“At least something did.”
“I guess sometimes burning down to the ashes is exactly what we need to find that phoenix inside every one of us.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m glad you did rise. I’m sorry I got so upset earlier.”
“It’s fine.” He leaned in and turned to face her. “You’ve played no small part in this, Ashley. You were real, even if she wasn’t. You made me realize there was something worth living for in this world, people who cared about me.”
She placed a palm to his cheek. “I do care about you, very much.”
The golden sky glow gave way to purple hues, darkening deeper with each passing minute. Jake looked down the beach, hoping the fishermen would pack up their stuff soon and head out.
“Do you think she’ll come?” Ashley asked.
“She always has before.”
“How does she know you’re here?”
“I don’t know. I think she just swims by and looks.”
“Or maybe she’s like some sort of psychic.”
“That’s funny, I asked her that.”
“The psychic mermaid,” she joked. “Coming to a theater near you.”
“I’m not psychic,” Ariel said from below them.
“Ariel.” Jake took a few quick steps toward her. “You came.”
“Of course. I always swim by this way at night.”
Jake looked at Ashley and smirked. “You don’t say.”
“You weren’t here last night,” Ariel pointed out.
“I know. We had an incident. Someone tried to kill us again.”
Ariel gasped. “I’m sorry.”
“Ariel, we need your help.”
“How can I help?”
“It’s your father who’s trying to kill us.”
“He’s not my father.”
“You call him father.”
“He’s my guardian. Mermaids don’t have fathers.”
“Yeah, okay, whatever. We think he’s the one trying to kill us.”
“It’s not possible. He’s a gentle soul.”
“He may be, but he could still hire someone.”
Ariel huffed, clearly getting upset. “You’re wrong. He wouldn’t do that.”
“Someone is. And no one knows we know about you.”
“Father doesn’t know, either.”
Ashley offered, “I know this would be hard to accept, Ariel, but—”
“But nothing!” she fired back. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
Ashley squatted down to get closer, her face clearly fighting the urge to anger. “Not even to protect your secret?”
Ariel dunked half her face into the water, covering her mouth. After a long silence, she eased her face above the water. “It’s his job to protect me.”
“He told you that?” Ashley asked.
“Yes. All the guardians are chosen to serve and protect. It is their directive.”
Jake moved down closer, squatting next to Ashley. “Ariel, who chooses the guardians?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if the guardians have directives, who gives them those directives? If it’s a job, who’s paying them? Who’s their boss?”
Ariel shrugged and furled her brow. “That’s a lot of questions I never thought about—I just figured they were chosen by fate or destiny.”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “How simplistic.”
Ariel made the first mean face Jake had ever seen her make. “Well, I’m simplistic. I’ve led a simple life. I’m sorry if that offends you.”
“Hey,” Jake eased out the words. “We’re all on the same side here. Ariel, we just want to know what’s going on. You can understand how scared we are.”
Tears started to well up in Ariel’s big blue eyes. “We’re all scared. Life is scary and then it ends.” She started to gather herself. “I found out my time on this Earth is almost over.”
Jake frowned. “You mean…?”
She solemnly nodded. “Yes. Father informed me it was time.”
“How does he know before you?” Jake asked.
Ariel shrugged. “It’s one of the duties of the guardians. They know when it’s time for all things.”
“Ariel,” Ashley asked. “Are you sure you’re the only mermaid?”
“There is always only one.”
“Yes, but only as far as you know.”
Ariel looked confused. “I suppose that’s true. If there are others, I’ve never seen them.”
Jake stood upright. “It seems there’s a lot of things we don’t know.”
Ariel nodded. “This is always the case with my world. In your world too. Mystery is the lifeblood through which all discoveries are made.”
“How can we get into your house?” Jake asked.
Ariel searched the rocks with her eyes. “Why would you want to?”
“To find the truth.”
“I don’t understand what truth you seek. I’ve told you, Father is not the one trying to have you killed. He’s a gentle soul, he’d never hurt anyone. I promise you that.”
“Maybe so. But he knows who is.”
Ariel pushed away from the shore. “I shall ask him.” She sank under the waves and was gone.
Jake had never seen her so serious. He wondered if he’d done a bad thing. If he somehow put her in danger, he’d never forgive himself. But beyond that, he felt like he took away the one thing that made her so different from anyone he’d ever met. That one thing that made her so unique in a world full of hate and greed, it was her pure innocence. And he took that.
Ashley touched his arm. “We have to go get some clothes for tomorrow. We can’t show up to a funeral looking like we just left the boardwalk.”
Jake nodded. “I know.”
Chapter 24
Ariel
After her morning swim and afternoon meal, Ariel surfaced in her pool just in time to see Father had walked into the room. She’d had all night to think of things to ask him, but as she saw him, she was disarmed of the feeling she’d had.
He was not dressed in his usual white doctor’s coat, but instead in a black suit and blue tie with a pink flower fixed in the breast pocket.
“Ariel,” he said. “You’re home earlier than I expected.”
“I didn’t want to be out too late with the weather.”
“That’s wise of you. There’s a storm brewing and the seas are going to be rough for the next few days.”
“I know. I’m always careful.”
“And if you are going to be with child, you will have to be even more careful.”
“When will I know?”
“It will take a bit, a few days before we know.”
“Why are you dressed like that?”
He pushed his glasses back up his nose and frowned. “I attended a funeral.”
“I’m sorry. Who died?”
“Someone far too young.”
“How’d they die?”
“A terrible accident.”
“Oh, that’s sad to hear.” She looked forlornly at the gray through the ceiling.
He looked up. “Death is only sad if it serves no purpose.”
“Did this person’s death serve a purpose?”
He nodded. “Every death serves some purpose. The universe is an efficient machine in which no bit of matter or energy is ever wasted.”
She sighed and nodded.
“Is there something on your mind, dear?”
Ariel swam over to the edge of the pool and propped her elbows on the deck. “Father, what would happen if I made a real friend?”
“What kind of a friend?”
“A human friend.”
He looked up. “As you know, that could be a risky proposition.”
“Would you hurt them?”
“Me? Heavens no.”
“Even to protect me?”
He fixed his drooping glasses. “Why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “Just curious, I guess.”
“I know. But what if there was a special one who understood?”
He nodded softly. “It could still come with complications. The people in their lives would never understand, and ultimately, it could get very messy.”
“Who do you work for?”
He snapped his head back. “What do you mean? I work for me. You know that I have my own medical practice.”
“No, I mean, who do you work for when it comes to me? Who chose you to be my guardian?”
His usually kind face turned sadder as a tired sigh seemed to drain from him. “I’m not able to discuss those things with you. You shouldn’t even be asking such questions. What prompted this line of curiosity?”
“But why can’t you tell me?”
“My dear, there is an order in life, an order of all things. There are those who make the rules and those who abide by them. Like everyone else, I am but a servant to a much greater master.”
“What kind of master?”
“Is there more than one kind?” He stood from the chair. “Ariel, there is always a master for every life. You can be your own master in life, but there are certain strings of fate from which each of us must dangle. We answer to the universe, and to those that control the ways. Just as things have always been with your kind, things have always been with my kind.”
He looked at her and she knew. His expressive face had never been so sad before. It was a profound sadness, which Ariel had seen only in others, but never in him. She wanted to cry, but didn’t want to let him see it. “Goodbye.” She turned away and jumped up into her hammock.
He walked to the steps, but he stopped. In the afternoon grayness he said to her, “Ariel, I wish things could be different for you. I wish they could be different for me. You’re all I have left in this world. You’re all the family I have, and when you’re gone I won’t have anything but my practice. I’m too old to be a guardian again, so someone else will have to take over this house and all that goes with it.”
Ariel never realized that he didn’t even own this house. The mermaid paintings that hung around the pool had always been just paintings, but now she wondered if perhaps they were history. The final pieces of her naiveté were draining away.
She glanced over to the wall. “Which one is my mother?”
Father didn’t reply right away. After a long wait he finally said, “The one to which you are the most drawn. The heart knows.” He spun slowly and started climbing the steps.
Ariel looked across the pool. It was too gloomy to see any details of the picture, but she knew it all too well. She’d stared at it hundreds of times wondering who the beautiful blonde mermaid was. She’d always called her mother in her mind, but never aloud or in true admittance. Now she knew…what she’d known all along.
* * *
Dr. Shepard
Bruce Shepard looked at his phone when it chimed. He didn’t want to answer when he saw who it was, but it wasn’t a choice he could make. “Hello.”
“Is there any word on the baby?”
“It’s too soon to know.”
There was a long pause on the other end. “How’s she doing?”
“Not good. What you feared is coming to fruition. She’s just like her mother.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Yes, it is.”
“We should take the necessary precautions right away.”
“I am.”
“No, I mean we have to make sure everything goes as planned. We can’t take a chance she loses the baby. You know this is not negotiable.”
“I know how it works.”
“I know you do.”
“I know how to do my job.”
“I know you do, and I know how to do mine, and my job is to make sure you do yours. And with that said, we need to secure things.”
“You don’t mean…?”
“I think you need to close the gates.”
Bruce knew this was coming. “That won’t be good for the baby. Her stress levels will be too high.”
“It didn’t hurt her mother. She will make the right choices for the baby.”
“But it is too long to lock her down. She’s a free spirit, she’s a good kid.”
“Not that good. She’s put me in quite the predicament with her behavior.”
Bruce winced. “How is that going to play out? Never mind, I don’t even want to know.”
The long silence on the other end of the phone indicated just how angry he was. Finally, Bruce said, “If he’d done his job, maybe she wouldn’t be so messed up.”
“They have been lucky.”
“Well, that’s none of my business. You know I don’t condone this method of operation.”
“There’s not another choice, Bruce.”
“There’s always another choice.”
“No, there’s not. And if I tell the council you said that, you’ll be on their list too.”
Bruce didn’t care anymore. If the council wanted him dead, he’d be dead. In fact, he’d been guardian to two mermaids. There was every chance they were going to kill him anyway before he got old and senile and accidentally said something to someone. He would not give them the satisfaction.
Chapter 25
Jake
Jake walked up to Ashley as she sat on the concrete bench. The cemetery was empty now except for the two of them and a mostly quiet murder of crows. “You doing okay?” He slid his hand up her back and gave her a soft squeeze on the shoulder.
She nodded, wiping tears and faking a smile. “I’m okay. It was harder than I thought it would be.”
“Saying goodbye always is.”
She slapped her knees, “I’m a horrible person.”
“Why?”
“I guess…I mean, I can’t even say this out loud.” She whispered, “A part of me is relieved.”
Jake looked at her. He had an idea where her mind was but didn’t want to say it.
“You’re going to hate me,” she said.
“Not likely.”
“Well…” She appeared to be searching carefully for the words. “In my head I was planning all this divorce stuff, and lawyer visits, and splitting of assets. And don’t get me wrong, I did not want this.”
“I get it,” Jake replied. “That’s a terrible process to go through.”
“Yeah, but I’m a selfish bitch. I should not be thinking that. A man is dead, whether or not l loved him has nothing to do with that. I mean, I’d go through ten divorces to bring him back. You know what I’m saying?”
“Of course I do. The mind is a funny thing. We seek solace sometimes in the details and we look for positives within negatives. That’s the nature of life. It doesn’t make you a bad person. You can be sad for the death and relieved you don’t have to go through a long arduous process at the same time.”
“I guess it’s weird that I don’t feel worse. I feel like I should.”
Jake just nodded.
She switched her crossed legs, smoothed her black dress. “I remember seeing you at Cassie’s funeral. I didn’t want to talk to you.”
“No one did. All they did was say things they thought they were supposed to say, but none of it really meant anything. People don’t really mean anything. They just say things. They were probably worrying about their drive home. I’m sure there are people at every funeral thinking that stuff.”
“People did that to me today.” She wiped a tear. “Mike’s parents, they never really liked me anyway, and today they seemed so…I don’t know…fake. All that stuff they said seemed so fake to me.”
“They’re pretentious assholes.”
She laughed. “They probably think I killed him.”
“Oh, there’s no doubt,” he joked, but then took a more serious tone. “Did you see the cop watching us?”
/> “I tried not to pay attention, but it was in the back of my head the whole time.”
“He was looking for the proper mourning signs—as if everyone mourns exactly the same way.”
She sniffled. “I guess they know what to look for.”
“Screw them. They already cleared me. The gunshot residue test came back negative, they have nothing on us at all. Besides we know the truth.”
She turned to face him. “What is the truth?”
“What do you mean?”
“We can’t just keep waiting for whoever is trying to kill us to finally catch us out of luck.” The gray sky rumbled with distant thunder.
He sighed. “Well, the good thing is that he doesn’t seem to be bothering us in populated areas. He’s opportunistic and takes his shots when no one is around to see him.”
“For now. He’s obviously a professional.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “and he’s missed us twice.”
“Which means he’s probably pissed off and more determined than ever.”
Jake looked up to the sky. It hadn’t started to rain yet, but it looked imminent. “It also means we’re a more formidable opponent than he considered.”
“That’s not more comforting,” she bristled. “It probably means we’re just full of dumb luck.”
“But it tells me something.”
Ashley shook her head. “It tells me our luck is going to run out.”
Jake pursed his lips. “Or his is.”
“Ha, that’s stupidly optimistic of you.”
Jake turned his palms up. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Not really. And it’s just hard to believe coming from a guy who had a gun to his head a week ago.” She immediately changed the look on her face. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Jake rolled his lips inward. “It’s a fair point.”
“I still shouldn’t have said it like that, though.”
“I knew what you meant.”
“I guess I know you did, you always do.” She stood up, wiping the last tear off her cheek. “That’s why I always liked you, Jake. You get me like no one ever did. It was hard when you stopped being my friend.”
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