Between the Land and the Sea - By Derrolyn Anderson Page 0,121
he would go.
A flash of inspiration sent me out onto the freeway. I drove south, trying to remember what the exit looked like as I passed farms, fields, and cliffs that were crumbling away into the sea.
Turning off the freeway, I rolled down a lonely road to the edge of the bluff. When I saw the blue truck a tremendous wave of relief washed over me.
I was almost home.
I pulled up and parked, looking around for any sign of him. I remembered the spot where his house would be and hiked across the field towards it, breathing in the earthy smell of the freshly turned soil, noticing the sea breeze skipping lightly across waving tufts of grass. Everything seemed new to me, and I silently thanked God for giving me a fresh start.
A lonely figure was sitting at the edge of the bluff, facing out to sea. Even from a distance I knew it was him, and as I drew closer I called out his name. His head turned, and he rose to his feet as I raced up to him. He looked at me like I was a hallucination.
“Marina?” was all he could choke out before I wrapped my arms around him and kissed his sad and weary face. We fell to our knees, locked in a tight embrace, clinging to each other desperately. I kissed him harder, my hands in his hair, breathing him in like air. He pulled back and took my face in his hands, looking into my eyes.
“Are you really here?” he asked.
“I found out,” I kissed him gently, “that I can breathe underwater.” Tears of happiness mixed on our cheeks as he kissed my eyes, face and ears.
“I love you,” he said, looking into my eyes, “Don’t ever leave me again.” I remembered how helpless he was, lying in the hospital bed. I never wanted to see him hurt again.
“I won’t… I couldn’t,” I said, and I meant it. My dad and Evie were going to have to do without me. I was finally home.
We stood up and walked along the path, still clinging to each other. We stopped to sit on a grassy spot in the bright sunshine, arms entwined. He asked how I got back, and what had happened after I was taken underwater. I started to slowly recount the whole strange experience, halting at points in amazement at my own words. The memory was already taking on a dreamlike quality, starting to feel as though it had happened to someone else.
Ethan listened quietly as I told him how I’d expected to die, and how strange it felt to start breathing the water into my lungs. I described the mermaid council, the black undersea chamber, and how they all glowed with their own light. I told him how I fought them as they tore at my clothes.
“It was as deep as you said,” I looked out at the sea, “They dragged me all the way down to the bottom, and had their meeting there.”
I described struggling furiously to escape their iron grip, desperate to get back to him. He kissed my wrists where the mermaids had clamped onto me.
“How could you be so brave?” he asked.
“I was thinking of you,” I said, “I thought about you telling me to fight them.”
“You saved my dad’s life,” he said as he pressed his lips into my cheek, “He would have died if you hadn’t have known... hadn’t convinced me to go.” He drew a shuddering breath, squeezing his eyes shut, “Why did you have to go with them?”
“They wouldn’t help us if I didn’t agree to it.”
“You gave yourself up for him– you could have died,” his voice trailed off and he burrowed his face into my shoulder.
“I had to do it… for you, and for Dutch. He needed me... And poor Abby–” I tried to explain.
His voice was muffled, “I need you.”
I rubbed his back, turning to kiss the side of his head “It’s over now. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Then what?” he asked, his breath warm on my neck, “How did you get away?” His arms encircled me tighter as though he thought I might vaporize into thin air.
“Something else happened. I started to become one of them. The pain... it was awful at first...” I cringed at the memory, and he straightened up and hugged me into his chest. I looked up at his face, wondering what his reaction would be. He didn’t seem surprised.