by Jae Vogel
“And all you do all day long is sun yourself on the rocks?” Emily asked Dirce. “That’s it?”
“Why would I want to do anything else?” she asked her. “We did it for thousands of years. Until the big ships made an appearance, there was nothing to bother us. Every now and then, a human appears to ask for a favor or advice and it breaks up a dull year. We have a whole different sense of time, I try to tell you.”
“Why would you need a cave or culvert?” Dennis asked the small green-eyed nymph who was sitting in his lap with her arm around his neck. The attention was wonderful, but they still got disapproving looks from some of the shoppers.
“It’s where I’ll need to live. At night, we sleep too. I hope my sisters will come with me. Fresh water is different from seawater. The fish are different too. I’m looking forward to a change.”
Dion waited patiently by the phone banks. He knew it would take a little time for his friends to arrive, but there was nothing else he could do. He felt the best course of action was to wait for them to make appearance, and then head back to the pool store. It wouldn’t take too long.
He looked at his wristwatch. It wouldn’t be long before Salacia Delphi arrived and decided whether or not to grant him full elemental powers. He needed it badly to advance to the next one, the element of fire. After that, it would be the fifth element, the one his uncle held. And then he might be able to free his parents.
He leaned back on the bench and waited.
“How many have you sold today?” the first clerk asked as both of them watched what they thought were young girls frolic in the display pools. Why did they all have the same kind of swimsuit on right now? Didn’t they come into the display area in different suits?
“I’ve written up three contracts already. You?” the second sales clerk thought the same thing and looked over into the corner where the swim team’s tracksuits were stored. He didn’t see any extra suits over there. “I think the kids from the front room wrote two more between them. That’s a record for today.”
“Has to be the boss’ doing. Only she would come up with something as outrageous as having a girls' swim team come into the store to boost sales.”
“Seems to be working. Oh, someone wants to buy a pool. I’m off.”
Sean made himself helpful, but there wasn’t much these young women needed. They continued to play in the water and occasionally sit on the decks built next to the display pools. He turned to the door back into the pool store and wondered where Emily was and what she was up to at the moment. He missed her and they had only been separated an hour or so. Last night was horrible. He woke up in the morning and needed to see her right away. Was this the effect of being in close proximity to the elementals? He wondered if it would go away with time.
A crowd of high school seniors walking down the mall alerted Dion his friends had arrived. He stood up, walked up to Mike, and shook his hand. He looked down the row and saw the second wave, commanded by James, coming up in the rear. The first group had five young men and the second six, which made for a total of eleven, a perfect number for the job. All he had to do was take them back to the pool store and hope for the best. Beyond today, there was nothing guaranteed and he had no way of knowing whether or not his plan would work, but at least it was a plan.
“Why are your fingernails colored?” Dirce asked Emily as she sat there with her. “I’ve never seen them done that way.”
“It’s called fingernail polish,” Emily explained, holding her hand up so the nymph could see her nails. “A lot of girls and older women paint their nails to make them look nice.”
“But not everyone does it?” Dirce asked again. She examined Emily’s nails up close and tried to figure out what made them different.
“Not everyone. It takes a long time to have it done. You probably don’t need to do it.”
They turned to see Dion walk down the corridor to them with a group of guys in the rear. Emily and Lilly recognized some of them and couldn’t figure out what they had in common other than glasses and a lack of style. Half of them had clothes that didn’t match and the others needed to get new shoes. It wasn’t a lack of money. They knew some of the boys. These guys with Dion didn’t care much how they looked and it wasn’t a statement, just a lack of interest.
“Everything okay back in the display area?” Dion asked the group in front of him.
“We haven’t heard anything bad,” Dennis told him. “As a matter of fact, we haven’t heard much of anything at all. I don’t think Sean has been back here once to get us.”
Dion looked forward to the glass door to the pool store. He looked up to the display sign over the entrance. The sun sent warm light in through the windows of the mall and he could feel the warmth of the day. Soon the mall would have to use its air conditioning system to cool the place down, but he hadn’t heard it kick on just yet. They were still in the early months of spring, but the weather was unusually warm.
“Ok, let’s go,” he told the group. “They’re all in the back.” He turned to Emily. “I’ll send Sean back to you when we go out there. I have no idea how long this will take, but Salacia Delphi is supposed to be here soon enough. Just wait for me to come out when I’m done.” The group continued on through the door and soon they had left the sight of those still on the bench.
“What do you think he has in mind?” Emily asked. “I can’t figure it out.”
“I think I know,” Lilly replied as she looked at the serene form of Dennis and Dirce. “I don’t want to say anything just yet because it might mess everything up. And, who knows, maybe he has something in mind I would never understand. Dion doesn’t discuss his plans with me.”
The water nymphs were relaxed in the pools. They stood in the water and hummed a group song, which made all the prospective buyers stop their questions and turn to the source of the music. It was a clear and beautiful sound, harmonious, but in a tune older than human civilization. The harmony drifted over the parking lot and into the countryside causing the birds to go silent. It was the sound of the lost oceans and forbidden seas set to a tune without words.
The elemental nymphs looked at each other from the display pools and broke out in laughter.
The door to the pool store opened. Dion strolled in with a group of young men behind him. They entered the display area and stopped. Before the men sat a group of display models swimming pools with attractive young women it them. They wore matched red bikinis. The two groups starred at each other and tried to figure out what each was doing there outside the pool store.
“Gentlemen,” Dion said to his group. “I would like you to meet the swim team. Ladies, I present to you our high school chess club.” He turned to Sean who stood at the edge of the display. “You can go back inside, I’ll handle it from here on out. Emily is getting lonely in there.”
Sean walked past Dion, a little confused as to what he had planned, but anxious to return to Emily. He walked over to the two sales clerks who were in the process of going over a warranty with a customer. The crowd had died down and they’d been able to send their extra clerks back into the main store. The owner was supposed to arrive shortly and they were thrilled so many pools were ordered. It was a record they had never expected to see.
“I hate to interrupt your work,” he said, “but could you do me a favor and take this inside the store for the next few minutes? I need to take care of something and I would appreciate your help. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to see everything going on here from the window. One other thing, I’m supposed to meet Ms. Delphi when she arrives.”
The two clerks looked at each other and then the customer. “Okay, we’re finishing something up, so I don’t see a problem. Just don’t be too long out here.” The trio walked back into the pool store. The door closer made a swoosh when it shut.
Sean turned back to the display pools to see the swim team elementals stepping out of them. They climbed out of by way of the portable ladders installed to make entrance and exit easy. There were multiple so
unds of feet plopping on the ground and water dripping off nymph bodies as they looked over the young men presented for their approval. It was quiet outside in the exhibit area with the only sound that of the pool filtration systems humming away. On most days soft music played from the speakers aimed at the pools, but not today.
“I should ask you why we were brought back here,” Mike said, “but I really don’t care. And thanks for introducing us to them.”
“Didn’t you say that no one had a date for the prom?” Dion asked his friend. “I seem to recall you told me at lunch last week that the guys in your chess club were all sad because no girls joined this year. I recall the week before that when you mentioned that not one of them had a girlfriend.”
“Yes, I think I did.” He continued to watch the swim team put on their tracksuits.
“I count eleven eligible women,” Dion said to him. “I also count eleven members of the chess club here, including you. I think the problem will resolve itself.”
Appias walked up to the group and looked each one over carefully. Finally, she came up to Mike and looked him deeply in the eyes. “Hello, my name is Appias. I like you.”
Mike, who had enough trouble finding a girl who would even admit he existed, turned and looked at Dion. “I think you’re supposed to tell her you like her too,” Dion told him.
Mike gulped and looked at Appias. Her eyes were the color of water on a lost bay no one had ever seen that was so clear the sand was visible at the bottom. “I’m Mike,” he said to her. “I like you too.”
“Would you like to go for a walk?” she asked him. “I haven’t seen much of this mall.” She reached down and took his hand.
“Sure, let’s go for a walk.” He turned and walked through the door to the pool store with her as she placed one arm around him.
Dion turned and looked at the rest of the group. Right now, chess was not on their mind for the first time in many years. It was a knight’s gambit of the most desperate sort, but all his pawns where meeting their opposite number from the other side of the board and the game was in progress. All he had to do was make sure nothing went out of control. It didn’t seem to be a problem right now. But it could always change.
The second of the nymphs went up to James and looked him over. James was not a very large guy, only about five-two in height. The girl who approached him was about two inches shorter and had long brown hair which flowed down her back. Dion still couldn’t understand how they dried their hair so quickly, but it seemed to be one of those things which elementals had no trouble and could do when they needed to do so.
“Hello,” he said to her. “I’m James, what’s your name?”
“Cynae,” she said, “I like you.”
“You seem pretty cool. Do you want to go hang out?”
Cynae gave him a smile as big as the Sargasso Sea. “I’d love to do that. Can you show me the mall too?”
“Let’s go,” he said, took her hand and led the nymph through the store and into the mall.
“Gentlemen,” Dion said to the rest of the crowd that entered the exhibit area with him. “These ladies are moving into the area this week.” He turned to the nymphs. “You are planning to live around here long term, aren’t you?”
They collectively nodded.
“Good. I just wanted you to know, because they are new to the area and will need dates for the prom. Also, I’m sure they would like one of you fine young men to tell them about our blessed little town since none of them are from around here.”
Dion stood there and watched the nymphs approach each of the guys who came into the store with him. The chess club couldn’t believe its eyes as the girls walked around and looked each of them over until they found the one whom they favored. Once again, they would approach their choice, inform him they liked him and then wonder off into the lobby of the mall. The guys didn’t have to do a thing but stand there and wait. It was the complete opposite of how it usually took place.
Dion decided that the process would handle itself and he didn’t need to be around any longer. What would happen tomorrow was a different matter entirely. Each of these guys would be madly in love with their designated nymph in a few minutes. How they decided to deal with it was going to be their choice. Before the day was over, he needed to meet with the nymphs and decide where to put them. There were a few creeks around here that were so remote even the fishermen didn’t like to use them. It would be the best place for the elementals. If nothing else, there were some private lakes and fishing ponds he knew about.
Dion walked back into the store and told the two clerks he was done outside. He knew the owner would be here soon enough. The threat the nymphs would have presented to him was over for the time being, but there was the issue of what to do about his friends who would be swooning over their collective girlfriends in a few days. He needed to figure out some way the nymphs could visit the guys they had chosen without much trouble.
Lilly and the rest of his friends were still sitting on the bench when he emerged from the store. He went over and sat beside her, the rest of the group starring at him in confusion.
“I just saw two guys from that group you brought in here leave,” Lilly said to him. “Each with one of the nymph elementals. What did you do in there to cause this to happen?”
“Naiads,” Dirce said, still cuddled up to Dennis. “It’s the term we use for ourselves.”
“Okay then, I just saw two of your sister Naiads walk out of the pool store hand-in-hand with two of the guys Dion took back there.” She looked back at Dion. “What did you do?”
“I introduced them. I figured if it worked so well for Dennis, it might work out just as well for a group of guys I knew that had no luck with the girls in the school. Plenty of guys who just sit around mopping over their lack of love. Time to cure the problem.”
“What’s going to happen when they find out they’re not human?” Emily asked.
Dion turned to Dennis. “You figured it out right away, didn’t you?”
“Yes. When you have a vision of swimming with her at the bottom of the sea, you realize that you’re in a very different place.”
“And it’s not a problem, is it? I mean, you do understand that, for all practical purposes, she’ll never age, don’t you?”
Dirce leaned onto Dennis chest and looked up at him with her sea green eyes. “No, I can’t say that it is a problem right now.”
Dion turned back to Emily. “There is your answer.”
“You’re still going to have a problem with finding a place for them all,” Lilly said. “Where are you going to find a body of water around here large enough for them all? Plus, how are they going to be able to see these guys every day? Don’t they get addicted to each other or something?”
“They are bonded to each other,” Dion said. “The elemental…” He noticed a glare from Dirce. “Ahem, I mean Naiad, has made the choice and the guy accepted her. So yes, they’ll need each other every day. But I’m sure we can find some way to get the entire clan into school in these last few months.”
The moment he quit speaking another group of Naiads and chess club guys walked out of the store and headed into the mall. This time one of the guys stopped to thank him.
He walked over to Dion and pumped his hand. “Dion,” he said. “I don’t know how to thank you. I’ve never been so happy in all my life. She wants to see the hobby shop on the other side of the mall, can you believe it? Oh, by the way, this is Arethusa.” He was standing with a black-haired girl who was on the tall side with curly hair. Her eyes were a deep purple.
“We’ve met,” Dion laughed.
“And you want to know what the best part of it is?”
“What?”
“She wants to play chess. She claims she played a few games years ago, and would like to take it back up again. Can you believe it?”
“I had a shipwrecked sailor show me how,” Arethusa explained. “A few of us have played it over the years when we get bored. We used sh
ells and stones for the pieces.”
Chapter 9
The bus let Gabriel off in front of the mall. He paid the driver, stepped outside it to look at the magnificent glass aviary over the front, and took a deep breath. This place was impressive. Whoever built it had sunk a lot of cash into the project just to keep it going.
He was told years ago that it would never be finished when the local politicians tried to hold the project up. There were all kinds of ways they could do it when the right pressure was applied.
He dusted off his sea jacket and looked around at the entrance. Definitely an improvement over the malls and shopping centers on the coast. Whoever designed this one had a specific image in their head and wanted to see it realized before them. Gabriel stood there and watched families enter and exit through the doors. Although the location of the mall wasn’t the best, it was built near an interstate, which should take care of the need for traffic to get to and from it.
He wondered if anyone suspected the real reason for the mall. How many of these shoppers knew it was built over the abyss. There were enough sensitive people around here; surely, some of them would pick up the emanations from what lay beneath. He didn’t notice anyone show signs of the second sight as they left the mall, but it was still early in the day for the effects to be obvious. Give the right person a few hours in this mall and they would start to have all kinds of personal issues. In fact, the mall was built over the larges ethereal power source in this world. But none of the shoppers appeared to know it. It was probably best they didn’t.
He pushed the second set of glass doors open and walked inside. Good, the environment was carefully controlled. He turned and saw a ghoul cleaner in a hurry to push the trash out the door. The cleaner seemed to be anxious to get out of the mall, but he was on the wrong side, so it only made sense. Gabriel looked up and saw some of the air sylphs skating around near the supports of the structure. They weren’t supposed to be on this side either, but at least the ghouls had a legitimate reason to be here. As he watched the doors open, one of the air elementals shot out both glass doors and was soon outside.