Between the Land and the Sea - By Derrolyn Anderson Page 0,64

could hear Megan saying “I told you so” in my mind. I remembered waving goodbye to Ethan.

I settled down on the buoy as the hours ticked away. Pushing aside some of the junk, I managed to get myself out of the water with my knees drawn up under me. I looked around at the bizarre mix of things Lorelei had gathered. In addition to her little collection, there were a good deal of bird droppings scattered about. Fighting back nausea, I tried not to put my hands on anything, but had to hook an arm on the rails of the transmitter to keep from falling off in the rolling water.

I contemplated setting out for shore, but I couldn’t see it and I wasn’t entirely sure of the direction. The sun began to set just as the fog rolled in, plunging me into complete blackness. I thought of Abby and Cruz, Evie and my dad. Tears rolled down my cheeks when I thought of Ethan, showing up to take me surfing, finding me missing.

I wiped my eyes and tried to think positively. Maybe a boat would come along, or maybe Lorelei would return to swim me back. It was hard to be optimistic in total blackness, and my thoughts turned dark. What if that other mermaid had hurt Lorelei? She certainly looked vicious.

I thought of their ghastly shrieks and shuddered.

I picked up the baby doll and wondered about my mother. She had wanted a human baby and it had killed her. I had killed her. Everyone always said I was lucky, but I certainly wasn’t lucky for her. Evie always said to watch out what you ask for because you might just get it. I had sure asked for it this time– stubbornly going out to see Lorelei against everyone’s better judgment.

I tried to make some sense of the way Lorelei had behaved. She was a strange mixture of young and old. She seemed to have no concept of family structure outside of sisterhood. I was reminded of a nature show I saw on TV once, about the social organization of a bee hive. The worker bees were all sisters, daughters of the queen. They had their own language and could recognize an intruder to the hive, even if it was another bee.

I wondered if mermaids were like that. I shuddered to think of a queen mermaid, for surely she would be far more fearsome than anything I could imagine.

I was thirsty. Thirstier than I had ever been. I was too nervous to eat lunch, so the last thing I drank was my morning coffee. I thought about Ethan’s warning about dehydration. I licked my salty lips. I was hungry too, but water was what I needed.

“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink,” I croaked, remembering little snatches of verse from a long ballad. My tutor in India had committed it to memory, and had recited it to me whole in his clipped, precise British accent– “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. I struggled to recite more of it, remembering the long saga of a horrific sea voyage. When I closed my eyes I imagined I was on the ghostly ship in the poem, suffering right alongside the stranded sailor.

The hours ticked by and the wind picked up. I was cold, but nothing like when Lorelei had dragged me out here the first time. I remembered that I had stashed the hood in my suit and I contorted around ’till I fished it out. It helped. At least I wouldn’t freeze to death.

Now that I knew my mother was definitely one of them I had a whole new set of questions.

My father could answer them, but I might not ever see him again. I tried to beat back that negative thought. My mother must have transformed herself into human form. All of the mermaid myths took on a new significance now that I knew the truth.

Almost all the legends contained tales of some sort of magical transformation. I wondered how that went. If she could change, could she change back? Could I turn into one of them? I trembled inside at the thought.

I tried to keep my gloomy thoughts at bay, focusing hard to fill my mind with memories of happier times. I recalled lighthearted days spent with Aunt Evie, exploring art museums and galleries in the city. Evie took great pains to expose me to as many of the world’s masterpieces as possible, encouraging my interest in art. We’d