Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath

by Helene Boudreau

“There’s no way those mers can get up here.” Dad shined the light from his flashlight helmet up and down the shallow stream and held a hockey stick over his shoulder, ready to strike at any time.

  “I wonder if they stayed in the ocean or if we’ll find them waiting in the tidal pool.” I waved my flashlight into the hollow vastness of the dark culvert. The light bounced off the corrugated metal walls.

  “Well, either way, there are three of us and only two of them, right? Speaking of which, where’s Luke?” Dad spun around and nearly took my head off with his hockey stick.

  “Whoa there.” I ducked. “Easy with that thing, Gretzky.”

  “Oh, good. There he is.” Dad’s helmet light spotted Luke scrambling down the bank to the shore. “Are they gone?”

  “The security guard just left for the night,” Luke said as he joined us. “We should be good to go.”

  “Perfect.” I’d been waiting all day for this moment. It was a relief to have it finally arrive. “So the plan is we go in, get Mom, and get her into the Merlin 3000 if she hasn’t finished transforming, right?”

  “Yeah.” Dad hesitated. “About that—”

  “What?” I wasn’t sure how many more surprises I could take.

  “Well, the computer had to be rebooted after Eddie and I made some modifications,” Dad said.

  “Isn’t it working?” I cried.

  “We just haven’t had the time to recalibrate it yet,” Dad said quietly.

  “Dad!” I cried.

  “Sorry. I can go back to the trailer now and see—”

  “The tide is rising,” Luke reminded us.

  “Okay, okay.” I closed my eyes and tried to stay calm. “The longer we stand around here the less chance we have of making it through that culvert. Electronic devices.” I held out my hand for Dad’s and Luke’s cell phones and stashed them in the waterproof bag inside my backpack. “Let’s go.”

  I waded into the knee-deep water and crawled on my hands and knees to enter the culvert, followed by Luke and then Dad. I knew I could easily mer-micize if I inhaled water for a few breaths, so I kept my head well above surface.

  “How long is this thing, anyway?” Luke asked as we sloshed through the tunnel.

  “Not sure.” I shined the flashlight in front of me, but it didn’t help much. Plus, a knocking sound reverberated against the top of the culvert, making it hard to concentrate.

  “Dad!” I turned and caught the beam of his headlamp straight in the eye, burning pinpricks of light onto my retinas, which didn’t help the freaked out feeling running through my body. “Could you tuck your hockey stick under your arm so it doesn’t bang against the ceiling? Not exactly stealthy, you know what I mean?”

  “Oops, sorry.”

  The walls of the narrow, four-foot wide metal culvert felt claustrophobic as we crawled through. Wondering if the mer sentries could actually swim in the knee-deep water, my heart rate quickened. Or what if they’d ramped up security and added a night shift at the construction site? Maybe Grumpy McGrumpypants was waiting for us on the other end of the culvert!

  I’d managed to whip myself into a big ball of nerves, but finally, after another thirty feet or so, I could see a circle of twilight up ahead.

  “I think we’re almost there,” I whispered over my shoulder and tried to steady my breathing, which was quick and uneven from the slog through the culvert. I couldn’t believe we’d actually made it. We were SO close to discovering whether or not Mom was safe!

  I crawled out of the culvert and took a step forward, but the water was deeper than I’d expected.

  “Ahrkk—” I fell forward with a splash, dropping my flashlight into the water. Someone (or something) grabbed my arm! “Get off me!” I cried as I lashed out, working to find my footing.

  “Jade?” Dad called out, but soon I heard another splash, complete with a wave of water knocking me off my feet once more.

  “Dad!” Had someone got him too?

  I struggled away from the hand on my arm to try to get to Dad, whacking someone in the head in the process.

  “Ow!” It was Luke. “I was only trying to help.”

  “Oh, sorry!” I brought a hand to my mouth, realizing that the hand on my arm had been his.

  “It’s okay.” Luke laughed. “Just remind me not to meet you in a dark alley. You okay, Mr. Baxter?”

  “Yeah, I’m good,” Dad replied.

  Finally, after a few minutes of stumbling and splashing, we managed to drag ourselves to the edge of the pond.

  “You didn’t breathe anything in, did you?” Luke asked.

  “No, just a mouthful and it’s disgusting,” I replied. I’d caught a splash of water in the mouth and sputtered out the mucky taste. All those truckloads of earth must have started running off into the water. The rain was only making things worse.

  “Let’s start looking.” Dad’s headlamp flickered on and off from his unexpected dunk.

  “Where do we begin?” I looked around, trying to make sense of our surroundings. “And how are we going to find our way back to the culvert to get out? I won’t be much help. I lost my flashlight when I fell.”

  “Why don’t I stay here?” Luke suggested. “Call out when you’re ready to come back and I can flash my flashlight to lead the way.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we all stick together?”

  “Only if we all want to get arrested together when we can’t find our way back,” Luke joked.

  “He’s got a point,” Dad said. “I’d rather not have to get a father-daughter jail cell.”

  I laughed and turned to Luke before setting off.

  “Yell if you see something, okay?”

  “You got it.”

  •••

  Mom? I rang out over the water for what seemed like the millionth time.

  We’d traveled around the edge of the tidal pool for over an hour and found nothing. It was slow going in the dark and rain, and the mucky spots along the way made progress slow. Plus, Dad’s headlamp kept flickering and only lit five feet ahead of us.

  “I think we’re about three quarters of the way around,” Dad said.

  I was wet and cold and beyond frustrated by the time we reached the stand of trees at the far end of the pond. “What if we don’t find her? What if something happened?”

  Just then, a light flashed from across the water. “Is that Luke?” My heart skipped a beat. “Maybe he saw something. Luke!”

  “Ja—” I heard his yell across the water about a hundred feet away. The light from his flashlight waved in random zigzags for a few seconds accompanied by another yell and splashing. Then the light went out.

  “Oh no! Luke!” I grabbed Dad’s arm. A big red panic button in my head set me off in a fit of guppyish, gulping cries. “What’s happening to him?”

  “I’m coming, buddy!” Dad called out to Luke. He slapped his flashlight helmet on my head. “Wait here.”

  “But you won’t be able to see!” I said between fits of panic. “How are you going to find him?”

  “Just stay put and whatever you do, don’t go in the water or you’re grounded until you’re sixteen.” Dad crashed through the trees like a bear on a blueberry mission.

  “Be careful!” I wiped the streaking tears from my eyes, worrying it would be the last time I’d see him, Mom, or Luke. The last thing I spotted in the flickering lamplight was Dad’s hockey stick slashing branches as he disappeared into the trees.

  Now Mom was still nowhere to be found, something was up with Luke, and Dad had left me standing alone on the banks of a dark, creepy looking pond. I couldn’t help thinking that my current situation had all the makings of a really scary slasher movie.

  I hadn’t been that scared since Finalin and Medora trapped me and Mom in the creek back in Talisman Lake. But this felt far worse. What if Mom hadn’t survived this time? What if Luke was in danger too?

  I took a few long, deep breaths to keep from completely freaking out and glanced across the wa
ter, trying to find the spot where I’d last seen Luke’s flashlight, but I couldn’t see anything. A few minutes later, I heard Dad’s voice echo through the culvert.

  “Luke!” Dad called.

  “Dad!” I yelled out, desperate for him to answer. Why was he yelling for Luke? Wasn’t he where we left him?

  “Dad!” I called again.

  All I could make out from his answer was a hollow sounding “gonna go see…” and “stay there.”

  “Wait! I’ll go with you!” I called out but he didn’t answer. “Dad!”

  But it was no use; he was gone. I was really crying by then, blurring everything around me. And just to make things worse, the clouds moved over the moon and my headlamp kept flickering.

  Mom? I tried ringing out her name one more time out of desperation.

  I heard the crack of a branch behind me and spun around.

  “Who’s there?” I yelled. I saw a flash of luminescent eyes in the light of my headlamp. Then the eyes turned into the profile of a raccoon that scampered off through the bulrushes. I scanned the pond again and took a few deep breaths to try and get my heart rate back to normal.

  Ma…wmm.

  A noise took me by surprise. I turned back to the place where the raccoon had popped out. I saw a leg by a nearby tree. Then an arm. Then the bright paleness of a face shone in the lamplight.

  I blinked, not understanding what I was seeing at first. Could this be real? Could it really be her?

  Then I saw her. All of her. I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice came out as a whisper.

  “Serena?”

  Serena slid back behind the tree. I slipped off my backpack and took out a blanket from the waterproof bag.

  “Serena, it’s me, Jade.” I held out the blanket and walked toward her carefully, trying not to spook her. “You remember?”

  I hadn’t seen Serena since her parents, Finalin and Medora, had blackmailed me into freeing her from Talisman Lake along with Mom a few weeks before. She was taller than I’d imagined and younger—about my age. A horrible thought occurred to me. Was it Serena’s arm I’d seen in the tidal pool with Cori? Had I risked everything to free her instead of Mom?

  Serena looked past the tree trunk and held her hand up against the light of my headlamp. I twisted my helmet to the side so the light didn’t flash right into her face.

  Sorry, I tried to find my mermaid voice. Even though I was probably saying it all wrong, since my Mermish was still definitely rusty, it seemed to have an effect because Serena took a small step toward me. Here, take this blanket.

  I wrapped the blanket around Serena’s shivering shoulders. She grasped the fabric and hugged it around herself.

  How— I started to ask, but as I spoke, Serena took my hand and led me through the trees, stiff-legged like a newborn fawn. At first, I thought she was leading me to the culvert, but we headed into the dark stand of trees. After a few minutes, we stopped by a fallen tree trunk

  No, come with me. I pulled on her hand, trying to direct her toward the culvert. We’d have to hurry, otherwise the tide would be too high and we’d be stuck there until morning.

  Ma…wmm. Serena crouched down beside the tree trunk.

  Only it wasn’t a tree trunk. It was a person. With arms and legs and hair, huddled on the ground. Could it be? After all this time and so many dead ends, had I finally found her?

  “Ohmigod! Mom?” I lunged toward her and pulled at the branches and leaves covering her body. My head registered a jumble of different thoughts at once. How long had she been there? Was she okay? Was she even alive? “Dad! Dad! She’s here!”

  “Jade?” Mom’s voice was barely a whisper.

  “Mom!” She was alive! I wanted to scream and dance around, but there was no time to waste. Where was Dad? We had to get her to safety.

  “I can’t believe I finally found you! Dad!” I tried again.

  My hands shook as I fumbled in my backpack for another blanket. My words came out in a long babble as I tried to cover her as best I could. “Are you hurt? What have you been eating—are you thirsty? Do you want some water?”

  I pulled a water bottle from my backpack and Mom and Serena both drank thirstily.

  “Serena changed quicker…been waiting for two…three days?” Mom shivered violently and tried to stand. “Couldn’t get out…the fence.”

  “I know, I know.” I put her arm around my neck and helped her stand. Serena did the same. “It’s a construction site. There’s a way out, but we have to hurry.”

  We half-carried, half-dragged Mom through the trees toward the general direction of the culvert. I could see glimpses of the chain-link fence a few dozen feet to my right, so I knew if I could just keep that in view, I’d hit water and then the culvert soon enough.

  “Ooof!” I tripped and stumbled when my foot sank into a mushy area of grass.

  Mom gasped beside me. “Slower?”

  “No.” I got to my feet. Serena readjusted the blanket over her shoulders and tightened her grip around Mom from the other side. “The water is getting higher. We won’t be able to get through the tunnel if we don’t hurry.”

  I’d finally found her. She was alive! She had legs! Nothing was going to keep me from getting her to safety. I swung my head back and forth, trying to shine the headlight’s beam to see where we were heading. Finally, the light caught a flash of metal a few yards away.

  “Over there.” I pointed. The water rose to my waist as we waded toward the glinting culvert. I grasped Mom and held my free hand out in front of me. Finally, my fingers met the cool metal.

  “Through here!” I went first, scrambling through the low culvert backward so I could pull Mom along as I went. The tunnel was two thirds full, thanks to the rising tide, so I kept my chin up, out of the water, and hoped my flashlight helmet didn’t fall off. If only I could make it to the other side and back to the beach, Mom could finally come home. Hopefully, Luke and Dad would be on the other end of the culvert and not a couple angry sentries. “Are you guys okay?” I whispered to Mom and Serena, trying to keep our group moving.

  “Yes,” Mom answered but her voice was labored and hoarse.

  I didn’t dare call out to see if Dad was on the other side of the culvert. What if the mers heard me? Hopefully, he was making good use of his slap shot over the sentries’ heads if they were causing problems.

  Something brushed up against my leg.

  “Ah!” I called out.

  “What is it?” Mom asked.

  “Something’s down there!”

  “Alzear,” Mom whispered.

  Reese’s Uncle Alzear?

  “What’s he doing?” I kicked my legs through the water to stop him. But all of a sudden, I felt a force pulling me along the tunnel.

  “He’s helping us,” Mom said.

  After a few seconds, we emerged from the culvert on the beach side. I scrambled out of the stream, tugging Mom and Serena behind me.

  Dad was there, brandishing his hockey stick. “Where is he? Where did that guy go?” He slapped at the water, wild-eyed and crazy-haired.

  “Dad!” I called. “Dad! I’ve got her.”

  That’s when he noticed Mom and dropped his stick.

  “Michaela?”

  “Yes! And she’s got legs!” I exclaimed, relieved that we wouldn’t have to put the Merlin 3000 to the test, given its technical difficulties.

  Mom lifted her head. “Dalrymple?”

  I chuckled. Hearing Mom call Dad by his first name never got old. “Dalrymple” just went to show that Gran either had a ridiculous sense of humor or was under the influence of some serious pain medication when he was born.

  Dad stumbled toward us, his hand to his mouth. I could see by the dim moonlight that he was soaked, his shirt was untucked, and his glasses sat precariously on his nose.

  “Yes, Micci, yes.” He took Mom from me and picked her up in his arms. She looked so small and fragile now that I could see her properly. He brushed her hair back from her face and ki
ssed her gently.

  “Dal.” Mom leaned her head against his chest. Dad’s face creased into a sob. He tried to hold back, but soon his whole body sagged in relief.

  Serena crawled from the river behind us and stood uncertainly.

  “Um, Dad? There’s someone else.” I turned my headlamp in Serena’s direction. She blinked away the glare.

  Dad looked up and his face registered confusion.

  “Luke?” Dad wiped his eyes in the upper sleeve of his shirt. “No. Who’s this?”

  “You remember our friends Medora and Finalin back in Talisman Lake?” I asked. Dad still looked confused. “This is their daughter, Serena.”

  “Oh?” A look of understanding crossed his face. “Oh, I see.”

  “Wait.” I looked around, trying to find Luke. “Where is Luke?”

  Dad squeezed his eyes shut and blinked. “He wasn’t here when I got through the culvert. Maybe he went for help?” Dad looked down into Mom’s face, but she was barely conscious. “Let’s get your mom back to the car, so she can be comfortable and we can look for him.”

  “No, wait.” Mom lifted her head. She seemed to be trying to listen. I heard the rings too but had trouble understanding. “Alzear says there was a mistake. They thought Luke was a poacher.”

  “A what?” I asked, my heart in my throat. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good.

  “A human mer hunter. The other sentry pulled Luke underwater and he changed. Alzear tried to reason with him, but he’s taken Luke to the Council.”

  I collapsed onto the beach, not believing what I was hearing.

  Luke was now a mer.

  •••

  The drive home was quiet. We finally convinced Serena to get in the car, but she spent the whole car ride with her face and hands plastered against the passenger side window like she was on the Behemoth roller coaster at Magic Mountain.

  Mom fell asleep almost immediately, wrapped up in one of the dry blankets from the trunk, where we’d also found one of my spring jackets for Serena. My XL windbreaker hung loosely around Serena’s narrow shoulders even though she was about two inches taller than I was.

  “What’s going to happen to Luke?” I asked.

  “We’ll get the Merlin 3000 to Eddie’s house on the coast. Hopefully, he’ll show up there.” He pulled out his cell to call Eddie.