223
“Why? I wouldn’t hurt them.”
“For the love of God, Lily. I’m not talking about
you
hurting
them.
Would you please get it into your head that this is not a movie. Forget everything you think you know about merpeople. Forget that freaking Ariel, think
Silence of the Lambs,
think
Friday the Thirteenth.
Haven’t you heard anything I said to you today? They. Will. Kill. You.” The irony wasn’t lost on me that I’d considered killing her myself just a few hours earlier.
Lily’s face paled. “How do they know where you are? I thought you said you had to be in the water for them to hear you.”
“They
don’t
know. They’re only looking. But it won’t take them long. Please hurry.”
She ran into the water and dove. She took three strokes, and I was there, slinging her onto my back like a duffel bag.
“I’ll have to keep my head above water as much as I can.” My voice came out high and thin. By the way her fingers tightened on my shoulders, she was finally understanding me. “That way they won’t hear me and you can breathe. I won’t be able to go as fast as before, but it’s the only way.” She ducked her head into my neck, and we were gone.
I plowed toward Bayfield, slogging across the rough chop, my shoulders pushing through the water as if it were mud. I didn’t look behind me to see if they were following. Knowing couldn’t make me go faster. I was halfway back when I saw a way out of this mess. Not that it was an attractive option, just the lesser of two evils. Jack Pettit’s boat was crossing our path.
“Lily, it’s Jack.”
“Dive! You can’t let him see you.”
224
“I can get you onto his boat.”
“No!”
Calculating our two paths and the point of intersection,
I crushed the waves with newfound strength and stole up alongside the boat, smacking the port side with my tail. Jack jerked around from the wheel and killed the engine.
“What the— ”
“Take her,” I said.
Lily whimpered, “No,” and tightened her grip on my neck. “You,” Jack said, pulling Lily from my back and dragging
her up over the swim deck. “I knew it.”
“Just get her home safe.”
“Jack, please don’t tell,” begged Lily.
“
Ugh.
As if telling people’s ever got me anywhere.” Then
his face twisted into a pained look. “Listen. I’ll keep your secret, just tell Pavati I’ve been looking for her. Tell her I need to see her.”
“I promise, but I really don’t think it’s in your best interest.” “All I need is your promise, and you can keep your opinions to yourself; by the looks of it, you’ve got a double standard on that point anyway.”
Lily reached for me, not wanting to say goodbye, keeping her wide eyes on mine.
“You’ll be okay?” she asked. She was always worried about the wrong thing.
“Go home. Don’t worry about me.”
“You’re still coming over tomorrow?”
“Just go.”
Jack turned the key, and the propeller churned the water mere inches from my tail. I recoiled and glared at the unlikely
225
rescuer. Jack gunned the engine and bent the boat into a sharp turn, exposing its hull, spraying a rooster tail of water in his wake.
All I could do was wonder if Jack would be as good for his promise as I.
226
29
FACING MUSIC
B asswood Island was quiet. Nothing disturbed the water; nothing rustled in the thick understory; no squirrels bickered in the tree branches. I waited alone for a long time. The lights from the Hancock house shone across the lake and, as the sun set and the sky darkened, went out one by one. Lily’s bedroom light went out last. She flipped it off- on- off- on- off before leaving the whole house in darkness. I took that as her “good night, good luck” wish to me. What else could it be?
The day’s clouds dissipated, and the stars came out. I
227
lay on my back and traced Orion in the sky. The Hunter. That was what we were, but somehow the nobility of Orion had escaped our lot. I worried that my sisters were hunting. They weren’t anywhere near the Hancock place. I knew that much. But I couldn’t find them in the water. A few times I waded in, submerging myself so I could listen for their voices. But it was quiet. They must have gone a long way.
It was midnight before three dark spots grew into long, thin figures emerging from the lake. None of them greeted me. When they reached the beach, Pavati and Tallulah walked past me in search of firewood. Maris scooped up her dress, which lay on the edge of the beach, and pulled it over her head, letting it fall over her angular body. She came to stand directly in front of me. She didn’t sit, so I had to look up at her.
“There’s a new smell on the water, Calder.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“Don’t be cute.”
“She was boating.”
Maris cursed my name. “Were you in the water with
her again?”
“No, of course not.”
Maris’s arms flew up in exasperation. The wind agitated
the lake into rough chops behind her. “Calder, you are ruining everything. What makes you think she won’t warn her father? If he’s on alert, this whole thing is ruined. I never should have trusted you with something so important. You’ve never grown up. You’re for crap with responsibility. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been working toward this? Are you even on board?”
228
“Of course I am. And she has no idea what we are. You’re overreacting.”
“Don’t tell me I’m overreacting. I raised you. Do you think that was easy? Do you think I
needed
another sibling to look after?” She was screeching now. “We could have just left you. She didn’t have to save you. But she did. So how do you think it feels to have you betray us now?”
“I haven’t— ”
Pavati and Tallulah returned with armloads of driftwood, which they dumped into a pile with a clatter. Maris and I both looked over at them. Tallulah wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Anyone hungry?” asked Pavati.
“What is your problem, Maris?” I fumed. “I thought that’s what you wanted. For me to get close to her. Isn’t that what you said?”
“Yes, but just how close are you getting?”
“Your smell is mixed with hers, Cal,” Tallulah said. Her voice was small and unfamiliar. “It’s all over Manitou Island.”
“She took a boat over.” I was making this up as I went. I prayed they didn’t consider the unlikelihood of a human taking anything as rickety as the Hancocks’ boat across open water. “I ran into her on the beach. I told her I’d done the same thing.”
“Don’t you think that was a little hard to believe, seeing as you didn’t have a boat? And what about clothes?”
“I had clothes. I told her my boat was down the beach, pulled up into the bushes. She didn’t ask many questions. She was glad to see me. That’s a good thing, right?”
Maris’s eyes narrowed. I looked over at Tallulah, but she still wouldn’t look at me.
229
Pavati smirked and built the kindling into a teepee over a pile of dry leaves. She rubbed her hands together until sparks flew out of her palms and caught the leaves on fire.
“I’m invited over for dinner tomorrow.” I was glad I had that bit to offer. I hoped that would improve their moods. I didn’t want this to turn into a fight.
A fight?
The idea surprised me. Was that what it was going to come down to? Was I going to have to fight my sisters over the granddaughter of Tom Hancock? I could feel Maris’s frenzy, electric on the air. She was like a piranha with blood in the water.
And how would I do in a fight against them? One- on- one I’d fare well. But three- on- one I didn’t stand a chance. We were all fast, all skilled killers by nature. Or nurture? I’d never met another mermaid who lived any differently, but Lily’s words haunted me. Was I the way I was because of Maris? Had she taught me to be this way? Was it possible to find my own happiness?
If there was a fight, I wondered whom Tallulah would side with. I couldn’t imagine her letting Maris destroy me. Still . . .
“Dinner,” Maris said. “I guess I’m glad to hear that much.” My resolve strengthened. With or without Tallulah, I would fight for Lily. She was good. And she was innocent. And she had no part in the sins of her grandfather. But I couldn’t trust Maris not to take matters into her own hands. I would have to stay close to Lily to make sure she was safe. I couldn’t leave her unprotected when it was all my fault that she was in danger.
That meant no longer sleeping on Basswood with my sisters. I’d tell them I needed to be alone to think— to keep
230
my mind sharp on the plan. Because despite my feelings for Lily, despite my need to protect her, I needed the plan to continue for my own selfish desires. It was no longer about revenge. I needed Maris to be successful because only then would I be free to leave my sisters, without any obligation to do their bidding. That was our deal. I would be free. I could see if it was possible to be happy, as Lily had promised. And I could take Lily with me, and we could live like normal people. Or maybe . . . I stopped myself before my fantasies took over.
I knew I could never chance a reinvigoration with her. The likelihood of it working was next to nothing. Maybe I could practice on someone else first, just to see . . . but I had to stop that idea, too. While it might have made sense to me not so long ago, Lily had changed my way of thinking. How could I play Russian roulette with someone else’s Lily?
I couldn’t shake the fantasy completely. The idea of the two of us living together naturally, without any pretext, was tantalizing. I would have to push it way far away before it could become too firmly rooted in my brain. Recklessness wouldn’t do anyone any good. I was already walking a tightrope, balancing precariously between meeting Lily’s needs and satisfying my sisters’.
I must have glazed over as these thoughts were tripping through my mind. Pavati was snapping her fingers in front of my eyes.
“Hey, Calder,” Maris said. “Earth to asshole. How are you going to work out the fishing trip with Hancock?” Maris was bent over at the waist, yelling down into my face.
“Hancock is going to teach some kind of nature course at
231
the college,” I said. “I’ll ask him to take me out on the lake. He doesn’t fish, but it could just be a boat ride. A little nature lesson or something.”
The girls now sat in satisfied silence. Pavati elbowed me and said, “So, what are you going to wear to dinner?”
232
30
SHOPPING SPREE
P avati parked our car at the far end of the JCPenney parking lot. Tallulah and I got out of the backseat, and Pavati tossed the keys over the roof of the car to me. I snagged them out of the air and pocketed them in my cargo shorts, which— now that I looked at them— had seen better days. The tip of one of the keys hung through a hole in the pocket.
“I think you’re right about the clothes, Pav. It might be time to burn these.”
She rounded the car and mock- appraised my T-shirt- and- shorts look as if she hadn’t given it much thought before.
233
“Don’t worry. When we’re through with you, you’ll look like a proper boyfriend.”
Tallulah winced. “Come on. Let’s get this over with. There’s too many people here. It gives me the creeps.”
I knew what she meant. The emotional tenor of each person blended with the next. Bring on a crowd, and there was a cacophony of sentiments and passions that created a constant buzzing and distortion of muddled colors. We’d all have decent headaches if we stayed more than fifteen minutes.
Pavati entered the store ahead of me and Lu, and I dropped my Ray- Bans over my eyes to fend off the glare. A group of shaggy- haired white boys in baggy pants and NBA jerseys backed up to give us a wide berth.
“Maybe you should ask them who their stylist is,” Pavati whispered.
“Ugh,” Tallulah said, slinging a bag over her shoulder. “Could you please stop kidding around? Where’s the men’s department?”
“There,” Pavati said, pointing to the back of the store. “I’m thinking something classic. Maybe a simple oxford shirt, definitely new khakis. Your old ones smell like kelp, and the cuffs are all worn.”
“Aw, Pavati, I had no idea you were paying attention.”
We navigated between carousels crowded with children’s rompers, junior fashions, then ladies’ dresses. We passed a shoe display, and I grabbed a box of Sperry Top- Siders as Pavati pulled me toward the back.
Shoes,
I thought. I hadn’t given any thought to shoes. It didn’t look like the girls had, either. I was glad I spotted them. Proper boyfriends probably didn’t show up at the door barefoot.
234
Tallulah walked over to a display of shirts, all folded and pinned into tightly bound packages arranged by size and color. She didn’t waste any time being particular. She yanked a medium in green off the shelf and slapped the package against my chest. “Here. That’ll go with your eyes.”
I grabbed the shirt before she let go. “Something bothering you, Lu?”
Her mouth twisted up to one side. She was just about to say something when a store clerk approached us.
“Can I help you find something?” the woman asked. She was wearing a name badge that declared her name was Jo- Ellen. She fingered nervously at her frosted hair as Pavati took a menacing step toward her.
“Actually, you can, Jo- Ellen. I was hoping to find a new dress for a cocktail party I’m attending next weekend. Something in pink, perhaps?”
Pavati held her gaze as Jo- Ellen flushed and said, “Certainly, certainly. This way.” Pavati wiggled her eyebrows at us before she followed Jo- Ellen.
Tallulah slipped my new shirt into her bag with the agility of a sleight- of- hand magician, then she pulled at my elbow. “Pants are over here.”
I grabbed Tallulah by the shoulder and whipped her around. Her normally placid expression faltered, and the fluorescent lights reflected off her wet eyes. “What’s wrong?” I demanded.
“Nothing’s wrong.” She faked a smile. “I’m getting a headache. That’s all. Let’s hurry this up, okay?”
I released my grip and watched her walk away. She stopped beside a carousel of men’s dress pants and flipped through them all, making a scraping sound with the swipe of each hanger on