2 Deja Blue (7 page)

“Weird.” I said, “
Ya
want it?” I offered as I held it out to him. “It can’t be worth much here.”

Brennan shrugged his shoulders, took the pebble
,
and shoved it in one of the pockets of his board shorts. “Well, actually, people do use them in jewelry and stuff here…but they’re definitely not as valuable. You know, there have been huge pieces of this stuff found and mined long ago…but not by
humans
.” Brennan smiled and winked at me
,
and I giggled.

Just then, Nick and Anya came straggling back up the beach, completely winded from their swim. “Man! I am starving!” Nick proclaimed as he fell into a lounge chair. “Oh, I could eat
too,” Anya said, nodding in agreement. “It’s amazing how my appetite grows with a good swim!” she added.

“You guys
wanna
get something from the snack bar?” Nick looked at all of us questionably. I shook my head, “Nah, I’m still full from breakfast. I think I’m
gonna
walk out on the jetty and maybe take a swim out there,” I said.

“I’ll meet you guys,” Brennan said, “But first, I
gotta
hit the head.” Ugh.
Boys and their stupid slang terms.
Why can’t they just say they are going to use the
restroom
? Hit the head. Dumb.
At least he seemed to be getting better at his “human” slang. Sometimes he messed up the lingo pretty badly.

“Cool,” Nick answered while h
e and Anya started towards the s
nack bar. “You sure you don’t want me to get you something, Ruby?”

“Well…maybe some ice cream?” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. 

“Sure thing,” Nick smiled.

Chapter 8

I walked out onto
the
long rock
y
pier that jutted
out into the deeper waters of the b
ay that led into Lake Michigan. I surveyed the waves coming in
…
they didn’t look too harsh. Sometimes the swells were several feet high. I’ve even seen some
people
surfing
when the waves were that huge
. I wouldn’t try it myself. The riptides get pretty dangerous, but today
the water seemed relatively calm.
I was always relaxed by the water…it gave me the same sense of peace that being in the garden did.
Soothing.
But today, it felt even more so. I got that weird tingly sensation again and was suddenly antsy to get in the water. I took two quick steps back, then took a running start off the end of the jetty and dove into the waves.

I felt so alive! I swam deeper and deeper down towards the bottom of the lake, seeing things I’ve never seen before. Everything was clearer, brighter and more vivid. I sliced through the water like a hot knife slices through butter. It was effortless. I took my time, inspecting the bottom of the lake, still amazed at my newfound underwater talent. I felt all tingly again, and that’s when it happened.

A huge boulder, actually several huge boulders, tumbled loose from the jetty and came crashing down on me, wedging my legs to the sandy bottom of the lake.  I couldn’t hear the rocks coming, I had no warning. One minute I was floating along the
bottom
of the lake
,
and
the next, I felt the excruciating pain of the boulders crashing into me, trapping my legs underneath them, and
trapping
me under the water. I was like an anchor stuck in the bottom of the sand. I opened my mouth to scream and then thought better of it. I needed to keep my mouth closed if I was going to have to hold my
breath for any length of time…
which probably wouldn’t be too much longer. Panic
coursed
through me like never before. Oh. My.
God.
I am going to drown
and nobody is going to know it!
I had no idea what
drowning
felt like, but I’ve certainly choked on
lake
water plenty of times before. It wasn’t fun. An overwhelming sense of dread and fear shook me to my very co
re. Suddenly, I remembered the F
airies. I could talk to them!

“
ANYA! BRENNAN!
” I screamed in my head. “
ANYA! BRE
- I heard Brennan call back instantly.
“
Ruby!
Where are you! What’s wrong?!
” His scream of concern was as crystal clear as if he was standing right next to me – except he wasn’t. I heard his voice in my head. It was the most flustered I’ve ever heard him. He’s usually so aloof. I instantly screamed back, “
I’M TRAPPED UNDERWATER!
NEAR THE END OF THE JETTY!
”
I was losing it, shaking and struggling to pull my legs out from under the rock with no luck. I kept pushing on the heavy boulders and tried to pull my legs from underneath them while I held my breath. I heard Anya’s calm voice in my head “
Ruby, Brennan is coming. I’m with
Nick,
I’ll stay with him until Brennan has the situation under
control.
”  Then Brennan spoke up again, “
Ruby! Listen to me. Calm down. You won’t need air for a while. Relax. You have
Sirrush’s
water
gift, remember? Just relax. I’m coming, I’ll be right there to help you.
” Even though I could tell Brennan was trying to sound soothing, there was a frantic and serious undertone to his voice that echoed in my head. The only thing that
kept me sane was the fact that F
airies can’t lie. He’ll come for me. He will. I tried to do what he said. As his calming words sunk in, I slowly realized he was right. I didn’t need air yet. I must have
been under water for at least six
or
seven
minutes already
,
and I felt no signs of pressure
– of needing to come up for air…
yet.  

“
I’m almost there Ruby, just hang on…
” I heard Brennan’s authoritative voice in my head again.

Just then, in the darkened waters, I saw a shadowy figure swish above me. The sun was shining through the water, backlighting the shadowy silhouette, so it was hard to see exactly who it was at first, but I knew right away it wasn’t Brennan. With a swish of a huge tail, the shapely
female
figure was gone almost as quickly as she appeared
,
and then I realized she was back again, hovering right above me.

My eyes remained bulged open as I stared in disbelief at the
Mermaid
that was looking directly into my eyes. Her
long
hair floated about her face like a halo, and her bright white skin
appeared
to be luminescent under the water. In shock
,
and still
freaking out from the boulders I was trapped under, I was suddenly aware of Brennan’s
calming voice in my head again.
“
Ruby.
It’s okay. She’s
going
to help.
” I felt someone grab my arm, startling me
,
and
I peeled my eyes away from the
Mermaid
floating in front of me to look at who had grabbed me.

It was Brennan. He was right next to me
,
and I never even realized he was there. I was so awestruck with the apparition in front of me that I was unaware of his approach. He looked at me, speaking in my head again, “
Kansas. You’re okay. This is Celestine. She’s going to help me move the boulders off of your legs.
They seem to have a spell cast
upon them and I need her help.
When you feel like you can, try to swim out from under them and get back to the surface.
Can you do that?
” I blinked my eyes, finally calming down
,
and nodded. I suppose I could’ve just “spoke” to him in
Fairy
-talk, but I couldn’t seem to form any words other than screaming “AHHHHHHH!!!” So I decided a quick nod of understanding would have to do. I watched as the
Mermaid
– Celestine – and Brennan struggled to remove the boulders from me…there were five, all various sizes, jagged and heavy.
Whether they were silently chanting some sort of counter-spell, I don’t know. I just hoped they would be able to get them off of me quickly.
I watched the bubbles and water move
,
and I finally felt like I could break free. I quickly propelled myself up to the surface and gasped as I sucked in a quick, huge breath of fresh air. Brennan
and the
Mermaid
surfaced just after I did. Brennan popped up
,
shaking his head back and forth, spiking his jet-black hair in every direction
. T
he
Mermaid
, Celestine, gracefully emerged in the calmest of manner. She was pale
,
with the most porcelain-colored skin I had ever seen. And her eyes were
purple
. Purple! They remin
ded me of the shades of purple i
ris my mo
m had planted in her
garden…
They also were the exact same shade as my purple passion nail polish.
So.
Weird.
Her hair was blonde…I suppose. But it looked more white than blonde. Not like an old-lady white…more like the palest blonde I’d ever seen
, with streaks of silvery-gold
running through it. I didn’t know what the rest of her looked like as she was mostly submerged
,
with just her shoulders
appearing
above the water. Was she naked? I supposed she was. She was a
Mermaid
for Pete’s sake! They probably don’t wear bathing suits…I just stared, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, at my unlikely rescuer.

Brennan spoke (out loud this time), “Are you okay Kansas? Do your legs hurt?” I
clumsily kicked my legs around a bit
,
and they
felt kind of funny.
But they didn’t seem to hurt or anything. Was I in shock?
“I think I’m okay, a little bumped up I suppose
, ”
I murmured, as I awkwardly reached down to feel my legs as I tried to tread water.  I could tell I had some
pretty big gashes
. As if on cue, my legs began
throbbing and
screaming in
pain,
and the expression on my face must have showed it, because
Brennan suddenly said, “Here, let me see.” H
e swam over to me and went
under water. I jumped slightly when I felt him run his hands up my legs, and then I felt a kind of tingly warm sensation radiate from the areas where my legs had
been stuck under the boulders.
He resurfaced, shook his hair out again and said, “There. Just like new!” He gave me a cocky smile and then said, “Ruby, meet Celestine. Celestine, this is Ruby.” Celestine smiled her beautiful smile and nodded at me. Oh my goodness…she was so beautiful
.
I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before in my life. And I couldn’t imagine seeing anyone more beautiful ever again.

I smi
led awkwardly and mumbled, “Um.
Ahh
.
Thanksfer
…saving
me.”

“Oh! It was my honor,” she replied in perhaps the most soothingly sing-
songy
voice I’d ever heard. She could put my kindergarten teacher to shame. And that’s no easy task. My kindergarten teacher was
a
combination of Mary Poppins and Julie Andrews – wholesome and sweet.  “I thought I saw my love,
Bexin
, but it wasn’t him. It was his brother,
Grobel
. I saw him push the boulders and wondered what he could be up to. Then, I sensed Prince Brennan close by and asked if I could be of assistance to him. It is my honor and duty to do so.” She spoke solemnly and with pride.

It took me a minute to grasp what she was saying. “Wait just a second…Someone threw the boulders at me on purpose?!”
I felt my blood pressure r
ise
,
and anger began to bubble.

Brennan interrupted, putting his hand on my shoulder, “Hang on, Ruby. I’ll talk to Celestine and figure this out. You go meet up with Nick and Anya. They’ll be waiting for you
,
and I’m not sure how long Anya will be able to stall. Go back to the beach and find them, okay?” I let out a sigh of frustration, shaking my head, but realized that what Brennan was saying made sense. I didn’t want to worry Nick, and I sure didn’t know how to explain that a
Mermaid
just saved me from drowning, so I knew I had to get my butt back to the beach fast.

Chapter 9