Mer Tales 01 - Everblue

thing I wanted to do was give Mom an opportunity to chew me out for bailing. “I just left the store and I’m sure she is right behind me,” I fibbed.
    “ Perfect. So, how was your day?”
    I chuckled. Absolutely ridiculous. “Fine.”
    “ That doesn’t sound like plain ol’ fine to me.” Dad winked before he tossed two half loaves of bread, slathered in garlic butter, into the oven.
    “ I don’t know. Same old crap.” I looked down at my fingernails, noticing they were in dire need of a manicure. “Just preparing for the big meet on Saturday.”
    “ That’s right. I’m going to be able to make that meet after all.” Dad dusted his hands off on his jeans and parked next to me at the table.
    “ Really?” With his erratic fire-station schedule, he rarely made any of my swim meets.
    “ I’m home,” Mom called from the back door. Her keys hit the countertop in the hall much louder than normal. My body tensed involuntarily. “Is Ashlyn home? I need to speak with her!”
    “ Ruh-roh,” Dad whispered, giving me a raised eyebrow. “What did you do now?”
    “ Nothing.” I batted my eyelashes innocently, then faltered under his questioning stare. “Just left early. She tried to rope me into doing the entire display.”
    “ Go on then,” he shooed me up the stairs. “I’ll talk to her.”
    Behind me I heard her complain I’d abandoned her and made a mess of all the shirts in the bins at the store, doubling her work. Dad soothed her frustration by pouring her a glass of wine. After a few minutes of griping, she settled down and their conversation became low mumbles. I tiptoed into my room.
    Lying on my bed, I looked up at the glow-in-the-dark stars peeling off the ceiling. Tatchi’s house had one solitary light illuminating the interior. The Jeep remained parked where it was the night before. My cell phone on my nightstand taunted me to call her and hang up if someone else answered.
    Then like magic, it rang.
    I lunged for it.
    “ Tatchi? Where the heck have you been? You weren’t at work today and I’ve been waiting to talk to you all day. Why was Jack’s closed? I have to tell you what happened. I’ve been nominated for Senior Ball royalty. Can you believe it? Holy crawfish!”
    “ I know,” said a low voice I didn’t expect—one belonging to a guy.
    My pulse quickened. “Who is this?”
    “ Callahan.”
    My breathing stopped, leaving both of us in silence.
8
FIN

    Dinner at Badge and Sandy’s was what I needed to help with my mainland homesickness. And afterward, Sandy brought out fresh chocolate chip cookies which made my night complete. When I’d questioned how she got all the ingredients, Badger broke down and swore me to secrecy. Apparently, Sandy’s cousin, Dorian, guarded the Loch Ness gate under Scotland and let her come and go as she pleased—completely breaking Natatorian law because she didn’t have the King’s permission.
    With a flip of my fin, I dolefully swam with an uncomfortably full belly towards my water-filled mer home, which was vacant most of the year. Though we did well financially on land, we didn’t have much Natatorian tender of jewels and gold to buy an air interior like Badger’s, nor had we needed to. I would have stayed longer to stretch my legs, but their incessant flirting made me uncomfortable so I made an excuse to leave.
    “ Fin.”
    I stopped and spun around to scan the nearby kelp bed at the sound of my sister’s panicked voice.
    “ Tatch?”
    She slowly rose up from the weeds in her new technicolor glory. Whatever they did to her at the palace today, my sister now resembled a Christmas ornament. I tried not to overreact, holding my face as straight as possible.
    “ It’s okay. You can laugh.” She slumped down on a nearby rock and put her face in her hands.
    “ You look—”
    “ Ugly, just say it.” She held up her multicolored tresses encrusted with beads and shells in disgust.
    “ I was going to say colorful.”
    “ Colorful? They dyed my hair! And put these stupid things in it. I’m never going to be able to get them out. And look at these weird tattoo things.” She scrubbed at her arm, but nothing came off. “It’s horrible! How can I go back to the mainland looking like this?”
    “ It’s not that bad.” Purple and aqua painted vines wrapped around her shoulders and down her arms. They were so realistic they seemed to move with the water, and pulled at me with some hypnotic ability.
    “ Fin, get real.