Moonfin

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1
CREATURES OF OLD

E
ight-year-old Lizzy held tightly to her mother's hand as she strolled with her family down the empty wharf toward the tiny aquarium. The yawning seagulls lined the boardwalk, rippling quiet air between curious glances, like centurions drifting off to sleep between battles. Puffing up their bodies and tucking one leg into their feathery orbs, they perched precariously on weathered pier posts, always keeping one eye open just in case they were called into action.

Lizzy thought they were quite talented for being able to sleep without tipping over. “That could come in handy while doing multiplication at the chalkboard,” she mumbled to herself as they passed by.

Mrs. Doyle opened her shop door, and they stopped to watch her fill up large wooden barrels with saltwater taffy, each overflowing with bright hues of gooey delight. For anyone else that would be a pleasant task, but for Fanny Doyle it was just another boring chore in life. She glowered at them, which made her sour face look out of place with the colorful candies that lit up the background of her little shop.

“Mrs. Doyle doesn't like us,” said Lizzy matter-of-factly.

“Mrs. Doyle doesn't like anyone,” replied Jade, her older sister.

“Except her fat ol' tabby, Goober … and all the harbor cats.” Lizzy pressed her face next to the window and peered at all the sweets. “I heard she gets up at the crack of dawn every morning and goes down to feed 'em. They're like her family.”

“Glad she cares about something, even if she's not going to show any kindness to the human population of Blowing Prawn,” said her mother, pulling Lizzy from the store window.

They continued down the gray, uneven boardwalk. Fog billowed through the streets like twirling phantoms. Most of the storefronts were still dark, never in a hurry to fling open their doors to the world.

Lizzy paused at the dock and read the bumper sticker on old Mr. Greer's boat: “NO SEALS ALLOWED!” was posted in black and red letters all over the bulkhead. Not only his boat, but most of the little sailing and fishing vessels tied up in the harbor had the same sticker slapped somewhere on them.

Lizzy pointed at the blaring signs. “What does
that
mean?” she said, looking up at her father.

“Haven't you heard?” An amused gleam played in his eyes. “Too many seals climbed up on Mr. Greer's boat and sunk it. Poor guy was fined for disturbing the peace. The seals were fined as well, but no one could figure out how to get any money out of the seals, so they printed up nasty bumper stickers instead and stuck them all over the bulkheads to warn them off.”

“But that's crazy. How can a seal
read
a bumper sticker?”

“Precisely the point! The Committee Against Gross Excitement stated it was a reminder for the owners to discourage such unseemly behavior in the seals,” chortled her father.

Lizzy frowned. “It spells C.A.G.E.”

“What does?” Her mother looked confused. “Oh my! Yes, the acronym. How funny is that?” She chuckled at herself for not noticing it before.

The little band of five Grapes, for that was the name of their happy family, continued down the wharf, passing a smorgasbord of touristy shacks, which sold trinkets and shells and monogrammed thimbles and tee shirts galore—anything that hinted of the beach life. Among them was a mom-and-pop miniatures shop with an old aquarium attached to the back. They entered through the door beneath a laughing mermaid with a blue tail and coral shell necklace. Her glossy, golden hair hung down over the opening and tickled their heads as they passed by.

Lizzy was not pleased to be there, having left a very good book lying on her special green reading chair back home. “Don't we usually come here when relatives come to visit?” she sulked. “And what do miniatures have to do with fish, anyway?”

While the children usually scoffed at the strange combination, the grown-ups didn't find it strange at all. Lots of places in Blowing Prawn were like that: a store and circus side-show combo. It was perfectly natural to walk into a trinket shop, pick out a souvenir, and see an exhibit of Blowing Prawn oddities. Today was no different, except the seals in the aquarium were unusually boisterous as they squawked for fish, and Lizzy became frightened by their whelping and twisting about.

“They're so loud, make them stop.” She pressed her nest of brown curls into her mother's side.

“Elizabeth Lou, what has gotten into you?” her mother scolded lightly.

Lizzy's eyes grew wide.

“Rhyming right now won't help,” she said, clutching her arm tightly.

“Don't be silly—”

“But why are they screeching like that? I can't stand it! It
hurts
. Can we
pleeeease
go to the tank room and see the big grouper?”

Linda Grape leaned down and in a firm voice whispered, “You've been here a hundred times. Look, Daddy went to get the sardines. Now stop, you're pulling me over!”

Brandon was annoyed with Lizzy's drama.

“Chill out, Lizard, they always bark like that when they're about to get fed.”

“Lizard! You haven't called me that since I was five … and yeah, I know I am acting like a baby, but I don't like that name,
Mr.
Know-It-All
,” she said huffily.

After feeding the seals, they passed briskly into the musty old tank room. It was more like a mausoleum to Lizzy's thinking, as it smelled like a dead pharaoh's crypt, and the walls slid upward for zillions of feet into the dark shadows above them. It was icy cold and dead quiet. Tanks full of exotic fish covered a puddly brown floor, and Lizzy always had to fight the urge to go running through them and splash wet muck around.

She began a staring match with a plump, old grouper the size of a football, watching as it hovered near the glass in a trance, staring straight ahead; sure it was made of rubber and being controlled remotely from a hidden room nearby.

“I think they're a thousand years old.”

Mr. Grape looked quizzically at the floating blob. “You might be right; these may be the very same fish I visited when I was a boy.”

Lizzy giggled. “You aren't a thousand years old … yet.” She placed her palm flat against the cold glass. “One day I will set them all free, and they will swim back to their oceans and be
real
fish again,” she declared grandly.

“Just like Pinocchio!” Jade teased, waving a pretend wand above Lizzy's head.

“That's if they even know
how
to swim at all. They've been here for so long.” Her brow wrinkled up at this problem. She didn't want to set them free only to sink to the bottom of the ocean like heavy stones.

“Hmm, they certainly are
different
…” Mr. Grape adjusted his glasses and knelt down to take a closer look. “Don't think I've ever seen this species outside of the aquarium. I wonder what ocean they're from.”

She knew he was testing her, but she wasn't taking the bait. “Umm—more like what planet they're from … probably Pluto, fresh from a nitrogen geyser. I hear the fish there are very different from our planet,” answered Lizzy.

He chuckled and a tousle of mocha hair fell into his eyes. Lizzy liked the way her dad looked—very smart with his round spectacles and messy hair. She had the same wavy, brown locks and freckled cheeks, and people were always saying how much she took after him. She was proud of that fact. Although she wasn't proud of her nose, which she thought took a slightly crooked route down her face and not like her father's one bit. Jade, on the other hand, took after their mother with her jewel-green eyes and straight blond hair. She looked like the usual beach girls that inhabited Blowing Prawn. Lizzy was more of the oddball variety in her school—the only exception being with the science club, and the little kindergarten boy she read to, Randy, who thought she was the coolest, but that didn't really count.