Cry of the Sea (10 page)

“Then what’s the problem, really?” I asked.
“We got their signatures. Our club is approved. We got what we
wanted.”

“Sort of,” she said. “We’ll see.”

“Are you mad that I did all the talking?”

“Kind of.”

“And that I was late?”

“Yes.”

“I couldn’t help that,” I said. “I’m
sorry.”

Haley sighed really hard. She glanced around,
trying not to look right at me. The cafeteria was nearly empty of
students now and we were late for class. “I’ve got to go. Meet me
after school?”

At that moment I was ready to call Carter and
tell him not to pick me up after school. I probably needed to be
with Haley to reassure her that our friendship was okay. I could go
home with her and spend the afternoon eating pizza rolls and
bashing the Student Council. I could tell her all about Carter, and
she’d be so excited about the possibility of one of us finally
hooking up with someone.

Except there was a mermaid dying in a tank in
Aberdeen.

And my cell phone with Carter’s number on it
had been confiscated.

So, I shifted my eyes to the ground and said,
“I’m being picked up by Carter, the guy who helped us this morning,
to head back to the beach and assist my dad some more.”

Haley nodded. “Fine.” Then she snatched the
club permission form out of my hands. “I’ll turn this in.” She was
out of sight before I noticed the sting of the paper cut on my
right forefinger.

I sucked on my finger for a second, adjusted
my backpack and turned around to head for class. That’s when I
noticed Vice Principal Devil-Hair staring at me with her hands on
her hips and tapping her toe impatiently.

Chapter
Seven

So after missing another class to sit in the
Vice Principal’s office again, I only had one period left until the
end of the day. It was English and we were reading
Moby
Dick
. That’s a put-you-straight-to-sleep book if there ever was
one, and I knocked right out after two paragraphs. I dreamed about
Ahab pouring buckets of boiling whale blubber over the side of his
ship and throwing harpoons at all the green mermaid tails flipping
up out of the water. Maybe he thought they were tiny whales. I
jumped off the ship to swim after the mermaids, because I have that
thing about swimming while I sleep. Anyway, the dream was so darn
exciting that I slipped right out of my skinny desk and fell on the
floor.

“Miss Sawfeather?” Mr. Robles checked, “are
you all right?”

“Yes, sir,” I said, scrambling back up into
my seat to the sound of my classmates stifling their laughter. I
thought for a second I’d sprained my ankle on the tray under my
seat, but after rotating it a couple times I decided it would be
fine.

Mr. Robles raised his eyebrows. “Please
believe me, Miss Sawfeather, you are hardly the first student who
has drifted off while reading this extraordinary book. It takes a
special person to fully appreciate the literary genius of Melville
and stay rapt with attention. And it certainly doesn’t help that
Mr. Garrison’s reading style, while riveting to the few students
who enjoy monotone delivery devoid of any comprehension as to what
punctuation is
for
, does make one feel as though the walls
are closing in on us.” I saw Bobby Garrison in the back corner sink
back into his chair. Apparently it had been his turn to read aloud.
Poor guy.

Mr. Robles snapped his hardcover copy of the
book shut dramatically. Very fitting for an English teacher who
spends his summers acting with the Washington Shakespeare Festival
and liked to remind us of that stunning fact every day. “So, let’s
take a break, shall we? There’s only so much one can handle when it
comes to reading about how to extract the blubber from a whale.
Yes?” We all closed our used paperback copies. “Read the rest of
the chapter tonight at home, and we’ll do what would have been your
homework right now.”

For the rest of the class we were allowed to
create our own crossword puzzles with our vocabulary word list from
the chapter. Focusing on this was much easier, and I was glad to
have one less assignment to have to do that night because I wasn’t
sure when I’d get home or be able to even think about doing
homework.

Finally the bell rang and I dashed to the
front parking lot. Carter was there in his beat up old car waiting
for me. He had the motor running, and I could see him inside
leaning across the passenger seat to unlock the door and roll down
the window. No power windows on that old thing. I headed right for
him.

But then I saw Haley, too, headed for her
car.

“Haley!” I shouted out to her. “Haley, come
here! Come meet Carter! He can explain about this morning! Then
you’ll...”

If she heard me, she didn’t show it. She just
kept walking across the parking lot and got in her car. I thought
about running after her, but I didn’t do it. I knew she had to have
heard me because several other people walking near her had turned
their heads. She was avoiding me on purpose.

I tried not to worry about it. We’d talk
later. I’d make a point of it, even if it meant climbing in her
bedroom window and forcing her to acknowledge me. I really didn’t
want her to feel hurt or ignored or whatever she was feeling. I
imagine it was probably confusing that I let her down because of an
oil spill warning. After griping about not wanting to be part of my
parents’ craziness anymore, I almost missed our meeting. I could
see why that made no sense to her. She just needed to understand
that what was going on out at Aberdeen was different than the usual
events my dad dragged me to. Once I filled her in on the discovery
of the mermaids, she’d get why I was late to school and bungled our
presentation.

Sure she would.

I hoped so.

I watched her back her car out of the spot
and drive away. Carter tapped his horn.

“You coming?” he asked through the passenger
window.

“Yeah,” I said distantly, still watching
Haley’s car as it turned out of the parking lot into the street. I
opened the door. As I shifted to toss my backpack in the back seat,
I noticed through the back window how many people had gathered on
the school’s front steps to watch me. Among the looky-loos were
Marlee and Regina. My lip-reading skills aren’t great, but I’m
pretty sure I saw Regina say, “I told you,” and several of her
friends laughed. One of them gave me a thumbs-up and a wink. Then
they all laughed again.

Groaning, I sat back in my seat. I closed the
door and put my seatbelt on without saying anything.

Carter flipped off the radio and said, “Well,
hi to you too. I’m fine, thanks.”

“Oh, sorry,” I said distractedly, watching
the crowd of popular girls watching
us
pull out of the
parking spot. “Hi. How are you? You’re fine? That’s good.”

“Hmmm,” was all he replied. Then he put the
car in gear and drove out of the lot. Once we were on the highway
he spoke again. “Tough day?”

“A little bit.” I paused, not sure what I
wanted to say about it all. I decided what I really wanted to do
was call my dad. I’d let Carter hear just enough and figure the
rest out. “Can I use your phone? They took mine away from me and
either Mom or Dad has to get it back for me.”

“That stinks,” he said.

“You don’t know the half of it,” I told him.
I wanted to tell him everything that happened, but since the worst
thing of it all was that I was going to get some sort of bad rep
for supposedly sleeping with him, I didn’t figure he needed to know
about it. I mean, we weren’t even dating. He hadn’t even asked me
out. He hadn’t even hinted that he might possibly at some time in
the future
think
about asking me out. I was probably just
some silly high school kid to him. He was in college. He could date
college girls. What did he need me for? Nothing. He just wanted to
get points for knowing my dad, was all.

What would I say anyway? “Hey, everyone at
school thinks you and I got it on all morning. Ha ha. Isn’t that a
riot?”

How do you sit in the car with a guy for an
hour after that?

So I kept silent.

“Did your meeting go well? Did you get your
club?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I answered. “I think so. They signed
the paper at any rate.”

“Then it was worth it,” he said.

It was my turn to say, “Hmmm.”

Carter handed me his phone. I stared at it
for a moment trying to remember my dad’s phone number. I had it on
speed dial on my phone so I never had to actually punch in the
numbers. For my life, I couldn’t think of the digits.

“I saved it,” Carter said softly, as though
reading my mind. “Under ‘S’”.

I scrolled to ‘S’ and found dad’s number. A
moment later he answered.

“Carter?” he asked.

“It’s me, Dad,” I said.

“Why aren’t you calling from your own phone?”
he asked.

“Dad, I know you’ve been busy all day, but
you
do
remember me being in the school’s office all morning,
right?”

“Oh, that’s right. Sorry, honey.” He paused.
“They took your phone?”

“Yes,” I huffed. “You or Mom have to get it
back for me.”

“That was very inconsiderate of them. I
really need you to be in contact today. What if I have your Mom
make a call? Have you left school already?”

I sighed. My mom could not use her persuasive
skill for this situation, and I knew it. “Mrs. Slater isn’t exactly
supportive of our cause, Dad,” I told him. “Besides, we’re already
on the road.”

“I’ll try to get it back for you tomorrow,
okay?” Then he paused for a minute, and it sounded like someone was
talking to him. He mumbled a couple “Uh huhs” then said back into
the phone to me, “Well, if not tomorrow, I’ll get it soon.”

Great.

“How are things going over there?” I
asked.

He told me that it was very crowded at the
beach. The Affron people had effectively shooed off most of the
reporters with their fancy double-speak and crisp white
eco-uniforms. None of the major network news correspondents had
lingered more than an hour. Only a couple nosy journalists from
NPR, and some green-friendly websites that Dad had called, stayed.
A handful of volunteers from town had shown up along with a few
employees of Affron gas stations in the area who had probably been
forced to be there. They helped remove the dead carcasses from the
beach, and the living creatures had been taken to the Marine Rescue
Center. There was still a lot to do, so they would be working until
dark.

“Are you and Carter coming here or going to
the Center?” he asked.

“I’d like to get back to the Center.” I
looked over at Carter to see if that’s what he had planned as
well

Carter nodded. “That’s where I’m headed. Dr.
Schneider said that the mermaid has been really calm all day, so I
was thinking about getting into the tank to help clean her up. I
could use your help.”

My help? Really? I nearly squeaked with
excitement at being asked, but I did my best to sound mature and in
control.

“Isn’t Dr. Schneider there?” I asked him. It
didn’t really matter. I wanted to help, desperately.

“He doesn’t like to get in the tanks,” Carter
answered. “He’s still studying the cadavers and organizing the
traffic for the rescued animals from the beaches. I could call
another guy in, but I thought it might be best if we keep the
mermaid a secret for a while longer.”

I put the phone back to my ear. “Did you get
that, Dad?” I checked.

“Sounds like you have a full afternoon,” he
said back. “I’ll meet you over there later on.”

My mood picked up after that. The mermaid was
still alive. I was going to be able to help her. My dad sounded
proud of me. And Carter thought I was worth his time. What had
happened at school suddenly became so insignificant, and I put all
my worries about it aside to focus my energy on the rest of the day
ahead.

An hour later we were both in wet suits and
diving gear. My suit was a man’s. I’m tall so it fit length-wise,
but it was too big in girth and chafed between my legs. I had
learned how to scuba dive two summers ago on a whale-watching trip
with my parents down in Southern California. We took a crash course
so we could swim under water and look for signs of pollution
damage.

Yes, that’s my parents’ idea of a
vacation.

I’ll confess it was kind of fun. And it was
the trip that made me fall in love with California.

“Do you need a quick refresher course?”
Carter asked.

“I think I remember the basics,” I said.

“Okay,” he said. “Just stay calm. I don’t
know what she’ll be like once we get in there, and I don’t want you
to get hurt.”

A large painter’s tarp had been draped over
the mermaid’s tank to hide her. I figured that the isolation had
helped to calm her down. She couldn’t see the people coming in and
out of the building all day. Of course, she couldn’t see us either
until we had already climbed up the ladder and our heads popped up
over the top.

The mermaid’s head jerked up at the sight of
us, and she backed away, nearly pressing herself against the glass
closest to the wall. Her eyes were huge and her body very rigid.
She didn’t recognize us in the wet suits. I tapped Carter, stopping
him from climbing in the tank. “Hold on a second,” I said.

I descended the ladder and stood in front of
the tank between the tarp and glass. I slipped my mask down around
my neck and pulled back the hood of the suit so that my hair
showed. Smiling at the mermaid, I said, “It’s me. Remember? We met
this morning.”

I put my hand on the glass and waited. The
mermaid cocked her head and stared at me for a moment. Then, very
hesitantly, she moved toward me and put up her hand to press
against mine. Her eyes softened as she recognized me.