Fathom

by L. L. Standage

  My Livvie-le-Skivvie,

  By now, you’ve learned I’m not coming back. At least, not right away. I’m really sorry if this makes you sad. You are now and always will be my best friend. But Seidon says it was the only way for me to live through my injuries and keep from drowning. You never told me how bad gunshots hurt! But the merpeople have taken very good care of me down here.

  Cordelia said I’m only the third human in known history to have become one of them. She said it’s because of what I did on the boat, pushing Linnaeus in and all. I’m really kind of embarrassed. You did way more than I did! But Olivia, I don’t regret choosing to stay. I will still be able to come home every now and then and I can keep in touch with you, and of course my mom. If I’m completely honest, I think this is what I’ve wanted all along. A new place, new people, a new world even! And I spend a lot of time with Seidon. His parents are kind of scary, but they’re so beautiful and they seem to like me.

  This place is amazing! I wish you could see it. There’s too much to put into a letter, but as soon as I can come up for a visit, I’ll tell you all about it.

  You’re the best friend anyone could ever have, Liv. Please don’t worry about me and please promise me you’ll be happy. Tell everyone hello and thank you.

  Love you to the abyss and back (that’s a mermaid expression!)

  Samantha

  P.S. Don’t tell my family. I’ll explain everything to them.

  I read the letter several times more until I had almost memorized it. I wanted to keep it but Seidon asked me to destroy it, so I brought the letter out of the water. It melted through my hands like hot wax and became little more than liquid pulp.

  “Are you all right?” Calder asked from the door. I turned. The first cool, muggy breezes of morning stung my face and chilled my wet head. I smiled.

  “Yeah.” I picked up the bucket and dumped the water and the remains of Samantha’s letter overboard. “Or, at least, I will be.”

  “In all my years, I have never heard of such a thing,” Eamon said in awe after Calder and I told him what had become of Samantha. We left out the kiss of a merperson part. “If I had thought anyone to be suited to the honor, I would have thought it to be you, Olivia.”

  I gave a humorless laugh.

  “No, I think everyone is much better off with me staying human.” I glanced at Calder, hoping he wouldn’t notice, but the way he fought a smile told me he knew what I meant. “And anyway, if Samantha hadn’t been wounded, I don’t think they would have taken her to Zydrunas.”

  “Well.” Uther sighed. “What do we do now?”

  “Natasha may need to get to a hospital,” said Eamon. “She’s too shaken to allow her body to rest and heal.”

  “Why don’t you use the medicines you used on me?” I asked.

  “I have. They’re supposed to be only for merpeople, but I had no choice. If any of the merpeople find out we used them on you two, they’ll confiscate them and we’ll lose whatever trust we’ve built. But Natasha lost a lot of blood. It takes time to recover from that. And I think she may have some post-traumatic stress keeping her from recovering well.”

  Walter stooped into the cabin, looking tense.

  “My phone got a signal up in the helm. You need to come see this.”

  Eamon, Uther, Calder, and I followed. We hurried up the stepladder leading to the helm and crowded around the cell phone screen.

  “They’ve been replaying it all morning,” said Waltr. “Linnaeus’s death is big news. Don’t move the phone too much. I don’t want to lose the signal.”

  The newscaster continued her report.

  “Friends of local billionaire philanthropist Doran Linnaeus are shocked by the news of his death. Authorities can confirm the drowning was due to Friday night’s storm just off the coast of Carlsbad. According to a statement by Detective Rod Mallory of San Diego’s Northern Division, Mr. Linnaeus fell overboard when his yacht was caught in the storm.”

  The newscaster’s report was followed by a video of Detective Mallory. He looked somewhat pale and edgy.

  “No charges have been filed at this time,” he said, avoiding eye contact with the camera. “This is a very tragic loss and we offer our condolences to all those who knew Mr. Linnaeus.”

  The newscaster reappeared on the television.

  “Though authorities insist the incident was accidental, reports of a failed business venture Mr. Linnaeus had undertaken that very evening have led investigators to speculate whether or not he was entirely stable at the time of his death. We have no further details at this time.” She paused as the camera angle changed. “In other news today, damage caused by the storm has created—”

  Walter stopped the video and exited the website on the phone.

  “They’re saying his death was an accident?” I said.

  Calder shrugged. “What else can Detective Mallory report? That Linnaeus went out to kidnap a couple mermaids with a hostage and got thrown overboard by a girl he had just shot?”

  “Mallory was probably one of the men on Linnaeus’s boat,” said Eamon. “He can’t point fingers at us if he doesn’t want to have to explain why he and several others were threatening an innocent group of people in the middle of the ocean.”

  “Do you think they’ll stop following me?” I asked.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” said Uther with a somewhat evil grin. “I’ve got ways of making sure people don’t cause any trouble once our tasks are over.”

  “Linnaeus is dead and Marinus is captured. Once Uther gets his hands on Mallory, he and the rest of his men will move on.”

  “I thought Marinus couldn’t ever go back to being a merman,” I said.

  “Maybe not, but if he still has gills, he can still survive.” Eamon turned to descend from the helm. “I really don’t know what the merpeople will do with him.”

  “What we can do now is take you back to shore,” said Walter while Uther and Calder followed Eamon. “I’m sure you’re ready to get off this boat.”

  “Yeah…I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my summer, though.”

  “Study the ocean,” he suggested. “That’s still what you want to do, isn’t it?”

  I looked toward the east at the distant shores of California, then toward the west where the ocean glittered and stretched on forever. Somewhere beneath those currents, my best friend began a new life. We’d been joined at the hip for so long, I wasn’t sure I knew how to continue on my own. Perhaps it was time I, too, began a new life.

  I sighed. Did I still want to study the ocean? Now that Samantha was alive and safe, and the danger was over, yeah. I did. But not only that. I wanted more.

  “I want to do what you guys do,” I said to Walter. “I want to help merpeople.” He turned his gaze on me, his eyes wide with surprise.

  “Olivia, that’s very noble of you, but this isn’t an easy job. It’s inconsistent, thankless, dangerous work.”

  “I don’t care. If I can help you guys, Samantha, and Seidon and Cordelia’s people, I want to do it.”

  His expression went from surprise to pity. “I can speak to Eamon and Uther about it, but chances are, they’ll say no. You’re very young. Go to college. Get your education. Live some more life before you commit to something like this.”

  “I’m the same age Calder was when he started. Can’t I do both?”

  Walter smiled. “You’re a good kid. We’ll see.”

  The street looked quiet and unremarkable when we turned into it. My aunt’s house was as I always remembered it—clean, unmarked and locked. Even the flower beds looked the same. I got out of the car and stared at the front of the house. A fading blood stain marred the concrete on the front sidewalk, a sinister memento of my adventurous summer. My throat tightened. I reached up and squeezed my shoulder.

  Behind me, Calder and Uther unloaded my luggage. Samantha’s, they left in the trunk of my car. I trudged up the front steps, got out the key, and opened the door. The dark, st
ill house smelled a little musty.

  “Here’s all the mail we picked up,” said Eamon, holding a grocery bag bulging with letters, a magazine or two, and other assorted junk mail. He left it inside the door.

  “Thanks.”

  “Where do you want these?” Calder asked, laden with my luggage.

  “Just leave them there.”

  He deposited my suitcase near the front door. Eamon stood with his hands in his pockets and looked at me with a wistful, faraway look in his eye.

  “If there’s any scent of trouble, you know how to reach us.”

  I nodded. “Thank you for everything.”

  Eamon’s crow’s feet folded as he smiled. “And thank you.”

  I opened my arms and embraced him. He chuckled. I turned and embraced enormous Walter.

  “You take care of yourself now,” he said.

  “I will.” I then hugged Uther, who coughed and muttered, but smiled as I let him go.

  “A pleasure,” he said. He, Walter, and Eamon stepped outside and waited on the porch. I paused, biting my lip, as I turned to Calder. What should I do about this goodbye? He gave me a half-smile and reached out to pull me in. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on longer than I had with any of the others.

  “Please stay in touch,” I said into his ear.

  “I promise.”

  I kissed his cheek, quick and soft so the others wouldn’t see. As I released him, my face grew warm. While Walter, Uther, and Eamon walked down the front sidewalk to their rental car, Calder hugged me again.

  “If I hadn’t been so stupid…” he said. “Maybe we’d have had more time.”

  “It’s okay. You’d better go. They’re waiting for you.”

  He pulled back. His eyes searched my face. Just do it, I kept thinking. Just go for it. I wanted to yank him toward me. I wanted a real goodbye. But he released me and turned to go, his eyes lingering on me for a moment. Then the Scotsman walked up the path to where the Irishman, the German, and the South African waited.

  Samantha would be furious at me when she found out. Not as furious as I was with myself though. I closed the door with regret and went to go to my room. I hadn’t taken more than two steps when the door flew open. I whirled around.

  “Calder, what—”

  In two long strides, he was there, holding my face in both hands, his lips on mine. I drew my arms around him and kissed him back, breathed him in, and held him as his arms wound around my waist. My heart soared, finally free of fear. I don’t know how long we stood there. Not long enough. When our lips parted, we remained in our firm embrace, our foreheads pressed together, his breathing quick and earnest.

  Then, sooner than I wanted, his hold on me loosened. His hand touched my cheek. He kissed my brow. Don’t go. Please don’t go.

  “I’ll call as soon as I can,” he whispered. I nodded. He let me go. His desire to stay shone deep in his eyes. But all too soon he was out the door again and didn’t come back. My once flying heart fell back to earth.

  After my return to Aunt Shannon’s house, I had to find a new normal. Every morning, I woke up early and thought of Calder. Then I would head down to the beach to wait for Samantha to come. But she didn’t. I had no idea how long it would take for her to change into a mermaid, then change back into human form for the visit Seidon had promised.

  Still, every day I went. And waited.

  I volunteered at the San Diego Aquarium most days, soaking in all the knowledge I could. The aquarium brought in several animals from the Oceana Marine Adventure Park, which closed down not long after Linnaeus’s death.

  Brock Mallory still hung around the beach every once in a while. But I only ever saw him from a distance. If he noticed me, he chose to ignore it. Daddy dearest must have told him that mermaids were nothing but trouble—or, if he was smart, that they weren’t real after all.

  I got an email from Eamon a few weeks after they left, telling me all was well, and Uther had ensured that Detective Mallory wouldn’t come within a mile of where I was.

  The week before Aunt Shannon was due home, I left the house early. The sun had only been up for about half an hour, but I had plenty of light to see from. The sky was gray, the ocean misty. The waves washed over the craggy rocks of the tide pools with docile persistence. The pools themselves teemed with life—crustaceans and minnows, snails, spiny barbed urchins, and a tiny, dappled octopus no bigger than the palm of my hand. The sea gulls screeched overhead.

  It was early enough in the morning that no tourists could cumber me. I relished the time alone to identify and catalog each specimen I saw. I leaned back from the pool and rolled my shoulders to loosen my tightening muscles. I picked up my new cell phone and leaned over again to get a picture of a sea star I had spotted.

  The wind picked up, throwing my hair into my face. I brushed it aside.

  Something clattered on the rock behind me. I turned with a gasp. No one was there. But as I looked, I saw something sitting on the rock: a cell phone.

  My new phone almost got a seawater bath like the first. I tucked it into my bag with my books and stepped over the rocks. My heart hammered as I stooped down and picked up the cell phone. It was definitely my old one; the dolphin sticker on the back had worn off, but there could be no mistaking it. I searched the area, straining to see how it ended up on the rock, but the sea and rock were empty. I shook my head.

  “Olivia…”

  I gasped and dropped the phone again. It landed on the rock. Like the voice I heard out of the vessel many weeks ago, it felt more like it was in my head than in my ears. I looked everywhere—in the ocean, on the rocks, up on the cliffs—but again, saw no one. It must have been my overactive imagination yet again. I kept hearing voices every time I got near the ocean, hoping Seidon kept his promise.

  “Olivia.”

  “Who’s there?” I said. On the other side of an outcropping of rock, near the clinging shadows of the rocky bluff, something came out of the water. Or, someone—a slender, brunette-haired someone. My hands flew to my mouth.

  “Samantha!” I said in a strangled whisper through my fingers and scurried around toward her.

  “Hi, Liv!” Her wet arms embraced me.

  “I missed you so much,” I said, unable to stop my tears from coming. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to think your best friend is dead?!”

  “I’ve missed you too.” She held me at arm’s length. “You got my letter, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, I did. Thank you for that.” I swallowed, trying to control my crying. “How are you?”

  She smiled, then propped herself to a sitting position on the rock. I gaped in astonishment at her new body. Her long, sinuous tail ended in a graceful, slender fin. Her silvery-blue scales grew smoothly from the skin around her hips. Her sark twisted around her torso, covering the parts needing covering with scaly, leathery material similar to Cordelia’s.

  “Pretty cool, huh?” she said, running her hand over her tail.

  “Did you have to leave a sacrifice to come up here?”

  “No, that’s only if I want to become human. Actually, I’m not really supposed to be up here. But I wanted to come see you. I can’t stay long.”

  “Oh. Your hair has grown.”

  “Yeah.” She fingered the ends of her dark brown hair, which was just past her shoulders. “Mermaid hair grows faster than human hair. I’ve already cut it twice. Seidon likes it short.”

  I laughed. “It’s good to see you’re still you.”

  “Just with a tail.”

  “What were you thinking going after Linnaeus? Were you trying to get yourself killed?”

  “No! Of course not. That night, it all happened so fast I can’t remember what I was thinking. I guess, after I saw my blood…I figured I was going to die. And if I had to die, I was taking the bastard with me.” Her face turned grave. “I wasn’t going to let him have Seidon.”

  I inhaled. “You love him.”

  She smiled and nodded. “Since
the second I saw him.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh, come on, Liv, is it so hard to believe?”

  “It’s just a little sudden.”

  “I didn’t know it then. But yeah. He’s amazing. And these last several rounds have been incredible.”

  “Rounds? Rounds of what?”

  “We don’t have days or weeks because we don’t see the sun. We have rounds and cycles.”

  “Wow.” I sighed and shook my head, staring at Sam’s tail. How was this real? “I still can’t believe this has happened to you.”

  “What do you mean?” she said. “You talk like I became deformed or something. I’m happy, Liv.”

  “What about your family? What about your life?”

  “I’ve already talked to my family. I’m going to go see them soon. And I have a new life now.”

  I frowned and looked down.

  Samantha sighed. “This isn’t how I wanted it to turn out,” she said. “I thought you’d be excited for me.”

  “I am! It’s fantastic! I just—it’s just hard, you know?”

  “I know. It was the only way. I’d be dead right now if not for them. I miss you and my family and all our friends back home so much, and getting used to this tail and the songs and trying to communicate…”

  “Have you been able to talk to your mom at all?”

  “Yes, of course. She came out to see me just after it happened.”

  “Really? Why didn’t she come see me too?”

  “She couldn’t. It had to be completely secret. I’m sorry.”

  “And you’re happy?”

  “Yeah. I am. I have a place in Seidon’s house. They’re really nice to me. I like it there.”

  I swallowed and heaved a breath. “Well. If you’re happy, then there’s nothing else we have to worry about. And we’ll still see each other. I asked Walter if I could join them on their tasks. Whenever the merpeople need help, I’m there.”