Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath (4 page)

“This mer stuff is pretty nuts, huh? I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it all.” Luke turned to me and took my hand in his. He raised our hands in the air. “About this too. I hope that's okay?”

A warm feeling spread through my hand as I considered this for a second.

“So, what you're saying is that you're just as clueless as I am?” I asked.

“Pretty much.” Luke dropped my hand and picked up a flat rock. He rubbed it between his thumb and index finger, then threw it over the water. It skipped a couple of times before sinking. He picked up another rock. “Things are just all really new for me too. What I could really use right now is a friend who gets where I'm coming from.”

Friend. Was that a friend-friend or a kissy-friend I wondered. But before I could ask, Luke stopped tossing his rock mid-throw.

“Do you hear that?” He looked over his shoulder at me.

“What?” I listened, but all I could hear was the sound of waves washing up along the shore. But then the wind changed and I heard it too—a high-pitched whine like the sound of a motorboat. “What is that?”

Luke tossed his rock aside and strode down the beach. I followed. “Wait, Luke. What's making that noise?”

Luke broke into a run and headed for the breakwater, calling over his shoulder, “It's Reese!”

“Owrch!” I stubbed my toe on a rock, trying to catch up.

Who the heck was Reese?

By the time I reached Luke, he'd already scrambled up onto the rocky breakwater jutting out into the ocean and was hopping from one enormous boulder to another.

“Wait! Luke!” I yelled, afraid of what he might do. Thankfully, we were at least a quarter of a mile from the main part of the public beach, but still. With the pounding surf and jagged rocks, this was not the best place to plunge into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, even if you were a pesco-sapien. “Be careful!”

“Come on!” Luke waved an arm over his head before jumping down and disappearing behind a rock.

“Luke!” I called out, worried he'd hopped into the ocean and was sprouting a tail by then. I caught my flip-flop in a crack trying to climb a boulder to get to him, scraping my big toe in the process (again!). “Ow, ow, ow! I do
not
have the right shoes for this.”

Thankfully, I found Luke on a low-lying rock near the end of the point. He had a hand to his ear, straining to hear over the sound of waves crashing all around us.

“What the heck are you trying to do? Get us both killed?” I stepped down beside him and hung onto a nearby boulder to avoid getting swept out to sea by a random wave.

“Where
is
he?” Luke shaded his eyes and scanned the water.

“This is a bad idea.” I turned to go.

“No, I swear I heard him. Just wait a second.” Luke caught my arm to stop me.

“Heard who, exactly?”

Reese!
Luke called out into the vastness of the ocean. His mer voice came out as a high-pitched ring, like the sound of buzzing electrical wires or summer cicadas.

“I'm guessing this Reese guy is a mer, but how the heck do you even know him?” I asked. “Other than when you were a baby, you just said you've only transitioned to a mer once this past spring. In Florida!”

Luke turned and laughed when he saw I was clinging onto the boulder for dear life. “I met Reese way before that.”

“But how?”

“I didn't actually meet him. I heard him.” Luke pounced onto the next rock, searching the waters as he went. “My mom and dad used to take us down here for picnics all the time. Trey and I would jump from rock to rock like this for hours. One day, my ears rang like crazy and Mom and Dad thought it was because I was listening to my music too loud. But that wasn't it. I could hear him. I could hear Reese.”

“How do you even know his name?” I pulled a windblown strand of hair from my mouth.

“I don't. That's just the sound he made whenever he came by. Trey never saw him, but once I figured out how to make the sound back to him, Reese would swim by my rock every once in a while—to check me out, I guess.”

I scanned the waters for any signs of life, but all I could make out was a motorboat heading toward the canal and a harbor seal swimming a few dozen feet away.

“Ohmigod! Luke, there's an actual
seal
right over there.” I pointed. “This would
not
be a good time to fall in.” I shrank back as far from the edge of the rock as possible, just in case seals ate people.

I couldn't make out how big and potentially scary the seal was from that far away, but thankfully, it turned its head toward us and then flicked away.

“No, no! That's him,” Luke said.
Reese! It's me! It's Luke!

A dark figure zigzagged toward us just below the surface of the water. The surf made it hard to spot as it swam, but soon the figure was beside our boulder and, sure enough, it wasn't a seal. It was the chubbiest mer-dude I'd ever seen. Compared to the pasty-looking Freshies from Talisman Lake, this guy looked healthy and extremely well-fed.

Lukshh?
Reese hung on the edge of our rock to keep from being swept away by the tide. He looked about our age and his long hair swirled around his full face, which broke into a smile once he got a good look at Luke.

Lukrshh!
Reese rang up to Luke, then pointed to me.

Jade,
Luke answered, as he pulled my hand into his. We both crouched down on the rock to get a better look at Reese.
This
is
Jade.

Reese nodded.
Ja-shhde.
He glanced at Luke then pointed to himself and rang
Reesshh,
as if to say Luke's nickname suited him just fine.

Luke rang a couple sounds I didn't recognize.

“What are you saying to him? Wait. How do you even know how to speak Mermish?” I asked, wondering if there was some online Mermish-to-English translator I'd never heard of.

“I don't really,” Luke said, turning to me. “I just picked up the basics when I was with Bobby in Florida.”

“Bobby? The mer your grandpa hooked you up with?” I let out a huge snort. Reese and Luke glanced at me with puzzled looks.

Bobby
bobbing
in
the
water?
I rang out to both of them.
What? It's funny!

Fneeee,
Reese rang back and smiled, then he swam around our rock, diving and darting around. Something caught his eye on the ocean floor. He picked it up and examined it, then stashed it in a satchel-like woven bag strung across his chest.

I whispered to Luke, “I'll say one thing: the guy really has an ear for languages. You too, by the way.”

“You'll pick up Mermish too, don't worry. It's pretty close to Spanish if you listen closely,” Luke said.

“Spanish?” I moaned. I hated Spanish. “Sounds more like nails on a chalkboard to me.”

“Bobby thinks the high pitch blocks fishermen's sonar signals, so it's not all bad,” Luke said. “It's the only way we've been able to hide from them for the past century.”

So all the hi-tech gadgets on the Martins' boat wouldn't help us one bit. What was the point of going out with Dad the next day if we weren't going to find anything anyway?

“Hey, do you think Reese knows anything about my mom?”

“I'll ask.” Luke turned to Reese and they exchanged a few rings.

Yes, mother.
Then, Luke pointed to me.
Daughter.
He made a few signs with his hands and rang a few more sounds. Reese nodded as though he understood and rang back.

“He says his uncle might know something.” Luke kicked off his shoes. “Come on, we should go check it out.”

Just then, a humongous wave crashed onto our rock, soaking us to the skin. I lunged for the boulder beside us and worked to get my heart back in my chest cavity.

“
Might
know something? Nuh-uh, nuh-uh, nuh-uh…let's think this thing through a little bit. I mean, what if his uncle is an ax murderer or a homicidal maniac or a merman cannibal or something?” I knew I was babbling, but the hugeness of the ocean was seriously creeping me out. Dad was right. Next stop: England.

Luke raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Cannibal? Seriously?”

“Look. Reese seems like a nice guy and everything, but there's no way we should be going anywhere with a mer we just met.”

Reese looked up and glanced from Luke to me as if trying to figure out what we were talking about.

“Okay, okay,” Luke said. “If it makes you feel better, you stay here and I'll go.”

“Um…did you forget you need a tidal pool to change back?” I asked. “That wouldn't really help our cause.”

“Oh, right. But we might not get this chance again.”

“Fine, okay.” Reluctantly, I released my death grip on the rock and kicked off my flip-flops. Dad was going to kill me, but Luke was right. I couldn't pass up this chance. “If anyone is going to get eaten by a merman cannibal, trying to find my mom, it might as well be me.”

“Are you sure?” Luke asked.

“Nope.” If I dove in and breathed in the water—especially
salt
water—it was tail city and there was no turning back. But I hated swimming. I hated being wet. Could I take the plunge and become a mermaid again?

But if Reese knew someone who might know what was happening with Mom, I'd have to suck it up. I crouched down on the rock and tried to see where Reese had gone through the ocean surf.

Hey, Reese. Can you get me to your uncle before dinnertime?
I joked, flashing the face of my Day-Glo Timex his way to show the time.

Reese swam up to me. He reached out of the water and took my wrist in his hands to inspect my digital watch. He looked at me with an eager smile as if asking permission to touch the buttons.

Knock
yourself
out,
I rang in English. I took off the watch and attached it to Reese's chubby outstretched arm. Maybe if I gave him a peace offering he wouldn't drag me to their town center and hang me over a pot of fish chowder.
So
we
can
go?

Go-rrsh.
He smiled, staring at the watch.

No, that's a watch,
I explained patiently. I looked up at Luke. “Give him yours too. That way at least he'll feel bad when he leads me to my death.”

“No way, this is a really expensive diving watch.” Luke put his hand over his watch as if to protect it.

“Way to take one for the team!” I whacked his leg.

“Sorry!” Luke laughed and rubbed his leg. “My grandpa gave it to me. He'll kill me if I lose it.”

“Fine, but if I get bumped off, I'm blaming you.” I turned to Reese.
Now
can
we
go?

Go-rshh!
Reese swam away then looked over his shoulder for me to follow.

You
do
realize
you
just
said
that
partly
in
Mermish, don't you?
Luke held out his hand and pulled me to my feet.

I looked at him, not quite understanding what he was saying, mostly because he was speaking Mermish too. That's when I realized I was kind of getting it!

“Cool. I'll get Reese to teach me all the swear words,” I joked, but my stomach cramped as I wondered what I was getting myself into. Sure, Reese seemed nice enough, but I'd watched enough horror movies to know that the ax-wielding, head-bludgeoning villain always seemed nice enough at the
beginning
of the movie. “I'll teach you if I make it back.”

“Hey.” Luke grasped my arm and pulled me into a hug. “I'll be right here waiting, okay?” he murmured into my hair.

“Okay,” I replied, my voice barely a whisper. My heart pounded hard enough that I was sure Luke could hear it, and a warm feeling of hopefulness spread through my body. I gathered up my courage and stepped to the edge of the boulder, taking one last look around to make sure no one was watching before making the big plunge.

“Get me a new pair of shorts for when I get backrrppp…!” I called out as I dove, but the sound came out in a glob of bubbles, forcing a shot of saltwater down my throat. The water stung my eyes and burned my nostrils. Something disgusting and slimy, which I could only imagine was a jellyfish, swept by me, sending a sting of pain along my forearm.

Just
breathe. Breathe,
I told myself, but all I could do was gag as I kicked and pulled at the water to dive deeper. It had been almost a month since the last time I'd turned into a mermaid, in Talisman Lake, and the expression “like a fish to water” definitely did
not
apply to me.

Where
the
heck
are…?
I found my mer-voice and called out for Reese into the dark, murky water. I caught a glimpse of a tail about twenty feet away, deeper into the bay. But before my eyes could completely focus on what I'd just seen, my sudden legs-to-tail transformation blew my shorts to smithereens and sent me hurtling through the water.

Ooorff!
I fell back against the rocky bottom of the ocean, whacking my head in the process. So, yeah, with a jellyfish sting along my arm and a concussion to the head, plus the fact that the ocean looked like a big black hole, I was seriously wondering if I'd made a giant mistake. I let the water pass through my mouth and nose, and inhaled deeply to catch my breath. Surprisingly, it felt like a gulp of fresh spring air, a huge difference from the mucky water of Talisman Lake.

Just then, something else brushed against my other arm.
Ahhh!
I yelled.

Hello.
Reese appeared beside me carrying his satchel, which I could now tell was made with the plastic rings that hold six-packs of soda, sewn together with some sort of twine. He stared in amazement and swam around me in dizzying loops and dives, like an otter I saw at the zoo when I was a kid.
You
are
a
Webbed
One!

Yes, yes. The fairy tales you heard as a kid are true,
I said in my broken Mermish, but Reese got the gist once Luke translated from his perch on the rock overhead.