Shifting (Swans Landing)

by Norris, Shana

  Chapter Five

  The distinct sound of a door closing and footsteps moving across the tiled kitchen floor broke through the fog that had invaded my brain.

  “You have to go.” I sat up and reached for my T-shirt, which had been tossed onto the floor in a crumpled heap fifteen minutes before. I pulled it on, forcing myself not to think about what might have happened, could have happened if my brother hadn’t come home.

  Elizabeth rolled across my bed toward me, still fully dressed, though the clothes hadn’t stopped me from exploring the curves underneath. She slipped her hand under the hem of my shirt, pressing her warm palm against my back.

  “Do you really want me to go?” she asked in that low, purring tone that made my pulse race.

  I didn’t want her to leave. It was the last thing I wanted. I wanted her pressed against me again, my hands on her skin. I wanted her lips on mine. I wanted more.

  But I could hear the sounds of Reed rummaging for a snack down the hall. “My brother is home,” I said. “You have to go.”

  Elizabeth sat up, her hair wild and messed up in just the right way. The way that made me think of touching her again. I stood and moved toward the mirror over my dresser, trying to press the top of my hair back down.

  I could see Elizabeth pouting at me in the mirror’s reflection. “You’re a tease, Dylan Waverly.”

  “I didn’t ask you to come here, you know.” I pulled my hair back, grabbing a rubber band from my dresser and twisting it quickly around the ragged ponytail.

  Elizabeth shrugged and then slid from my bed. The bottom of her shorts rode high on her thighs, revealing white skin I couldn’t help staring at. “Fine. Maybe I won’t come back.”

  I scowled at her, tearing my eyes away from her thighs. “Fine. What is this anyway? Some random hook up? Something to laugh about with your friends?”

  Her eyes flashed as she returned my scowl. “My friends can never know about this. No one can. Got that?”

  “Afraid they’d start tormenting you as much as you’ve tormented us all these years?”

  She wrinkled her nose, crossing her arms. “Like anyone would believe you over me. If you say anything about this to anyone, I’ll deny it ever happened. I’ll make you sorry you were born.”

  “I’m sure Kyle and his idiot friends would be more than happy to pummel me in order to protect your honor.” I leaned against the dresser, smirking. “Don’t worry. Your dirty little secret is safe. Do you know what Mara would do to me if she found out about this? Or Sailor?”

  “Well,” Elizabeth said, tossing her hair over her shoulder, “I don’t have to worry about Sailor, do I? She’s long gone.”

  I clenched my teeth. “She’s coming back.”

  “If she didn’t get eaten by a shark.”

  I glared at her and then stalked across the room, pushing open the window. “Get out,” I said.

  Elizabeth sneered. “I’m not climbing out your window.”

  “There’s a wraparound porch, you’ll be fine. Go around to the staircase and you can disappear back to your perfect life. No one will know.” I raised my eyebrows at her. “Unless you’d like to walk out the front door and explain to my brother why you’re here. He’s not very good at keeping secrets, by the way.”

  Elizabeth shot me a withering look, but she climbed onto the window sill. She paused, one leg outside and the other still inside, then leaned over and kissed me once again. “It was fun, Fish Boy. Hope to do it again.”

  With that, she slipped out of my room. I heard her footsteps thump across the wooden deck as she headed toward the stairs leading to the backyard. A memory of another girl slipping out that window flashed through my mind. Not that long ago, Mara had sneaked out of my room just like this after spending the night with me.

  Two girls in my bed within the space of two months and yet I still hadn’t managed to score more than a few kisses and gropings.

  I felt like I needed a cold shower, but I’d settle for a cold bowl of ice cream.

  Reed sat at the kitchen table, dunking cookies into a tall glass of milk. “Did I see someone on the deck?” he asked.

  I buried my head in the freezer as I searched for my mom’s homemade ice cream. She always added more salt than the recipe actually called for, which made it perfect for finfolk tastes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I told him.

  “I could have sworn I saw someone running down the stairs. Someone who looked like a girl.” Reed gave me a sly grin, his teeth coated with black chunks of cookie.

  “No girls here.” I grabbed a bowl and plunked two generous spoonfuls of ice cream into it, then headed over to the table. “What would a girl be doing here anyway?”

  Reed raised his eyebrows. “Do we need to have the talk about the birds and the bees? Or in our case, the jellyfish and the dolphins?”

  I flicked a piece of ice cream across the table. It hit him in the center of his forehead.

  “Hey!” Reed wiped the ice cream away with the back of his hand, then licked it off.

  I bent over my bowl, eating slowly. Whenever I brought my hand near my face for another spoonful, I could smell the faint scent of Elizabeth’s perfume on my skin. I breathed it in, remembering how soft and warm she had been.

  “It’s cool, you know,” Reed said. “I mean, if you do have a girlfriend hiding out in your room. I won’t tell Mom and Dad.” He looked hopeful, like maybe he wanted me to tell him about my secret love life so he could live vicariously through me.

  But what would I tell? I didn’t even know what all of this was.

  “No,” I said in a flat tone. “No girlfriends. Sorry, kid.”

  * * *

  “Miss Gale?” I opened the door slowly, dropping my keys back into my pocket. Sailor had given me a key to her house long ago, as a backup in case she ever lost hers. That had never happened, and so my key hadn’t been used until now.

  I didn’t normally walk into other people’s houses uninvited, but I’d been knocking for ten minutes and Miss Gale still hadn’t come to the door. I couldn’t stop the gnawing feeling in my stomach, like something was trying to eat its way out. Miss Gale hadn’t shown up for work at Moody’s that day. When I’d asked Mr. Moody about it, he had shrugged and said she wasn’t feeling well.

  Miss Gale didn’t get sick. She’d never taken a day off in all the years I’d known her.

  The house was dark, the curtains pulled shut over the windows. The only light came from the skylights overhead, where dozens of crystal prisms hung from fishing line. Sailor and I had helped Miss Gale put those up one summer when we were seven. I still liked the way the rainbow light flashed along the blue walls. Being in Miss Gale’s house almost felt like being underwater.

  My footsteps echoed through the silent house. The air conditioner was running high, and my skin prickled in the cold air. “Miss Gale? It’s Dylan. Are you home?”

  Like most other people on the island, Miss Gale didn’t own a car, so I couldn’t check the driveway for indication of whether she was home or not. But I didn’t think she’d be anywhere else, since Mara had said Miss Gale was spending a lot of time at home lately.

  The floorboards creaked as I walked down the hall. “Miss Gale?” I knocked softly on her door. “Can I come in?”

  I thought I heard a noise inside, though I couldn’t make out a word. I pushed the door open carefully, peering in at the big bed across the room.

  The only times I had ever been in Miss Gale’s room were when I was a kid and Sailor would convince me to go along with one of her plans, which usually involved getting into something of Miss Gale’s that she didn’t want us to touch—her expensive face cream or old letters—and always ended with the two of us getting into trouble. I couldn’t even remember how many times Miss Gale had threatened to whip my behind, though she never actually did it.

  The room hadn’t changed much from what I remembered. I took in a quick glance at the old wooden furniture, the dresser filled with dozens of fram
ed photographs, and a plush blue chair in front of the tall window, then I walked over to the bed, where I could see Miss Gale’s shape under the covers.

  Her eyes were opened halfway, but she looked pale and her gaze unfocused. Her lips were a light pink, her long white hair loosened from its usual braid and her breathing slow and ragged.

  “Miss Gale.” I sat down on the edge of the bed, reaching over to smooth back a lock of hair from her cheek. She felt cold, and if it weren’t for the steady sound of her breathing, I would have almost thought she was... I gulped, pushing away the thought.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. “Are you sick?”

  Miss Gale’s eyes fluttered open the rest of the way and she looked at me, searching my face for a moment. “Dylan,” she rasped. “Is Sailor...” Her voice trailed off, even though her lips moved.

  “Sailor isn’t back yet,” I told her gently. When Miss Gale’s mouth curved into a deeper frown, I added, “But she should be back soon. She can’t stay gone forever.”

  I didn’t know if my words were the truth or not. Sailor’s mother had never come back, neither had any other finfolk who had left Swans Landing over the years. One by one, they had all disappeared, and no one came back despite the songs we sang each month on the night of the new moon.

  But this was Sailor Mooring. If anyone could come back, it would be her.

  Miss Gale swallowed, an action that seemed to take a lot of effort. I frowned and asked, “Have you had anything to drink lately?” I looked around for a glass or a bottle or some evidence that Miss Gale had been drinking—or even eating—but there was none.

  “I’ll be right back,” I told her.

  I hurried to the kitchen and filled a tall glass with water. Then I pried open the salt shaker and dumped half of the canister into the glass. I stirred the water as I walked back to Miss Gale’s room.

  “Drink.” I helped her to move into a sitting position and then held the glass while Miss Gale drank.

  When she had taken several large gulps, she leaned her head back, sighing. Already, her skin looked better, closer to her normal color. Her eyes were brighter and more focused.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Do you need to see a doctor?”

  Miss Gale closed her eyes and shook her head. “Doctors can’t help our kind, Dylan, you know that. Ever since Sailor left, something hasn’t felt right. It’s like when her mama left all those years ago. Except this time I’m too old to fight back.”

  I reached for Miss Gale’s hand and squeezed. “I miss her too. She’ll be back soon, I know it.”

  Miss Gale frowned. “No, it’s not just that. I do miss her, but there’s something else. Something...I don’t know. Something missing. Something that was here but is now gone. It’s not just Sailor. I’ve felt it in the past, when others have left the island.” She looked at me intently. “Don’t you feel it?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Miss Gale sighed. “Maybe it’s because you’re young. You’re stronger. But us older folk, we can feel it. Something changes on the island every time a finfolk leaves.”

  “Like the song?” I asked. Every time a finfolk disappeared, it was heard in our singing on Song Night. The song was never as strong as it had been before and the voices didn’t blend as they once had.

  “Maybe,” Miss Gale said. She shook her head again. “I’m not sure exactly what I mean.”

  She looked so tired and frail, something I had never seen Miss Gale look before. “Do you need anything?” I asked her. “I’ll stay with you if you want, until Sailor comes back. I’m sure my parents will understand.”

  Miss Gale smiled up at me and patted my hand. “No, thank you, Dylan. Jim comes by to check on me every so often, and Mara and Lake come. I’ll be fine.” She reached up to tug at my hair. “You’re such a sweet boy. But you do need a hair cut.”

  I laughed. “You always say that.”

  “And you never listen,” she said. “You and Lake both. But I reckon y’all wouldn’t be right any other way.”

  I fluffed up the sides of her pillow and tucked her blanket around her. I didn’t know if she wanted to be tucked in, but it was what my mom had always done for me when I was sick. It was comforting, at least I hoped it was.

  “Sailor loves you,” Miss Gale told me as I stood. “So I know she’ll be back, because she wouldn’t leave you for good.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that. We’d had a fight the day before she left and I had said some things to her that I wished I could take back.

  “I always imagined you two getting married one day,” she went on, smiling as she closed her eyes. “I’d be happy to have you as my grandson-in-law.”

  My stomach churned as memories of kissing Elizabeth flooded my mind. I had kissed Sailor once, years ago when we both wanted to get our first kiss over with. But kissing her had never felt the way it did when I kissed Elizabeth. How terrible of a person did that make me, that I couldn’t even feel the same way about the most important person in my life as I did about the person I had always hated?

  “I’ll come back tomorrow to check on you,” I said softly as I walked out of the room, leaving Miss Gale’s comment unanswered.

  Chapter Six

  Mara blinked up at the gray sky, nodding approvingly at the clouds overhead. “Perfect,” she stated, pulling her camera from around her neck and turning a few dials.

  The wind whipped my hair around my head and I pushed it back with one hand. “Are you sure?” It didn’t look like a perfect day. A storm threatened on the horizon and the clouds looked fat with rain. The ocean crashed against the pilings of the broken pier. We stood under the structure where it rose up from the wet sand. I glanced up at the rotting wood over my head, hoping the rest of the pier wouldn’t crash down on me.

  “I’m sure,” Mara said confidently. She adjusted a dial on her camera again, then held it up so she could see the LCD screen on the back. She clicked the button a couple of times, taking a few test shots. I didn’t know a lot about photography, but I’d been around her enough lately to know that she never started a photo shoot without testing her exposures first.

  Honestly, I wasn’t excited to be Mara’s model for the day. If Josh had been here, I was sure she would have asked him to pose for pictures by the pier and not me. I tried not to let it bother me that I was her default choice since Josh was gone. I should have been happy she’d asked me at all. I liked spending time with Mara. I wanted to spend as much time alone with her as I could.

  But I felt the weight of my cell phone in my pocket, waiting for a text that hadn’t yet come.

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked.

  Mara backed up a few steps. “Act natural. Stand there and look at the water. Walk. Whatever you want. I want to play with textures.”

  I shoved my hands into the pockets of my cut-off khakis. The wind whipped my hair into my mouth as Mara started clicking away with her camera. I felt ridiculous.

  “What do you mean, textures?” I asked.

  “I mean the way the lines of your clothes and hair and skin contrast against the roughness of the wooden pilings and the foaming water.” Mara knelt, not seeming to notice that her knees would be soaked from the wet sand.

  I still didn’t know exactly what she meant, but I decided not to question her further. Mara took beautiful photographs. She had a way of capturing life with her camera, like her dad could capture it within his seashell artwork. I wasn’t exactly artistic. Stringing shells on fishing line didn’t count as works of art and didn’t take much skill.

  I kicked off my shoes and pressed my toes into the wet sand. On the edge of where the ocean met the beach, I could feel the call of both water and earth within me. Part of me wanted to dive in and swim, while the other part wanted to stay rooted to the land. It was hard to fight these two opposing sides of myself. Sometimes it would be easier if I was fully human, if I could walk around every day like the people at school, ignoring the water if I chos
e to, able to go and do whatever I wanted.

  Instead, I was tied here, stuck to live out my life on this island, caught between land and water.

  “What was it like before you came here?” I asked, casting a glance over my shoulder at Mara. “When you lived in Memphis, I mean? What was it like to not live near the ocean?”

  Mara shrugged as she continued to take photos. “I don’t know. It was just normal. It was what I’d always known.”

  “Didn’t it hurt be so far from the water?”

  “Not really,” Mara said. “In the back of my mind, I always knew something was missing, but I didn’t know what. I had never changed form before, so I don’t think the ocean had the hold on me that it does now.” She frowned. “I guess now I can’t go too far from the water, can I?”

  I shook my head as the water slipped across the sand, foaming around my toes. It called to me, begging me to go in and swim. “You’ll feel like you’re drowning on air if you try to leave the ocean. The earth’s essence can sustain you for a short time, but the water will always call you back.”

  “How far inland have you gone?” Mara asked.

  “I used to go see a doctor on the mainland when I was a kid,” I said. “But it hurt too much and I told my parents I wouldn’t go anymore a couple years ago. I don’t leave the island very often anymore.”

  Mara lowered her camera, her eyebrows raised. “But you could go to the other islands, couldn’t you? You would be able to survive traveling along the coastline.”

  “I don’t really see the point. I’m still stuck.”

  Mara opened her mouth, but voices caught our attention. A group of people broke through the heavy fog along the shoreline. As they drew closer, my stomach clenched and my body tensed.

  Elizabeth walked with Jackie and Kyle, and another guy, Mark from school. Kyle had his arm slung around Elizabeth’s shoulder, keeping her body tucked close to his. Apparently, that little thing between them was back on again.