Beyond the Sea (5 page)

“Not here,” Melia whispered to Wolfy. “I’ve known these waters my whole life. Actassi rules this area. He keeps the darklings in check.”

Wolfy grunted in agreement, lifting his giant head to roll and eye back to look at his owner. Melia kissed him and hugged him tighter.

*

 
“So,” Melia began, hanging her bag in her locker. “Would you hate me if I went swimming after school? I want to take pictures.”

“Not at all,” Jamie said honestly, knowing that ‘swimming’ meant Melia shifting into her true form and exploring the ocean. She wished desperately that she too could transform. “Mom wants to have a ‘family dinner’ tonight anyway, since Jasmine is coming home.”

“Have fun,” Melia said sarcastically. She was very proud to have mastered sarcasm.

“Oh, I’m sure I will. All it will be is Jill bitching about how she’s late for a party and Jasmine bragging about her high grades or hot boyfriend.” She frowned. “I wish I could brag about our adventures.” A smile slowly returned to her face as she recalled the time they went several hours northeast to visit a forest Melia knew to be riddled with pixies. The pixies, jealous of Melia’s ability to breathe underwater, stole her car keys and the girls spent the next two hours searching and pleading. Finally, with the promise of a treasure from the sea, the pixies returned the keys and happily took the shell bracelet Melia was wearing.

Melia opened her mouth to speak but was cut off when the first bell rang. They hurried off to chemistry. Melia couldn’t help but notice the dark circles under Peter’s eyes. He caught her looking and smiled, flashing brilliant white teeth. A weird feeling fluttered in her stomach. Unnerved, she quickly looked away.

At the end of the day, Melia kicked off her shoes before exiting the school and stuffed them into her bag. Barefoot, she walked next to Jamie into the parking lot.

“I’m gonna look for jellyfish,” Melia casually said to Jamie.

“Oh, you’ll get some awesome pics then!”

“I’ve been craving bull kelp, so I might go up north. Don’t worry if you don’t hear from me tomorrow.”

Janet, who was a few steps behind Melia, laughed loudly and turned to Amanda. “Isn’t kelp seaweed? Of course the Fish Girl would eat seaweed!”

Melia kept walking as if she hadn’t heard a thing. “Try to have some fun tonight.”

“I’ll try,” Jamie said, unconvincingly.

Melia drove straight home, played with Wolfy, and talked to Charles for an hour while he cooked dinner. Her mother and Edward were home but were leaving first thing in the morning for New York.

“Want me to bring you some bull kelp?” she asked her mother over dinner.

Nyneve smiled. “Sure. I haven’t had that in a while. I haven’t been able to find a store around here that sells it.”

“Exactly.” Melia sliced through her mound of mashed potatoes, creating a passageway for the pool of gravy to escape. “I’m gonna swim up north and get some. It’s so much better fresh.”

“Up north? By yourself?” Nyneve looked at Edward for parental support. He shrugged, knowing he couldn’t control the free-spirited Melia.

“Well, Mom, you could come with. That is, if you still remember how to swim.” She smiled deviously.

“I may not get in the water as much as I used to, but I’m sure I can still swim faster than you,” she said with a wink. “When I get back, we will race.”

“Promise?”

“Of course!”

Edward clapped his hands. “I know what we need! A cruise! You like the corals by Australia, don’t you Melia?”

“I do!” she answered excitedly, even though she knew all this talk would never be put into action. As soon as dinner was over, Melia rushed to the water. She knew her mother wouldn’t be happy about her trying to dig up clues as to what happened to Lana. She had a hard enough time talking about it and finally was able to accept the fact that her eldest daughter was dead, gone, never coming home again. Melia didn’t want to purposely avoid her mother in the rare times she was home, but she felt guilty harboring knowledge, no matter how insignificant that knowledge was.

She dove in the water. Mind racing faster than she could swim, Melia drove forward, not paying attention to where she was going. Finally, after what had probably been hours, she stopped. She twisted so that she was floating. The stars twinkled above her. Everything was quiet and peaceful. Unblinking, she stared up into the night sky until her vision blurred. Staying at the surface of the water to avoid running into any other merrows, Melia slowly headed home.

She heard them before she saw them. People from her school…what were they doing? Screaming and causing a fuss, jumping in and out of the waves. Stupid humans…they need to be more respectful of the ocean. They are lucky Actassi was so fond of humans. Others weren’t so lucky. Melia somersaulted underwater and started to swim home.
I don’t want to go home,
she thought and zipped out west again.

It had been months since Melia slept under the sea. She woke, feeling wonderfully refreshed. The sun was just starting to rise. Feeling content, she swam to the surface and gracefully jumped out of the water onto a large boulder that stuck out of the water. She closed her eyes, humming a song she and Lana learned while visiting the merrows of Hawaii.

Soon her humming turned into singing. She had forgotten what some of the Hawaiian words meant. Still singing, she sat and looked at the mounds of human shapes that littered a small spot on the shore. If Lana were here she would insist on throwing gulls’ eggs or rocks at them. One of the shapes moved. Curious, Melia sat up straighter. When it stood, she stopped singing. It was the figure of a man, a shirtless man. He stumbled to the water’s edge, scanning the horizon. Wanting a closer look, Melia dove into the ocean.

*

“This is OUR house and you do what WE say!” Peter’s father, Roger, yelled. Peter had done the unthinkable: he had skipped church. Peter sat at the base of the stairs, his head in his hands, waiting for the yelling match to be over. For the last hour and half, Peter had been arguing with his parents. Normally he’d negotiate more than argue, but he lost it when his mother called him ‘lazy’. Ava stood in the upstairs hall, crying. Adam shouted out a “Stop yelling at Peter!” every now and then, which only made their parents even angrier.

“I just can’t believe the disrespect you show your mother!” His father motioned wildly to Sue. “After everything we do for you!”

“Sorry I was born!” Peter yelled back, working hard to keep calm.

“Oh, good, you’re sorry!” Sue cried, close to hysteria. “‘Sorry’ won’t get you to heaven, Peter.”

“Seriously, Mom, like you’ve never missed church!”

“Only if I had a good reason!” She clutched her bible.

“Bullshit! You didn’t even start going until four years ago!”

“Peter Anthony Anderson!” his father bellowed. “Do not curse in my house!”

Sue wailed. “My son! My own son is so disrespectful. And his soul is dammed to Hell! You don’t love me!”

Peter rolled his eyes. He stopped falling for that guilt trip years ago. He slowly got up. His father stepped closer.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Bed. I’m tired.”

“Didn’t you sleep enough today?” He stuck his hand out, blocking Peter’s way.

“Let me through.”

“Apologize to your mother.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Peter protested. He caught a glimpse of Ava’s tear streaked face, and his heart softened. “Fine. Mom, I’m sorry I didn’t go to church. I’ll go in the morning if it will make you happy.”

“You don’t mean it!” Sue cried.

“Yes, I do.”

“You’re only saying that because your father told you to!”

“Ok, you’re right. I don’t mean it. And I will never go to church again because I think it’s a waste of time.” He smiled defiantly, ignoring the yelling that was now coming from both his parents.

“You ungrateful child!” Sue yelled. “I wish I didn’t keep you—”

That was all Peter needed to hear. He shoved past his father, grabbed the keys to the Mustang and slammed the back door. The last thing he heard was his mother shouting an apology.

It was windy tonight. The dark water melted into the black midnight sky. If it wasn’t for the distant glow of The Ridge, Peter could pretend he was the only soul left on the earth. He held his head high into the wind. The rock—the one from this morning—loomed out of the darkness as if it was teasing him. It was too steep, its sides too sharp for a person to climb. He kicked off his shoes and waded into the water. He didn’t think a person could scale up to the top, but there was only one way to find out. A wave crashed over him, salt water forcing itself up his nose, causing him to cough. Thunder rumbled in the distance. He dove forward, feeling the tug of the stormy undertow. Another wave, this one bigger than the last, tossed him back. He kept swimming. He had to get to the rock. He had to prove to himself that he could do it.

 
I wish I didn’t keep you!

 
He sliced his hands through the choppy water. He wished she hadn’t. He wished someone rich would have adopted him and he was living somewhere as magnificent and mysterious as The Ridge. His heart pounded with indignation. He slapped the water, causing a stinging salty spray to splash in his eyes.

Exhaustion gripped his body by the time he reached it. The sides were slimy with algae. He madly felt around for a crevice. There was nothing. Well, nothing on this side, he figured. Fighting the tide, he swam around. Lightning lit up the sky. Thunder boomed. Peter looked up at the boulder. It was much bigger up close. He reached, blindly feeling around in the darkness for a way to hoist himself up.

 
Waves pounded against him. He swam around to the other side, his back to the open ocean. A wave, bigger yet again, picked him up. Distracted by getting onto the damn thing, Peter didn’t realize he was being thrown into it until his head cracked against the cold stone.

-Chapter 3-

The sun was starting to set. The wind had picked up, blowing the wonderful salty smell of the ocean into her room. Melia settled into a lounge chair on the balcony. Wolfy sat at her side, enjoying the storm bearing breeze just as much as Melia. Just as she was starting to worry about her, Jamie sent Melia a text message.

My aunt went into labor 5 weeks early. Baby is fine. Ugh. Won’t be home until late tonight.

Melia smiled and typed:
Good. Take a pic for me. Human babies are cute!
She held the phone for ten minutes waiting to see if Jamie would respond.

Her stomach growled. “I haven’t eaten all day,” she told Wolfy, suddenly realizing that fact. “Want to watch me attempt to cook?”

She burned the first two grilled cheese sandwiches. Wolfy gladly ate them. “‘Third time’s a charm’ is what humans say, and I guess it’s true.” She proudly showed Wolfy her crisp, golden sandwich. “I think Charles would be proud!”

She ate in silence, finished her homework, and went down to the shore for one last swim. The waves crashed with fury. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
Good thing I left Wolfy inside
, she thought as lightning flashed across the sky. She grabbed the hem of her dress, ready to pull it over her head when a dark figure caught her attention. He was too far away to identify, but Melia knew it was a human.

“What are you doing?” she asked aloud. Was he really going into the water? The current was strong. She shook her head. “What an idiot.”

She ran into the water, transforming as soon as it was deep enough. She swam north, close to the large bolder she rested upon this morning. Popping her head out of the water, she looked for the human. Lightening strobed the sky. There was no sign of him.

Feeling a bit of panic, she dove under the water to look up. There, she saw legs kicking feverishly in the rough water. The human was moving, ungracefully swimming around the rock. Distracted by what it was doing, Melia was too late from stopping it from being thrown into the rock. Her muscles tensed. The human sank under the water, momentarily stunned. Melia recognized that face: Peter Anderson. What was he doing out here on a night like tonight?

He opened his eyes. If he could see in the dark, he would have seen Melia, purple tail and all. Knowing she couldn’t fight the current with human legs, she stayed in her true form and swam to him. Already bobbing along the surface, gasping for air, Peter’s rescue would be easy. But she didn’t want to be seen…

It was a bad idea. It was her only idea. Melia grabbed Peter’s legs, yanked him under and swam to the shore. She let go as soon as his feet could touch the ocean floor. He had thrashed wildly, kicking her and hitting her in the head more than once. It was all worth it though, for now he was coughing and scrambling to safety.

Shifting into human shape, Melia fled from the water.

“Are you alright?” she asked, causing Peter to jump.

He coughed up more water. “I’m—” More coughing. “Fine, I’m fine.” He shot Melia a startled glance. After another cough he asked, “What are you doing out here?”

“I should ask you the same,” she said defiantly. “You almost drowned!”

A lightning bolt shot up from the ocean. Melia got a millisecond glance into Peter’s eyes. She saw confusion, sadness, pain, and fear. Smiling, she put her hand on his arm. “Let’s get closer to the rocks.” She stood, helping him up. On shaky legs, Peter took her hand and followed Melia under an overhang of rock. “What were you doing?”