03 The Fate Of The Muse - Marina's Tales (24 page)

It was a photo of the helicopter, and Matt’s
stretcher was being hoisted onto it with Kimo right behind,
obviously shaken and facing the camera as he climbed aboard.
Standing in the crowd right behind Kimo, clear as day, was me. My
heart sank.

It wasn’t like I planned on keeping the
events of the past few days from Ethan; I simply wanted to break it
to him on my own terms. Now my hand was going to be forced, for
someone would surely bring it to his attention, if only because of
hometown heroine Shayla. I bought the cat food and left, feeling
uneasy.

I was upset again, and there was no Ethan
around to pacify me. I wanted to go surfing, but I needed to stay
focused, to be there when he got back. I fought to be patient, and
decided to go home, grab a book and wait. When I heard Dutch get in
I jumped up, hurrying to see if Ethan was with him.

I almost ran headlong into Abby, who was
rushing from the kitchen to throw her arms around Dutch. She was
always relieved when he made it home safely.

“Hi Marina, welcome back,” he smiled at me
over Abby’s shoulder.

“Hi Dutch,” I looked out front, “Where’s
Ethan?”

“I dropped him off at the apartment. He said
he had some work to do.”

“Oh,” my voice was small. He must know that
I’d gotten back by now. I retreated to my room, pacing nervously.
I’d been trying to call him at home, but there was no answer. I sat
down to read some more, but it was pointless. Frustrated, I set out
to find him.

His truck wasn’t at his apartment or Lue’s
farm, and I drove around aimlessly, looking in the neighborhoods
where he did the bulk of his landscaping work. The longer I looked,
the more my anxiety grew, and I found myself nervously chewing my
nails. I finally went back to his apartment and sat in my car,
fighting the urge to go surfing with all my might. Just when I was
about to give up and give in, he pulled into the parking lot, and I
jumped out to race towards him.

He moved slowly when he stepped out of the
truck, and he didn’t smile when he looked up to see me coming. I
stopped in my tracks and then my heart followed suit. He wore the
same cold, hard look on his face I’d seen before.

“What do you want?” he asked angrily.

There was only one explanation, and I could
scarcely believe how unlucky I was.

“You saw the stupid picture, didn’t you?”

I could see the muscles in his jaw clench,
and he turned away from me to walk towards the stairs.

“Ethan?”

He kept walking, and I trailed after him.

“Wait!” I called out, “You’re being
unfair!”

He stopped in his tracks, turning slowly to
face me, “You lied to me! You could have just told me that you
wanted to see him again.”

“No! I mean, I didn’t plan anything! I was
there for Shayla! We just ran into him!”

“And I’m supposed to believe
that
?” he
spat out the last word.

“Yes,” my voice cracked.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Just leave me
alone… alright?” He sounded serious, and I watched him trudge up
the stairs, fatigue in every step.

“Ethan, listen to me!”

“No,” he said, “Go away.”

I stood there, stunned, flinching at the
sound of the the door slamming shut. Evie said that when he told me
“no” I could be sure that his feelings for me were real. Isn’t that
ironic, I thought, feeling anything but loved at the moment.

I started up the stairs after him, but
stopped, afraid. I remembered how angry I was when I caught Ethan
in a lie, and I cringed. I really didn’t want to get yelled at
right now, especially when I didn’t do anything wrong. The
injustice of it was overwhelming.

I turned to see the sunlight playfully
dancing on the sea, and I had a clear image of Lorelei, her
innocent smile beckoning me.

“
Coming
,” I whispered.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ACCUSED

I’d just shimmied into my swimsuit when my
phone rang. I scrambled for it, nearly tripping over my bag.

“Ethan?”

“It’s me, Shayla! Did you see the pictures?
Everybody’s going nutsoid over here!”

“Yeah,” I said grimly, “Here too.”

“This is insane! I keep trying to tell them
that it was you, not me, but–”

“NO!” I cried, “Please! DO NOT mention me!
Keep my name out of this!”

“But–”

“Shayla, please. As far as you know I had
nothing to do with it… okay?”

“Okay, I guess… But they’re trying to make me
out like some kinda hero! They all want to interview me! I mean,
Matt would totally be dead if it wasn’t for you! I still don’t know
how you did it…”

“You got him breathing! That’s what saved his
life!”

“I can’t take
all
the credit!”

“You’re going to have to,” I pleaded, my
voice low and urgent. After my meeting with the council the last
thing I wanted to do was attract any more attention to myself. “I
really don’t want any more reporters after me… You know, after what
happened,” I said morosely.

“OK, I guess… Are you alright?” Shayla
asked.

I sighed, telling her about the tabloid photo
that placed me and Kimo together at the scene. I told her how Ethan
saw it and didn’t believe that I hadn’t planned the whole thing; it
felt good to complain to someone who knew I was innocent. I almost
cried when I told her how angry he was.

“He’s a total idiot!” She commiserated with
me, “How were we supposed to know Kimo was gonna show up?”

“Yeah,” I grouched, grabbing my wetsuit and a
towel. “I have to go,”

“Marina… Don’t do anything dumb, okay?” she
said perceptively.

“Don’t worry about me. Good luck in the
shows… I’ll talk to you later.”

I was starting to feel self-righteously angry
as I carried my board down to the beach. I never dated Kimo, and I
didn’t lie to Ethan about meeting him in Hawaii. He was the one who
had lied to me about being out with his ex-girlfriend. I wanted to
scream out loud in frustration. It felt like fate was conspiring to
make me as miserable as possible, plunging me right back into the
violence of existing only to surf.

It was only when I got myself a good distance
from shore that I started to relax. The swaying rhythm of the
rolling water was soothing, and I enjoyed a moment of solitude
before Lorelei burst out of the water exuberantly. I was instantly
reminded of the painting in the Louvre, looking at the face of our
long distant relative.

“
Marina! Can we go wave riding?
” she
asked, as if it were the very first time.

I smiled sadly, at least one thing would
never change, “
I was hoping you’d say that.
”

“
I know
…” she smiled, wild and
fiercely joyful, “
Let’s go see Nerissa and Nixie!
”

I held on tight, watching the distant
shoreline speed by as I was towed once again out to the remote and
isolated chain of tiny islands. The surf splashed wildly onto the
rocky outcroppings, and dozens of pelicans swooped and dove
headlong into the sea all around me. I watched them surface,
expertly draining the water out of their pouches, and raising their
heads to toss the fish down their gullets. Witnessing it up close
for the first time, I was so engrossed in the spectacle that I
failed to notice the two mermaids surfacing on either side of my
board.

“
Oh!
” I gasped, when I looked down to
see Nerissa’s emerald eyes. Then I saw Nixie, and I nearly fell off
my surfboard again.

“
Marina!
” she squealed, her high
pitched voice sweeter than a violin.

I was speechless for a moment, for just as
Nerissa’s pregnancy had been accelerated, so had Nixie’s growth. In
just a few short weeks she looked considerably bigger. Her red hair
was as shiny as a candied apple in the bright sunlight, and her
dark green eyes sparkled with energy. She was roughly the size of
your average two year old, and as cute as any toddler I’d ever
seen.

“
She’s gotten so much bigger!
” I
gasped to Nerissa, “
Is that normal?
”

“
No,
” she said, her beautiful face
puzzled, “
That’s Nixie!
”

I sighed, smiling with amusement, and turned
my attention to the little mermaid, who greeted me as jubilantly as
her sisters always did. Enthusiastically leaping out of the water,
she frisked about me like an otter, popping up on one side of my
board after another in an aquatic game of hide-and-seek.

We surfed and played, and there was no need
for conversation, as we all understood each other in a non-verbal
way that was eerily familiar. I alone had to stop and rest, sitting
up on my board while they patiently waited for the game to start up
again. I got an amazing amount of surfing in, for not an ounce of
my energy was wasted on paddling into position, and we all
instinctively knew which waves weren’t worth trying to ride.

“
Look!
” cried Nerissa, pointing out a
flurry of activity off in the distance. A concentrated spot in the
ocean was getting the full attention of hundreds of sooty
shearwaters, the dark birds circling and screeching as they landed
on the small patch of sea. Pelicans circling overhead dove in,
making big splashes as they sliced through the crowd. I could see
the fins of dolphins and the shiny black heads of sea lions pop up
on the periphery.

“
Let’s go!
” Lorelei cried with
excitement, taking my board in hand and pulling me over to the edge
of the feeding frenzy. Once I was closer, I could see the water
bubbling with vast shoals of panicked sardines swimming in a dense
cloud just beneath the surface. There were silvery striped mackerel
nipping at the edges, and they in turn were being preyed upon by
the excited dolphins and seals.

The sound coming from the hundreds of birds
circling in the air was deafening, and I perched on my board
watching the primordial spectacle in awe. The creatures moved in
the water like one giant organism in a choreographed dance, bloody
and violent, driven by a fierce and terrible need. All three
mermaids laughed and flung themselves right into the middle of the
action, diving and surfacing with their mouths full of fish,
munching away with enthusiasm.

I watched them feeding, fascinated, and it
occurred to me that they were a strange combination of child and
animal. Their human side was curious and naive; the animal part,
wild and wary. I remembered Evie once wistfully saying that the
only thing more fleeting than summer was childhood, and I realized
that even though their infancy was shortened, a mermaid’s childhood
was eternal.

Perpetual children, they were playful,
irresponsible and free. Watching them, knowing that they’d be
exactly the same centuries from now, was both comforting and
humbling. It also made me a little sad in a way I couldn’t quite
define.

Nixie was even more excited than her sisters,
building up speed to breach the water, leaping over my board like a
dolphin. Lorelei and Nerissa laughed at her antics, and their
combined voices were almost unbearably harmonic. I wished that
someone else could hear it too… someone human, someone I could talk
to.

After a while the fish disappeared and the
animals drifted away, leaving behind only a few feathers floating
on the surface as a testament to what had just occurred. The four
of us went back to surfing, and as the day wore on, I ignored my
growing fatigue. I was thirsty and tired, but I didn’t want it to
end. I was right on the verge of having to ask Lorelei to bring me
home when a vision struck me like a bolt of lightning.

I was running through a heavily wooded area,
with someone crashing through the trees hot on my heels. I was
desperate to escape, but I was dizzy, and the darkness slowed me
down as I aimed for a break in the foliage. As soon as I entered
the clearing I realized I’d made a terrible mistake, stopping just
in time to keep from flying off the steep cliff and splattering on
the rocks below. I turned to face my pursuer.

I opened my eyes, and looked into Lorelei’s
frightened face. She had seen it too.

I sat up blinking, rubbing my throbbing
temples as I came back to reality. The three mermaids were all
around me, holding my board steady and looking at me with wide,
confused eyes. They had all seen it, only they were unable to make
sense of what it could mean. They were speechless– their thoughts
confused and scattered. The pain in my head eased, and I tried to
smile reassuringly at them.

“
Don’t worry
,” I said, even though I
knew they could feel the weight of my fear.

I had the long tow home to try and imagine
exactly what it meant. I was being chased, but by who? Maybe it was
just one of those dreams where you can’t get away and you can’t
scream; at least nothing really bad happened to anyone in it. As
hard as I tried, I couldn’t visualize who my pursuer was.

It was after dark when I got home, surprising
Abby and Dutch. They looked cozy, snuggled up on the couch,
watching television. I couldn’t help thinking that was exactly what
Ethan and I should be doing.

Apparently Abby could read my mind. “Where’s
Ethan?” she asked.

“He’s at home,” I said nonchalantly, waving a
casual hello as I passed by them, “I was out surfing with
friends.”

“Do you want something to eat?”

I kept moving, walking down the hall, “No
thanks.” I closed the door behind me and collapsed on the bed,
images of Nixie’s happy little face flashing before my eyes. I
remembered her laughter as she slid down the wave on the front of
my board, and I wondered what Evie would think about her unusual
growth spurt. Right on cue, the phone in my purse rang. I did the
time calculations– it was morning in Paris; Evie must have had
gotten wind of my Hawaiian adventure.