Just Breathe (17 page)

She nods and keeps going. Seeing other …people like this makes me uncomfortable.
How can this even exist?

Finally, we come to a small structure that is a shimmery green color. She opens the door and ushers me in. I swim in and find a simple space that actually resembles the inside of a house on land. It has rooms with walls and a kind of ceiling that seems to be see through because I can see fish glide by when I look up.

When she closes the door she warns, “Be ready.”

I look at her confused but she looks like she’s concentrating on something.

Suddenly the water starts to slowly disappear, sinking into the floor of the space. Then Amber has legs. I panic. I focus as hard as I can, imagining my legs again. It doesn’t work. I am suddenly lying on the floor with this big silvery fin. Ugh! Talk about uncomfortable. I try again, closing my eyes thinking about my legs. When I open them, my legs are back. Both of us are clothed in our bikinis from the beach. She hands me a towel. I wrap it around myself and try to stand up. My legs won’t hold me up and I fall.

Amber tells me, “Careful, it will take some getting used to. You used a lot of energy swimming here. Your legs will be weak after your first few times transforming back and forth.”

I try to push myself up again and make it to a chair three feet away before collapsing. I glance around and notice everything is dry. I am amazed and suddenly exhausted.

I ask, “Why did you make the water disappear?

“I wanted you to feel as comfortable as possible, this is the world you are more familiar with.”

I thank her and ask again, “When can you tell me about Jack?”

“All in good time.”

She tells me to get some rest and I can’t disagree. I rest my head on the side of the chair and drift.

18

My History

I’m surrounded by a cave. Glancing around I find him sleeping in the corner, so peaceful and beautiful. I rush over to him and tap his shoulder, that familiar electricity I’ve missed. He starts and opens his eyes. They are green, slowly the blue rolls in as he sees me. We hear a noise and we are running…running out of the cave.  He grabs my hand and my heart flutters. Looming in front of us, the cliff, I forgot about this part. It’s getting closer and he smiles at me, a peace spreads through me, then we leap.

I wake up with a jolt. I feel panicked and glance around the room.
Feeling a little more panicked.
Where am I?
I rub my eyes and sit up thinking hard. Then I remember, I chose the sea, I’m in the sea. This is still so unbelievable.

I glance around, I’m alone. I get up and walk around the room. It’s a very large room. There are a few of the chair structures, similar to the one where I napped. I spot a doorway in the left side of the room, I head for it. It opens up to a hallway about ten feet long with four other doorways, two on each side. I walk forward and glance in each room. The first two look like normal bedrooms with what looks like a kind of bed in each of them. The third room looks like a sitting room of sorts. Everything is very sparse. I guess that is to be expected considering where we are. The last room is definitely a sort of kitchen and standing at what looks like a stove is Amber humming something beautiful.

She looks up as I enter, “Hi Ever, did you sleep well?”

“Um yeah.”

I am so confused. How is all of this possible in the sea?

She states, “I thought you might be hungry when you woke up. I’m making you some fish?”

I say, “Um yeah sure, sounds great. You eat cooked food here?”

I say it as more of a statement than a question. I’m really starting to feel uneasy about this whole thing. There is a table in the corner of the room so I walk over and sit down. Amber brings the fish and a glass of water. I hold the glass up.

She laughs, “Yes, it’s fresh, you can drink it.” I down the water first and she gets more. Those dreams make me so thirsty.

As I eat my fish, I ask, “Why is this like a... house like on land?”

She smiles, “It is to make you feel more comfortable.”

I ask, “So the other homes here aren’t like this?”

She shakes her head, “No most dwellings are water all the time. I am able to do this because of my job.”

“Your job?”

She tells me, “Yes, as I said before, I am a guide; I guide new mer--people to our city so I am able to greet them with some familiar surroundings before they are fully submerged.”

I suddenly have a queasy feeling; it sounds so final, submerged.

I persist again, “When can I see Jack?”

She looks a little uneasy. “Ever, you have to understand Jack had a job as well and because you have made your choice, his job pertaining to you is over.”

My heart skips and my mouth gapes open, “What, will I ever see him again?”

She looks down sadly and shrugs her shoulders, “I really can’t answer that.”

She rolls her eyes, “He wasn’t supposed to get involved with you in the first place.  It’s his fault for letting you know about him.”

I am so tired of everyone talking around in circles.
  I wish someone would just lay it all out there.
I am getting very frustrated with Jack’s sister. I decide to approach things in a different way.

Carefully I say, “Okay Amber, I want to first thank you for bringing me here. I wonder if you will just explain things to me. Jack and my Gam-aw were so careful with what they told me, I don’t think I got the whole story... about life in the sea.”

She smiles and nods, “What do you want to know?”

Here goes, don’t blow this one, Ever.

“My grandmother told me that she was able to choose the sea and obviously I did too, why? Can anyone choose land or sea?”

She takes a deep breath, “Wow, they didn’t tell you much, did they?”

I shrug my shoulders.

She begins, “In order for you to understand anything, you have to know the history of our people.”

Oh boy, that dreaded subject, history. Hopefully it will be more interesting than history on land
.

She continues, “A long time ago, hundreds of years, there was a man who walked on land, he was an explorer of the sea. The story says, he was abandoned on a deserted island in the Caribbean by his crew. He was a cruel and terrible captain, so they declared a mutiny. He was left for dead and was close to it when a mermaid, who was exploring the area, spotted him. Her name was Metea.”

I hold my breath because I know that name from Gam-aw’s story.

She continues, “He was exactly what she was looking for, a human just to spite her father. Metea was mad at her father, the sea king. He forbade all mer-people to ever surface for fear that land people might see them. He was afraid of the repercussions from land and sea people meeting. Metea not only spotted the captain, she nursed him back to health on the island and healed him. Her family had the unique ability to heal with their blood. They fell in love and somehow because she healed him, he was able to transform into a merman and come to the sea with her.”

She takes a deep breath, “You can imagine what happened next, the sea king was furious, when he found out what his daughter had done. He ordered the captain killed.”

She smirks, “Well Metea and this captain weren’t going to let that happen, so they killed the sea king first. The captain’s name was Seamus.”

I hold my breath for the second time when she says his name, Seamus and Metea. Those are the names of the sea powers Gam-aw told me about.

I interrupt, “Wait so they became the sea powers? Then who is Mersa? My Gam-aw mentioned there are three.”

She answers with a smile, “Mersa is Metea’s mother.”

My mouth drops open.

I ask, “If this happened hundreds of years ago, how are they still alive?”

She smiles a little curious, “Jack really didn’t tell you much, did he?”

I shake my head, “Guess not.”

She laughs, “Merpeople don’t have the same life expectancy as humans on land. We can live for a very long time.”

I am intrigued, “Like how long, is a very long time?”

“Possibly thousands of years.”

I am taken,
wow
.  This makes me think of Jack and do I really want to know, but I ask anyway, “Then how old are you and Jack?”

She smiles again, “Well Jack is about seventy-five and I am sixty. We are very young still.” My breath catches again.  I am truly shocked and don’t know what to say.

She asks, “Do you want to hear the rest?”

I nod.

She continues, “Now Seamus being from the land and now having the powers of the sea, became very powerful. The original sea king suspected the implications of someone on land coming to the sea, but he probably didn’t have any idea the extent of the effects.”

I interrupt again, “I would think someone on land would be less powerful, given we don’t have ‘wills’ like you do.”

She nods, “You would think, but it is actually quite the opposite. Somewhere in our history it is written how dangerous it can be. When Seamus came to the sea, he changed our people forever.”

She takes a sip of water and continues, “Seamus was pretty smart. He became aware quickly of the implications of having land and sea meet, as Matea’s father had. So he made laws regarding the mixture of land and sea people. These offspring could be very powerful. No more lines were to be established, mer-people were to stay in the sea and land people were to stay on land. At first he was more worried a land walker would come and possibly challenge his power. But later, he came to love the sea and our people. He doesn’t want any harm to come to our species.”

She asks me, “So do you get it so far?”

I nod with wide eyes and ask, “There’s more?”

She smiles, “Of course. Many mer-people disagreed with Seamus’ laws so they rebelled and became very dark.”

I jump in, “Are those people the Erebus?”

She smiles, “Very good, you’re catching on. At first they weren’t dark, but over time they changed and developed ‘wills’ that were more extensive. The mixture of land and sea starting with Seamus tilted the balance of the sea forever.”

She stops to let me digest everything. I get another glass of water and think about how all of this information relates to my own situation.

I ask, “So where does my family fall in all of this.”

She shakes her head, “I knew that question was coming, this is probably why Jack and your Gam-aw only told you parts.” I’m beginning to feel uneasy. 
I don’t think I’m going to like what she has to tell me
.

“Ever you are related to Seamus.”

I’m stunned.  The man who changed everything and somehow, he is related to me.
Figures with my luck.

She goes on, “He and Metea had a son who chose land, they granted it to him with the knowledge that from then on the line would stay on land. He was the continuation of your line on land but he still had mer- blood so it has always been there through the years.”

I ask, “So my grandmother wasn’t supposed to come to the sea?”

She shakes her head, “No, her relationship with Jaspen was not taken lightly. I suddenly feel like I need another nap.

I ask, “If they didn’t want her in the sea, why didn’t they refuse to let her be with Jaspen?”