by M. N. Arzu
“So basically, find him a hobby.”
Scott’s last “hobby” had involved tracking his parents’ murderer, and before that, it had included tracking the merman story all the way to Maine, where he’d been shot and taken prisoner by the government. And before that, he’d been living on the streets, escaping foster home after foster home, fearing his merman heritage would be discovered. In one moment of panic, Julian thought he was never going to survive being Scott’s father.
“Don’t despair, Mr. Brooks,” the principal said with raised eyebrows, reading him like an open book. “Besides, that’s the easy part. You need to connect with your son. To show him you care about whatever it is he cares about. It might be videogames, or insects, or a reality TV show. Whatever inane or obscure theme your son loves, you’ll ask him about it, and actively listen when he talks your ear off, even if you’d rather be swimming with sharks. Once he realizes that what he’s saying matters to you, he’ll understand that he, as a whole, matters.”
“He’s such a serious kid,” Julian said, exhaling. Christopher, Matthew, and Alexander had all been in their own world, but they had all shared it with him of their own accord. Scott wasn’t, and by the sounds of it, he probably never would without some serious intervention from Julian’s part.
“He’s had a serious life, and this was his way of dealing with it. Unfortunately for all of us, he lost his childhood too early, and adulthood is becoming too heavy on his young shoulders. You have to ease that burden and give him back the carefreeness that he lost, Mr. Brooks. He’ll never get to be a child again, but he doesn’t have to miss his teenage years, either.”
* * *
“She basically said I needed to figure out how to introduce Scott to a suitable hobby,” Julian said as Gwen brought him a cup of coffee. He’d come to talk about the hospital tests they’d run yesterday, and somehow the conversation had ended up about his morning meeting with the school’s principal.
“So, what does he like to do?” she asked, sitting in front of him. It was such a normal parental concern that it was almost hilarious to think the man in front of her was anything but normal.
“He likes people-watching—I think.”
“No respectable thirteen-year-old boy likes people-watching,” she said. This was going to be harder than she’d thought.
“He loved to brag about his superior skills, but now all that’s gone.”
“Bragging, even justified, is not conducive to good social skills,” she said, sipping her coffee.
“That’s not what I meant,” Julian said, frowning. “He was extremely good with his telepathic skills, but without them, he’s cut off from us. In a strange way, it’s like raising a human child. He was already a difficult challenge, but now I have no experience with this situation.”
“Well, here’s a radical idea: why don’t you just ask him?”
Julian smiled. “I asked Christopher for months how he was doing, and all I got was fine. If the one who loves to talk isn’t talking, I’m hopeless with the one who loves to stare you down.”
“I guess you’ll need a hobby where staring you down is a thing, then,” she said, pondering Julian’s dilemma. They both laughed.
“There’s something else I need to talk to you about,” Julian said, changing the subject. “How are things going for you? Are people still bothering you about ORCAS?”
“Nothing I can’t handle. And now that I’m working again, I have more things to worry about than the next stupid question. Why? Have you heard anything?”
“There’s…a deal we made with Major White.”
“Sounds ominous.”
“We think it will go smoothly for the most part. Drake will accompany Major White next week to run some tests on a new diving suit prototype we gave them.”
“Well, if someone knows about diving, that would be you guys.”
Julian smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “There are some risks involved, though. Things might not go as planned, or someone might get other ideas. There’s a slight chance the deal might fall through.”
“You might leave in a hurry?”
“We have our own contingency plans and responsibilities. But I’m worried you might be collateral damage of these games we’re playing.”
“You want me to be ready to leave,” Gwen rephrased, not too pleased.
“Our lawyers have instructions on what to do in the event we’re no longer here. Dr. Higgs and Nathan are well protected under the United Nations, but you won’t enjoy those perks. That’s why we’ve set up a trust fund for you and Andrew. I don’t think it would be as drastic as moving, but if you need to start over someplace else, you will have the means to do it.”
“Nonsense. If something does happen, Julian, we’ll be here to help you. Let them try to stop us. There’s no way we’ll quietly go away. Hell, there’s no way we’ll loudly go away.”
This time, the smile did reach Julian’s eyes. “Somehow, Gwen, I don’t doubt that.”
8
Growing Pains
“Dad’s not slowing down,” Gill said, her honey eyes drowning in anguish. “I tried to convince him with every single excuse I could come up with, including the fact that if Ray is alive, he might be jeopardizing his survival. He didn’t buy it. I—I—I don’t know what to do right now.”
The empty classroom suddenly felt too small, and the air too thin, but Alex wasn’t sure if it was because he was alone with Gill, or because she looked so miserable right now.
“Okay, calm down,” Alex said, two words they both needed to hear. “I knew it was a long shot stopping your dad, and it was naïve of me to think you could stop him—”
“I said I would,” she pointed out. “All I’m saying is that it might take me some time, and…you should know, right?”
Gosh, he wanted to hug her. He also wanted to knock some sense into her.
“And I’m saying it was unfair of me to ask you to do that. You and your dad obviously care deeply about—about merfolk, and I won’t take that for granted, ever. So I don’t want you to feel bad about it, okay? I was just—”
“Scared?”
Alex nodded, looking into her eyes and feeling as if he were looking into an ocean of honest understanding.
“I will make him drop it,” she said with renewed confidence, and Alex felt like banging his head against the wall. But this was a battle for another day.
“You don’t have to, but this isn’t why I wanted to talk to you.”
“It isn’t?”
“No. I haven’t told…” Alex trailed off. He had no idea how to finish that sentence. My dad? My people? Everything sounded wrong and compromising.
“You haven’t told what?”
Maybe another approach? “I have never told anyone my secret, and there are certain…things, rules…”
Sensing his discomfort, Gill got closer, until she held his hand. “It’s okay, you can tell me.” Her skin was warm, like all humans were, but there was something different about her warmth, and her closeness, and the way she wanted to protect him. “I mean, it’s okay if you can’t tell me, too. I just—I just don’t want to make any mistakes, you know? Like with my dad, and the SWIMMERs and…”
She kept talking, but all he could focus on was how her hand held his, not too tight, and not too lax, like a perfect handshake. His heart raced as her curls bounced lightly on her shoulders, the light of early afternoon giving her a certain halo. He’d never noticed a halo before in his life.
“—and… Alex? Alex, are you okay?” she asked, her eyes no longer looking at him, but at something on his neck. “You’re getting red.”
An uncomfortable rash followed her words, and as he started to scratch it, it spread under his uniform to his chest, and then to his shoulders. On his back, his skin shifted into scales, and he willed them to go back to skin, only to be met by the rash spreading there, too.
No matter what he did, he couldn’t stop it. It was either the scales or an inescapable
and agonizing rash. He realized he needed to shift completely, and the only reasonable place to do it was the school swimming pool—or so he hoped as he dashed out of the room, leaving Gill standing there without answers or explanations.
* * *
Something was wrong with the Squid. As swimming practice ended, Matt could practically feel Alex’s anxiety as a vine growing in the pit of his stomach. His brother was nervous. Hadn’t he mentioned something about talking to that Gill girl? Not that Alex was answering any of his telepathic questions, the little brat.
“Something on your mind, Brooks?” his coach asked as he exited the pool, feeling ready to punch something just to release some of his tension.
“Just stuff, coach, no worries.”
“Your time was the slowest for the entire year,” the man warned, the chronometer still in his hand. “Are you feeling okay?”
At the end of the swimming pool, the double doors opened, and a terribly nervous Alex looked at him for help, his mind a jumble of erratic thoughts Alex was barely keeping under control. “Everything’s great,” Matt said with a smile that felt so forced, he could’ve pulled a muscle.
“Hit the showers then. And keep your head in the game!” the coach said as he walked away to his office, while Matt walked to his brother.
“What’s wrong? What’s happ—?”
Wordlessly, Alex showed him the back of his hand, where a vicious rash was spreading all the way to his elbows. Matt cursed.
“It won’t stop,” Alex said with clenched teeth. Matt turned around to make sure they were the only ones nearby. “It started like five minutes ago,” Alex continued, trying very hard not to panic. “And I—I think I need to shift.”
“Okay,” Matt said, staring at the angry rash. “Take your shirt off. You need to shift in the water. Come on, hurry up.”
Alex fought furiously with the buttons, cringing as he was also trying to scratch his chest. Matt just ripped the shirt off, helping him out of it. “I can’t control it. I can’t—”
“Water, now!” Matt said, practically carrying Alex. For an instant, Matt looked at the camera on the ceiling, the one that made certain students weren’t drowning or something. “We’ll play this as a prank,” was the last thing he said as he threw the partially dressed Alex into the deepest part of the pool, and then followed suit.
Their minds flared in the water, and Matt instantly connected to Alex’s thoughts.
I was burning…Matt, I was burning! Alex said, a note of hysterics entering his mental voice as he shut his eyes tight. Alex’s mind filled with a thousand thoughts that Matt could barely keep up with. What if he was sick? What if he was going to die of whatever had killed his parents? What if this was earth sickness, and he would die a slow and painful death?
Alex, you’re not dying, Matt said, but it was too late. Alex’s frightened brain went on a rampage, imagining scale cancer, or lupus disease, or some nasty autoimmune syndrome—
Alex! Matt yelled at him to snap him out of it. You’re not dying!
Alex opened his eyes wide and stared at Matthew. All his skin had shifted into yellow and green scales, and his trousers, boxers, and socks laid at the bottom of the pool in pieces, as his tail had shredded the clothing. Alex didn’t seem to notice any of this. He lunged at Matt, hugging him and hoping to find some solace to this—this thing.
With absolutely no filters, Alex let him see everything. He’d been strong when Chris had been captured, and he’d been strong when Drake had almost killed Jason in their living room, or even when Major White had shot Drake. He’d been stoic as Scott had lost his telepathy, and he was dying inside with the knowledge that Gill McKenzie knew what he was, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell his father for no good reason, other than he was scared of disappointing him. And he didn’t know what was going on now, and he was just done with being strong.
Matt hugged him back, as Alex went a million miles per hour through the ups and downs of the last seven months. As Matt tried to get a grip on his brother, Julian’s mind reached them. It had felt like an eternity to Matthew, but in reality, barely a couple of minutes had passed.
What’s going on? their father asked, with no easy answer coming to Matt’s mind. Chris joined them a second later.
He has this rash that’s making him shift—Matt started.
I can’t breathe here, Alex said with his eyes shut tight again, aware of the chlorine.
You just need to shift for a couple of minutes and it will pass, Julian reassured him. How long have you been having rashes?
I don’t know… days? A couple of weeks, maybe?
Matt looked up as he heard the double doors opening and closing outside the pool. Either they waited for that person to leave, or they resurfaced, trying to explain why Alex’s trousers were nowhere to be found.
Alex shook his head. I’m not ready to shift back.
To Matt’s dismay, their unexpected visitor stood at the edge of the pool, looking down—looking down at them. He was holding Alex close enough to the pool’s wall to try to hide him, but this was going to look weird no matter what. He looked up once again, watching in mounting panic as his witness got a phone, and apparently dialed someone.
In the collective link all four of them shared, Julian’s ringtone came through. Matt turned to look at Alex, who was looking with increasing dread at the surface.
“Mr. Brooks? I’m Gill McKenzie, Alex’s friend. I think something terrible is happening to him.”
* * *
“Well, the good news is that you were right. Your son’s definitely having girl problems,” Drake said as he stood beside Julian, both looking through the penthouse glass wall to New York City. “Can’t say I miss those days from my own kids.”
Behind them, Alex sank into the deepest part of the swimming pool, delaying the inevitable moment when he had to face Julian and the consequences of his silence.
“I don’t know what surprises me the most,” Julian finally said, “that I didn’t see it coming after all the time he spent talking about her and his history project, or that I was so blind I didn’t realize he’d hit a growth spurt. Rashes were going to be inevitable.”
“When was the last time you dealt with a late bloomer?” Drake asked politely. “Both Christopher and Matthew grew at an average rate. Plus, it’s one thing to know that Alex should be taller by now, and another to remember what growing too fast can bring.”
“Don’t try to soften this up,” Julian said, his eyes still on the horizon.
“Then how about this: Two months ago, Wallace ambushed you, almost killed Scott, and got me shot, not to mention that Scott’s less-than-stellar decisions regarding vengeance brought us to a forced negotiation table between the press and the Pentagon. That Alex would choose to withhold his history partner had figured out his true identity is not shocking. That nothing else monumentally wrong happened is.” Julian cringed, and Drake placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We’re too vulnerable right now. Something was bound to escape us.”
“That’s no excuse—”
“No, that’s just fact. Deal with it.”
They both turned to look at the swimming pool.
“I don’t know if I should be disappointed or excited that something other than computers got his attention,” Julian said, thoughtful. Love, especially young love, was always a bittersweet endeavor for merfolk-human relationships. Even if it turned out great, and Alex spent the rest of the century with Ms. McKenzie, he wouldn’t grow old with her, wouldn’t face the same challenges as she would. Wouldn’t be able to form a family.
But it doesn’t mean he won’t be the happiest merman on Earth while it lasts.
“He’s your kid. You know him better than me. Just make sure he understands the risks before he keeps digging his grave any further.” Drake looked at his watch. “I have some loose ends to tie up before I leave tomorrow with Major White. Hopefully your almost sixteen-year-old’s love life won’t dissolve the UN talks once I’m back
,” he said with a wink, making Julian chuckle. “I’ll start digging into Ms. McKenzie’s family. With a little bit of luck, her father will be a reasonable man.”
Once Drake left, Julian returned to the edge of the pool to wait for Alex to come up. Ten minutes later, Julian’s patience had all but disappeared.
You’ll have to come out sooner or later… Julian sent to his son, who seemed to retract into the pool’s wall. Alex, I need to see your skin. Are you still itching all over?
Nothing. In his mind, Alex’s yellows and greens had become a tight, compact ball. For someone who’d never been able to shield his mind, he was doing an extraordinary job today.
Alex, either you come out or I go down, and you and I know you don’t want me to go down.
Technically speaking, he could telepathically lecture his son without a problem, either here or three miles apart, but that was the equivalent of yelling at the door: Alex would listen, but Julian wouldn’t be able to see him. And this was a lesson he needed to make sure was sinking into Alex’s very soul.
Slowly, the form at the bottom of the pool uncoiled itself. All it took was two movements of their tails to reach the surface, and yet Alex made it seem as if he were at the bottom of the ocean itself.
Taking a deep breath, Julian reminded himself he needed the right stern tone as Alex’s face finally popped out of the water. “Are you mad at me?” Alex whispered, not getting any closer to the edge of the pool.
“Not mad—disappointed, because I know you know better. But if you don’t tell me what happened, then I’m left with my own imagination. And it’s not just about Gill, Alex. What happened today could have ended a lot worse.”
Alex sank just above his nose, leaving his large green eyes staring at Julian, vulnerable and pleading.
Are you sure I’m not dying?