Margo cleared her throat. “Um, yes. I told some of them. You only said not to tell grown-ups.”
“Well … okay.”
“And,” Margo went on, “they are dying to see Neptuna.”
“Good. Because now I can show her to you.”
“Excellent!” Margo jumped to her feet.
“But not right now,” I added quickly. “Neptuna said I have to try the chant at exactly twelve o’clock. Noon.”
We waited all morning. At five minutes to twelve Margo, Nicky, Claire, Adam, Byron, Jordan, Andrew (I had finally told him about Neptuna), and I met at the jetty. We walked on it in a line to the very end. I faced the ocean. I waved my arms in circles. And I called, “Mermaid, my mermaid, green and bright, appear from the water. Come to the light!”
I stared hard at the ocean. I waited to see circles of little waves, like when a fish jumps out of the water. I was watching for Neptuna’s head. I wondered how much of her we would see. Would we see her tail?
We did not see any of her.
I called out the chant again. (Some fishermen on the jetty were staring at me.) I called it out a third time. I waved my arms harder. By now most of the Pikes were snickering. I called the chant again.
No Neptuna. She did not appear.
“So where is your mermaid, Karen?” asked Nicky.
“I guess … maybe the fishermen scared her,” I replied, glancing at them. “Or maybe the tide is too high. I don’t know.”
I felt very silly. But I knew Neptuna was real, and I wanted the Pikes to see her, especially Margo the bragger. “Maybe I will call her again tomorrow,” I told them.
I was not going to stop believing in Neptuna.
Sometime during the night she left another note for me.
A Comb for Neptuna
Guess what Neptuna needed this time. A comb for her hair. I decided Neptuna must have very, very long hair, like Ariel’s. And I decided it must be hard to take care of, especially underwater. Her note said:
Poor Neptuna. She had no place to buy hair-care products. The only problem was that I didn’t have a spare comb. I had brought only one to Sea City with me. I could give her mine, but then what would I tell Mommy? I did not want to say I had lost mine. I wanted Mommy to think I was responsible.
I would just have to buy a new comb for Neptuna. And I would have to do it that very day. Neptuna had sounded a bit desperate. Now how was I going to get into town? I was not allowed to go by myself.
Luckily, at breakfast that morning, Mommy said, “Today I need to go to the grocery store and run some other errands. Does anybody want to come with me?”
We all decided to go.
Mommy and Seth and Andrew and I drove into town. Mommy headed for the grocery store.
“Seth?” I said. “Could you take me to the dime store? I just want to look around.”
“Sure,” replied Seth. “Andrew, do you want to come with us?”
Andrew nodded.
In the dime store, Andrew pulled Seth into the toy aisle. I wandered away. I pretended to be very interested in a Frisbee, in case Seth was watching me. Then I wandered a little further away, into the aisle of socks and underwear. The next thing I knew I was standing by myself in front of a bin of plastic combs. I checked their price. Only 49¢ each. Perfect. In my pocket was a whole dollar.
I paid for a long pink comb while Seth and Andrew were looking at the toys.
“Need a bag?” the clerk asked me.
“Um, no thanks,” I said. I stuck the comb and the receipt for it in my pocket.
A few minutes later, my family was standing on the sidewalk in front of the supermarket. Mommy had put the groceries in the car. We were on our way to the fish store when I saw another poster for the Fun in the Sun Festival.
“I cannot wait for the festival,” I said. “I wonder what the entertainment will be. Maybe Barney — hey!” I let out a cry.
“What is it?” asked Andrew. “Is Barney coming?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know. But look, there is going to be a Miss Mermaid Contest.” I read from the poster. “ ‘One lucky young woman will be selected Miss Mermaid. After the contest she will don a mermaid tail, climb into a coach, and bring up the rear of the Fun in the Sun parade.’ ” This was almost too good to believe. “Oh, my gosh,” I said. “I have to enter that contest. I just have to be Miss Mermaid.”
Mommy leaned closer to the poster. “Karen, I am afraid you cannot enter it,” she said. “It isn’t for kids. It is for young women who are eighteen to twenty-four years old.”
“Boo and bullfrogs,” I replied.
“We can still watch the contest,” spoke up Seth. “We will go the festival and have some refreshments and then watch the contest and the parade.”
Well, that was something. I did wish I could be Miss Mermaid, though.
The Rainy Day
Plinkety-plinkety-plinkety-plink.
When I woke up on Sunday morning it really was raining. I could tell without even getting up. And it was raining hard. So I turned over, snuggled under the blankets, and fell asleep again. The next time I woke up, I padded into the living room. I opened the front door. Mostly what I could see was gray. A low gray sky sending down heavy gray raindrops into a heaving gray ocean. Even the sand and the houses and the lifeguards’ stand looked gray.
Seth was sitting in an armchair, reading a newspaper.
“Seth?” I said. “Do you think we will have a nice sunny afternoon?”
Seth smiled at me. Then he shook his head. “Not according to the weather report. We are supposed to have rain all day.”
“Yuck.”
But guess what happened. About an hour later, Jessi and Mallory knocked on our door. “Do you guys want to come over?” Mal asked Andrew and me. She and Jessi shook out their dripping raincoats.
“Could we, Mommy?” I said.
“Of course,” she replied.
So Andrew and I spent the entire day at the Pikes’ house.
Jessi and Mal are excellent baby-sitters. Almost as good as Kristy. The first thing they said to all us kids, after Andrew and I had taken off our raincoats, was, “Let’s put on a play for our parents.”
We spent a long time writing our play. We made it up ourselves. It was about ocean creatures whose home is destroyed by a tidal wave, and they have to find a new home. Margo and I fought over who would get to play Daniella, the magic mermaid. Jessi said we could both be mermaids, so we decided to be mermaid twins.
Our play was a hit.
At lunchtime, Mallory said, “Let’s have an indoor picnic.”
After lunch, Margo said, “Now let’s make fudge. I am an expert.”
“Well, I am an expert brownie-maker,” I said, which was not quite true.
“Well, I am a better expert than you are,” replied Margo.
After the fudge we played hide-and-seek, and then Jessi and Mal found board games and card games.
“Come on, Karen. We will play Go Fish,” said Margo.
Now I am a very good Go Fish player. That was why I knew Margo was lying when she said no after I said, “Do you have any nines?”
“Liar!” I cried.
“I am not!”
“Are too!”
Margo threw her cards on the floor.
“Margo!” exclaimed her mother. “Apologize to your guest.”
“No!”
Mrs. Pike sent Margo to her room. Then I sent myself home. I brought Andrew with me. It had been a long day. We were a little tired. (We remembered to thank the Pikes for the picnic and the fudge and the nice day before we left their house.)
That night I looked at my windowsill before I went to bed, and I found a note! This time Neptuna wrote that she was having some trouble finding enough food in the ocean.
Hmm. I had never heard of Murina Mermaid Chow. But if Neptuna needed it that badly, then I would find it for her. I would look for it the very next day.
Mermaid Chow
I did not know how I wa
s going to get into town to buy the Murina Mermaid Chow. I hoped Mommy might say she needed to go to the supermarket again, but she did not. She and Seth and Andrew were ready to spend the day on the beach.
Uh-oh. Neptuna was hungry, and I was supposed to help her. I watched Mommy and Seth gather up towels and sunscreen lotion and books. I wondered what to do. While I was wondering, I heard a knock on the door.
“Hello!” called someone. It was Miss Boss, the card cheater.
“Hi,” I said.
“Mal is taking Claire and Nicky and me into town. Want to come, Karen?”
“Oh! Sure!” I cried. This was perfect. What good luck. I guessed my fight with Margo was over. Just in time.
I walked downtown with the Pikes.
“Mal?” said Margo. “Can Nicky and I go to the dime store while you take Claire to the shoe store?” (Claire had lost her sandals.)
“I guess so. But stay right there until I come for you. Karen, what do you want to do?”
“Go to the supermarket,” I quickly replied.
Mallory frowned. “The supermarket? Well, okay. Then you stay there, too. Do not leave. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” I nodded my head.
But Margo said, “Mallory, can’t Nicky and I meet Karen at the grocery store when we are finished? Then we will all wait for you there.”
“All right,” Mal replied. “But no funny business.”
So we split up. I walked into the supermarket by myself. I walked up and down the aisles. In the pet food aisle I found cat chow and dog chow and even some bags of pellets for hamsters and mice and rats and gerbils. But I did not see Murina Mermaid Chow anywhere.
I stepped up to the window of the manager’s office. “Excuse me,” I said to the woman inside. “Excuse me, but where is the mermaid chow?”
The manager looked puzzled. Then she raised her eyebrows. Finally she began to laugh. “The mermaid chow?” she repeated.
I nodded. “Yes. Murina Mermaid Ch — ” I stopped speaking. Behind me I heard more laughter. I turned around. I saw Margo and Nicky. They were covering their mouths with their hands and howling. Then they took their hands away and laughed even harder.
“What?” I said to them. “What is it?”
“Murina Mermaid Chow?” Margo gasped. “You believed it! You believed everything!” She tried to stop laughing.
“It was all a joke!” Nicky exclaimed. “Neptuna, the notes, everything.”
I stepped away from the office. “What do you mean?” I whispered.
“Karen, do you really believe a mermaid swam out of the ocean and dragged herself across the sand every night to leave notes on your windowsill?” asked Margo. (She was still giggling.) “Do you really believe in mermaids? Oh — oh, gosh. This is too funny.”
“But the notes … ” I said.
“Vanessa wrote them for us,” said Nicky. “We told her what we wanted to say and then she helped us with them. She made up the Murina Mermaid Chow. I did not think you would fall for it. But you did.”
I could feel my cheeks burning. I had never, ever, ever in my whole entire life been so embarrassed. Margo and Nicky had been making fun of me. They were laughing at me. Even the manager was still laughing at me. I wanted to cry, but I was not going to let Margo and Nicky see that. I clamped my mouth shut. Then I waited for Mallory to arrive.
Karen’s Bad Day
I did not say a word as I walked home with the Pikes. Margo and Nicky did not say much either. But they kept laughing and giggling. When Mal asked me if anything was wrong, I just shook my head.
As soon as I could see my house, I ran away from the Pikes. I ran down the street, through the front door, and into my room. Then I flopped on my bed. I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling. I wished Hannie and Nancy were there.
This is what I was thinking: Karen, you are so stupid. You are a dope. You are a jerk and a twerp and a silly, foolish kindergarten baby. How could you have believed those things? How could you have believed a mermaid was leaving notes on your windowsill? How could you?
At lunchtime, Mommy and Seth and Andrew returned to the house.
“Karen? Ready for lunch?” asked Mommy.
“No!” I yelled.
Mommy stuck her head in my room. “Seth is fixing cheese and tomato sandwiches. Don’t you want one?”
“No.”
Mommy gave me a Look. “Karen, what is the matter?”
“Nothing.”
She sat on the edge of my bed. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“All right. But I want you to come outside after lunch. You may not mope around all day. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
When lunch was over, I trailed outside after Andrew. The Pikes were on the beach. The boys were playing with the skimboards. Andrew stood and watched them. He stood quietly with his hands behind his back.
“Hey, Andrew!” called Nicky. “Want to try?” (Andrew shook his head.) “You never want to try,” said Nicky. “Are you afraid? Are you a scaredy-cat?”
I ran to Andrew’s side. “Nicky, you big bully! You shut up! Do you hear me? Andrew is not afraid. He just can’t ride the skimboard, okay? He is too little. So leave him alone.”
Andrew glanced up at me. “Actually,” he said quietly, “I can too ride it.”
“You can?” I said. I looked at my little brother in surprise. So did the rest of the Pikes.
The Skimboard
The Pike kids and I gathered around Andrew.
“Can you really use the skimboard?” Claire asked him.
“Yup.” Andrew nodded.
“Are you sure?” I said. “I mean, how do you know?”
Before Andrew could answer me, Nicky handed him the skimboard. “Show us,” he said. (He did not sound mean.)
“Okay.” Andrew took the board from Nicky. He walked to the edge of the water. (The rest of us followed him.) Then he threw the board, ran after it, leaped on it, and skimmed along until the board came to a gentle stop. Then Andrew stepped off and looked back at us. He did not say, “See? I told you so.” But he could have.
The Pike kids and I were staring at Andrew. At first we could not think of a thing to say. Then, finally, Margo let out a breath. “How did you learn how to do that?” she asked.
Andrew had carried the board back to us. He handed it to Nicky. And just then Seth appeared. “Maybe I can help Andrew explain,” he said. He put his arm around my little brother.
“You knew he could do this?” I said to Seth.
“Well, I helped him learn,” Seth replied. “Andrew wanted to ride the skimboards from the moment he saw them. But he was a little nervous about trying something new in front of so many people.”
“I did not want to fall,” Andrew spoke up.
“He was afraid someone would laugh at him,” added Seth.
“But the first time I tried it, I fell lots of times,” I pointed out. “And I still had fun. Even if I do not like being laughed at.” I glared at Margo and Nicky then, and they looked down at their feet.
“That’s fine, honey,” said Seth. “It is good. But you are different from Andrew. Everyone is different. And that is okay. Anyway, I told Andrew I would help him learn how to use a skimboard, but we would do it in private. We bought a board at the dime store, and Andrew has been practicing every day. We walked along the beach to an area that was not so crowded, and Andrew practiced there.”
I smiled at my shy brother. “And that is how you got so good,” I said.
“Am I really that good?” asked Andrew.
“Good?” exclaimed Margo. “You are practically an expert!”
“Hey does this mean we have our own skimboard?” I asked Seth.
“Yup,” he replied. “You can go get it. It’s on the porch, hidden behind the deck chair.”
I dashed across the sand to our house, found the board, and brought it back to the beach. “Come on!” I cried. “We can have races!”
“Cool!” said Mar
go.
But I turned to her fiercely. “Not you,” I said. “And not Nicky. Maybe not Vanessa, either. You are the meanest people I know. You cannot be in any race I am in. Also,” I went on, “after right now, I am not speaking to you, and I am not playing with you for the rest of the vacation. And maybe not ever again.”
“But — ” Margo started to say. She looked as if she might cry.
I turned my back on her anyway. “Okay. Let the skimboard races begin. Andrew, come here. You, too, Claire. And Adam, Byron, and Jordan, but nobody else. Nobody else is allowed.”
We played on the skimboards for a long time. Andrew had fun with us. Once, he even beat Byron in a race. I kept my word, though. I did not let the meanies play with us. They had to play by themselves.
Festival Day
I could not believe that my beach vacation was almost over.
It was Friday. This was bad and good. It was bad because the very next day we would have to pack up our car and leave Sea City. It was good because it was … festival day! Very soon, Mommy and Seth and Andrew and I were going to walk into town for the Fun in the Sun Festival.
“Karen?” said Andrew. “Are you going to ask Margo to come with us?”
“No,” I answered. “I mean, no, Andrew. She is going with her family.”
“Are you still mad at Margo?”
“Yes.”
“Nicky too?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“Because they are meanie-meanie-mos. They did something that was not very nice, and they did not even say they were sorry.”
“Oh.”
I hoped Andrew would forget about Margo for awhile. I wanted to forget about her, at least for the day. I wanted to enjoy the festival. I did not want to talk about Margo all the time.
When Mommy and Seth and Andrew and I walked downtown, we found that Sea City was very crowded. People were everywhere. The stores had opened their doors, and the storekeepers had set up stands on the sidewalks. In the streets, vendors walked back and forth calling, “Candy apples! Get your candy apples here!” or “Italian ices!” or “Soft drinks and pretzels!” or “Salt water taffy! Our specialty!” At other stands you could buy hamburgers and hot-dogs, fried clams, popcorn shrimp, fish sandwiches, seafood salads, and crab cakes. Another stand sold nothing but desserts. I had never seen so much food.
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