A Mischief of Mermaids (15 page)

Kali and Ariadne snickered. Coralie contented herself with a cool smile.

“Precisely,” she said, flicking a glance at Poppy. “Perhaps you will think twice before you mock mermaids again, hmm?”

“Look, can someone tell us what happened—” Will began.

“Just get back in your kayak!” said Poppy. “I'll explain later.”

As Will and Henry swam to their kayak, Kali said, “Come on, Franny. Let's swim over to those boats.” She pointed to a few sailboats tacking their way across the water. “They'll be telling the story about how they saw mermaids at the lake for years!”

“Ooh, yes, let's!” said Franny, her eyes sparkling as she began swimming away. “That sounds like fun!”

“Wait a minute,” said Nerissa. “Aren't you forgetting something?”

Franny stopped long enough to give her a bored look. “What?”

“You've got to change places with me,” Nerissa snapped.

“Oh, right,” said Franny as her attention drifted back to the Jet Ski, which was now roaring toward them. “But you know, I feel as if I'm where I'm supposed to be right now—”

She dove under the water, then reemerged moments later on the other side of the kayak.

Coralie glanced from Franny to Nerissa, a thin smile on her face. “And you certainly look as if you're in your element,” she purred. “What would be the harm in staying a mermaid for just a little longer?”

“Coralie!” Nerissa's face was white with shock. “You don't want to keep her with you, do you? I mean, she's a—a mortal.”

The older mermaid lifted one shoulder in an elegant shrug. “Well, dear, you were the one who wished to walk on land,” she pointed out. “And Franny seems to enjoy being a mermaid. What's the harm in giving you both a day of fun?”

Poppy said, “I don't think that's such a good idea, do you, Franny?”

“What?” asked Franny vaguely.

Ariadne and Kali moved closer to Franny and began swimming lazily around her. Every once in a while, they would cast a slyly amused glance at Poppy.

Franny didn't notice. She was too busy slowly moving her arms back and forth in the water and watching the ripples she made with a rapt expression. “Look, isn't that pretty?”

“Listen to me!” said Poppy sharply. “You were terrified when you turned into a mermaid. So now you want to change back to a girl, right?”

Franny looked up from the water and smiled dreamily. “Sure,” she said. “But let's do it tomorrow. I'll meet you in the cove after breakfast and we'll change places then.”

“An excellent solution!” said Coralie.

Poppy glanced at Nerissa, who was chewing her lip and frowning. “What do you think?” Poppy asked in a low voice.

Nerissa shrugged. “I guess I can wait one day,” she said grudgingly.

“Okay,” said Poppy. “Tomorrow after breakfast.” She hesitated. “Franny, you will remember, won't you?”

“Of course,” Franny said, but she sounded as if her mind was someplace else. “I won't forget, I promise.”

And then she dove into the water and disappeared.

W
hen they got back to the houseboat, Poppy was nervous that her parents would ask if they'd seen any signs that UFOs had landed, such as burned circles on the ground or strange lights in the sky. And she was afraid that they might decide to call Franny, just to make sure that it was all right for her to spend so much time on her new friend's boat.

She shouldn't have worried. As soon as they got back, Mr. Malone pounced.

“We've been waiting for you,” he said. He was sitting at a table on the deck and peering down at a half dozen photos. “Just look what I have here!”

They gathered around the table and peered over his shoulder. Each photo showed a series of blurry lights lined up in a V shape.

“Your mother just developed the photos we took the other night,” Mr. Malone said. “Look at that pattern of lights! Aliens are clearly sending us a message. The only question is—what are they trying to tell us?”

There was a short silence as everyone stared blankly at the photos.

“The lights are in a V shape,” Mrs. Malone suggested helpfully. “Let's put our thinking caps on. What could that mean?”

“V for Victory?” Poppy suggested.

Mrs. Malone frowned. “What sort of victory?”

Henry brightened. “Maybe they are planning to invade,” he said. “And they're planning to win.”

“You can't declare victory before you attack,” Will said scornfully. “I think that looks like a slice of pie.”

“You're just hungry,” said Poppy. “That doesn't look anything like a piece of pie.”

“It does if you squint,” Will insisted. “Maybe that's what the aliens are saying. They're hungry. And they like pie.”

“Okay, if we're going with a food theory, it could also be a slice of pizza,” Poppy pointed out.

Will nodded seriously. “So the real question before us is this—is it more likely that an advanced race would travel interstellar distances for a cheese and pepperoni pizza? Or for an apple pie? Our phone lines are open.”

Mr. Malone swept the photos together and picked them up. “I can't believe my own offspring are mocking a serious scientific endeavor,” he said. “When I was growing up, children had a sense of curiosity. They were filled with wonder at all the mysteries the world had in store. They spent time observing the world around them, noticing the odd, the unusual, the unexpected. . . .”

Poppy had heard this lecture many times before. She glanced over her father's shoulder and saw Franny leap from the water, do a double somersault, and dive back into the lake.

“The strange, the mysterious—” intoned Mr. Malone.

As if to cap off her performance, Franny turned her tail as she hit the water and slapped the surface with a resounding smack. Water flew through the air, wetting everyone on the houseboat deck.

“They didn't dismiss or ignore things that were unusual,” went on Mr. Malone, dashing water from his eyes. “They paid
attention
—”

“Dad!” Rolly shouted.

“What?” Mr. Malone snapped.

Rolly was pointing at the empty lake. “I saw it.” His eyes were shining with what looked like joy—or, at least, a deep and intense desire to land an enormous fish.

“Saw what?”

“The lake monster! It jumped up in the air, right by the boat.”

“Nonsense, Rolly. I told you where these obsessions would lead and I was right. Now you're seeing things. So . . .” Mr. Malone turned back to his reluctant audience. “What was I saying?”

“You were talking about how important it is to pay attention to what's going on around you,” Poppy said. She couldn't let herself look at Henry and Will, who were standing behind Mr. Malone, their faces red with suppressed laughter. “Especially if it's strange or unusual.”

“Exactly right!” said Mr. Malone. “Excellent observation skills! That's key to being a good scientist. Now, back to our evidence . . .”

He bent over the photos again. When no one else joined him, he stood up, pointed at Will and Henry, and said, “You two. Come over here. I have a job for you.”

“We haven't even had dinner yet,” Will protested. “And Henry's our guest. I don't think it's fair to make him work.”

“It's not work if you enjoy it,” said Mr. Malone heartily. “And Henry is now a full-fledged, enthusiastic member of the team! Aren't you, Henry?”

“Yes, sir,” Henry said cheerfully.

But Will's face turned pale with dismay as Mr. Malone reached under the table, picked up a cardboard box, and dumped the contents on the table.

“You're kidding!” Will said. “There must be hundreds of photos there.”

“Yes, and these are just the ones from last night,” Mr. Malone said with some satisfaction. “We may have thousands before we're through. I don't think any UFO investigator has ever managed to collect so much evidence in such a short amount of time. They all need to be logged in, then the time stamp on each photo has to be compared to any abnormal wavelength frequencies picked up by the spectrometer.”

Henry gulped, but he was a true and loyal friend. “I'd be glad to help out, Mr. Malone,” he said. “With all of us working together, it shouldn't take that long.”

“Don't fool yourself,” said Will bitterly. “This is just the beginning. There will be hundreds more tomorrow and the day after that and then the day after that—”

“All the more reason to get started right away,” said Mrs. Malone brightly. “Otherwise, they'll just keep piling up. Why don't I bring you boys some sodas and snacks to hold you until dinner?”

Henry's eyes brightened at that. Will gave a resigned nod and slumped into a chair. He picked up a photo and stared gloomily at it. “Twelve-oh-two a.m.,” he said in a hollow tone. “Write that down, Henry. We only have about three hundred more to go.”

Poppy caught Nerissa's eye and tilted her head toward the galley. “Nerissa and I will go below and do some online research,” she said quickly. “Maybe we could, uh, check out some blogs to see if anyone saw anything in the sky last night. There's a guy in a little town outside Austin who listens to a police band radio and writes a post every time someone calls 911 to report a UFO.”

“That would be most useful, Poppy, thank you,” Mrs. Malone said. She flashed a brief smile at Poppy, but was quickly distracted by the sight of one hundred worms crawling—slowly but with wormy determination—across the deck.

“Rolly!” she said. “Your worm bucket fell over
again
! How many times have I told you—”

Poppy took advantage of this dramatic moment to grab Nerissa's arm and escape.

It was time, she thought, to come up with a plan.

“I can't believe it,” said Nerissa, fuming. “They're luring her!”

Poppy was sitting cross-legged on her bunk, searching the Internet on her laptop. “What are you talking about?”

“Coralie and the others! They're going to convince her to stay with them.” Nerissa was sitting on the other end of the bunk. She pulled her legs up under her and glared at Poppy. “Didn't you notice how they started swimming between you and Franny? How they were separating her from you? They're trying to pull you both apart.”

“I don't understand,” said Poppy, frowning. “Why would they do something like that?”

“Because they're mermaids,” Nerissa snapped. “That's what they do.”

“But—”

“Look.” Nerissa took a deep breath and then spoke very slowly and clearly, as if trying to explain something to a small child. “Mermaids used to lure sailors to their deaths—and that was just for fun! They like making people look like fools. They'll get Franny to leave her family and become one of them, and then they'll spend the next hundred years laughing at her behind her back.”

“Franny would never leave us.” Poppy's stomach suddenly felt hollow. “Never.”

Nerissa gave her a scornful look. “Don't you get it? It won't be up to Franny! I've heard stories—”

She stopped suddenly. Her gaze slid away as if she wanted to look anywhere except at Poppy.

Poppy took a deep breath to calm herself. “Go on,” she said. “Tell me.”

A fleeting expression crossed Nerissa's face. Poppy shivered. It was the first time she had seen Nerissa look sorry for someone else. It was scarier than anything that had happened so far.

After a moment, Nerissa nodded. “Okay,” she said. “I've heard stories about people who forgot who they were. If they want to, mermaids can make mortals lose every memory, every thought, every dream they ever had when they walked on land. They forget they were ever human. And if that happens to Franny, she might just stay a mermaid . . . forever.”

“Oh.” Poppy couldn't think of a single thing to say.

Nerissa fell back against a pillow and added, “And Franny is my only hope of turning into a mermaid again. If she refuses to give me my cloak, I'm going to be stuck here forever.”

“Oh, well, that's the real problem, isn't it?” Poppy asked, not even bothering to hide the sarcastic edge in her voice. “Forget what Franny's going through; you're worried about being stuck in the human world.”

Nerissa blinked several times. “I think that's what Coralie and the others want,” she said in a small voice. “I think maybe they like her better than me. . . .”

But Poppy wasn't listening. She had found what she was searching for online.

“Um, Nerissa . . .” she began. She was trying to sound calm, but her voice came out squeaky and scared.

Nerissa turned to look at her. “What's wrong?”

Poppy was still staring at her laptop. “Remember what you told me about how mermaids can only walk on land during a blue moon?”

“Ye-es.” Nerissa frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Poppy kept her eyes on the screen as she clicked on another link. “Well, the first night we spent on the houseboat, I saw your lights on shore. That's when you and the others were dancing. That was the first night of the blue moon.” She began scrolling through pages on another website. “Then the next day, I met you at the library and you stayed over at our house. That was the second night. And then today, Franny turned into a mermaid. Which means tonight is the third night.”

“I can count as well as you,” said Nerissa, her voice on edge. “What's wrong?”

“A full moon only lasts for about four days,” said Poppy. “What happens if you don't turn back into a mermaid by the time it's ended?”

Nerissa's eyes widened. “I'm not sure,” she said. “Do you think—maybe I won't be able to change back, even if I get my cloak?”

“I don't know,” said Poppy. “Maybe you'd have to wait until the next blue moon.”