by Les Goodrich
“Holy Neptune that’s nice! But it won’t stay cold will it?”
“Not for long,” Jordan admitted.
“Do you have any pineapple up there?”
“No,” Jordan said.
“But you have land food,” Coral said.
Jordan dug in the cooler and removed half of one of the Italian subs. She unrolled it from its white paper and handed it over the side to Coral who took it in her free hand. She smelled it. She bit into it and her eyes lit up.
“That’s good,” she said with her mouth partly full. She ate more. “That’s really good. What is this called?”
“An Italian sub.”
“Sub? Subs are scary. You ever see one underwater?” Coral asked Jordan.
“Nope.”
“You’d shit squid ink if you did. They’re huge and really fast. This food is also called sub?”
“Yes. Because of the shape.”
“Oh I see,” Coral said. She didn’t quite understand but she still repeated, “Italian sub food,” because she wanted to be able to tell her boyfriend about it and she ate the rest of it in a few bites. “Okay, I’ll tell you what. I’ll swim down and find Mako and Pearl and let them know you are coming in the boat. You will find them at Marvin Key. I will also be there. And you are Jordan, right?”
“Yes. Jordan and Tanner.”
“Jordan and Tanner. Shay’s friends from up north where Shay their cousin lives.” She utterly ignored Dan.
“Yes,” Jordan said. “Thank you so much.”
“Okay. You must bring me more Italian sub land food though. And pineapple. That is my price.”
“We will,” Jordan said and Coral rolled under and came swiftly up and burst from the surface in spray flying to land sitting on the gunnel of the boat with water draining down the deck channels. Down her.
Both Tanner and Dan were speechless at her form. Her outstanding dorado yellow, green, and cobalt speckled tail that began low on her hips and was furrowed with the arched suggestion of leg muscles. Her svelte, bare, tan torso. Her yellow and emerald streaked hair. And all of her, silky-wet and glistening in the Florida Keys Sun and sitting on the edge of their boat like a dream, measureless in beauty, and yet indifferent withal.
Coral sat there and drank more cold fresh water. She finished it. She handed Jordan the empty bottle.
“Thank you,” Coral said.
“Thank you,” Tanner said and Dan just nodded then cleared his throat.
“A mermaid,” Dan finally said and it was the first words he’d spoken since they stopped the boat. Coral looked to him at the helm.
“Not a witch. I know,” she said.
“And witches know about mermaids?” Dan asked.
“Sure,” Coral said and Jordan and Tanner both said, “Yes,” at the same time.
“But you don’t care if I’m here?” Dan asked. “You just show yourself to anyone?”
“All mermaids always have. We never hide at all. Tell anyone you want. Humans believe or don’t believe whatever they want. Tell the world for all I care. And take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
Dan couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of that, but before he could get to his phone Coral said, “Bye witches and notwitch. I’ll see you at Marvin Key and don’t forget my pineapple.” Then she launched back into the water and was gone. Jordan watched the fizzing water at the place where Coral had dove back down and Dan idled the boat away.
“You think she’ll be there?” Dan asked looking over the side although there was nothing there to see.
“She’ll be there,” Jordan said.
“You think we’ll really find Mako and Pearl?” Tanner wondered out loud.
Jordan finally turned forward and took her seat in front of the console and Dan sped the boat up. “We’ll see,” she said.
Chapter 18
Smugglers and Guides
Tanner, Jordan, and Dan made their way at a safe distance out from the shore lines as they headed along to the Lower Keys in a direction that so gradually became west that it always felt south and the rising Sun confounded their sense of direction. The waters were stirred by wind and white-capped and the ride was forever bouncy and rough. They followed other boats when they could, hoping to be behind someone with local knowledge at best, or at least to not be the first person to hit some submerged coral head. Dan constantly referred to the chart-plotter screen and was mindful of marked reefs and rocks. At points their passage was besieged by an obstacle course of lobster trap buoys. Once they stopped for fuel and food and Jordan walked to a grocery store on the far side of the highway and bought pineapples and subs for Coral. She also bought apples and she bought a case of bottled iced coffee for herself.
On the next day the wind was much abated and the morning seas were ironed to a glossy wet mirror and it seemed that no wind had ever blown. On that slick surface they made fantastic time and the boat raised flying fish that sprang argent from the bow spray to sail hundreds of yards ahead in great graceful arcs with their sturdy translucent blue wingtips skimming the glassy surface where, in places, their delicate pitch left long hydraulic trails and Jordan studied those fast fading incurvates and their brief but vibrant impressions seemed to imply some vital clue about the living ocean itself or point to some alternative destination only to be guessed. Only imagined.
At Cudjoe Key they slowed and turned toward shore and followed the GPS until they came upon the first channel marker. They followed the sparsely marked channel between green flats and a few outer mangrove isles in the distance and the water was bright and clear around them and speckled with strands of turtle grass rolling at the surface.
It was in that sparkling water that Coral first appeared some distance off the starboard bow rolling like a porpoise then swimming smoothly toward them with her shoulders pushing water and her hands slicking her hair back from her face. Dan slowed the boat to idle and Tanner and Jordan jumped to the bow. Coral intercepted them in the channel and turned under then flipped to swim on her back and keep pace with the idling boat.
“Witches,” Coral called to them.
“You made it,” Jordan shouted.
“I made it. I got here yesterday. You have something for me?”
“Plenty,” Jordan said.
“Good. Follow me. Mako and Pearl are waiting to meet you. Try to keep up Notwitch,” Coral said to Dan at the wheel and she vanished underwater then reappeared thirty yards ahead. She was already moving at an alarming rate. She swam with her chest above water and she moved so fast that she often skipped.
Dan increased the throttle and brought the boat up to fifty miles per hour and at that speed Coral could casually roll onto her back to watch them while never slowing. She occasionally dipped below the surface to jump fully from the water and she led them in this way into the bay past Johnston Key and out to the Gulf and Marvin Key.
Marvin Key was a chain of bright white sandbars iced with aquamarine tidal flows that skirted infrequent puffs of mangroves and drained in curving sapphire streams. On weekends many boaters rafted there but on this weekday the crowd was thin and Dan found a spot to anchor just off a dry sandbar in two or three feet of bottle-green water. Tanner manned the anchor then everyone climbed out and swam in the shallow, pool-clear gulf.
Coral swam up swiftly and Tanner, despite being overwhelmed by her beauty, instinctively shied back in that same way one might when seeing any large creature underwater. She stopped abruptly among them and folded her tail beneath her to sit in the shallows.
“Bring my land food up to the sandbar,” Coral said and she spun and moved in that direction and the thrust of her tail moved so much water that both Tanner and Jordan were pushed back like toddlers in waist high surf.
“What about Mako and Pearl?” called Jordan. “That was the deal,” she added and Coral rolled on her back to answer her as she swam.
“They’re right there,” she yelled and pointed west then rolled forward and swam to the bar.
Jordan st
ood in the mid-thigh deep water and looked to the far surface and saw what could have been two mermaids or two scuba divers at that distance. As they grew closer she saw one dip then the other and she saw their tails lift then dive and she moved to climb back aboard to gather the things she had brought. She had also brought extra land food for Mako and Pearl and she took it all, and several beers and waters into her tote bag and with the bag on her shoulder she waded to join the others on the sand bar.
By the time Jordan waded up to the blinding white sand Coral was fully on shore and Tanner and Dan were sitting near her talking to Mako and Pearl who remained in a foot of water at the sandbar edge.
“Hello,” Jordan said to the group and she shook her head at the impossibly cool scene. “Just another day, right Tanner?” she said draining up onto the sand and handing him a beer. She gave Dan a beer too then put the bag down and walked to where Mako and Pearl lounged and shook Pearl’s hand. “I’m Jordan. I’m friends with Shay.”
“We know,” said Pearl. “We knew you were coming. The witch who rides surfboards.”
“When it’s warm.”
“Oh yes. The water is colder there sometimes isn’t it?” Pearl said.
“And brown,” Mako added and Jordan shook his hand as well.
“It’s not as clear as here that’s for sure.”
Jordan looked at the two mermaid siblings. Pearl had iridescent pale skin and her tail was bright white. Her hair was white also and incredibly long. So long, in fact, that Jordan was not sure she ever truly saw the end of it where it trailed and swung in the clear water. Pearl’s eyes were big and blue and here and there, when the Sun hit her just right, you could see the faintest blue or green curved edges of crystalline scales that must have covered her entire body. Jordan leaned closer before she realized what she was doing, and tried to catch a better glimpse of the pearlescent scales if the light would oblige, for she had never seen such radiance and she had never noticed scales on any mermaid apart from their tails. She caught herself and straightened.
“Pearl has the blood of Salacia,” Mako said and on the sandbar Coral rolled her eyes. “She’s the shimmering sunlit daze of the water when seen from below. She’s Neptune born. She hated her scales when she was a kid, but everyone knows that to have such scales is an uncommon gift of beauty. Her scales are pure moonlight.”
“Whatever,” Pearl said and she splashed Mako with her hand.
“And what about you?” Jordan asked. “If you’re her brother don’t you have Salacia blood too? Why aren’t you all white with body scales?”
“Because I have sharkblood!” Mako shouted and he spun in the shallow water and soaked everyone with spray and wet sand.
“Damn it Mako!” Coral protested and she rolled into the water to rinse clean again then slid back to her spot high on the sandbar. “My hair was almost dry. You have sea urchin blood.”
Mako was cobalt blue on his back and on the back of his tail, and his chest and tail kneewall were white and the two colors bled together along his ribs and hips. He had a rare shark dorsal fin between his shoulder blades. His eyes were solid black, like his short cropped hair. “And what kind of blood do you have? Dorodo blood?” Mako teased Coral.
“Mermaids don’t ever have fishblood, dumbass. My tribe and I are deepwater mermaids. Pelagic hunters. We don’t frolic around up here in the shallows and eat crabs or whatever it is that you guys do in here.”
“But I notice you all come here in the spring to catch lobster and lounge on the sand.”
“Whatever,” Coral said. “So, witches, did you bring my stuff?”
“Yeah,” Jordan said and she moved up to her bag. She handed Coral a zipclosed plastic bag filled with cut pineapple. Coral opened the bag and began to eat.
“Mmmmmm,” was all she could say for a few minutes.
Jordan also gave her another whole pineapple, four apples, an Italian sub in a waterproof plastic container, and four bottles of water all in a mesh diving bag with a long shoulder strap. She dug deeper through her bag and took two apples and two bottles of iced coffee out to Mako and Pearl. Then Jordan sat on the sand with Tanner and Dan and they drank beers in the Sun and basically watched mermaids eat, drink, smile, and make mmmm noises.
“Thanks for the landfood Jordan,” Coral said. “So where is it you guys are going exactly?”
“Crooked Island,” Jordan said then she said, “Crescent Moon Island,” to use the mermaid name Shay had told her.
“Crescent Moon Island,” Coral said. “Good fishing down there. Deep off the coast.”
“It’s far south though,” Pearl said and she swam up closer to the sandy shoreline on her stomach then lounged in the six inch water on her side with what would have been her knees drawn up. She lifted and dipped her tail fin a few times so it could float at the surface and fan out unfolded.
“Can you help us get there?” Jordan asked and Mako swam up beside his sister.
“No,” Mako said. “But we know people who can. Jacob and Rich.”
“The pirates,” Jordan said.
“Well, smugglers, yeah. But they’re cool. We buy—,”
“You buy weed from them. I know,” Jordan said.
“You guys are potheads,” Coral said and Pearl just smiled at her and Coral could only smile back and become a notch more polite even though she had not meant to do so.
“We’re meeting them tomorrow just off Ramrod in the bay Atlantic side.”
“What time?” Dan asked.
“Midday,” Mako said. “Those guys travel far and wide. I’m sure they can guide you to Crescent Moon Island.”
“But will they?” Pearl asked.
“Will they indeed,” Coral said. “Don’t trust them. They might be cool, but they’re still pirates. Thanks for the goods!” And with that Coral took her bag of treats and slid into the water.
“Later Mako,” she said and she kissed him on the lips. “Bye beautiful,” she said to Pearl and she gave her a warm hug. “Later witches,” she called to shore and the witches and Dan waved and Coral was gone.
“That was actually nice. I wonder what’s got into her?” Mako said.
“All I have to do is smile,” Pearl said and Mako splashed her and the two swam away without a word to Tanner and Jordan and Dan who just watched them glide into the distance and when they were many yards away they both turned back and waved then they were gone.
Tanner, Jordan, and Dan camped on the boat that night and lit Thermacells against the sandflies and ate and drank beers and talked about their trip so far and the waters ahead. Dan and Tanner discussed their approach to Ramrod and looked at the chart but the island was close and an easy hour ride at most. The next day they departed at ten a.m. just to get moving and they idled slowly to save fuel. Well before noon they negotiated the channels and idled into Newfound Harbor. With the distant waterfront homes of Ramrod Key reflecting in the wide shallow bay Dan cruised the calm waters and searched moored sailboats and other anchored craft for any sign of their scaled friends. Jordan stood at the bow and Tanner peered through binoculars and they all looked for Mako and Pearl.
“Maybe they’re rafted with the boats at that tiny island,” Dan suggested.
“Let’s go look,” Jordan said and Dan turned to head that way.
“There,” pointed Jordan. In the far south corner of the bay was a single go-fast boat and she saw Mako and Pearl where they sat on the back.
“Amazing,” Dan said and he looked around behind them and toward the far rafted boats and he shook his head and wondered how many other things they would fail to notice. He idled over.
The boat was a thirty-eight foot Cigarette Top Gun and the hull was finished in large geometric blocks of grey, white, bronze, and navy to form a sort of exaggerated digital camouflage. The topsides and cockpit were sky blue with a few large white patches.
“That’s ugly,” said Jordan.
“Yeah but you see the reason for it,” Dan remarked.
“From a dis
tance that boat would be very difficult to see,” Tanner said.
“It’s still ugly,” Jordan said.
Mako and Pearl lounged on the boat’s padded aft deck. Two guys leaned in the cockpit and both wore thin long sleeve white nylon fishing shirts, white hats, and blue mirrored sunglasses. The four of them sipped rum and pineapple juice through straws in plastic tumblers with lids.
“Pull up alongside right here,” one of the guys indicated for Dan and he put his drink in a holder and stood to the rear port corner of the cockpit beside an upholstered three-seat bench situated below the cushioned deck where Mako and Pearl leaned up and curled their tails to sit.
“Jordan, Tanner, and Dan, this is Rich and Jacob,” Pearl said.
“I’m Jacob,” the guy at the back corner said and he handed Tanner a line and the two tied the boats together with fenders between them. Tanner, Dan, and the guys spoke briefly about their trips since they had both come down from Miami and they remarked upon each other’s boats.
Jacob made then handed them drinks and Rich passed over a bag of barbeque potato chips.
“Thank you,” all three said and they ate chips and drank the delicious rum drinks.
“So the rumor is you guys need passage south to the out islands,” Jacob said.
“We do,” Said Dan. “We need to make our way to Crooked Island and back and we’d like to avoid customs on both ends.”
“That’s our specialty,” Rich said and Jacob nodded then spoke.
“Crooked Island. Everyone’s been talking about it lately. A tricky place. Beautiful. But tricky. The largest bays are quite shallow. But there are a few spots to sneak in.”
“Exactly who has been asking about it lately?”
Jacob just smiled.
“What can you tell us about the things that were found there?” Jordan asked and drained the last of her dink.
“They say there’s a treasure there. A cursed cave that holds old secrets. The ghost pirates found something special, or so they believe, and that lot couldn’t keep a secret if their lives depended on it. If they were alive, that is. They’ve been going on about it in every bar from Captain Tony’s to Alabama Jacks. At first everyone was interested but when people found out there’s no gold or jewels, well, the chatter died away. The ghost pirates say its some kind of magical books or whatever. Few believe such tales, especially from that bunch. But since you guys are mermaid friends I’d guess you think differently. Am I right?”