Beyond the Sea (3 page)

“Hi Mom!” She waved.

The water churned. Everything went black. Jamie knew her vision was changing. She was on the beach. She hurt all over. Blood dripped down her arm but she couldn’t give up. She had to find it. It would put an end to this. Waves splashed, echoing inside a cave. In there. It must be in there.

A maelstrom of confusion and cold water pulled her in. Images flashed before her. Teeth. Claws. Hands grabbing and pulling. Flesh tearing. Screaming, crying, pain…

She dropped the shell and fell backwards off the bed. Jamie lay on the floor, panting.
What the hell…?

“Are you alright?”

Jamie struggled to her feet. “What are you?”

“You saw her?” Melia rushed over. Jamie backed away, hitting the bookshelf.

“I-I-I don’t even know what to say.”

Melia clutched the shell. “Did you see her?”

“Yes, I-I don’t know. What are you?” she asked again.

“It’s probably best if I show you,” she said, gingerly putting the necklace on her bed. Silently, Jamie followed her downstairs. The smell of grilled cheese hit Jamie, reminding her of reality. She shook her head. This was crazy. All crazy.

Melia stopped in front of a large pool. She unzipped her shorts and shimmied out of them. Gracefully, she dove into the water. She paused at the bottom. A normal person wouldn’t have felt it. But Jamie Forester wasn’t normal.

And neither was Melia.

She resurfaced, shyly smiling. Jamie sank to her knees, scraping her skin on the stone that surrounded the pool. “Oh. My. God.” She blinked. Melia didn’t change. “You’re a…a…mermaid,” she whispered. “No, this isn’t real.” She tried to stand. “Very funny. Ok, you can stop now.”

“You’re special, Jamie. You see things others can’t.”

Jamie crawled forward. “This isn’t real.”

“Yes.” Melia swam forward. It was as if she didn’t move. She glided through the water. “It is.”

“No way,” Jamie exhaled. Running a hand through her hair, she leaned closer. Melia still looked human, from the waist up, that is. Her Chanel blouse clung to her bronze skin. Her legs and feet had transformed into a fishtail, her skin now a scaly purple and gold. Thin skin appeared between each finger, making her hands webbed. She splashed backwards, flipping her tail for Jamie to see. Fearing it would be too much, Melia changed back into human form. She put on her shorts and sat on the edge of the pool, kicking the water.

“Can you tell me what you saw?”

Jamie blinked. “You gotta answer some questions first.”

“Ok.”

“You-you’re not human.” Ok, that was a statement, but Jamie felt she got her point across.

“No. I’m a merrow, well, half merrow technically, that’s why I can appear human when I want to. You humans refer to us as ‘mermaids’, and I’m afraid you’ve very much romanticized us.”

“Oh.” She nodded. “Why are you here?”

“My mother. She fell in love with a human. She likes the land,” she said bitterly.

“And you don’t?”

“It can be nice. I miss home.” She looked out at the ocean. “But I just can’t go back, after what happened to Lana. I need to stay with my mom.”

“Oh, ok.” Jamie stared at Melia. “Just tell me the whole story.”

Charles cleared his throat. “Your food is ready, girls.” He set a tray down and hurried off. Melia stood, extending a hand to Jamie. They sat under a big, green umbrella. Jamie picked nervously at her grilled cheese while Melia took a bite. After she swallowed she said, “Edward VanBurren isn’t really my father. My real father was a merrow. My mother is an Oceanid. Oceanids don’t favor the water as much as merrows. They look like humans and act a lot more like humans than merrows. They are happy on land as long as they are near the sea—any sea that is. Merrows prefer the ocean,
only
the ocean. Merrows can’t transform like Oceanids can. A lot of Oceanids prefer the land.” She took another bite.

“My parents’ marriage was arranged. My mother never wanted to live in the ocean. After my father died, she began coming up to shore, talking to humans. Then, six years ago, she met Edward VanBurren. He has a big boat. It’s called something, but I guess it’s not important. One day, he fell overboard. We’re allowed to show ourselves, but it’s, well, frowned upon as your saying goes. You have to be careful with who you reveal the secret too. My mother saved him. He thought she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and pleaded to see her again.

She loved him, almost as much as he loved her, but she knew they could never be together. Obviously, he can’t live in the sea. Lana and I knew she wanted to go the land. But for three years she stayed in the water with us, only seeing Edward every once in a while. Lana and I knew what she was sacrificing, so we agreed to sort of half live on land. Then, my mom and Edward got married. Lana and I spent the summer in New York with them, the rest of the time we lived in the ocean, only surfacing and acting human for special events. A year later, Lana… ” Tears welled in her beautiful eyes. “After Lana died, I moved to New York. But I hated it, so Edward built me this house as a compromise. My mom’s scared I’m going to go back to the ocean.”

Jamie dropped her sandwich back on the plate. “How long have you been on land?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

“Full time? A little over a year.”

That explains the oddity, Jamie understood. Melia finished her food.

“Want to walk down to the shore with me?”

Jamie just nodded. She couldn’t believe what was happening. Ghosts, yes. There are how many reality shows on about them? And faeries, well they were just spirits, nature spirits. But mermaids? No, there was just no way. This was a dream. She wasn’t really here, eating the best grilled cheese ever. She wasn’t sitting on the patio of a multi-million dollar house. The most beautiful girl in the entire school was not sitting next to her, with dripping hair and a ruined designer blouse.

Everything felt surreal as she made her way to the shore. Melia walked a few feet into the water and lay down.
 

“Isn’t that sound wonderful?”

“It is,” Jamie agreed honestly. Questions buzzed in her head. She pulled off her shoes and stood near Melia. Water lapped around them. And Melia still looked human.

“How do you change? I mean, you’re in water and still have legs.” The question sounded ridiculous as it spilled from her mouth.

“I change when I want to. It’s a bit awkward to go leg-less on land,” Melia said with a smile. “I can stay human looking in water too.”

“Oh.” Jamie sank down on her butt, soaking her jeans. But she didn’t care. “So your body…it is human?”

Melia sat up. She put a hand above her right breast. “My heart is here. My lungs are different too, of course. My heart beats faster, I have more than one set of eyelids and my temperature’s lower. Other than that, I’m just as human as you are.”

Yeah, just as human as I am, minus the tail, ability to breathe underwater, and I’m sure a pet dolphin or two…
Jamie thought to herself sarcastically. She was so overwhelmed. She wanted to know everything. How could she breathe underwater? Why change into human form at all? Did they talk underwater? What did she eat? Where did she sleep?

“Do you talk to fish?” she asked, unable to help herself.

Melia laughed. “Do you talk to dogs?”

“Oh, sorry,” she said, embarrassed. “I guess I’ve seen
The Little Mermaid
too many times.”

“I like that movie. It doesn’t do a good job truly showing the merpeople though.”

Jamie hugged her knees to her chest. “What happened when you decided to live on land?”

“I was ‘humanized’, with tutors and teachers, all telling me things they thought I should know.”

“Oh. They missed a few things,” Jamie said, and then laughed, remembering the photocopier incident? “What about school? I mean, what do you need to learn under the sea?”

Until sunset, the girls sat in the water, Melia telling Jamie everything there was to know about her transition to human life.

-Chapter 2-

A golden sphere burned in the sky, centered between glowing red and purple clouds. The rhythmic lapping of waves on the shore was soporific. Peter tore his eyes away from the peaceful ocean and shook sand from his blonde hair. He blinked out of his reverie and grabbed his surf board, deliberately moving slowly as he begrudgingly prepared for the walk home.

Already he longed for his bed, his skin sunburned and his muscles tired from a day full of hiking, beach football, and surfing. He audibly groaned when he recalled the three page English paper he had put off writing.

“Hi Peter!” a girl called as she waved, tiptoeing along the shore.

“Hey,” he called back with a smile. The girl grinned broadly and turned quickly to her friend. Distracted, neither saw the wave that crashed against the sand. Having been avoiding the tide, they both shrieked as salt water sprayed their faces. Stifling a laugh, Peter turned. He felt guilty for not knowing the girl’s name. He had seen her at school, and knew she was a grade or two lower than him.

He had just made it off the beach when another female voice called to him.

“Hey Peter!”

He stopped, recognizing the voice at once. “Janet.” He didn’t turn, but waited until she caught up.

“Want a ride?” She jingled her keys in the air.

“Sure,” Peter said only because he was in a hurry to get home. He kicked himself for not driving to the beach this morning. Silently, he walked next to Janet. Peter desperately tried to come up with something worthwhile to say.
What do you say to your ex-girlfriend who cheated on you but acts like nothing’s changed?
he wondered to himself.

“I saw you out there, on the waves,” Janet said, speaking softly.

“Oh, uh, yea.”

“You looked good.” She unlocked her convertible Beetle. Peter didn’t see the point of locking it in the first place, since she had left the top down. He put his board in the back and plopped down in the passenger seat.

“Thanks,” he half heartedly said in return, not looking at her.

“Peter,” she began, resting her hand on his. He jerked his hand back. “Peter, it doesn’t have to be like this.”

“Like what?”

“Weird. I don’t want it to be weird.”

“It’s not,” he mumbled, already regretting getting in the car with her. Even though Peter caught Janet with another guy, Janet expected to be forgiven. “Let’s just go, ok? I have a paper to write.”

Janet nodded. “For Mrs. Leary’s class?”

“Yup.”

“Me too.” Janet stomped on the gas, slowing only to gawk when the gargantuan white house came into view.
 
The Ridge marked the end of the little alcove of beach Peter loved so much. Beyond The Ridge the terrain changed drastically from sandy shores to cave landings and drop-off, rocky cliffs. Engrossed with curiosity over the owners, Peter was only vaguely aware that Janet was speaking.

“…three months away, but it’s not too early to start looking for a dress.”

“Huh?”

“Peter, prom, duh.”

“Yea, right.” He stared out the window. Prom. Three months away. He didn’t want to think about it yet. Wait, did that mean Janet was dating someone else already? He shook his head; it didn’t matter to him anymore.

“Thanks,” he said quietly as he quickly got out of the car, yanking his surfboard from the back. He turned toward his house before Janet had a chance to say anything else. As the Beetle sped away Peter regretted the standoffish way he acted. He didn’t want Janet to think he was losing sleep over the loss of her. He had liked her, and enjoyed having someone to spend extra time with but wasn’t heartbroken from the breakup. Instead he was embarrassed.

Embarrassed that he wasn’t enough for her. That she felt the need to cheat. Of course, his best friend Connor assured him it
wasn’t
his fault, and, given Janet’s history of cheating, it was only a matter of time.

He held the board vertically in front of him and opened the door.

“Don’t even
think
about bringing that dirty thing in the house!” Sue Anderson, Peter’s mother, barked, looking up from a stack of papers.

Peter sighed.
Hello to you too
, he thought, and set the board on the porch.

“Peter! Look what we found!” his little sister, Ava, beckoned excitedly. Her twin, Adam, dumped a bucket of sandy shells on the white living room carpet.
Mom would have an aneurysm if I did something like that,
he thought to himself. “Look! This one has a hole in it,” Ava said proudly, holding up a pink scallop shaped shell. “I’m going to make it into a necklace!”

“It’ll look pretty on you!” Peter said, ruffling her hair.

“What were you doing with Janet?” Sue asked, narrowing her eyes and setting down her pen.
“She gave me a ride home,” Peter said flatly, knowing an interrogation was unavoidable.

“I thought you two broke up.”

“We did.” Peter hadn’t told anyone besides Connor of the circumstances of the breakup.

“You shouldn’t gallivant around town with her then.”