“Simba?” I ask.
He nods and puts the new chain around his neck. He’s accepted that Simba most likely is not coming back. Ahkai looks down at the wooden cat resting against his chest and smiles.
How? How did he get over this so quickly? I don’t understand. I’m glad he’s feeling better, but I just don’t understand.
I get up and dust the dirt off my romper. “Let’s go to the zoo.”
* * *
We walk through a tunnel with cut rock, and then it opens into a large space surrounded by tall trees with hanging vines. There’s a yellow sign with a green monkey: WELCOME TO BARBADOS WILDLIFE RESERVE.
Different kinds of birds roam about the space, and one bird is so friendly it comes right up to Ahkai and hops onto his shoe. All the visitors ignore the CAUTION: DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS sign and throw bits of fruit and vegetables to them.
Pigeon poop drops right onto Daddy’s forehead, and though I’m stressed out, I can’t help but smile. Mariss manages to get a picture before he cleans it off. After that, I’m able to relax a little bit.
Ahkai has a way with animals; they all approach him to be fed—the peacocks, turtles, and even parrots fly down from the tops of the trees. Mariss gives me the small digital camera, and I get a cool picture of him teaching the parrot how to say its true name, “psittacine.”
Mariss, Daddy, and Ahkai walk ahead of me on the cobbled brick path through the forest. They’re laughing and pointing at the rabbits and deer that peek out from the trees. I snap a picture of them to remember this moment, the moment I realized that having a new mum—one who wasn’t Mariss—and maybe even a younger brother wouldn’t be so bad.
The thought of a new family melts a wall around my heart, and I feel the urge to cry.
As if by fate, a baby green monkey swings down from a tree. It’s so cute with its tiny black face, golden-green fur, and white belly. Ahkai stops to talk to the baby monkey, or as he calls it, the “Chlorocebus sabaeus.”
The curious monkey comes closer to him, and Mariss steps forward, holding out a piece of fruit. I lift the camera, anticipating another sentimental moment, but the baby monkey surprises us all when it jumps back and bares its teeth.
Daddy pulls Ahkai away and steps in front of him and Mariss, shielding them from a potential attack. The baby monkey jumps up and down and screeches. It’s transformed from a cuddly pet to an angry gremlin.
Three other monkeys, attracted by its cries, jump from the trees behind them, on the opposite side of the trail. I look for help, but there is no one else around. Daddy hasn’t noticed the other monkeys, but Mariss looks over her shoulder. The monkeys all bare their teeth and prowl closer to her, hissing.
Mariss pulls off her shades and jerks her neck forward, as if she is planning to bite them.
I open my mouth to warn Daddy, and that’s when I see it.
The side of Mariss’s face changes to a muddy green, the color traveling up her face like it’s a glass pitcher being filled with Kool-Aid. The bottom half of her face pops forward, like a piece of toast coming out of a toaster, and two curved fangs extend from her lips. She returns a hiss, much stronger than that of all the monkeys combined. It’s similar to the sound Jalopy made one time when it was overheating. All the hairs on my arms stand on end. It’s like I’ve been doused with a bucket of ice-cold water.
The monkeys retreat into the trees.
I am frozen. I beg my feet to move, my mouth to scream, but nothing happens. It’s like I’ve turned into a tree; my feet are rooted to the spot. I remember the camera in my hand, and it takes all my willpower to squeeze down on the button.
Click.
I blink, and Mariss’s face is back to normal. The baby monkey hurries away.
She stares at me, and I stare at her. The beat of my pulse races to my head and pounds in my ears.
I gawk as her yellow eyes fade to a lighter yellow, to milky white, and then back to dark brown. She puts on her sunglasses in a swift, smooth motion.
Daddy looks around at us. “Everybody all right?” he asks. He notices my frozen horror, but Mariss distracts him, throwing her body against his.
“My hero!” exclaims Mariss. I gag as he gives her a peck on the mouth.
No one is going to believe me.
They hold hands and continue down the path, but Ahkai’s watching Mariss too … maybe he saw her transformation.
I yank him into the nearest brick building.
“D-D-Did you see?” I spit out the words, but he doesn’t reply. He’s too busy reading labels and descriptions.
“Tell me you saw!” I shout, trying to steady my trembling feet. I clutch the wall to stop myself from falling.
“Saw what?” he asks, and points at something behind me. I jump around, expecting to see Mariss’s fangs bearing down on me, but instead, I find snakes curled up in glass cages.
We are in the snake house.
Ahkai shakes his finger at a cage with a light-green-and-brown snake hanging from a branch. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the transparent tentacle.
“Interesting,” he murmurs.
I spy what has captured his attention. At the bottom of the cage, transparent with a diamond pattern, just like the tentacle, is a large piece of snake skin.
“The bottom half of her body could be like a snake too,” I whisper, remembering Mrs. Edgecombe’s words. Keeping my back against the wall, I slide to the ground, my eyes glued to the entrance in case Mariss decides to come after me.
I knew she was a sea spirit, but I never expected it would be as horrible as this. I have to warn Daddy; I don’t care if he breaks every plate in the house. I have to persuade him to listen to me this time.
That’s when I remember the camera, still clenched in my hands. I have proof!
I turn on the camera to show Ahkai the evidence. Oh, how he will grovel when he realizes I’ve been right all along. And Daddy will be able to witness the ugly truth with his own two eyes.
I press the button, but the camera does not come on. The screen remains blank.
No no.
I pop open the compartment to fiddle with the battery, and green smoke sizzles out of the camera.
The batteries and memory card have all melted.
Ahkai and I are quiet in the back seat, while Daddy and Mariss babble on about picnicking and the weather. Mariss is acting as if nothing happened, and it makes me even more anxious. Every time she puts an arm around Daddy, I imagine her wrapping around his body and squeezing the life out of him.
Ahkai is beyond skeptical. He claims the camera must have overheated but can’t explain how snake skin could have ended up in Mr. Pimples’s tank. The silver lining is that he’s agreed to help me do research, or as he said, disprove the folklore. He’s adamant that the snake skin could not have come from a mythical half-woman, half-snake creature.
As we approach the top of Coconut Hill, the silk cotton tree looms above us, and I flash back to a time when my biggest worry was my daddy having a regular, normal girlfriend. Fairy Vale Academy appears in the distance.
“Daddy! I forget to tell you!” How could this have slipped my mind? “Miss Alleyne wake up!”
“What!” Daddy slams on the brake and we all jolt forward. The loud screech scares the blackbirds from the branches, and they soar over the ocean.
“Vincey, we should get home.” Mariss twists in her seat, glancing behind at the road. A strong wind rattles through the leaves, and she frantically rolls up her window, then pats her afro back into place.
I sneak glances at Mariss while telling him about the lionfish attack, careful not to say anything that may trigger her, but she’s not paying any attention. She’s lost in thought; there’s actually a crease in her plastic forehead.
BEEEEEEP.
A truck horn blares behind us. Mariss jumps so high she would have crashed through Jalopy’s roof if not for the seatbelt. Fearing an attack, I dive down in the back seat, nearly losing a tooth to Ahkai’s knee.
/> Daddy peers into the rearview mirror and pulls to the side so the truck can pass. “I’ll visit her tomorrow.” He puts Jalopy into gear and continues on.
“Excuse me, we have plans tomorrow.” There is a chill in Mariss’s voice.
Daddy glances over at Mariss and sighs. “We can go to the park another time, Sisi. This is Bean’s teacher … and a friend.”
“Just a friend?” Mariss still has on her shades, but I sense a change in the air. Are her eyes yellow? Will she attack now?
“ ’Ow much times I must tell you so, Sisi?”
I look at Ahkai, and as usual, he’s ignoring the conflict.
“We come first—”
“Not in front of the children,” Daddy interrupts her. She folds her arms across her chest and grinds her teeth. There’s no more talking in the car afterward.
I shrink into the seat and chew on my fingernails, desperate for an excuse to stop him from visiting Miss Alleyne at the hospital. If Daddy ditches Mariss, it may push her over the edge. I’m so distracted that I don’t realize we’ve parked and I’m alone in Jalopy, until Daddy calls from the kitchen.
That night, I sit in bed with a flashlight, staring at the locked door, terrified that when the sun rises, Daddy will not.
I try to convince myself that he’s safe. Mariss loves him … She would never hurt him …
I reach under the pillow for the folklore book, grateful that tonight should be my last time rereading the heavy text, looking for clues. Ahkai will speed-read the pages tomorrow and I might actually be able to get a few hours sleep.
The word “shape-shifter” gets my attention.
The Lagahoo looks like a normal creature during the day, but at night it takes the form of a man with a wooden coffin for a head. It carries heavy iron chains around its neck, one of which is tied like a noose around its waist and trails behind him.
I think about Casper and his wild ramblings about the Heartman kidnapping his wife. Suppose he was telling the truth? I feel so ashamed about the practical joke I pulled with the chain. It’s clear that Fairy Vale is far from the ordinary, boring fishing village I believed it to be.
The wind howls, and my curtain flaps in the air. I vault out of bed and slam the window closed. This is worse than watching a horror movie before going to sleep. I’m way too traumatized to keep reading, but as I’m closing the book, my eyes land on a blue scrawl near the bottom of the page:
“Mater Maris?”
I sit upright when I read the paragraph under the heading “Sea Spirit.”
A SEA SPIRIT: A mermaid-like figure with a woman’s upper body and the hindquarters of a fish or serpent. A large snake is usually wrapping itself around her body and laying its head between her breasts. She is known for her mysticism and her vengeance. Using her beautiful voice, she abducts the unfortunate or mean-spirited while they are swimming or boating, and drowns them at the bottom of the sea. But she could also bring good fortune; she carries expensive baubles and it is believed that anyone who finds her treasure will become rich. But be warned, a pact with a sea spirit often requires great sacrifice. If one accepts a sea spirit’s invaluable gift, it is an invitation of her presence into their life. The only means of escape is to
I press a hand to my chest and take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heartbeat. It’s a lot to process. Documented facts about a sea spirit. A great sacrifice. Drowning.
I wipe beads of sweat from my nose, all of a sudden feeling suffocated, like the room is shrinking. Daddy is in so much danger. He’s not safe on land but is even more vulnerable when he’s out at sea. He’s trapped, like in that terrible dream I had when all roads led to death. I can’t help but imagine Mariss dragging him along the sea floor.
I push the morbid thought aside, struggling to keep my breath steady. No one is going to drown my daddy while I’m still alive. My finger shakes as I slide it across to the next page, my skin tingling with anticipation. After being in the dark for so long, at last I’m on the verge of finding out how to get rid of Mariss. I brace myself for whatever’s coming next, ready to do anything necessary to save my daddy.
But the line at the top of the page starts with a new sentence. I flick to the previous page, checking that none of them are stuck together, and that’s when I notice the jagged tear inside the crease.
Someone has ripped out the page.
I fall back onto the bed, heaving and staring at the ceiling, trying not to scream with frustration. It’s like I’m a cat, pawing at a dangling string that some sadistic human pulls away as soon as I’m within reach. To make matters worse, Mrs. Edgecombe said this book was the only copy in the library.
Mrs. Edgecombe! She may know what’s on the missing page.
I stare at darkness until sunlight tickles the window, then I drag myself downstairs to get energy from some extra-strong ginger tea. I almost trip on the stairs and have to hold on to the railing to keep from falling.
Daddy and Mariss are at the table again, and I rush to hug Daddy. I avoid looking at Mariss and press my head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. He makes a limp attempt to return my embrace, but then pats me away and opens a newspaper. I grab some cereal and then sit so close to him at the table that the edge of his newspaper gets soaked in my milk.
It’s still tense.
I didn’t think it was possible to miss the quiet tinkling of knives and forks. Mariss shoots daggers at Daddy from across the table, not bothering to hide her anger. If she remains this enraged, Daddy will be kissing the bottom of the ocean in no time. He’s been staring down at the same newspaper article for the last ten minutes, like he’s afraid to break the silence with the sound of a turning page.
I’m so sleep-deprived that I’m wondering if I dreamt up everything that happened yesterday. I close my eyes and pinch my hand, hoping I’ll see Mariss with a green rubber mask in her hands, saying “Gotcha!”
I open my eyes and Mariss is staring right at me.
Her pupils flash yellow. I yelp and fall off the chair.
“Bean?” Daddy looks under the table at me. “What ’appen?”
“N-Nothing, nothing,” I stutter, looking at Mariss. She smirks and sips her juice.
I head to the kitchen to scrape most of my cornmeal porridge into the trash, but then I notice pieces of burnt paper at the top of the waste bin. A piece of the paper crumbles in my hand, but its yellowed, splotched edges are an exact match to the pages in the folklore book.
Mariss must have snuck into my room and ripped out the page!
I rush upstairs to get ready for school, now even more desperate to talk to Mrs. Edgecombe.
Jalopy’s been reinfected with its old cough, and to make matters worse, every pothole feels like a blow to my head. The backs of my eyes are burning, yet I’m scared to close them while Mariss is in the car. Daddy doesn’t say a word about Miss Alleyne, and I don’t dare bring her up. Not while Mariss is around.
Even Ahkai is unnerved by the silence. He hums a cheerful tune to fill the eerie void all the way to school.
Daddy parks next to Casper’s empty guard hut. I haven’t seen him, but I know he’s still around because the area is free of garbage, with not even a pebble among the green grass.
“Mariss!” Coach Broomes comes up to Jalopy with his smiling grimace. “Always lovely to see you!” Then a frosty, “Vincent.”
Coach hasn’t forgiven Daddy for the volleyball loss. Daddy replies with a sharp nod.
“Good morning, Sean,” Mariss chirps with fake enthusiasm. “You’re looking very handsome this morning.”
Instead of his regular Fairy Vale-branded polo shirt and track pants, Coach Broomes is wearing maroon-and-yellow West Indies cricket apparel.
“Thank you, little lady. We got a West Indies cricket scout here this morning, looking fuh promising cricketers for a training camp in St. Lucia next week, during term break.”
A few months ago, the news of a West Indies cricket scout at Fairy Vale would have been like a dream com
e true. Now I only dream of getting rid of Mariss. I need to get answers from Mrs. Edgecombe. I want my old life back.
But Mariss reaches through the window and grips my shoulder, preventing me from following Ahkai to the library. I hold my breath and look down at her manicured red nails against my uniform.
“You hear that, Josie? You have a chance to show off your skills in St. Lucia!”
Both Daddy and Coach Broomes protest at the same time.
“It’s what Miss Alleyne would have wanted,” Mariss retorts, all the sugar gone from her voice. “Isn’t that right, Vincey?”
I don’t look around, but I feel the shift in Mariss’s body. Her palm starts to get hot on my shoulder.
“Yes,” Daddy says, his voice slow and full of uncertainty. He has the dazed, blank expression. Mariss is bewitching him! “You are right. It is an excellent idea.” Coach Broomes exhales through flared nostrils.
I jerk away from her grip. Mariss has never been enthusiastic about my cricket so it’s obvious she only wants to send me away.
“Coach, I don’t want—”
“Then it’s settled!” Mariss cuts me off and gets out of Jalopy. “And I’ll stay to give Josie some moral support.” She hooks her arm through Coach Broomes’s and urges him through the gate. Daddy presses on the gas and peels off, not even telling me goodbye.
There’s no way I can leave for a cricket camp now. Who knows what Mariss will do to Daddy while I’m gone?
I’m going to have to throw my game. The thought leaves a horrible taste in my mouth but I have no choice.
Ahkai is waiting for me inside the gate. I step in front of him, pull the folklore book from my backpack, and open it to the missing page. He immediately notices the vandalism.
“Who damaged this antique?” Ahkai looks up at me, his eyes filled with accusation.
“I swear it wasn’t me.” I gesture at Mariss, who is a few feet ahead, laughing in Coach Broomes’s face. I reach into my pocket and show Ahkai a piece of the burnt page.
“She is a monster!” exclaims Ahkai. “A desecrater of literature!”
I take advantage of Ahkai’s outrage. “Go to Mrs. Edgecombe and find out what was on that page,” I urge. Mariss is giving me a dark look, all while flirting with Coach Broomes. “Mariss is trying to destroy invaluable knowledge.”
Josephine Against the Sea Page 12