Cry of the Sea (8 page)

“I know what you’re talking about.”

Sure he did, I thought. His looks. His house.
Carter had probably been president of his school’s Student
Council.

“Khaki would be best, if she has it,” I
suggested.

“I’ll see what I can find.” He led me to the
bathroom. “Steam it up real good so I can come in here to drop the
clothes off.”

I tried to laugh in a relaxed way, but it
came out a little choked as he closed the door behind him. The
bathroom was as lovely as everything else in the house, and I had
to take a minute to touch all the pretty handles before turning on
the water faucet in the shower. As the water heated up, I glanced
at myself in the mirror. Oh, Heavens! Is that what I’d looked like
all morning? Well, that ruled out his wink as being anything other
than pity.

I quickly let down my hair and shed my
clothes. I balled everything up as tight as I could and placed it
on a tile by the toilet where the oil and sand that rubbed off it
could be cleaned up easily.

He showered with Axe shampoo and soap, so I’d
smell like a boy all day. It didn’t bother me too much. I was going
to smell like a really hot, exceptionally cool college guy. And
that was way better than smelling like fish and oil. The hot water
stung the scrape on my leg that I’d all but forgotten about. It
took a fair bit of scrubbing to get the oil off my arms and face,
too.

At some point he snuck in to put some slacks
on the sink counter, but I didn’t hear or see him. He must have
been very fast. It was possible that he only reached his arm in and
didn’t come in the bathroom at all. I know it was another act of
his amazing chivalry, but I couldn’t help feeling slightly bummed
out that he didn’t try to peek.

Twenty minutes later I was clean, dressed in
a combination of his and his mother’s clothes, and headed back down
the stairs to find Carter and my dad in the kitchen. All the
digital pictures had been uploaded, and they had figured out how to
upload the video footage too. They put the video in two separate
files. One for the regular oil spill information, another for the
mermaid discovery. Now Dad was typing up a press release
statement.

He was talking to Carter when I walked in.
“My only problem now is that all my contacts are on my computer at
home. How do I get these sent out?”

Since the mermaid rescue had taken so long,
they had precious little time left to get these images e-mailed to
every news correspondent they could think of before Affron got its
own press releases out debunking everything Dad wanted them to
know.

“Let’s call Mom,” I suggested. “Have her
email the contacts. She has them all with her on her laptop.”

“Of course, Genius,” he said. “I suppose I
would have thought of that eventually, but it’s nice to have you
young, brainy people around to think for me.”

He got out his cell phone and dialed my mom.
I gestured to the coffee cups on the table. “Any of that left? I’m
not a big coffee fan, but I think it might help.”

“I’ll pour you a cup,” Carter said and dashed
over to the coffee machine. “Did you enjoy your shower? You look
great.”

I smiled. I sure felt a whole lot better than
I had. I’d like to really clean up for him sometime: put on some
make-up and a dress, clips in my hair. However, just letting him
know that I don’t always stink and look like I’ve been dragged
under a boat was good for the moment.

“Hey, honey, hi!” my dad said into the phone,
his voice betraying his energy level.

Carter gestured to the creamer and sugar. I
nodded, and he sweetened my coffee up for me.

“You near your computer?” my dad asked my mom
while Carter handed me the hot mug. “I need you to email me our
press contact list.” There was a long pause, and I could hear Mom’s
voice coming out of the phone. “Look, something happened this
morning that slowed us up a bit.” Another long pause. “I know it’s
important to get this out right away, honey,” my dad said
patiently. “I’ve been doing this a while too.” Pause. “Yes, she’s
with me.” Pause. Dad got up then and moved away from us. I could
still hear the sharpness of my mom’s voice from across the room.
“Let’s not get into that right now,” Dad said as calmly as he
could. “There are other things to discuss.”

My dad put the phone on his shoulder and
gestured to the laptop. “Hey Carter, can you help June email the
video to her mother?”

This only took a moment for us to accomplish
on his high-speed computer. It gave me a silly thrill to see it zip
off so fast. I’d been begging my dad to let us get high speed, but
he insists on dial-up. When I actually need to do stuff online I
either go to Haley’s house or take my laptop down to a coffee house
and work off their WiFi.

Apparently Mom was badgering Dad with a bunch
of questions about the oil spill. He was giving her all kinds of
non-committal responses as he waited for her to get the video. When
she finally got the video a couple minutes later, my dad went
silent as he let her watch it.

A couple minutes clicked past.

Then my dad said simply to her, “I know.”

All we could hear were excited chirps from my
mother’s voice as she went through her own version of the shock
phase everyone else had experienced. Finally Dad interrupted her to
say, “One of them is still alive, down at the rescue center. The
other two died.”

I couldn’t take this one-sided conversation
anymore. I had to hear what my mother was saying, so I got up and
grabbed the phone. I clicked the speakerphone button and put the
phone on the kitchen table. My mom was going on about what an
amazing discovery this was and how it could change everything.

“How, Mom? How could it change everything?” I
asked.

I heard her take in a sharp breath. It
couldn’t have been clearer to my ears that Mom didn’t want to talk
to me right then. Still, she answered. “Because, June, if people
know that there are people living in the ocean, they will be more
interested in protecting them.”

“But they aren’t people, Mom,” I said.
“They’re fish that look kind of, remotely, like people. They don’t
even seem to be mammals. They don’t breathe air. They don’t
talk.”

“Do they think?” my mom asked. “Could you
tell if they think?”

I hesitated. My mom was so worked up about
all this that she might blow everything out of proportion. I
thought the mermaid was trying to communicate with me, but I’m not
convinced that meant she had clear thoughts like a person does.

My father told her his thoughts on it. “The
mermaid seemed to make sounds in response to June’s talking to her.
Her eyes expressed emotions. I’m not sure she could think any more
than a dog or a cat, but she seemed desirous of expressing
herself.”

“Well, there you go,” my mom said. “Sentient
life in the ocean that happen to look like beautiful silver women.
We’ve got the key to bringing the world together to save ocean
life. Affron won’t have a chance against this. Everyone will see
them as the inhumane bastards they are. We’ve got to let the public
know.”

That’s when Carter cleared his throat and
said, “No.”

“Who’s that?” Mom asked.

“That’s Carter,” I said. “He’s letting us use
his computer.”

“He knows all about this?”

“Mrs. Sawfeather,” Carter said, “I work at
the marine rescue center with Dr. Schneider. I helped with the
rescue this morning.”

My mom sounded impatient. “How many people
know about this?”

My dad answered. “Just us and Carl.”

That seemed to appease my mom, because she
didn’t say anything else about that. “What were you trying to say,
Carter?”

He cleared his throat again. I guess my mom
made him nervous. She has a way of doing that. It’s part of her
magical lawyer powers.

“We don’t know enough about the mermaids yet.
We might cause more damage to them if we leak information too soon.
We’ve got to wait.”

“Wait for what?” my mom asked. “Wait for more
of them to wash up on the beaches, dying from oil spills?”

“I agree, Mom. I just don’t think it’s the
right move yet, either.”

My dad spoke then. “Actually, Natalie, I
think the kids are right. Let’s hold off a little on this. Let’s
wait until Carl can tell us more about them.”

Mom let out a long sigh over the phone line.
“I don’t want to sit on this too long.”

“Understood,” my dad said.

“I’ll be home in a couple days. June? You
still there?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“You are not off the hook. We will be talking
as soon as I get home.”

“Yes, Mom.”

My eyes shot over to Carter, and he politely
glanced away. Thanks to Mom, he probably figured I was in trouble
for something. I reached over and clicked off the speakerphone then
handed the phone back to Dad. I had nothing left to say to my
mother at that point. Why bother? Everything I said from now on was
going to go in one ear and out the other. My mom had decided that I
was a lost cause. After all the work I’d done that morning, you’d
think I’d get some forgiveness. Why did I even bother?

Carter sensed my agitation. “You about ready
to go?”

“Yeah,” I sighed, sitting down in front of
the laptop. “Just let me get these pictures attached to the email,
so my dad can send them out while we’re gone.”

“I’ve already done it,” Carter said. “Get
your stuff and let’s get rolling. With any luck you could still
make third period.”

And in a flash, all the wonder and excitement
of this morning evaporated into another ordinary day.

Chapter
Six

As nice as Carter’s house was, his car wasn’t
much. It was a used clunker with windows that rattled. He kept it
pretty neat, but the floor carpets and seats had stains all over
them from the spilled sodas of its previous owners. I felt really
uneasy sitting on the stains in his mom’s nice slacks.

Trying not to sound rude, but burning to
know, I said, “I take it Mom and Dad didn’t buy you a car for your
16
^th
birthday.”

His face reddened like I’d plugged him into
the cigarette lighter. His usually confident grin got real
lopsided. “Well... actually, they did.”

“Was it some kind of harsh lesson?” I asked.
“You must have been the only kid in your school with a car that
cost less than $15,000.”

He nodded slowly. “You’re right. This is a
posh neighborhood. Most kids get pretty cool cars.”

“So what happened?” I pressed. There had to
be a reason. My parents wouldn’t get me a car because they want to
protect the environment from one more vehicle’s gas emissions.
As long as you live in our house, we can share a car,
they
told me repeatedly. In reality that meant that if I wanted to go
anywhere, I needed to ask Haley to drive. I’m not sure why I even
got my driver’s license.

But Carter’s parents clearly had money, and
they didn’t seem like the kind of people who would share a car with
their son for the benefit of the ozone layer. Carter himself
appeared to be the perfect son: good-looking, well-spoken, college
bound. A parent’s dream teen. So, what was the deal with the
clunker car?

Carter chewed on his lip for a moment, then
gave in. “My folks did buy me a car—a cool Ford Explorer that was
only a year old and low mileage. It was 4-wheel drive and V6. I
took it off-roading with some friends my second weekend owning it
and destroyed it.”

“Oh no!” I shouted. “You didn’t!”

He grinned sheepishly. “I did. Stupid. My
folks informed me in no uncertain terms that if I wanted another
car I had to buy it myself.” He lifted his right hand and presented
his car like a game show host. “Voila! This is what weekends
stocking shelves at the grocery store gets you.”

We laughed about that and joked about parents
in general. He never once asked about why my mom was so pissed at
me, and I was grateful for that. We didn’t turn on the radio at all
because we talked whole ride. I did wind up having to swing by my
house after all, because I needed my backpack and I had to change
my shoes. I could not face going to school in my nasty boots
covered with oil and sand. While home, I quickly changed into my
own pants, too, and returned the ones I borrowed to Carter.

“I’m afraid I’ll damage them,” I told him. Of
course, I could have changed out of his shirts and didn’t. I know
he realized this, too, but he didn’t say anything about it and
seemed mildly pleased with me that I kept them on. Returning them
was an excuse to see him again.

We arrived at school right about 10:30. I’d
missed most of third period, but I would catch fourth if I
hurried.

“I’ll pick you up here at 3:00,” he said.

“Really?” I asked. “I can just get a ride
home with Haley and wait till Dad gets home later.”

“Your dad will still be out at the beach, and
I know you want to get back to our friend in the tank.”

He was absolutely right. Carter was cute and
smart and wonderful. But despite his company and the impending
lunchtime of school politics, the thought of that poor creature
never left my mind. The mermaid needed help, and I wanted to be
there with her. The last place I wanted to be was at school.

“Sounds good,” I said. “3:00, right
here.”

I got out and strolled through the front
doors of the school.

Or I would have, except the front doors were
locked. So, I had to push the office button, which is apparently
attached to some kind of truancy alarm. When the doors opened for
me to stroll through, I was intercepted by a pissy office attendant
who whisked me off to the Vice Principal’s office to explain why
I’d ditched school all morning. Because, naturally, with everything
going on I had forgotten to have my dad sign an excuse note
explaining why I was late for school.