“Great, yes, out of here. How do you propose we do that with reporters everywhere?”
“My mum makes a great breakfast, and besides, she knew your grandfather. Maybe she’s got photos. She’s a memory hoarder.”
“Sounds great, now ’bout escaping from this madness?”
“How about we make a run for it?”
“I can’t be clobbered for an interview, Finn. They’re asking questions for a documentary on Hughes’ life. They want to know about his one true love and Sereanna’s illegitimate child, which he believes to be his.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“Glad you think so, because Sereanna is my biological mother. I’m ninety-nine percent sure of it. Which makes Grant Hughes my father. Please, Finn, get me out of here? I thought I’d want tae talk tae him, but I’m afraid.”
“Don’t be scared, Anne, I’ll protect you.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and bussed her forehead. “You’ll be okay.”
“Finn, I can’t, I really can’t.”
“If Sereanna had a baby with Hughes, and you’re that baby, it means—”
“Yes, he cheated on his now late wife. Hence why my mum didn’t keep me.”
“What makes you think you’re Sereanna’s?”
“Now’s not the time. I’ve got to get out of here! Please, Finn.”
“I may not have a later, so if you want my help, please explain.”
“I’m the only baby tae have ever been adopted out of Port St. Mary. Sereanna’s the only woman tae have given away her baby here. That’s pretty much as straight forward as it can be. Now can we go?”
“Wow, maybe you should meet your father while he’s here then.” Finn dragged her toward the din of the cameramen and onlookers.
Squeezing out of his grasp, Anne spat, “He didn’t want me then, and the only reason he might want me now is tae make money and tae use our story tae gain a rise in his career. A nice little scandal for the media tae get their hands on. No thanks. Now are you going tae help me or what?”
“If you’re sure, then I suggest we take the fire escape from the supply cupboard.”
“I’m not even going tae ask how you know such a thing.”
“No, probably best you don’t. Let’s mark it down to a misspent youth and leave it at that.”
Finn entwined his fingers between Anne’s and raced down the stairs, the steel grating clunking beneath his step, then paused on the lowest platform and leaned against the rusted railing.
Heart heavy, shoulders slumped, he didn’t want to face the truth. “I must return to the sea, soon, Anne.”
Clinging to his arm, she snuggled into him. “It’s ridiculous I’m expected tae love you after one night. It’s not fair.”
“When you see the gray-spotted seal from your office window, I hope you’ll think of me. Perhaps if I ever get the chance to try again, your heart will love me by then?”
“Finn!” She pushed him away. “I dinnae love you at this minute, but I…I care very much for you, and you’re being so mean, talking like this. You won’t go back, you won’t. I can’t let you.”
Her passion wormed its way into his soul and left a painful ache. She was right. He couldn’t give up on her, not until the last second.
Think, Finn. Think
.
Her desperation to make him stay kept him holding on, convinced him she was the one for him. His one true love. He wouldn’t lose hope, not yet. Perhaps at the last minute, when his time was up, she would realize her love for him. Or maybe his parents would know how to help her see how she really felt about him. “Come with me to my parents’ house. I want you to meet them.” He hopped to the concrete several inches below, and then helped her off the steel steps.
With the sun almost ready to rise, he had to hurry to get her to the farmhouse before time ran out. They’d know what to do. What to say. And they probably had photos of her family, her mother, too. Now that was something she had to see before he flipped back to the sea. Mum and Dad would love her, would go out of their way to take care of her if Finn couldn’t be around to do so. He had to get her home.
He searched for something to aid a speedy journey. Golf cart. It’d have to do. He hopped in but Anne stared at him, hands on hips.
“I’m scared, Finn. Scared I’ll break down and cry if I have tae watch you change. We should say our good-byes now. I had a lovely time. Let’s meet again. Call me.” She pivoted and slunk toward the winding exit driveway leading to the promenade.
“Get your bottom in this here cart now, Anne Ward. Do as you are told.”
She shook her head and continued walking away. “No one tells me what tae do.”
“Then you leave me no choice.” He raced around the cart, threw her over his shoulder, then sat her in it and fastened her in.
“Let me go. Let me go!”
“Blimey, you have one hell of a set of lungs on you. If you’re not careful, the ruckus will attract some media attention.”
“Then let me go.”
“Stop being stubborn and selfish. Please, stay with me for a little longer.” Revving up the cart as fast as it could go, he drove down the promenade, past the wee park with monkey bars and swings, and over the cliff’s edge meadows. She pouted the whole way there.
Finally, he drove up the drive to his parents’ home.
They awaited on the porch, huddled together on a bench with a tartan blanket over their knees.
“Son, it’s okay. Everything will be okay.” His mother stood and offered a warm smile.
“No, it won’t. I’m cursed to spend a lifetime in the freezing ocean, alone, loveless.”
“Have faith in destiny. She knows what she’s doing.”
The orange edge of the sun peeked over the horizon.
“It’s almost eight. Oh dear. Son, take her inside. A cup of tea is what’s needed here, then we’ll figure out what to do.”
He turned to Anne, her scorn burning him. “I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“Having a crazy on you, for spoiling our perfect night. But I had to get you here before I changed back. I wanted, oh, I don’t know what I wanted. Anne, I’m desperate, to spend the last hour of my land time among the people I love. That includes you now.”
“Come, dear, this way. My husband will make a cuppa.”
“Hi, lass. I’m William. This here is Emily. Nice to meet you.” He held out his arm, impressing Finn with the warmth he offered his Anne. Her facial expression softened as she took his hand.
“Nice tae meet you, sir.”
“Call me Bill, lass.”
He ushered her to his usual spot, the huge armchair directly in front of the fire.
Finn gaped. “No one else gets to sit in his lounger. Not even my mother.”
“Never mind that, son. Fetch your sealskin. You’ll need it for the change.”
“I don’t mean tae sound ignorant to the selkie ways, but if he doesn’t have his skin, will he still be able tae change?” Anne asked, twisting her hands in her lap.
“It makes the process easier, lass, less painful.”
“You doubt the myth? I can see it in your eyes.” His mother patted him on the shoulder, but directed her comment to his Anne.
“I don’t doubt it for a minute,” she retorted.
“Then why don’t you save him. Tell him you love him so we don’t have to lose him?”
“Mrs. Kneale, I...I....” A picture on the mantel caught her attention, and she stood. “This is my grandfather.” She took the framed image and cradled it, running her thumb over the face of the man in the picture.
“You must be Sereanna’s girl? Blimey, yes, I should have seen it in you. You look like her.”
“I do?”
“You do, except she had glowing red hair down to her waist.”
“Told you they might have known your mother.” Finn crossed his arms, proud of his accomplishment. At least his time on land had meant something, changed Anne’s life forever, even if he’d be banished back to the sea. His time wasn’t wasted. Not if it meant Anne discovered more about her family.
His mother shuffled to her bedroom and returned a few seconds later with the huge family photograph album. “See, you and my son, you were meant for each other, both cursed by the ocean.”
He stumbled back. “What do you mean?”
“If she’s Sereanna’s daughter, she’s of the ocean, too, son.”
“No, can’t be. She’s a midwife. Firmly rooted on land not sea.”
“My curse came from my mother? All this time, I suspected, imagined, wondered if it was the Isle or her.”
His mother flipped through the book, stopping at a collection of images he’d seen before, a gathering to celebrate his first birthday. A woman similar to his Anne cradled a tot in her arms, a warm smile shining in her adoring eyes as she gazed down at the child.
“Is that her?”
“Yes,” his mother confirmed. “This party was the last time we saw her bonny baby girl. It’s lovely to see you again, Anne. I always knew Madame Evangeline could work miracles, but this is something else.
“Back then, you were called Opaline. I guess your adoptive family changed your name?”
Anne nodded. “On my birth certificate, Opaline Anne is my given name. I’m confused, though. Does this mean everyone knew she was a mermaid?”
“No love, only those closest to her. Myself, Bill here, and her family. Having the ocean in common, our families were close, united almost, as one family. You were like a niece to us.”
“You’re a mermaid? All this time, Anne, and you didn’t say anything?”
“It’s true, Finn. I found out when I moved here. I’ve been staying away from the ocean, scared I might turn and never be human again. I hate the shift, just hate it. But the freedom the sea can offer when things get too much, well, it makes it all worthwhile.”
“You mean you can shift at will?”
“Aye. Since being on the Isle. Never before then. I always had this unnatural fear of water, so I guess, well, it kept me from finding out sooner.”
“Oh, Anne. It doesn’t matter if you don’t love me. I love you.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her. “I really do. My heart tells me so.” And he kissed her. “We’re at fate’s mercy now.”
“Hold on to her, on to the feeling you have for her,” his mother ordered. “It’s important, Finn.”
He unleashed a brassy bark, his nose wiggling.
Seals barked in the distance, over and over, their uproar suggesting the time had arrived.
Anne gasped. “No, Finn, don’t turn. Don’t let it happen.”
“Tell me you love me.”
“I can’t, Finn. I don’t know if I do. It’s too soon.”
“I need you to love me. Do you love me, Anne?”
“I think I do, yes. I love how you take so much time caring for others, how you put them before your own happiness. I adore the way your mouth creeps tae the side when you smile, how your eyes are the color of the ocean. How you love the monkey bars, and the swings.”
He kissed her, putting his all into making her feel special and loved then pivoted, the ocean lulling him to take the dive.
He retrieved the sealskin and stepped out onto the porch. The warmth of the sun sparkled, shimmering across the ocean. Anne wrapped her hand in his and whispered, “You can’t go anywhere. You promised me a coffee from Dioli’s and then a swinging match.”
The lighthouse flickered out of existence.
He dropped his oceanic coat. Braced for the change, he squeezed his eyes shut.
His parents squealed.
He turned to question their delight.
“Your sealskin, son. It’s gone. A puff of smoke and then, this.” His mother pointed to a pile of dust at Finn’s feet.
Cheering, kissing each other, his parents did the do-si-do.
“What?”
“It worked! Son, your selkie days are behind you.”
“But—”
“So we love each other? I don’t understand.” Anne’s brow knitted. “Not possible.”
“But it is, Anne. Your passion for life has rubbed off on him, renewed his love for life and the Isle. You may not love him, and he may not love you, but he loves the possibility of you, of your future together. Oh dear, we can’t thank you enough.”
Finn swirled her in the air.
“Can you forgive me for not telling you ’bout my own cross tae bear?”
“Scottish Anne, there is nothing to forgive and lots to embrace.”
Four months later, on a Midsummers Eve
.
Her three besties from Scotland turned back and grinned her way. All the locals—Bethany, Mrs. Gaverty, even Rowena—were all there, too.
Anne glided across the meticulous lawns toward the seated guests awaiting her presence, tears tricking through pasted-on lashes making her blink several times—darn village beauticians sure liked to overdo things. But they mixed a great Buck’s Fizz which tasted like they’d used mostly champagne with just a few drops of orange juice, and knew their way around all those hair fancy products. She looked, well, amazing. Of course, the girls in the salon complimented her beauty with or without the goop. But their little touches made all the difference.
Head held high, she relished her spotlight moment. Step, together, step. Step, together, step. Step, together, ste— “Argh.” Stuck. An echo of gasps whooshed over the crowd then an eerie, nerve-racking stillness followed.
Yikes
. New objective: walk down the aisle without getting her four inch stilettos lost in the grass or the hem of her fit-for-a-gypsy wedding dress. Layers upon layers of white lace and silk, tight bodice bejeweled to the max. The dress had been his mother’s. Anne hadn’t had the heart to say no. So long as I dos were exchanged, she’d wear anything, be anywhere, do anything.
Besides, every girl deserved to feel like a fairy princess at least once in her life. And did she ever right now. The only thing forgotten was a tiara. No, wait. Her waved, glitter-sprayed locks had been intertwined into a delicate, aquamarine encrusted tiara.
A magic wand
. Where was her magic wand so she could wish her, dead mother to manifest as a wedding guest? Her adoptive parents were there, and Bill and Emily. But it would have been so special to see the woman who brought her into the world. A girl who has all she ever dreamed of is a spoiled girl, though. Anne didn’t need to be spoiled, she already had everything she ever needed. Her soul mate and a wonderful family.