Coming Up for Air

by Amanda Meuwissen

  “I also eat birds on occasion.”

  Leigh froze. Perhaps that was a queer thing to say? Humans did not pursue prey the way merfolk did. “Well, uhh… you’ll probably like chicken, then.”

  Tolly hovered in the doorway so he could watch Leigh. The movement of his hands and the fidget of his bare feet were mesmerizing. He had a vague vision through the connection of the Breath of Life of Leigh doing the same act as a boy—cooking in bare feet, alone.

  Leigh had no one either. Alvin, it seemed, and Miss Maggie, a few others perhaps, but he had no family. Tolly could feel it as keenly as he knew his own loneliness.

  “Here, why don’t you fill some glasses with water to put on the table and I’ll get this dished up?” Leigh said. “Glasses are in there, water from the tap.”

  Easy enough. Tolly was not used to drinking as humans did, but he was eager to learn everything Leigh could teach him. He followed the instructions, and when he returned, Leigh handed him two plates laden with food.

  “I’ll bring the forks. Do you know what a fork—”

  “Yes. I am not the little mermaid.”

  “You know about the little mermaid?”

  “Of course.” Tolly preferred the colorful version with the singing. The ending was happier.

  “Oh. That’s good, I guess.”

  They sat at the table in the corner of Leigh’s living room, and Tolly carefully picked up his fork. Knowing what something was and using it were two very different things. He watched Leigh for the right cues, how he used the fork to cut into the bacon, then speared a piece of egg with some of the yolk. Tolly copied the act and took his first bite.

  Bliss.

  “Oh my. This is wonderful.”

  Leigh laughed. “Wait ’til you try something more complicated like Miss Maggie’s casserole.”

  “I look forward to it.” Tolly dug into another bite.

  All too soon, Leigh seemed troubled again and asked, “About this whole you being mine thing….”

  “I do not mean as a slave without my own will. If you wish it, I can be your… companion. Your partner. What is the word? Your boyfriend.”

  Leigh nearly choked on his next bite of food but chuckled in the aftermath of his coughing.

  Tolly might be imagining what he wanted to see, but he thought Leigh looked at least a little smitten with him. He could not afford to make even a single misstep.

  “You said we’re connected because of how you saved me,” Leigh said. “That you know things about me, like my name and how to find me. Do you know… everything about me?”

  “No. More a sense of you. But that is more than I need to know that I chose well.”

  The food was not yet gone from Leigh’s plate, but still he set his fork down. “Tolly, I need you to hear this. I am not a nice person. I wasn’t some innocent in need last night. Those men wanted me dead because I did bad things to them first.”

  “What things?” Tolly set his fork down too.

  “Stole. I stole from them. I’m a criminal and a liar. Do you understand? I’m a bad man. I’m not some destiny for you to—”

  Another knock at the door interrupted him, this time causing Tolly to jump.

  “Who now?” Leigh grumbled. “Just hold on,” he said with a gesture for Tolly to stay seated, then rose to answer the door.

  Tolly could not believe Leigh meant what he had said. Even if it was true, there had to be good reason for him to steal. Tolly would feel it if Leigh was a bad man. There had to be good in him.

  He watched Leigh peer through a tiny spyglass in the door before yanking it open.

  “Ralph, what is it this time? I’ve had a long night. Shouldn’t you be on your way to school? I’m not awake enough for this.”

  It was a boy, a teenager, nearly as tall as Leigh but whose face betrayed his age, and his voice cracked when he spoke.

  “Come on, Hurley, it’s not that early. Heh. See how that rhymed?”

  “Ralph.”

  “It’s my laptop! If I lose this paper I gotta turn in today, I’m dead meat.”

  “How many times do I have to say it? Computers aren’t my area.”

  “But you always figure it out anyway, whether it’s a radio or a carburetor. Please? Just two seconds before I miss my bus.”

  Leigh sighed, holding firm for as long as he could before he gestured the boy inside. He had a backpack over one shoulder and what Tolly believed was a laptop in his free hand, though he did not understand what one was used for exactly. The boy was quite skinny with angular features and a pointy nose.

  “Oh,” he said when he saw Tolly, then turned to Leigh with a snort. “Long night, huh?”

  “Don’t even start. Now give me that.” Leigh snatched the laptop. “Ralph, this is Tolly. Tolly, Ralph.”

  “Hello.” Tolly smiled warmly.

  “Hi.” He tilted his head as if trying to read Tolly like a crooked signpost. “New runner?”

  “You should not be asking questions like that,” Leigh snapped as he returned to the table and pushed his plate aside to make room for the laptop.

  “Sorry. Just figured anybody you brought home would have to know you’re a… secret mobster,” he whispered far too loudly for Tolly not to overhear.

  “Not much of a secret with you around.” Leigh shook his head, fingers clacking away on the keys. Tolly had never seen a computer in person. He wondered what Leigh was doing to it, but he focused instead on the word.

  Mobster. It was true, then, but surely Leigh’s profession was function more than form.

  “Ralph, do you know Leigh well?” Tolly asked the boy.

  “I guess so. He’s lived in this building since I was a kid.”

  “Still are, kid,” Leigh said without looking up from his work.

  “Do you think he is a bad man?”

  “Him? No way.” Ralph made an exaggerated expression. “He acts tough but he’s a big softie. Ain’t ya, Hurley?”

  Leigh sighed again but did not respond.

  “I thought as much,” Tolly said.

  “Ralph…. First off, update your OS more than once every two years.” Leigh turned the laptop around, which appeared to be showing a string of text that Tolly assumed was the “paper” Ralph had been concerned about. “And stop Googling porn sites. Stick to the safe ones I told you about if you have to be hormonal.”

  Ralph gave a jubilant cry as he collected his laptop. “You are the master, man. And yep, pretty sure as an exceptionally attractive teenage boy, it is basically law that I’m hormonal. So—” He looked at Tolly after snapping the laptop shut. “—if you’re not a runner, who are you?”

  Panicked eyes looked at Tolly across the table.

  “I… am Leigh’s bodyguard.”

  “Is that, like, a euphemism?”

  “No,” Leigh said. “Look, kid, I might be into some trouble, all right, so you need to steer clear for a while. No dropping by like this unannounced for a few days.”

  “Wait, he really is your bodyguard?” Ralph looked appropriately troubled. “Is it Sweeney? Or the Morettis?”

  “Don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong,” Leigh said sharply, but even such an authoritative tone did not seem to affect the boy.

  “You’re kinda scrawny, no offense,” he told Tolly. “You sure you can protect him?”

  “I will let no harm befall Leigh, I promise you.”

  “Cool. Weird, but… cool.”

  “Bus. School.” Leigh stood from his chair.

  “Going! Thanks, Hurley. Be safe, okay? You’re the only one I can talk to about girls without worrying you’ll steal the ones I like. Like Deanna. I am totally wearing her down. The other night—”

  “Go.” Leigh pushed him toward the door.

  “I’m going! Keep it loose, Bodyguard Man!” he called, then gave a little salute before rushing out the door.

  Tolly was all smiles when Leigh turned back to him. “You see. You are a good man.”

  “What, charity work
for that brat?”

  “You helped a child in need with no benefit to yourself. A true scoundrel would never do that.”

  Something chimed in the living room, and Leigh hurried to the coffee table to pick up his cell phone. That Tolly understood as something humans used to communicate long distance, which he thought very useful, but Leigh’s lips pursed tightly when he looked at the screen. “Alvin. He wants me to meet him at one of his father’s clubs.”

  “I will go with you.” Tolly gathered his last bite of food to clear his plate.

  “Hang on….” Leigh started to dissent but stopped, hand dragging down his face as he looked about his apartment, no doubt debating if he wanted to ask Tolly to stay.

  “I will go with you,” Tolly said again. “Merfolk are stronger than humans, even if I do appear… scrawny. I can protect you.”

  “Better than leaving you here to fend for yourself. Fine. I need to get changed first. Just put the dishes in the sink, okay?”

  “You have not finished eating.”

  Leigh scratched back along his scalp, clearly antsy. Returning to the table but not sitting, he gathered his own last bite and shoved it into his mouth. He gestured at the plate in irritation before storming away to his bedroom.

  Tolly was annoying him. He had to be careful. He had to prove his worth to Leigh.

  Once again, he did as he had been instructed, even rinsing the plates first to make them cleaner. He itched to peek into the bedroom while Leigh changed. He wanted to know what Leigh looked like bare, but given how he had reacted to seeing Tolly, he doubted he would appreciate having an audience.

  A minute later, Leigh returned in a more subdued combination of similar clothing to Tolly’s, put on his shoes, a jacket, and thrust like items at Tolly. Shoes were especially odd to walk in, but he could adjust. He did not want to cause Leigh any trouble.

  “You are upset with me.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m just…. My life is on the line, you got that?”

  “Yes. I got that. I meant what I said to Ralph. I will not let any harm befall you.”

  “Fine, whatever. Let’s go.”

  Tolly stuck close to Leigh as they locked up the apartment and headed down the hallway, then farther down the stairs toward the front entrance. Leigh seemed to be in a great hurry, either to reach their destination faster or to escape the apartment building before any additional interruptions arose.

  Unfortunately, they were not quite fast enough to reach the exit before two young ones flew out of their apartment almost directly into Leigh’s legs.

  “Whoa, Gar, Gert, slow down! Where’s your mother?” Leigh tried to collect them, but the youngest of the two, a girl about four or five, continued zipping about as what must be her seven- or eight-year-old brother chased her.

  “Gert!” the boy called. “You don’t always get to be the Jedi! It’s not fair!”

  “Is too! I’m the girl!” she shouted back, darting around Leigh’s legs at great speed, making it impossible for him to move. Unlike with Ralph, however, who was older, Leigh did not jump to frustration with these two, but stood still, patient and waiting for them to settle down.

  “That doesn’t even mean anything! Girls aren’t always the good guys!”

  “Hey,” Leigh said louder but without raising his voice too harshly. “How can you play Sith and Jedi without lightsabers, huh? Maybe worry about that first.”

  “We only have one and Gert broke it,” Gar said, stopping finally as he crossed his arms in a huff, while his sister clung to Leigh’s legs and stayed hidden behind him.

  “Did not! The sword part wouldn’t come out. I was just helping.”

  “Sith and Jedi?” Tolly asked. “Like the movies?”

  The children seemed to notice Tolly for the first time, and while the boy looked at him warily, the little girl came out from behind Leigh’s legs. “Do you like Star Wars, mister? Are you a friend of Mr. Hurley?”

  “A new friend, yes.” Tolly crouched down to be closer to her level. “And I like those movies very much. Would it not be more fun to play the Sith? You could be ‘bad’ but be turned to the light side. That story is more interesting than starting as the hero, do you not agree?”

  Her big brown eyes blinked before she exclaimed, “I wanna be Sith! Gar can be the Jedi this time.”

  “Well…. Wait, I….” Her brother tried to backtrack as the Sith suddenly sounded more appealing, but Tolly laughed to discourage them from fighting further.

  “What else do you like to pretend?” he asked Gert.

  “Uhh… that I’m a Jedi or a princess or a dragon. Or a mermaid!” she added excitedly.

  Tolly saw the way Leigh tensed, but he knew what humans thought of his kind. “The nice kind of merfolk, I hope?”

  “Why would a mermaid be mean?”

  Tolly wondered that too. There were no nice merfolk outside of fairy tales other than himself. Maybe somewhere, but none that he had met. “Then you are a very nice mermaid, Miss Gert. Quite lovely, in fact. Your hair would look beautiful in the water. May I ask what color your tail is?”

  “Umm… purple!”

  “Royalty indeed,” he said. Not among his people, but it was a royal color, he had heard, and very pretty. It would look gorgeous on scales. “Perhaps you are a merfolk princess.”

  “I can be both?” Gert lit up at the thought.

  “Of course. Was not Ariel both?”

  The little girl seemed enchanted now, and because of her reaction, Leigh seemed enchanted, too, which made Tolly feel as though he had succeeded in something.

  “Mermaids are boring,” Gar said firmly.

  “And what if one were like a shark?” Tolly snapped his teeth to prove his point.

  “Mermaids aren’t like that.”

  “Have you ever met one?”

  “No, stupid.” The boy kept his arms crossed. “Mermaids aren’t real.”

  “Garfield Sean Richardson, do we call people ‘stupid’?” A commanding voice came from the children’s apartment, preceding the appearance of a woman who was clearly their mother, with the same dark skin, hair, and eyes. She multitasked with ease while waiting for an answer, locking the door and juggling several bags.

  “No, Mama,” Gar said dutifully.

  “I didn’t think so. Oh! Who are…?” She startled at the sight of Tolly, who stood from his crouch to better greet her, but she relaxed when she saw Leigh there too. “He with you?”

  “Yeah, I’m keeping some extra muscle around for the next few days.”

  “He’s muscle?” She eyed Tolly with scrutiny.

  “Looks can be deceiving, apparently,” Leigh said. “We were heading out too.”

  “Aww, but Mama”—Gert rushed to her mother’s side—“I wanna play mermaid.”

  “Gertrude Ann, your brother needs to get to school, I need to get to work, and you need to get to Miss Maggie’s.”

  “Miss Maggie looks after you?” Tolly asked the girl. “Well then, perhaps she will play make-believe.”

  “Nah. She’s nice and all, but she can’t play much, coz her back hurts her sometimes.”

  “Then perhaps later, when we have all returned, I can play with you instead.”

  “Really?” She clung to her mother as she had Leigh but looked at Tolly with a sparkle in her eyes.

  “If Leigh and I have the time, I would be honored.”

  “Honored,” she repeated, like she only half understood the word. “Did you hear that, Mama?”

  “I did indeed,” the woman said, still eyeing Tolly before speaking more quietly to Leigh. “Where’d you find this guy?”

  “Long story, but you can trust him. This is Tolly. Tolly, this is Deanna, Gar, and Gert.”

  “A pleasure.” Tolly bowed his head. “As are your children.”

  “Watch ’em for a few hours and see if you still say that.”

  “I would be delighted to.”

  The way her eyes widened made Tolly wonder if she had meant the comment as sarca
sm. “I’m gonna hold you to that. See you later, Leigh. You let me know if I should be worried.”

  “I will,” Leigh said. He let Gert hug his leg and gave a fist bump to Gar before the family hurried away.

  “Bye, Tolly!” Gert called to him.

  “Goodbye, Miss Gert!” He waved but realized after a moment what the mother’s name had been. “That was Deanna, the one Ralph mentioned? But they are quite divergent in age.”

  “He’s got a crush,” Leigh said.

  “A crush?”

  “He likes her, even though he doesn’t stand a chance.”

  “The father of her children is not with her?”

  “No,” Leigh said with sudden coldness in his eyes, “and everyone’s better off that way.”

  “I see. Perhaps, though, Ralph should focus on someone closer to his own age.”

  “I’ve been trying to tell him that since he hit puberty. He’s a stubborn one.” Leigh began to move forward toward the exit, whereas the family had headed to Miss Maggie’s.

  “We all have difficulty giving up on the ones we want,” Tolly said, catching Leigh’s eye and making no attempt to veil what he meant. Leigh averted his eyes, but Tolly could feel that it was not disinterest that plagued him. “Children are lovely, though. Even my kin can have pleasant ones before they are trained to be cruel.”

  “Why aren’t you, then?” Leigh asked. “Cruel? If all the others are?”

  “My parents thought differently.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “They were not fast enough swimmers.”

  Leigh stopped just as he was about to push open the door, hand outstretched but hovering. He looked at Tolly in sympathy, but there was more that had him frozen. “I can’t believe I’m letting a mermaid come with me to see Arthur Sweeney.”

  “I will not fail you, Leigh.”

  “I know you won’t try to, but you need to follow my lead, got it?”

  “I will go wherever you tell me to.”

  “No, I don’t just mean follow me, I mean…. If I say a lie about you or the situation, you need to go along with it as though it’s true. No one can know you’re a mermaid. Man. Folk.”

  Tolly appreciated that he was trying to use the right word. He was a kind man, no matter his profession or past deeds. Tolly just needed to convince him that they could trust each other. “I am braver than you believe, stronger than I seem, and smarter than you think.”