”
“It’s a calm night, no wind at all. Perfect conditions for sea glow. Now’s your chance to see it!” He turned toward the wharf.
Kira’s heart raced. Yes, phosphorescence, glowing diatoms in the water. She looked around. No parents in sight, no one paying them any attention whatsoever.
“All right, let’s do it!” she said, and they jogged down the hill, past the equipment sheds, past warehouses and lobster pounds. By the time they reached the wharf they were both panting.
“Okay,” Cody said, scanning the area. There was not much to see with only one lamppost lighting up the start of the long dock, another partway along, and a third lamp at the far end. “Here, we can use these. We’ll just borrow them.” He picked up a couple of long poles with hooks at the ends. They walked to the end of the wharf, past all the boats, their footsteps clattering in the silence. Cody knelt down, then lay on his stomach, his arms dangling over the far side. He lowered his pole into the black water and stirred. Kira squinted at the water, but there was no change, nothing she could see.
“It’s too far down, Cody, the tide’s out. I can’t see anything, can you?”
“I think I can. It’s too bright here anyway, with that lamp reflecting off the water. If we get onto one of the boats we’ll be lower down, closer to the water.”
Kira pressed her lips together. She knew it was considered bad form, a no-no, to step onto any boat without the owner’s permission. Trespassing, her father would call it. A boat is a fisherman’s second home, his livelihood he’d say, no entry without an invitation or permission. This had been drilled into her since she was a small child.
But it was so tempting. When would she ever get another chance like this? Probably not for another year at least.
“Okay,” she agreed, and they made their way onto a boat that was completely swallowed by shadows, where there was far less chance of being seen.
It was a small boat by fishing standards, but perfect for their purpose. This time they both lay on their stomachs across the bow, dipping their poles into the inky black depths.
“Ooh, that’s beautiful. It sparkles. Look!” Kira giggled with delight. She continued to lower her pole, to see how deep she could see the glow. Her arms were completely stretched out, with both hands gripping the end of the pole.
“It’s amazing, Cody, I love it! It’s like magic!”
Cody laughed. “I know. Nature at its best.”
Suddenly Kira yelled, “Oh no, my glasses!” She tried to grab them as they slipped off her face and into the water. Without another thought, she followed them into the water, head first. With the phosphorescent back-lighting, she had no trouble following the heavy lenses as they drifted down. Kira scooped them up and flipped herself around to return to the surface. As her head broke through to the air, she found herself staring into Cody’s astonished face. His mouth gaped open like a silent scream, his eyes bugging out of his head.
Kira realized immediately what Cody had seen. Instead of being mortified or worried, she found the situation hilarious.
“Cody, shut your mouth. You know how rude it is to stare like that?” She burst into laughter as Cody’s mouth snapped closed. But his eyes remained wide and unblinking, frozen, like he’d just seen a medusa. Kira couldn’t help herself. She brought up her tail and slapped the water hard, splashing Cody so thoroughly he hollered in surprise.
“That’ll teach ya, you wharf rat!”
Cody collapsed back onto the prow and shook his head like a wet dog. Kira pushed with her tail and launched herself straight up onto the boat, twisting and landing in a perfect sit next to him. She smiled sweetly.
“What the heck?” he spluttered, wiping his wet face. He rubbed his eyes and st
ared at her legs, now sopping wet and dangling over the edge of the boat.
“Cody, you okay?” she asked.
“What did I just see?”
“I don’t know, Cody. A lot of sea glow I suppose.”
Cody gulped and rubbed his eyes again. “You’re a pretty good swimmer.”
“Yes, I am. Best one in my swimming classes.”
“When you’re in the pool, I’m guessing you just kick your legs like everyone else. I’m guessing this is a seawater thing I just saw?”
“Cody, you are one smart guy,” Kira said, no longer smiling. “And because you’re so clever, you won’t tell anyone what you saw tonight because they will think you’re crazy. Am I right?”
“Yeah, you’re right. I just need some time to absorb this. Wow.” He paused and shook his head again. Then he looked up at her, frowning. “After I talked to you last time I was thinking how dumb I was, wanting to believe in merrows and selkies and underwater civilizations. And there you were, you knew all along, and you never said a thing. Probably laughing at me.” Cody hung his head, a hurt look in his eyes.
“Sorry, Cody. I just found out, honest. I mean, the first time I knew was when I jumped in after that guy. And even then I didn’t know what to think. It’s pretty new for me, too.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?” he asked.
“Yeah, once I figured out what I was. And once I knew for sure you wouldn’t laugh at me, or tell anyone else. I mean, it is crazy. I don’t know who or what I am anymore,” Kira finished and realized she was on the verge of tears. She sniffed and turned her head away. She shivered a little as he touched her shoulder.
“Hey, Kira, I’m not going to tell a soul. You can trust me. People already think I’m a geek. No one listens to me anyway, unless they want help with their homework. In case you didn’t notice, I’m really popular at group assignments.”
Kira sniffled and gave him a small smile. “Yeah, I guess we’re both different. So, do we have a deal? Secret?”
Kira's Secret Page 4
