by Eden Winter
‘Hey, you. Can I have Reginald’s number?’ the text read. I should have asked for all his friend’s numbers so that it seemed less suspicious, but I couldn’t shake the thought that I was running out of time.
A few minutes later, my phone made the familiar chime of an incoming message. Peter had replied with Reginald’s number. I didn’t even save the number to my phone. The first thing I decided to do was to call the number, and that was exactly what I did.
I heard the buzzing sound of the phone ringing.
“Hello?” Reginald picked up after several rings.
“Hi Reginald, it’s Samantha. I need you to tell me everything that you know about the fish of Cesar.”
*
“I hope you don’t die today.”
“That would definitely put a damper on our plans.”
“Lay off her, okay?”
Delilah, Philomena, and Baylee were linking arms and standing beside me. Philomena offered to pick up all the girls to go to Peter’s house. He and Delilah were going to cook for us. It was nice to feel included, but it was less nice having to deal with Delilah’s snide remarks for most of the car ride over.
We ascended the stairs together, and that’s when they all linked arms. I missed that kind of camaraderie, and being on the outside of it made me feel a twinge of longing.
I was surprised that it had been Baylee who defended me. Philomena looked genuinely ashamed and apologized to me in her cat-like raspy voice.
“We were just teasing and trying to lighten the mood. We don’t want you to get hurt every time you’re with us,” she purred.
“Yeah. Maybe we’re the problem and not you,” Delilah said. She was standing the furthest from me. I was going to snap. One more stupid comment and I was going to unload on her. I had to breathe in deep and exhale all the air inside of me to prevent myself from responding. I hope they didn’t think I was weak or unable to defend myself. I got into a lot of my messes because I was too able to defend myself and I needed to calm down some of my fiery energy.
“That’s not what I meant, D,” Philo growled at Delilah and then turned to me with a sweet smile.
“But keep away from the stove if you can, ‘kay, hun?” she said. I couldn’t be mad at Philomena. She wasn’t saying any of this in an insincere tone. It occurred to me that she was a simpleton with a sweet energy, and some people may have confused that with being ditzy. I knew better. She had such a radiance about her. She wasn’t wearing a long dress, which surprised me. Her top was black lace and long-sleeved, and she wore a dull pink pair of harem pants.
Baylee was wearing a tunic dress that had so many different patterns and colors on it. She had on the same hat she’d worn the day I met them. Delilah was in tight jeans and a simple dark green top. It looked nice against her bright pink skin.
I didn’t feel out of place, and that was only because everyone was wearing something so different from one another. I had on a black turtleneck crop top and faded black jeans. It was something I’d pulled out from my time capsule of a closet. I tried to incorporate more colors into my wardrobe, but ninety-five percent of what I owned was black.
“So, no one can take a joke, huh?” Delilah grumbled. Since she was on the far right, she was the one who knocked on Peter’s door when we arrived.
“Well, in order for it to be a joke, it would have to be funny,” I grumbled back. She shot me a look, but I stared blankly back at her. I was unfazed by her expression. She didn’t scare me, and I was starting to realize my anxiety consisted of worrying too much about what other people thought of me when I should have been only concerned about what I thought of me. Since I was becoming more and more aware of what Delilah thought about me, it was getting easier for me to stop caring.
“Hey, ladies.” Reginald was the one who answered the door. A sweet aroma came from the apartment, and I could hear the faint plunking of a guitar. Reginald hugged Delilah, and she stepped inside the apartment.
“Seriously, don’t worry about her. She’s just a natural grump,” Baylee said.
Philomena and Reginald both nodded to cosign what Baylee had just said.
“It took us all a long time to even get along with each other. She’s just a naturally catty soul,” Philomena said.
“Yeah, I think it was six months before she started to like me,” Reginald said.
“Same,” Philomena nodded again.
“The jury’s still out,” Baylee said flatly. That shouldn’t have made me smile, but I couldn’t help it. They didn’t hate her, nor were they saying anything awful about her. They knew the kind of energy Delilah brought to their circle, and they accepted her despite her sour demeanor. I was beginning to realize that this group was more accepting than I was giving them credit for.
“Don’t sweat it. D has a soft side, and maybe one day you’ll see it,” Reginald said.
“Yeah, if Eli can dig it out of her,” Baylee said. She hugged Reginald and walked into the apartment. I looked at Reginald, but he just shrugged. Apparently, there was something going on there that I had no idea about. I didn’t question it. It wasn’t my business.
Philomena wiggled over to Reginald and gave him a tight hug and a long kiss. I looked at everything in the world except the two of them. I never understood the proper etiquette for someone who was around people who were kissing. What was the protocol? Every option felt strange or rude to me, so I did what felt right to me, which was pretending the hallway we were standing in was way more interesting than it was.
What I didn’t expect was what happened next. When Philomena danced—yes danced—into the apartment, Reginald grabbed my hand and pulled me in for a very warm hug.
“Are you okay? Peter told me about the fire at the club and all sorts of mess that’s been happening with you. Are you feeling any better? Are you cursed? Should I worry about you more or less now?”
His series of questions made me laugh. It was the total opposite of how Malcolm had approached things. Reginald was actually making me feel better. Even when he said ‘all sorts of mess’, I wasn’t worried that Peter had told him anything about me or about my premonitions. I felt at ease around Reginald. There were no tiny flags being raised in my subconscious when we were talking about me or what I had been going through.
“I feel fine right now. I feel like my mind will address the fire and the other mess later down the line. I’ve just got a lot of random thoughts swimming in my mind, and work’s been keeping me fairly busy. I think Mr. McLarry has more illegal supplements than I previously assumed,” I said.
“Good, good. Not about the work though, and not about bottling up what’s been happening. But I like your outfit. I’m digging the black.” His nostrils flared and his septum hoop wiggled.
Reginald was wearing all black too, except for his perfect white sneakers. It was either his first time wearing them or he had a charm that kept anything from spilling on them. I figured he was vain enough for it to be the latter. He had on the same black piercings as he did when we were all at the club.
Eli was sprawled out on Peter’s couch and strumming a quiet tune on a guitar. It was nice, and I found the little squeak of the strings and pauses to add to how great it was to hear. They were honest little mistakes, and I sometimes appreciated those more than when someone could play a guitar perfectly. I leaned over him and gave him a quick hug. He was the person I knew the least. I didn’t think I’d said more than ten words to him since meeting him, but he had been concerned about me at the club and genuinely looked like he wanted to help. I appreciated that. I guess kindness ran in his and Reginald’s family.
Peter was in the kitchen. There was already something cooking on the fire and it smelled amazing. The other women were by the island and were saying their hellos. Peter hugged each one, and when he was finished, he looked up at me and flashed me a serious smile. I smiled back. He looked so nice. He had his hair down and it looked so beautiful around his face.
I stayed put for a moment, unsure of how I was
meant to proceed. I didn’t know if whatever it was we had was real enough for us to show it in public, or if it was a one-time thing and after all that the two of us would just remain platonic. I hated not knowing, and it was silly for me to have never asked when I had the chance.
I walked over to him, trying to keep a calm and straight face. We hugged each other, and when I pulled away he planted a kiss on the top of my head. All of my insides flipped. It was subtle and sweet, but it calmed my nerves and took away some of the fears I was having. I heard Philomena say a soft ‘aww’ when we pulled away from each other.
“How are you?” Peter asked me. Delilah was standing next to us. I didn’t know if she had seen us, but she had put on a smock over her outfit and was getting ingredients to make what I assumed was a dessert of some kind. She wasn’t paying us any mind. I could have been wrong about her liking Peter. Maybe like Baylee and Philomena suggested, the way she handled friendships was just unusual. Peter was her friend, and I was someone new who she didn’t know or understand.
I shrugged in response to Peter’s question. I wasn’t at all sure how I was feeling. I wasn’t numb or anything. All I knew was that whatever it was I was feeling wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly good either.
“Did you talk to your sister?” He leaned in a bit closer so that only I could hear him.
“I did. I told her about most things but not everything. I’m not ready to tell her everything quite yet. But then I had another dream,” I whispered back.
“Was it a bad dream?” he asked. It didn’t make sense that we were whispering. Fairies had such keen hearing that even if Delilah was trying to drown us out she would still be able to hear us.
“Yeah. It was pretty scary and it involved…” I stopped and looked over Peter’s shoulder at Delilah. I closed my eyes and remembered the arrow flying through the air right at her. I never saw if it hit her, but there was no way that she could dodge it. I didn’t want Delilah getting hurt or worse because of me. If I ever found myself in a situation like that, I would have to tell her it was best that she shouldn’t come.
I wished my visions were clearer. If I could understand the reason why we were where we were and what it was that we were trying to find, then I could make the proper decision. But all I got was being in the woods and a shooting arrow. My visions never gave me enough time to ask why or what the full story was.
If the dream with the fish of Cesar was real, and if the dream where I saw an arrow soaring through the air toward Delilah’s face was a vision, then to me that simply meant staying as far away from that lake as I could.
I couldn’t explain all of this to Peter. He was entertaining his friends, and since I didn’t know them as well as I liked, then this was the perfect time to get to know them. I didn’t want to act weird, and I kept wishing and hoping that no vision would occur while I was in front of them. Each time I saw them, something awful happened to me, and if I could keep this encounter as normal and low key as possible, that was what I was going to do.
Peter went back to looking after what it was he had cooking on the stove.
“I didn’t hear you. You said your dream involved…” he said with his eyes still on the stove. He never saw when I looked over at Delilah. We would have to talk about it later.
I walked back out into the living room.
“Sam, sit here!” Philomena said. She had taken some of the couch cushions and placed them on the floor in front of the couch. She and Reginald were sharing one, and Baylee was on the couch humming to what Eli was playing. There was an empty cushion on the floor, and Philomena was pointing to it.
I flopped onto the cushion and lay on my back.
“Reginald says you’re pretty into that Caesar fish thing,” Philomena said.
“Fish of Cesar,” Reginald replied patiently.
“Yeah. Does that mean you really saw it when we were at the lake?” Philomena asked.
I should have been upset, but I never gave away anything when I had called Reginald. I just wanted to know the stories and the history, but he said the same thing that was in the book I was reading. There didn’t seem to be any new information. The only thing Reginald said that was different from the lore was the fact that the fish came from canals in Italy to escape an evil ruler. Who could this ruler have been for him to be able to drive such a powerful being away? I wanted to know where Reginald got that part of the story from, but he said it was just something he remembered learning.
“I’m… not sure,” I said. Eli stopped playing his guitar, and Baylee stopped singing. Both of them were looking down at me. Reginald and Philomena already had their eyes on me.
This was ridiculous. If I was anyone else in this group, I would have thought that the new person was so desperate for attention that she would conjure up ways to get hurt and would even pretend she saw a creature that doesn’t exist. But that wasn’t the look I got. I got confusion and curiosity, and from Philomena, both.
“You saw the fish of Cesar?” I forgot that Delilah could hear us over everything. She was rolling some dough into a bowl, and I could smell the distinct smell of apples on the fire. She was more than likely baking a pie.
“I said I wasn’t sure,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Well, that’s impossible because it doesn’t exist,” Delilah said. She was so smug about everything, and I wanted to smack her.
“I don’t know. Maybe the fish is trying to tell her something. Maybe the only one he can communicate with is Sam and that’s why she keeps almost dying. The fish is trying to warn her,” Philomena said. I wanted to hug her. She was making the most sense of anyone I had spoken to that day.
“So, I guess we’re all children then,” Delilah said. She rolled her eyes as she rolled the dough.
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Children have the best imaginations. Someone with a beautiful and open mind after going through tough things in life is someone to be celebrated and not looked down upon,” Peter said. I wanted to hug him too. I smiled at him as if to tell him ‘thank you’, and he smiled back in his warm and almost stoic way.
Delilah had no retort.
“So, what did it look like?” Baylee asked. She was the last person I expected to hear that from. She never seemed interested in what people were saying.
Everyone’s eyes were on me. I didn’t want to be on the spot, and I certainly wasn’t sure if it was wise for me to talk to these people about what I had seen, but then I became calm. I felt warm and cozy—just like that. It was as if my subconscious was telling me it was okay, that I could speak up about this without worry.
“Well, the fish is huge. It’s so big that I don’t know how no one could have seen it. The fins are this sort of gold that is so yellow it looks like staring into the sun. The blue is like the blue of the ocean, but it is such a distinct and perfect blue with just the slightest hint of light blue speckles underneath the true blue. The scales are lined with the same gold as the fins. I think it really is gold. It’s like a fire mixed with molten gold. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I didn’t notice I had been ranting for so long. I was describing the fish based on the memory of the dream that I’d had. It seemed so real and vivid to me. When I closed my eyes, I could see it again clearly.
“Why would it be here?” Reginald asked. He had a look of complete concentration on his face. I was amazed to see that any of them were even entertaining my words.
“What if it’s because we tell so many stories about it that the fish was drawn to our town? Or it was brought here against its will,” Eli said.
“So, like… the fish is being punished?” Baylee asked.
“Yes. We have one of the largest lakes in the world. It’s big enough to keep it alive,” Eli suggested. There were so many flags and sirens going off in my mind. They were onto something. If they hadn’t told me to speak up, I would have just remained confused and gone on with my life.
“Big enough to keep it alive, but if the legend is t
rue about it only turning into water creatures, then it has no way of escape,” Baylee said.
“Okay, just to humor you guys, if it’s been trapped here all this time, why is it coming about now and why would it let Sam see it?” Delilah said. She didn’t sound snarky. She was more curious now and setting her pie up to be put into the oven.
“Its punishment means it’s been asleep all this time. It was waiting for someone who had the ability to see it and set it free. When it sensed that Sam was nearby, it woke up. It woke up, and now it has to get back home or else something will happen,” Reginald said.
“So, Sam has to save the giant fish that’s made with gold. But how can she do that?” Philo asked.
I hadn’t spoken for some time because now I was genuinely stunned. No one was laughing at me. No one was talking about how ludicrous this whole situation was. Whether they believed me or not, they still entertained my strange story and were coming up with solutions I hadn’t thought of since I’d first seen the fish of Cesar in my dream.
“I don’t know, Phil. Maybe we all have to join forces and realize that working together means that we had the power all along.” Now that sounded snarky. Delilah had put her pie in the fridge and now she was leaning against the island watching the rest of us. Peter was quiet, mostly because he was plating his dish and was deep in concentration.
“How can you describe the fish so well if you could only see it for a second before you fell out of the boat?” Delilah asked. She looked down at me.
“To be honest… I didn’t see it at the lake,” I said. I was still in shock, but there was also that sense of calm all around me. Was I under a spell? It was so easy to open up now because something inside of me was telling me that everything was going to work out just fine.
“Girl, what the hell?” Baylee said. She scowled at me.
“I did see it though. But when I was at the lake, I saw a fire. It was the fire that happened at the club. I had a dream about the fish, but it felt like more than a dream,” I said. I was now starting to panic. They weren’t as on board with this part of the story as they were when they thought it was fun to be adults who still had imagination.