This Broken Wondrous World

by Jon Skovron

  I got out my chem books and started studying, keeping an eye out in case the dwarf showed up. I kind of hoped he would. But I guess my need wasn’t “dire” enough yet, because I stayed up there all afternoon studying and I never saw him.

  I didn’t want to go back too late, because I didn’t feel comfortable sailing in the dark. Of course, I didn’t want to get back too early, either, and have to sit through Henri and Vi telling each other how awesome they were. So I got back in the boat just as the sky began to turn a pinkish gold and a streak of red from the setting sun rimmed the mountaintops. It reminded me of one of William’s little boating rhymes: Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. I think it was supposed to be some weather indicator, but the way he said it felt more like a fortune-telling tool. I kind of hoped it was, because I could use a delightful night.

  But it got dark a lot faster than I expected. I was only about halfway across the lake when night fell. I looked around in the boat for a flashlight or something. I found a small electric lantern, but it wasn’t very bright. It was probably more to make sure people could see me than to light my way. Fortunately, the Villa Diodati’s dock was brightly lit, so at least I could see where I needed to go.

  I was still about fifty yards from the dock when something scraped across the bottom of the hull. Something big. It was still pretty deep this far out, so I thought I might have run over a log or something. I let out the sail to slow down and scanned the surface of the dark water.

  Something thumped against the side of the boat, causing it to seesaw roughly. Then I heard a splash close by.

  “Hello?” I called out. William has said that the fish in the lake were all pretty small, so I figured this had to be the mermaid.

  There was no response.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” I said.

  Silence, except the sound of water lapping quietly against the boat.

  “I’m not really human,” I said. “It’s okay. You can show yourself to me.”

  A head slowly emerged from the water about twenty feet away. I couldn’t make out a lot of details, but the moonlight glinted wetly off the faint outline of long hair, eyes, nose, and mouth, all very human looking.

  “Hey,” I said. “I’m Boy. Why don’t you come a little closer? My night vision sucks.”

  She didn’t move.

  I leaned over the side of the boat to try to see her better. Maybe if I could see her expression, I’d be able to see if she was scared of me. But between the dark and the long, wet hair in her face, I couldn’t make anything out.

  “I swear, I’m not going to hurt you. Honestly, I’ve been hanging out with humans so much lately, it’s great to meet another monster.”

  She still didn’t come any closer. Maybe she only spoke French. Or German.

  “Uh, polly vu frances? Spreken ze deutch?” Not that I could speak either of those languages, but maybe it would at least get her talking. Or maybe she didn’t speak at all. I really didn’t know anything about mermaids.

  I leaned over the side as far as I could and reached out my hand.

  “I am a friend,” I said.

  Then I heard something rise up out of the water behind me. I turned just in time to see a giant tentacle bearing down on me. I dove sideways into the stern of the boat. The tentacle slammed into the boat, nearly tipping it over, then disappeared beneath the surface.

  “What . . .” I gasped.

  The mermaid slowly rose up out of the water. In the moonlight I could see her wet, human-shaped torso. But as she continued to rise higher, I saw that instead of a fish tail, her lower body was just a white stalk. Attached to the other end of the stalk was a massive creature that looked like a giant angler fish, with faintly luminous white eyes and a gaping maw of needle-sharp teeth. It had long tentacles that writhed fitfully in the water. The “mermaid” dangled lifelessly from the stalk on the creature’s head. She was nothing more than a lure. And apparently, I was the catch.

  “This is a mermaid?” I muttered to myself. I knew Ruthven had a mermaid in The Show for a while, but I never saw it. I wondered how he even fit it in the theater.

  Another tentacle came whistling through the air. I dodged it again, but this time the impact took out a huge chunk of the hull. The boat was taking on water quick, and the dock was still about fifty yards away.

  I took a deep breath and belly flopped into the water, the shock of cold hitting me so hard every muscle in my body clenched up. I wasn’t a very good swimmer, and my wet clothes were dragging me down as I flailed around, trying to move toward the safety of the shore.

  In the distance, I heard someone scream. Then something grabbed my ankle and yanked me under.

  I could hardly see anything in the dark water. But I felt tentacles wrap around my legs and chest as it dragged me down deeper. Then I saw the glowing eyes and the faint glint of its teeth coming at me. The tentacles had grabbed my right arm, but not my left. Punching was out of the question underwater, so I just reached out, grabbed the eye, and squeezed as hard as I could. I could feel it burst in my hand and the mermaid shuddered. I jammed my fist as hard as I could into its ruined eye socket and it shuddered again. It pulled me down even deeper into the dark water, but its grip began to loosen and I was able to get my other arm free. As its jaws opened wide and came at me, I grabbed the top and bottom of its mouth. Razor teeth cut into my hands, but I didn’t let go. Instead, I slowly pried the mouth open wider and wider, until I felt its jaw hinge give way with a sharp snap. The mermaid shuddered violently, then released me and disappeared.

  My lungs were screaming for air by this point and the weight of my wet clothes felt like chains. My limbs were numb and I felt truly cold for the first time in my life.

  I struggled toward the surface but it was a lot farther away than I thought. My vision was beginning to dim. My body was sending crazy signals to my brain to gasp for air even though there wasn’t any. I clenched my teeth to keep my mouth shut but I didn’t think I could hold on any longer.

  Then I felt an arm around my waist. Suddenly, I was moving upward fast. Just when I thought I couldn’t take another moment, we broke to the surface and air flooded into my lungs.

  I coughed and hacked up lake water as I was towed along. Finally, I could feel the bottom beneath me. I tried to stand, staggered, and fell. But strong arms caught me.

  “Can’t leave you for even a few months without you getting in over your head, can I?” muttered a familiar harsh female British voice.

  I turned and blinked my stinging eyes.

  “Claire? What . . .” I gasped for air. “What . . . are . . . you . . . doing . . . here?”

  Claire Hyde grinned at me, her black, chin-length hair plastered against her face.

  “Apparently, dragging your arse out of the jaws of death. As usual.”

  “I’M SO SORRY about the boat, William,” I said.

  Claire and I stood in the foyer, a small pool of water on the tile beneath us as we dried off with the towels Elisa gave us.

  “I am just glad you’re okay,” he said.

  “Right?” Claire grinned. “Wouldn’t envy anyone having to explain to the Monster that his only son drowned.”

  William smiled briefly. “And, eh, you are . . . ?”

  “Oh, sorry,” I said. “This is my girlfriend, Claire.”

  “Ah,” said William. He turned to Claire. “You are welcome here, of course.”

  “Sorry for the unannounced visit,” she said. “It was all very last minute.”

  “Of course,” cut in Elisa, patting her cheek. “You poor dear. I am sure you have been missing him terribly.”

  “Exactly.” The way Claire said it, I was pretty sure that wasn’t the real reason she was here.

  “So what happened, Boy?” asked William. “You said you ran into something? Far from shor
e?”

  “Yeah. I really am sorry. I should have come in sooner. It just got dark a lot quicker than I expected. I couldn’t see what it was I hit. You can still see the boat out there half sunk about fifty yards from shore.”

  “I wonder what it could have been.” He frowned as he moved to the window. “It must have been terribly big. . . .”

  “Well, we can examine this mystery further tomorrow when it is light,” said Elisa, taking William by the shoulders and guiding him to the stairs. “I am sure Boy and Claire would like to change out of their wet clothes and get some rest.”

  “She got the first bit right, anyway,” Claire whispered in my ear as she put her arm around my waist. “Why don’t you show me this four-poster bed of yours?”

  “We’ll probably have to kick Henri out,” I said as we started up the stairs.

  “What’s he doing in your room?”

  “You’ll see.”

  WHEN WE GOT to my room, Henri and Vi were making faces at each other.

  “Hey, guys,” I said. “Surprise visit from Claire.”

  Henri came over and did the cheek-to-cheek thing that his mom did to me. “I am Henri. So great to meet you. Boy has told me all about you.”

  “Right, you’re the one he spilled to,” she said. “Just keep it to yourself, yeah? I’d hate to have to break that pretty face of yours.”

  “Eh . . .” His eyes shifted nervously between Claire and me, like he was looking for a sign that she was joking. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”

  “Glad to hear it.” She patted his back hard enough for him to stumble slightly.

  “It’s so great to see you again, Claire,” said Vi, her hands clasped together and her big purple eyes glistening.

  Claire turned to me. “What’s with Pokémon sexpot here?”

  “That’s Vi,” I said.

  Her eyebrow shot up. “Are you taking the piss?”

  “No, it’s true!” said Vi, stretching her arms out wide. “I have a body so I can learn visual communication. Henri has been designing it for me.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet he has,” muttered Claire.

  “Okay, we can talk about this some other time,” I said. “Henri? Vi? Would you mind giving us a little . . . privacy?”

  “Oh, yes, of course!” said Henri. “Would you mind if I took your laptop into my room so Vi and I can continue working? You caught us right in the middle of redesigning her eyebrows.”

  “Uh, yeah, sure,” I said.

  Once Henri and Vi were out of the room, Claire rested her arms on my shoulders and smirked. “Some privacy, eh? What’s on your mind, I wonder?”

  “You have no idea how happy I am to see you,” I said, looking into her dark brown eyes. “But I don’t buy your ‘I just really missed my boyfriend’ line. That’s something I would pull, maybe Sophie. But not you.”

  “See now,” she said, her smirk looking a little strained. “This is why I like you. You don’t miss a trick.”

  “Don’t distract me with flattery,” I said. “Something’s up. Something bad enough for you to leave LA and travel thousands of miles to see me in person. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  She looked at me for a moment, the smirk completely gone, the muscles in her jaw clenching. Then she nodded curtly. “Okay, you got me. So way back when Kemp found us in LA, right after we’d just stopped my half-brother, Robert, from killing me, remember how he turned Robert over to the cops like he was just a regular human?”

  “Of course.”

  “Yeah, well, a few days ago, Kemp’s contact at the LAPD told him that Robert escaped from prison.”

  “What?! Did he say how?”

  “Apparently, Robert was starting to get even more violent and out of control than usual, so they decided to transfer him to one of those maximum security places. But the transport bus he was on just never showed up.”

  “Robert isn’t that strong,” I said. “Someone on the outside must have helped him.”

  “But who? Robert’s pissed off just about everyone he ever met.”

  She was doing her usual tough act, but I knew better. Her jaw was set and her eyes were just a little too wide. If there was one person in this world she was genuinely afraid of, it was Robert Jekyll. Not because he was superpowerful, but because he was bat-shit crazy. He had somehow figured out how to eliminate his Hyde half, Stephen. Now he was obsessed with removing every last Hyde in the family. Starting with Claire.

  “I’m glad you came.” I took her hands in mine. They were strong and nearly as big as mine. “Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it.”

  “Yeah.” She nodded tersely, not quite meeting my eyes.

  “Hey. Together. Okay?”

  She looked at me then so intensely her eyes seemed to vibrate. She took a deep breath, squeezing my hands hard enough to hurt. Then she slowly let out her breath, eased off on my hands, and pressed her forehead against mine.

  “Thanks,” she whispered. Then her smirk suddenly reappeared. “Now can we get naked?”

  5

  DIY Family

  HENRI AND I sat side by side, facing my laptop.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “I understand there are risks. But I could not possibly pass this up.”

  “If you say so,” I said.

  “All right, then.” He nodded. “Vi, if you would be so kind.”

  “Of course, Henri,” came Vi’s voice. She wasn’t on the screen right now because we needed the camera for Skype. “Connecting to The Monster now.”

  A moment later, my dad’s face appeared on the screen. I heard Henri suck in a sharp breath. I’d warned him that my dad wasn’t nearly as well made as I was and I think he finally understood what I meant.

  “Hey, Dad,” I said.

  He looked at me with his watery, mismatched eyes. “How are you, Boy?” he asked in an accent that was way thicker than either William’s or Henri’s, despite the fact that he’d been living in the States for about fifty years.

  “Great, Dad, how about you?”

  “I am fine.” He was never very talkative on Skype. Not that he was ever really that talkative in person, either. But over Skype he was nearly as bad as my mom. His eyes shifted to Henri. “And you must be Henri.”

  “Yes, monsieur.”

  “And how are you, Henri?”

  “Great.”

  “So, Dad, there’s, uh, some stuff we need to talk about.”

  “Yes.”

  “Like, I’m sure you’re wondering why Henri is here with me.”

  “Yes.”

  “Uh, so he, uh, he knows everything. About us. About The Show. Everything.”

  “I see.” He sounded calm, but the loose patchwork of his massive face began to twitch and fold in strange places. “And . . . why is this?”

  “Okay, it wasn’t really my fault. There was this dwarf who outed me, and then . . .” I stopped and took a breath. “But you know what, Dad? That doesn’t really matter. Because I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I want to ask you. Are you serious about us all becoming one family?”

  “Of course. I would not have sent my only child if I was not serious.”

  “Exactly. You sent me here to connect to these people. To learn about them and to bond with them. And I’ve done what you wanted. I don’t know about the rest of the family, honestly, but Henri and I trust each other. We’re family. Just like you always wanted.”

  “That . . . is good.”

  My dad was hard enough to read under any circumstance, but over Skype it was almost impossible. It seemed like he might be softening a little. I hoped so, anyway.

  “Yeah, so this was part of that trust. Sure, my hand was kind of forced. But rather than try to cover it up or tell half-truths, I d
ecided to let him into our lives. And . . . I hope you’ll do the same.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  I turned to Henri and nodded. It was his turn.

  “Ah, yes.” He nodded, and rubbed his thighs nervously. “Monsieur le Monstre, may I accompany Boy home to New York for winter break?”

  He stared at us for a long time, saying nothing. It went on so long that I started to wonder if maybe the video stream had frozen. But at last he said:

  “Boy, you want to bring a human into The Show?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to say, Dad. He’s not just a human. He’s family. Our family.”

  He sighed. “My son, I understand what you are saying. Your heart is good. But . . .” He shook his head. “This has never been done before in the entire history of The Show. I will need to discuss it with Ruthven.”

  “Thanks, Dad. That’s all I ask.”

  “Okay. Good-bye, Boy. Good-bye, Henri.”

  The connection ended and Henri let out a breath. “Wow, your dad does not like humans.”

  “Are you kidding? He loves humans,” I said. “Just wait till you meet my mom.”

  “Do you really think it’s going to happen? That I’ll get to visit a community of monsters?”

  “If there’s anyone who can convince Ruthven, it’s my dad. So I’d say there’s a good chance you’ll get in. It’s getting you out alive that will be trickier.”

  He laughed, but then looked at me. “Wait, are you serious?”

  “I told you. There are a lot of monsters there who’ve had bad experiences with humans. Some of them, like my dad, have moved on. Some of them haven’t.”

  “Don’t worry, Henri!” said Vi, suddenly materializing on the screen in a burst of neon sparkles. “We’ll protect you!”

  “Speak for yourself,” said Claire from where she’d been lounging on my bed. “I think this is the daftest idea you’ve ever had, sweetie.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “And you didn’t ask him if he knew anything about Robert.”