Chloe and I smiled at each other.
“But wait, what if Dylan doesn’t want me to?”
Chloe nodded. “Ask him. Better find out now then when you reach the Outlands.”
“Yes,” I said. But I was frightened. I’d waited for him to say something, but he never had. Maybe he even had a girlfriend back home? When we first met, and he found out about Ben, he hadn’t seemed surprised. “We'll meet tonight. I hope this weather changes.”
On my way home I made a detour in the rain. Two thousand four hundred and thirty-nine steps. Unlucky. I sighed. Drenched, I reached out and touched my extremely wet, smooth luck rock. I thought of Merma, and her request for the scroll I’d need to renege on. She said she was sick. Would she die? Guilt burned deep in my belly. After the third touch, I hurried from the water’s edge, just in case Merma was nearby. I wasn’t ready to face her yet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Right on schedule, just after 10:00pm Dylan waited behind the chicken coop, leaning up against the side, peeling a fresh mango.
“These are fly,” he said loudly. The rain had stopped, and the sky was clear. Mist rose from the wet garden.
“Shh,” I warned. Though there was a distant hiss of surf, the night was quiet.
“Sorry, my bad” he whispered. “Here.” Dylan fed me a ripe piece of mango. His fingers were sticky and sweet and he let them linger in my mouth while I slowly licked off the juice from each one. My heart raced.
“Do you want to walk to Pelican Rock again,” I whispered. “Or I can show you another nice spot. Although it’s nicer in the day.”
Dylan shook his head and smiled. “Tonight I want to show you something. I found it.” Something about the look on his face sent an electric thrill up my thighs. Then he said: “Wanna get high?”
The highest point on the island was the point that led to Mayor Marlow’s place, with the lighthouse being a close second.
“All the way up there? It’s dark to head up to the ridge.”
“No,” he laughed. “You totally crack me up. I found my stash. Sometimes, I forget my own dang hiding places. Let’s head to a quiet place. Somewhere by the ocean.”
We crossed near smooth luck rock. Large boulder sized rocks provided plenty of places to sit and it was a nice evening, the humidity cleared by the rain, stars blinding bright pinpoints. Dylan pulled a baggie out from his pocket. True enough, it had a weed like substance in the bottom. He opened it for me to sniff. It was pungent and unpleasant.
“Are we going to eat that?” I asked.
“Nah. It’s good in brownies but pretty gross on its own.”
“Alright then…let’s get high,” I said. Getting high reminded me of the balloons. “Any word on when your dad will have the plane fixed?”
“Tomorrow,” Dylan said with a sigh, glancing at me. “I'm crushed. I'd hoped it would take longer.” I waited for him to add to his statement. To tell me he wanted me to go with him. But instead he was more interested in lighting the little cigarette. It made me angry.
“Here,” he handed me the white, rolled up paper. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I brushed off his question. The first puff was easy, but the second and third had me coughing and heaving.
“Remind me why we’re doing this? This is terrible,” I said, tears streaming down my face. Dylan’s eyes were red and glassy even in the moonlight.
“Fun?” he said weakly, and we both burst out laughing.
My anger left and an uncontrollable hilarity welled up in my stomach like bubbles. “Is this getting high?” I said as I reached out and grabbed his arm. “I feel strange.”
“It usually takes more the first time,” he said. “You must be sensitive.” He turned away and coughed. It sounded like a pelican barfing. This got me giggling. After my giggles subsided, he leaned over and we kissed. He ran his hand through my hair, down my neck and it felt like it took hours for his palm to reach my lower back, warm and throbbing. Soon we were both overheated and dizzy.
We walked to a hidden spot on a dollop of sand between two boulders with a view of the ocean. Cicadas chirped in the vegetation above us, and the moon was a gorgeous slender crescent.
Dylan took off his shirt and waded out into the sea in shorts, tiptoeing through the rocks. I never swam at night and got nervous but Dylan coaxed me in. Starlight shimmered on the surface and we kissed in the water. His stubble grazed against my cheek, then my neck. When his lips reached my naked shoulder and then the top of my breast, I stopped him.
“Dylan,” I said, leaning back so I could see his face, half smiling in the pale blue light. “I need to ask you something.”
“Yeah, anything, shoot,” he said. And as I gazed into his eyes, for a minute I forgot what I wanted to say. We paused as if time had stopped. My heart raced so fast I swore the ocean throbbed in sympathy with each beat. He was incredibly handsome.
“What is it?”
“What is what?” I asked.
“You had a question,” he laughed.
“Oh right,” I giggled. How much time had passed? It might have been hours. “What was the question?”
“You have something to ask me,” he said, kissing me on the nose.
“Oh yes,” I held onto his hands tight and took a breath. “If I could somehow go back with you. How would you feel?”
“Back home?”
I nodded.
“With me?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“Chloe has a way of sneaking me into a shipping container. But I'm not sure what life is like for you in the Outlands. I barely know anything about it. Maybe you have someone. Or you’d rather I not come. If you don’t, that’s okay. I want you to be honest. There are other options for me. I don’t want you to feel like this is the only one, or that you—” I rambled.
“Shh,” he put his fingers on my lips. “When I found out the plane got fixed I kept wanting to tell you, but it made me wicked sad...I don't like sad. I’ve been wracking my brain ever since I met you how I can rescue you from this crazy island. ”
“Really?”
Dylan nodded. “Wasn’t it obvious? It’s not that easy for me to sneak out every night. I could get in major shit from my Dad. But especially after everything you told me about your bounding—”
“Binding.”
“Yeah whatever, absolutely babe, let’s do it! I love it. I…love you. And you’ll love Hawaii, I mean the Outlands, trust me.”
“What about your Dad?”
Dylan puffed air between his lips. “I’m almost eighteen…I’ve been wanting to move out. I have big time plans for scoring cash. I’ll make it work.”
We kissed more, but we were both getting chilly so we moved back to the shore. The stars looked like tiny shards of diamonds, so bright they pricked my eyes. Dylan took out his penknife and carved our initials on a piece of driftwood surrounding it with a heart. He laid out the blanket on smooth luck rock. I stroked it three times and confessed my ritual.
“Like this?” he asked as he touched the stone. “Three times. For luck,” I said. “That’s dope,” he said.
Dylan told me more stories about the Outlands. About fun playing video games, going to movie theaters and the amazing things you could do. It made me sad to realize that Mom and Dad lied all these years that everyone had lied to all of us all this time. And I wondered why. We drank wine from a Pepsi bottle Dylan smuggled and it was delicious and made my head spin. Still, I found myself defending my home.
“It’s not so bad, you know. My best friends in the world live here.” I thought of Chloe…and Ethan. “And I love my parents. I’ll miss them.”
“Well, you can come back and visit…” Dylan said. His slurred words made me giggle. But the reminder that I didn't need to leave forever made me happy.
“Do you like to dance?” he asked.
“I do.”
“You’ll love this disc then. I burned it myself.” He took out a square, black piece of
equipment.
“What are those?” I asked.
“Headphones,” he said, putting them over my ears. He pressed a button on the box and music flooded my brain. Music like I’d never heard.
“No, not that one,” he said. And he pressed another button and a slower song began.
We are born, innocent. Incredible music filled my ears. “Who’s singing this? Is she your friend...or--?”
“Sarah McLachlan? No, she ain’t my friend. She’s like a rock star. No one plays music here?”
“Just guitars. And a broken banjo.”
“Well, do you like it?” he asked.
“I do,” I said, smiling. We danced in a slow circle by the water’s edge and then waded into the ocean itself. Dancing in the sand by the shore, I thought of my terrible dance with Ben and how back then I thought I’d never hold anyone I cared for. Closing my eyes, I surrendered to the music. And soon we surrendered to each other’s touch.
We weren’t wearing much and before long wore nothing. Lying beside smooth luck rock, we made love beneath a crescent moon as slender as Mona Lisa’s smile. Afterward we lay in each other’s arms enjoying the sounds of the night. The humidity had returned and a warm breeze blew off the ocean. We left our underwear to dry and changed back into our clothes.
Dylan walked over to a rock by the ocean to pee. I shut my eyes for a moment, enjoying the night air on my face. When I opened my eyes, he was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I ran to the water’s edge. “Dylan!” I shouted. At any moment I expected him to emerge, a trick, a joke. Unsteady on my feet, I slipped on the rocks. Then I saw him. He floated in the water on his back. Merma was there, fin glistening black and sleek in the moonlight.
Without thinking, I dove into the night water. As I swam closer, Merma smiled as she searched through his pockets.
“Let him go!”
“How sweet,” she purred as she swam farther from me, staying out of reach. “Someone didn’t keep her agreement.” She pulled Dylan’s penknife from his pocket. “And can’t be trusted.”
“I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how.”
“Lies, lies, lies,” she said, and swam further with Dylan. His head lolled back beneath the water’s surface.
“You’re drowning him!” I screamed, lunging toward her. She yanked his head out of the water and held the knife to his throat.
“Back off, or he dies.”
“What do you want?” I said, frantic. “Just tell me, I’ll do anything.”
“Follow me and learn,” she said with a wide, open mouth smile. Seeing her teeth glinting in the moonlight was a thousand times more terrifying than having glimpsed them in the day. She headed along the shoreline, meandering between the sharp black rocks. She swam fast, but not so fast I couldn’t keep up.
We swam along a section of the island I didn’t know well. Tall cliffs of rock that were only viewable from the ocean. It was a struggle against a strong current, and I began to tire. Despite being a powerful swimmer, I fell behind. Soon she had both me and Dylan, one under each arm while her powerful fin propelled us forward.
“Pathetic,” she muttered as she swam us into a dank cave and pushed Dylan up onto a rock ledge. It was a cave grotto. About thirty feet wide and ten feet high, it had a pool of water that ended at a ledge leading into blackness. Fish bones and seagull carcasses littered the smooth, moist rock. Maxie.
Now I realized that it wasn’t Ben who’d killed my gull. She hadn't looked as if she’d been hit by an arrow, more like she’d been eaten. But what sent a true bolt of horror through me were the objects on the ledge. Scrap’s red dog collar lay amongst several of Daniel’s treasures. Daniel’s aquamarine coral ring, his quartz stone and the pair of shorts he’d been wearing the day he drowned.
“Like anything you see?” Merma asked with a sly smile. “Shop’s open…for trade.”
“What do you want?” I said, shaking.
“You know what I want. Bring the scroll. I’ll give you twenty minutes. Any longer and cutey boy dies.”
“Twenty minutes, but it’s too far…”
“Well, then run!” she shrieked. And she grabbed me and pulled me out of the cave and swam me back to shore where we’d started, quick as a great white or killer whale. I planted face down in the sand and stumbled to my knees, spitting out grit, blood and brine. When I turned she'd disappeared.
Heart pounding, cold and drenched I ran home. A light was on in the lighthouse. I crept up the metal stairs and when I got to the top, my breath caught in my throat. Mom lay snoring, draped over the scroll. As if sensing my intent a whirl of blue and red symbols cracked along the scroll’s surface. When I grabbed it the geometric patterns crawled up my arms, and I felt them pulse through my body, throwing an eerie flickering glow on Mom’s face. I was stepping back when she opened her eyes.
“Marei!”
“Mom, I’m sorry!” I said, and I ran. She chased me down the staircase but I was much faster. Fifteen minutes later, it couldn’t have been more, I was back at the shore, but Merma wasn’t there.
“I have it!” I shouted at the black water. Nothing. Just the steady sound of crickets in the grass, waves against rocks. Back at the lighthouse, the light illuminated, throwing its bright beam across the ocean. Mom and Dad were looking for me.
“Ah there you are,” Merma said with a sly smile. “Gimme gimme,” she reached for the scroll. I stepped onto dry land, leaving her floundering at the shoreline.
“Not until you bring Dylan.” I paused. “And Daniel’s things, his treasures.” My voices quavered. “They aren’t yours.”
“Dylan is fine and I don’t care about your trinkets anymore. I’ve had my fun. Give it. Now.”
I shook my head. “Not until I know he’s safe.”
Merma gave me a look that was pure evil, but she sunk back into the water. When she returned, she had Dylan under her arm, still unconscious. She tossed Daniel’s quartz stone and coral ring and rolled Dylan half onto shore where he groaned.
“Now show me the scroll or I’ll drag him to the bottom of the ocean and shove him under a rock where you’ll never find him,” she warned.
Hand shaking, I held out the scroll. When her hand touched it, sparks flew into the air and a whirl of symbols traveled up my arm. We both cried out, me in surprise, Merma in delight. She lunged toward me with her blade, a blur of motion, pulling me to the sand. I clutched at her wrist, trying to protect myself. “Dylan!” I shouted hoping to wake him up.
She overpowered me, smirked and held the knife up. I expected her to slash me, stab me and I cringed, lying helpless half in the water half in the sand. But instead she held my hand to hers while she lifted her t-shirt and sliced her own stomach at the naval. She carved a symbol I recognized from the scroll, purple-red blood running in rivulets down her stomach to her scales. I remembered that symbol, it meant binding. It was one I hadn’t been able to translate fully, the equation impossibly complex and connected to every other one.
I became transfixed by the sight of blood flowing along her scales into the water, distinct globules of red following one another; tiny, red gems. Then she was on top of me. She yanked up my wet-t-shirt and pressed the blade to my tummy.
“Stop!” I shouted, and tried to shove her back, but she was too strong. “What are you doing?”
“I want to be more like you,” Merma whispered.
Pain sliced through my belly as she carved something in my flesh. Then she pressed her stomach to mine and held onto me tightly. We lay face to face. The stench of her breath was unbearable and the heat from her body burned. Pain coursed through me as my stomach joined to hers. There was a wrenching, spinning sensation inside my guts. Something terrible had occurred. A wave of blackness descended on me. And I lost consciousness.
When I came to, Merma was gone, the scroll was gone. My legs ached and my stomach was sticky with blood, lightly scarred with the symbol she’d carved, but otherwise fine. Dylan still lay
where she’d left him. I couldn’t tell how much time had passed. “Dylan!” I shouted. No response. I slapped my hand across his face. “Wake up!”
“Where are you? You okay?” he asked, frantic.
“I’m right here.”
“Where are we?”
He was mumbling, babbling speaking nonsense, but he was alive. I pulled him onto shore. He had a large, red welt that bled as if he’d been stung by an enormous bee where it looked like Merma had bitten him. But he was coming around. I took Daniel’s stone and the ring and put them in my pocket. I pulled Dylan up the incline away from the water.
“What happened?” he asked.
“You don’t remember?”
“I must have smoked too much,” he said. “And ouch.” He winced as he touched the sore on his leg.
Hand shaking, I considered telling him. But even in my raw emotional state, my rational mind took over. Besides, I didn’t know exactly what had happened either.
“You lost your balance and fell into the water, hit your head. I jumped in and pulled you out.”
“Oh, man. I wanted this to be fun for you. Was it fun?”
His head rested against mine and I smoothed back his damp hair.
“Sure, parts of it.”
“That’s good. God, I’m so tired. And I had the craziest dream. A mermaid,” he laughed. “You were attacked by a dang mermaid. She was lying on top of you and I hit her on the head with a rock and passed out again. Man, I feel like crap.” He kissed me. “What time is it?”
I looked up at the sky.
“Around two I’d guess.”
“Two? How long have we been here?” But wait, that was odd. I was certain we’d got here at just after eleven. How had three hours passed?
“It must have been your weeds,” I said to him.
“Dumb idea. Sorry. Getting high isn’t like this.” We walked up onto the rocks and headed up along the path that led back to the dock. It felt good to stand on dry land. Firm ground.
“I never want to get high again,” I stopped and clutched his shoulders. “And I don’t want you too either. It’s dangerous.”
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