The Tail of Emily Windsnap (5 page)

“Yeah, it’s wicked.”

Shona looked at me blankly. “Wicked?”

“Wicked . . . you know, cool . . .”

“You mean like swishy?”

I laughed, suddenly getting it. “Yeah, I guess so.” I looked around me. “Where’s all this stuff from?”

“Things fall into the sea — or get thrown away. We make use of it,” she said as she pulled herself onto one of the bikes. She perched sideways on it, letting herself sway backward and forward as the spring swung to and fro. “It’s nice to have someone to share it with,” she added.

I looped my tail over the other one and turned to face her. “What do you mean? What about your friends?”

“Well, I’ve got
friends.
Just not a
best
friend. I think the others think I’m too busy cramming to be anyone’s best friend.”

“Well, you do seem to work pretty hard,” I said. “I mean, sneaking out at night to study for a test!”

“Yeah, I know. Do you think I’m really dull?”

“Not at all! I think you’re . . . I think you’re swishy!”

Shona smiled shyly.

“How come there’s no one else around?” I asked. “It’s kind of creepy.”

“It’s the middle of the night, gill-brain!”

“Oh, yeah. Of course.” I held on to the handlebars as I swayed forward and back on my swing. “It would be cool to meet some other people like us,” I said after a while.

“Why don’t you, then? You could come to my school!”

“How? You don’t have extra lessons in the middle of the night, do you?”

“Come in the day. Come on Saturday.”

“Saturday?”

She made a face. “We have school Saturday mornings. Why not come with me this week? I’ll tell them you’re my long-lost cousin. It’d be evil.”

“Evil?”

“Oops — I mean, wicked. Sorry.”

I thought about it. Julia actually had invited me over on Saturday. I could easily tell Mom I was going there and then tell Julia I couldn’t make it. But I was only just getting to know Julia — she might not ask me again.
Then
who would I have? Apart from Shona. But then again, Shona was a mermaid. She was going to take me to mermaid school! When else would I get a chance to do
that
?

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it!”

“Great! Will your parents mind?”

“You’re kidding, aren’t you? Nobody knows about my being a mermaid.”

“You mean apart from your mom and dad? If you’re a mermaid, they must be —”

“I haven’t got a dad,” I said.

“Oh. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I never had one. He left us when I was a baby.”

“
Sharks!
How awful.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t want to know about him anyway. He never even said he was leaving, you know. Just disappeared. Mom’s never gotten over it.”

Shona didn’t reply. She’d gone very still and was just staring at me. “What?” I asked her.

“Your dad left when you were a baby?”

“Yes.”

“And you don’t know why he went?”

I shook my head.

“Or where?”

“Nope. But after what he did to Mom, he can stay wherever he is, as far as I’m —”

“But what if something happened to him?”

“Like what?”

“Like — like — maybe he got taken away, or he couldn’t come back to you or something.”

“He left us. And we’re fine without him.”

“But what if he didn’t —”

“Shona! I don’t want to talk about it. I haven’t got a dad, okay? End of subject.” I watched a shoal of long white fish swim across the clearing and disappear into the weeds. Seaweed swayed gently behind them.

“Sorry,” Shona said. “Are you still going to come on Saturday?”

I made a face. “If you still want me to.”

“Of course I do!” She swung off her bike. “Come on. We need to head back.”

We swam silently back to Rainbow Rocks, my head filled with a sadness stirred up by Shona’s questions. Of course they were not so different from the ones I’d asked myself a hundred times. Why
had
my dad disappeared? Didn’t he love me? Didn’t he want me? Was it my fault?

Would I ever,
ever
see him?

I waved to Mom as I made my way down the pier. “Bye-bye, darling, have a lovely day,” she called.

Go back in, go back in,
I thought. “Bye!” I smiled back at her. I walked woodenly along the pier, glancing behind me every few seconds. She was smiling and waving every time I looked.

Eventually, she went inside and closed the side door behind her. I continued up to the top of the pier and checked behind me one last time, just to be sure. Then, instead of turning onto the boardwalk, I ran down the steps onto the beach and snuck under the pier. I pulled off my jeans and shoes and shoved them under a rock. I already had my suit on underneath.

I’d never done this in the daytime before. It felt kind of weird. The tide was in, so I only had to creep a short way under the pier. A few people were milling around on the beach, but no one looked my way. What if they did? For a second, I pictured them all pointing at me: “Fish girl! Fish girl!” Laughing, chasing me with a net.

I couldn’t do it.

But Shona! And mermaid school! I
had
to do it. I’d swim underwater all the way to Rainbow Rocks. No one would see my tail.

Before I could change my mind, I ran into the freezing cold water. One last look around, then I took a breath and dove — and was on my way.

I made my way to Rainbow Rocks and hung around at the edge of the water, keeping hidden from the shore. A minute later, Shona arrived.

“You’re here!” She grinned, and we dipped under. She took me in a new direction, out across Shiprock Bay. When we came to the farthest tip of the bay, Shona turned to me. “Are you ready for this?” she asked.

“Are you joking? I can’t wait!”

She flipped herself over and started swimming downward. I copied her moves, scaling the rocks as we swam deeper and deeper.

Shoals of fish darted out from gaps in rocks that I hadn’t even noticed. Sea urchins clung to the sides in thick black crowds. The water grew colder.

And then Shona disappeared.

I flicked my tail and sped down. There was a gap in the rock. A huge hole, in fact. Big enough for a whale to get through! Shona’s face appeared from inside.

“Come on,” she said with a grin.

“Into the rock?”

She swam back out and grabbed my hand. We went through together. It was a dark tunnel, bending and twisting. Eventually, we turned a corner and a glimmer of light appeared, growing bigger and bigger until eventually we came out of the tunnel. I stared around me, my jaws wide open.

We were in a massive hole in the rock. It must have been the size of a football field. Bigger! Tunnels and caves led off in all directions, around the edges, above us, below. A giant underwater rabbit warren!

Everywhere I looked, people were swimming this way and that. And they all had tails! Merpeople! Hundreds of them! There were mermaids with gold chains around slinky long tails, swimming along with little merchildren. One had a merbaby on her back, the tiniest little pink tail sticking out from under its sling. A group of mermaids clustered outside one passageway, talking and laughing together, bags made from fishing nets on their arms. Three old mermen sat outside a different tunnel, their tails faded and wrinkled, their faces full of lines, and their eyes sparkling as they talked and laughed.

“Welcome to Shiprock — merfolk style!” Shona said.

“Shona, better get a move on. Don’t want to be late.” A mermaid with her hair in a tall bun appeared beside us. “Five minutes to the bell.” Then she flicked her dark green tail and zoomed off ahead.

“That’s Mrs. Tailspin,” Shona said. “She’s my history teacher. We’ve got her first thing.”

We followed her along a tubelike channel in the rock. At the other end, where it opened up again, mergirls and boys were swimming together in groups, swishing tails in a hundred different shades of blue and green and purple and silver as they milled around, waiting for school to start. A group of girls were playing a kind of skipping game with a long piece of ship’s rope.

Then a noise like a foghorn surrounded us. Everyone suddenly swam into lines. Boys on one side, girls on the other. Shona pulled me into a line at the far end. “You okay?”

I nodded, still unable to speak as we swam single file down yet another tunnel with the rest of our line.

Everyone began to take their seats on the smooth round rocks that were dotted around the circular room. It reminded me of the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree dome at the Museum of Science movie theater, where they show films of daredevil flights and crazy downhill skiing. Only this wasn’t a film — it was real!

Shona grabbed an extra rock and pulled it next to hers. A few of the other girls smiled at me.

“Are you new?” one asked. She was little and plump with a thick, dark green tail. It shimmered and sparkled as she spoke.

“She’s my cousin,” Shona answered for me quickly. The girl smiled and went to sit on her rock.

The walls were covered with collages made from shells and seaweed. Light filtered in through tiny cracks in the ceiling. Then Mrs. Tailspin came in and we all jumped off our rocks to say good morning.

Shona put her hand up right away. “Is it all right if my cousin sits in with us, please, ma’am?”

Mrs. Tailspin looked me up and down. “If she’s good.”

Then she clapped her hands. “Right, let’s get started. Shipwrecks. Today, we’re doing the nineteenth century.”

Shipwrecks! That beats pre-algebra!

Mrs. Tailspin passed various objects around the room. “These are all from
The Voyager,
” she said as she passed a huge plank of wood to a girl at the front. “One of our proudest sinkings.”

Proudest sinkings — what did
that
mean?

“Not a huge amount is known for sure about the wreck of the
The Voyager,
but what we do know is that a group of mermaids who called themselves the Siren Sisters were responsible for its great sinking. Through skillful manipulation and careful luring, they managed to distract the entire crew for long enough to bring the great ship down.”

Shona passed me a couple of interlocked pieces of chain. I examined them and passed them on.

“Now, the only problem with this sinking was what one or two of the Siren Sisters did. Can anyone think what they might have done?”

Shona thrust her hand in the air.

“Yes, Shona?”

“Ma’am, did they fall in love?”

“Now, how did I know you were going to say that? Ever the romantic, aren’t you, Shona?”

A giggle went around the room.

“Well, as a matter of fact, Shona is right,” Mrs. Tailspin went on. “Some of these sisters let down the entire operation. Instead of dispersing the crew, they chose to run away with them! Never to be seen again. It’s not known whether they attempted to return once they discovered the inevitable disappointments of life ashore. . . .”

I shuffled uncomfortably on my rock.

“Although, as you know,” Mrs. Tailspin continued, “Neptune takes a
very
dim view of those who do.”

“Who’s Neptune?” I whispered to Shona.

“The king,” she whispered back. “And you don’t want to get on the wrong side of him, believe me! He’s got a terrible temper — he makes thunderstorms and typhoons when he gets in a bad mood. Or unleashes sea monsters! But he can calm the roughest seas with a blink.
Very
powerful. And
very
rich, too. He lives in a huge palace, all made of coral and gems and gold —”

“Shona, are you saying anything you’d like to share with the class?” Mrs. Tailspin was looking our way.

“Sorry, ma’am.” Shona blushed.

Mrs. Tailspin shook her head. “Now, one rather sorry piece of
The Voyager’
s legacy,” she went on, “is that it has become somewhat of a symbol for those who choose to follow their Siren Sisters’ doomed path. Instances are rare, but merfolk and humans
have
been caught together here. I needn’t tell you that the punishments have been harsh. Our prison is home to a number of those traitors who have attempted to endanger our population in this way.”

“You have a prison?” I whispered.

“Of course,” Shona replied. “Really scary, from the pictures I’ve seen. A huge labyrinth of caves out beyond the Great Mermer Reef, near Neptune’s palace.”

I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the morning. What if they found out that I wasn’t a real mermaid, and I ended up in that prison?

Shona grabbed me as soon as lessons finished.

“I’ve had an amazing thought,” she said. “Let’s go to the shipwreck. Let’s find it!”

“What? How?”

“Don’t you remember? Mrs. Tailspin told us the exact location. I thought you were daydreaming then!”

She ran her hand along the side of her tail. Then she did this totally weird thing. She put her hand inside her scales. She felt around for a bit, then pulled something out! It looked like a cross between a compass and a calculator. Her scales closed up as she withdrew her hand.

“What was
that
?” I screeched.

“What?” Shona looked baffled.

I pointed to her tail, where her hand had disappeared.

“My pocket?”

“Pocket?”

“Of course. You have pockets.”

“In my denim jacket, yeah. Not in my
body.
”

“Really? Are you sure?”

I fumbled round the sides of my tail. My hand slipped through a gap. Pockets! I did have them!

Shona held up the object she’d pulled out. “We can find the shipwreck with my splishometer.”

I hesitated. It’s true that Mom wasn’t expecting me home until four o’ clock. Should I go?

“Come on, Emily; it must be such a romantic place!”

I thought for a second. “Okay, let’s do it — let’s go this afternoon!”

Underwater, we made our way slowly out to sea, with Shona checking her splishometer every few yards. After a while, we came up to look around. A lone line of gulls skimmed the surface. Ahead of us, other sea birds shot into the water like white arrows.

We ducked under again. Rays of sun shone in dusty beams under the water. Moments later, Shona’s splishometer beeped. “We’re getting close,” she breathed as we dove lower.

The sea life was becoming weirder. Something that looked like a peach with tentacles turned slowly around in the water, scanning its surroundings with beady black eyes. Farther down, a see-through jellyfish bounced away from us — a slow-motion space hopper. A rubbery gold crown floated silently upward. Everywhere I looked, fish that could have passed for cartoon aliens bounced and twirled and spun.

Shona grabbed my arm. “Come on,” she said, pointing ahead and swimming away again. Lower and lower, the sea grew darker and darker. As we pressed forward, something came into view. I couldn’t make out the shape, but it was surrounded by a hazy, golden light. The eerie light grew stronger as we carried on swimming toward it, and bigger. It was everywhere, all around us. We’d found it!
The Voyager!

We darted along its length, tracing the row of portholes all the way from the back end to its pointy front, then swam away again to take it all in. Long and sleek, the ship lay on a tilt in the sand: still, silent, majestic.

“That is so-o-o amazing.” My words gurgled away from me like a speech bubble in a comic strip. It made me laugh, which sent more bubbles floating out of my mouth, up into the darkness.