Way behind them. Lindy glanced back and gulped. The shore looked very far away.
Finneus chirped again. A second later he disappeared beneath the surface, leaving Lindy all alone. The life jacket made it easy to float. But she still felt nervous.
“Better get back,” she muttered. She pushed at the water with her arms to turn herself around. Then she kicked with both feet.
Yet the shore didn’t get any closer. In fact, it looked even farther away! Lindy kicked harder, but it was no use.
She was caught in a riptide that was carrying her out to sea!
“Help!” Lindy cried. Her voice sounded weak and shaky. She thrashed her arms and legs. “Someone, please help!”
But the current was pulling Lindy farther from the island with every passing moment, and there was nobody in sight anyway. All she could think about was floating out to sea and being eaten by a shark. Her parents would never even know what had happened to her! Neither would Tara, or any of her other friends, or—
Suddenly Sealily’s head popped into view! Then Finneus appeared beside her.
“Lindy Drylander!” Sealily cried joyfully. “You came to see us!”
Coral surfaced beside her sister. “So that’s what Finneus was so worked up about. Are you okay, Lindy?”
“Oh my gosh!” Lindy exclaimed. “I’m so glad to see you guys!” In a rush, she told them what had happened.
When she finished, Sealily shook her head. “Naughty Finny—he must have sneaked back to the Drylands to visit you!” she exclaimed.
“We thought so,” Coral added. “That’s why we came here to look for him. You saved him again, Lindy!”
“Yes, and now I’m the one who needs saving,” Lindy said. “Can you help me get back to shore?”
“Of course. First we should pull you out of the current,” Sealily said.
Coral looked dubious. “It’s pretty strong here. It would be lots easier to get away from it by diving down.”
“Down?” Lindy gulped. “Um, I don’t think so.”
“No, Coral’s right, Lindy Drylander,” Sealily urged. “If we dive down, we’ll be out of the current in no time!”
Coral nodded. “Do you still have the sponges?”
For a second Lindy wasn’t sure what she was talking about. Then she remembered.
“I have them,” she said, fishing around for her shorts pocket. “But I thought you weren’t sure if they’d work.”
“We’re not.” Sealily giggled. “We’re never sure about anything Thetis tells us.”
Coral smiled at Lindy. “Just try, okay? We won’t let you get hurt. Promise.”
“Okay.” Lindy was scared, but she couldn’t help trusting Coral. As if they’d been friends forever.
She stuck one of the sea sponges into her left nostril. Ew! It felt weird and slimy in there. She almost yanked it right back out. Instead, she quickly shoved in the second sponge.
“Oh, this is so gross!” she exclaimed, breathing through her mouth. “It smells like old fish.”
“Try to breathe,” Sealily urged.
Lindy knew if she stopped to think much about it, she’d never do it. So she tipped forward, squeezing her eyes shut. Then she shoved her face into the water. As she did, she automatically gulped in a breath and almost snorted the sea sponges right up her nose!
“No, no!” Coral said as Lindy came up coughing and sputtering. “Close your mouth, then breathe the water in through only your nose.”
“I’m not sure this is a good idea after all.” Lindy wiped her face. “I can’t even get my whole head under with this life jacket on.”
“You need to take it off, Lindy Drylander,” Sealily said. “We’ll help you float.”
Lindy gulped. “T-take off the life jacket?” Her heart pounded. But once again, she decided to try. If the breathing sponges didn’t work, the mermaids could hold her up long enough to get the jacket back on. “Get ready to catch me if I sink,” she said.
She wriggled out of the life jacket. Watching it float beside her made Lindy feel very small and helpless out there in the middle of the sea.
“Ready?” Coral hung on to Lindy’s arm, helping her tread water.
Lindy was too nervous to speak. So she just nodded.
Then she sucked in a deep breath through her mouth … and let herself sink under the water. At first she kept her eyes shut. Then she remembered to open them.
Coral was floating beside her, gazing curiously into her face. Her coppery hair swirled up around her head like a cloud. When Lindy turned her head, she saw that Sealily and Finneus were underwater, too.
“Don’t hold your breath, Lindy,” Coral said. Her voice sounded a little bubbly, but Lindy could hear her just fine. “Try to breathe. If you can’t, we’ll bring you right back to the surface.”
Lindy nodded, still holding her breath. She felt something swish across her foot and gasped. Was it a shark?
She looked down and saw an eel swimming by. Whew! As it swam away, Lindy realized something.
“I’m doing it!” she cried. “I’m breathing underwater!”
Sealily laughed with delight and did a flip. Finneus chirped excitedly.
“I knew it would work!” Coral cried.
“Come on.” Sealily tugged on Lindy’s hand. “We need to go deeper.”
Lindy felt another little shiver of fear. She looked up and saw the surface shimmering a few feet over her head. The sun looked watery and pale through the sea.
Then she looked down. A pretty striped fish swam past, heading deeper. What other interesting things might be down there?
She squeezed Sealily’s hand. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Hold on,” Coral said, grabbing Lindy’s other hand. She and Sealily swooshed downward, with Finneus leading the way.
Lindy held on and kicked with her legs. Soon she felt the current let go of her. Still, they kept diving down, down, down.…
Finally they stopped. It wasn’t as bright down there. But once she got used to it, Lindy had no trouble seeing.
A whole new world lay before her. The pale sunlight picked up the colors of the sand and coral on the seafloor. Patches of bright green kelp swayed with the current like tall grass in a gentle breeze.
Fish were everywhere. Big fish, little fish, striped ones, plain ones. Big, flat ones with googly eyes that stared at her as they wriggled past. Smaller, mottled ones with graceful waving fins that looked like a lion’s mane. Schools of minnows that zipped past like liquid mercury. Flat silver angelfish outlined in turquoise and bright yellow. Even a leatherback turtle with flippers like wings.
“This is amazing!” Lindy exclaimed.
“Isn’t it?” Sealily did another flip. Her tail fins sent bubbles racing toward the surface.
“That looks like fun.” Lindy grinned. “Let me try!”
She kicked her legs, trying to copy the flip. The first part went okay. She kicked forward and felt herself turning upside down. Then she looked to the side to see how far she’d gone. That made her dizzy. She ended up drifting sideways, almost bumping into a passing manta ray.
Sealily laughed. “Not bad for your first time, Lindy Drylander.”
“Don’t laugh,” Coral scolded her sister. “I’m sure we couldn’t do a flip in the air of the Drylands.”
Lindy laughed, too. “Neither can I.”
She tried another flip and made it almost all the way around before tipping sideways again. That made all three of them laugh. Even being clumsy wasn’t so bad under the sea!
After that, Lindy could hardly keep track of everything she saw. She and the mersisters swam by a colorful coral reef and a grove filled with jellyfish. They explored a shadowy kelp forest and the remains of an old shipwreck.
At first Lindy’s legs felt awkward and slow compared to the mermaids’ graceful tails. But her swimming quickly got better. Before long she almost felt like a mermaid herself!
“What should we do next?” Sealily asked after a while. “How abou
t dolphin riding?”
“I don’t think we have time today,” Coral said. “Soon Mother and Father will be looking for us.”
“Oops.” Lindy realized she had no idea how much time had passed. “Mine too. If I’m not back when they get home, they’ll probably think a shark got me.”
Finneus was still following them around. At the word shark, he squeaked and darted behind Coral.
“Don’t worry, you silly wahoo,” Sealily scolded him playfully. “There’s no shark around.”
“We’d better get you home, Lindy.” Coral sounded disappointed. “Don’t worry, we’ll show you more next time you visit.”
“For sure!” Sealily added. “Starting with dolphin riding. It’s so much fun, you won’t believe it!”
Lindy wished she didn’t have to leave. At least she had a lot to look forward to.
“I’ll come back soon,” she told her new friends. “I promise.”
“There you are, Lindy!”
Lindy was sitting on the beach near the bug house reading a book by the pink and gold light of the setting sun. She looked up and saw her father hurrying toward her.
“Hi, Daddy,” she said. “How was your day at the boat dock?”
“Fantabulous!” He was sunburned and had several new scrapes and scratches on his arms and legs. But he looked happy.
He reached down and ruffled Lindy’s hair. “We missed you, though. Think you’ll come along tomorrow?”
Lindy looked out at the ocean. Nobody would ever guess there was a whole world below its peaceful surface.
But now she knew. And she hoped to see more of it—soon. Until then, maybe she would try to see more of her new world out of the sea. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she’d thought.
“Sure, Daddy,” she said with a smile. “I’d love to.”
About the Author
Catherine Hapka has never lived on an island by the sea (though she has visited some) and has never met a mermaid (though she would like to). She loves all animals (including sea horses) and lives on a small farm in Pennsylvania with horses, goats, chickens, and too many cats. A full-time writer, she has published numerous books for children and young adults.
Mermaids in the Backyard Page 4