Deep Betrayal

wagged my finger at him.
    He raised his eyebrows at me and mouthed the words: Watch. Where. You’re. Going .
    I looked back at the water in front of us. We were headed straight for a sailboat. I cranked the wheel and missed its stern by mere feet. The captain yelled and waved his fist at me. I yelled my apology, but I’m sure he didn’t hear. The sailboat rocked violently in our wake.
    Calder reached over Jules and slapped Rob on the shoulder. “You want to drive?” he asked.
    The perma-scowl left Rob’s face. He got up eagerly and took over the wheel from me. Calder left the girls and stood slightly behind Rob’s shoulder, pointing ahead. If Rob had been irritated by Calder before, those feelings were long gone. Whatever Calder was saying, Rob was laughing like it was the most hilarious thing he’d ever heard. For the first time, I was getting a sense of how truly destructive Calder could be. What could he make me think, be, do, if he really wanted to? Could he have made me go to the Bahamaswith him, even though he knew how important it was for me to come back with my dad? Could he have made me forget my family even existed, if it meant keeping me for himself? Hadn’t he once told me merpeople were essentially selfish?
    I watched him closely. Did it matter? If he wanted me for himself, wasn’t that the same thing I wanted of him? As far as I knew, my free will was intact. My decisions were still mine, and yet … here I was, using my best friends as bait. Had I sunk so low? Was the situation really so desperate? Maybe we should turn back.
    Calder reached in front of Rob and pulled the throttle back to neutral. He climbed over to the bow and dropped anchor, coming back to turn off the key. For a few seconds, we bobbed on the waves in silence.
    “This is the spot,” Calder said. We were ten yards from the Oak Island shore.
    Jules said, “Are you going to bring us in a little closer? How do I get the picnic basket onshore?”
    “You can swim off the swim deck on the back of the boat,” Calder said. “There’s a natural warm spot in the lake here because of the way the currents pass through these three islands. It’s a comfortable temperature.”
    This was clearly a lie. The shallower water would help. No doubt it would be warmer than open water, but simply avoiding hypothermia wasn’t exactly what my city friends would call “comfort.” Could Calder actually trick their minds into thinking it was warm? I wouldn’t put it past him, because we weren’t here for the warm water. From here I could see the southern tip of Stockton, not to mention Manitou, Otter,Raspberry, and Bear islands. We were here because it maximized the number of potential mermaid campsites.
    I bent my head over the chart and measured the distance to the outermost islands. The closest of them, York, Rocky, and Ironwood, were at least five miles away. Too far.
    My studies were interrupted by an enormous splash. Oh my God . It was starting already! I threw the chart on the floor of the boat as everyone else lined the port side to watch. Concentric circles faded out from a central spot that held everyone’s attention. What had they seen? A tail, a beautiful face? Phillip emerged from the spot with a whoop!
    “Come on in, it’s fantastic!” That was all the convincing they needed. Everyone stripped down to bathing suits and jumped off the port-side rail and the swim deck. Calder and I remained in the boat. One of us was considering throwing up. What kind of person had I become? I would never forgive myself if anything went wrong.
    Calder grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Trust,” he said. “Are you ready to send your first message?”
    “Not even remotely,” I said. He waited until I finally looked up and sighed in acquiescence. “Fine. What is it?”
    “Anticipation.”
    “How’s that a message?”
    “It’s a projection. You need to project the feeling of happy anticipation.”
    “I don’t get this.” I glanced at my friends splashing in the water, shrieking and diving. “Won’t they put off enough emotion on their own? Shouldn’t I send something more specific, like ‘We Come in Peace’ or ‘Take Me to Your Leader’?”
    “God, no, don’t think anything like that. The messagehas to be precise, and the timing has to be perfect. No errant thoughts. Remember your eavesdropping on me and your dad? We don’t want anything that will connect the message to you personally. We don’t want to spook