~
We drove home as fast as possible, but our progress was slowed by driving rain that started coming down from out of nowhere. The windshield wipers could barely keep up with the downpour. Rivers of water ran across the roadway and the skies were black with the darkest clouds I’d ever encountered.
Cruz gasped, clinging to the steering wheel. “I’ve never seen it rain this hard!” We made our way home, driving into blinding sheets of rain at an agonizingly slow rate.
“Thanks for listening to me,” I said, wringing my hands.
“You should have seen yourself. You went as white as a ghost. Your eyes rolled all the way back–it was creepy as all hell! Listen … calm down, it’s probably just that being at Evie’s place reminded you of what happened last time.”
“It wasn’t this bad last time,” I moaned.
He reached over to pat my arm. “It’s going to be all right.”
I hoped that he was right. I told Cruz what I’d seen, and I could see him try and humor me. He knew how to get to the spot where the competition was being held, so I closed my eyes and prayed as we crept along the rain-slickened roads at a snail’s pace. We finally arrived at the point, only to find a deserted rocky beach. The wind lashed the waves and the rain was pouring down on the rugged shoreline.
There wasn’t a soul in sight.
We drove a ways down the coast and pulled over at lonely gas station. I got out and ran into the garage, looking around frantically for any sign of life. A man working on a car glanced up at me. Startled, he hit his head on the fender.
“Can I help you miss?” he sputtered out. He stared at me as if I were an apparition.
“The big wave contest at the point–what happened?” I asked, panicked.
“Oh, they called that thing off when the storm rolled in,” he said. “This is no kinda weather to be out in.”
“Thanks!” I cried and ran back to the car in the driving rain. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe nothing had happened. I told Cruz the news and he was relieved.
“See? Nothing to worry your pretty little head about!”
“Can you take me to Ethan’s, just to be sure?” I asked.
We drove to the apartment, amazed at the size of the waves we saw along the coast. The sea looked angry, raging at the sky and tearing at the land. I felt a little tingle of fear in my spine. I raced up the stairs despite my crippling boots, and pounded on the door.
Ethan opened it, a hard, worried look on his handsome face.
“Thank God!” I threw myself onto him, wrapping my arms around him with relief.
Cruz came up behind me. “She thinks something’s going to happen to you. You should have seen her–she just went totally ballistic! Hey mom, what’s going on?”
I looked up to see Abby’s tear-streaked face. The pain behind my eyes returned with a vengeance, and the roar of the ocean filled my ears. This time I saw Dutch, surrounded by huge waves. He was covered in bright orange and clinging to a white cube. My knees gave out and I slumped to the floor.
Now it was Ethan’s voice calling my name as I struggled back to consciousness. Abby was holding my hands, and Ethan was kneeling over me. Again, I was lying down on a couch. I bolted upright.
“Oh my God! It wasn’t you, it was your dad! We have to go find him!”
Ethan looked at me in stunned silence.
“Oh Abby.” I hugged her. “Don’t worry, we can find him.”
They looked at me as if I’d gone mad, and I made a serious effort to regain my composure, drawing in a deep, shaky breath.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Tell me.”
Ethan sat down and grimly explained what had happened. Dutch had taken a group out on a fishing charter when he got caught in the sudden squall. He had radioed in a distress call before his signal was cut off. The coast guard sent a clipper boat out to his last known position, and Ethan and Abby had been sitting in the apartment, anxiously waiting for word. Ethan looked miserable, and my heart ached for him.
“It will be fine,” I said slowly and firmly. “He’s alive. They’ll bring him back. I saw him.”
They all looked at me funny, and started trying their best to get me to lie back down. I finally clammed up in frustration, unable to find a way to make them believe me.
We waited for several hours. Cruz made some coffee and sat with his arm around Abby, who was fighting back tears. Ethan paced nervously, sitting and standing every few minutes. I didn’t know what to do. The wind and rain howled outside.
There was a rap on the door and we all jumped. It was the harbormaster with news. He looked sick as he spoke to Ethan.
“Son, your dad’s vessel went down.” Ethan blanched and I stepped to his side.
The man went on to say that they had rescued the passengers clinging to the inflatable, but Dutch hadn’t made it onto the lifeboat. They’d called off the search due to hazardous conditions, but would mount a recovery operation at first light. I shuddered at the word “recovery,” and looked up to see that Ethan’s face had gone completely bloodless.
The harbormaster told Ethan where he had secured the inflatable, said a few awkward words about Dutch being a hero, and hurried away.
Ethan clung to me like a drowning man, and I could hear Abby’s heart-wrenching sobs in the background.
“Ethan, I saw him. I know he’s still out there,” I said, looking him squarely in the eye. I took his face in my hands. “Please believe me.”
“How can that be?” he choked out.
“Sit down,” I said seriously, and led him to the kitchen table. He looked numb. I sat down next to him, taking his hands in mine, needing to make him listen.
“Ever since I met Lorelei I’ve been seeing, well, having … visions.” He looked at me like I had gone completely out of my mind. Determined, I went on, “Sometimes I see an image and blurt out something in mermaid–something I know will happen. I don’t know how, I just know. I get that it sounds crazy–but I saw Cruz being a famous designer, and I saw the house you’re going to build.”
He put his head in his hands as I continued, “When I met your dad in the hospital, I saw he was going to be with Abby. I saw a picture of them standing together, before they even saw each other. And just now I saw your father. He’s in the water, and we have to go get him!”
He looked up at me with sad, grim, skeptical eyes. “What exactly did you see?”
“He was in the waves, holding onto something white.” Ethan put his head down again. “Like a box or something …” I remembered, and added, “He was wearing something bright orange.” His head snapped up and he looked at me with a flicker of hope.
“Ethan, we can get him, I know it.” He stood up out of his chair and I hugged him, overwhelmed with relief. “Let’s go!” I said.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said. “I am.” He went to go get his gear with me trailing behind him. A deadly calm came over me and my mind was made up.
“You need me to find him,” I said firmly. “I’m coming.”
“No. It’s too dangerous out there.”
“Ethan, they can help. I can make them help me.”
He stared at me. “Are you out of your mind?” he asked.
I looked at him with steady, serious eyes. “It’s safer for me than it is for you. I can talk to them. You can’t. They owe me something, according to them. We can make a deal.”
“No,” he said, fear in his blue eyes.
“I’m going–with or without you. You can’t stop me.”
“Marina–” he choked out. He had no idea how pointless arguing with me was.
“My mind is made up. Are you going to make me swim?”
He finally gave in, but he really had no choice, for I meant every word with all of my heart. He put on his wetsuit and gave me another one to try. It was much bigger than mine, so I slipped out of my boots and zipped it on over my clothes. I felt calm and still inside, certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that we needed to find Dutch and bring
him home.
He explained to me that his dad had an orange survival suit onboard his boat, and if he had managed to get it on he might still be alive. We only had a few hours of daylight left, and Dutch certainly couldn’t survive overnight in the water. He made me swear to hold on tight, and warned me that the waves would be strong enough to throw me out of the boat.
Cruz was on the couch with Abby, who was completely beside herself.
“This isn’t such a good idea …” he said, his voice tight with tension. I turned and looked at him with fiery eyes and he stopped. We ran out for the inflatable.
The wind was screaming and the waves were massive as we motored out of the harbor. I held onto the boat tightly and began calling for Lorelei. I tried to imagine talking to her in mermaid and focused on the water. Ethan was steering, heading out in the direction of the last known sighting of his dad’s boat.
A head popped out of the water, followed by two others. Each one was shimmering, iridescent and otherworldly beautiful. My heart raced wildly in my chest.
“Sisters! I need your help.” They all smiled in recognition.
“Come with us,” they chanted in unison. Their combined voices were impossibly harmonic, like a choir of angels. They clung to the side of the boat, rising and falling with the waves. I turned to see Ethan’s eyes filled with alarm.
“I need your help to find a man in the water,” I said, ignoring their request.
“You have been summoned,” they sang.
“No!” I cried, “I must find this man now!” They looked pouty, like little children whose toys were being taken away. They all disappeared at once. I turned to Ethan, who was fighting for control as we rode up and over each giant swell.
They popped up again suddenly, only now there were two more in their ranks. Each one was more beautiful than the last. They smiled beguilingly at me and Ethan.
“Please help us find the man,” I cried. “He’s floating out here and we have to find him!”
“We know where he is,” they sang melodically.
“Take us to him!” I demanded. They just smiled, wild and compassionless.
One of them climbed up on the side of the boat. Her face was within inches of mine. “If you come with us we will show you to him.”
I looked at Ethan and he looked terrified. I thought about Dutch, out here by himself. I thought about Abby, broken-hearted, back at the apartment.
I nodded and spoke slowly. It was imperative that they follow my instructions. “I’ll come with you, but only if you bring us to the man, and take this boat with both of them in it safely back to the harbor.”
She smiled and agreed to my conditions. There was no way we were going to find Dutch without their help–I was going to have to trust them to keep their word. The beautiful creatures circled our boat and grabbed hold of it. They started to swim, their powerful fins propelling us through the water as if we were floating on air. Ethan came to my side and held onto me tightly. Within minutes we neared a figure bobbing in the rough water.
“Dad!” Ethan yelled.
Dutch was clinging to a white cooler, his face ashen. He had an orange suit on, just as I had seen in my vision. One of the mermaids flipped him on board as though he were weightless, reminding me of their immense strength. Ethan and I knelt by Dutch’s side and his eyes flickered open. He was breathing, but he looked bad. We had clearly gotten there just in time. Ethan looked up at me, awestruck.
“Marina, come with us,” the chanting started. “Come now!” A sweet singsong cacophony of voices called out to me. We looked around, and now there were at least ten of them, flipping and frolicking in the water, surrounding the little boat.
I felt sick as I looked into Ethan’s frightened eyes.
I turned to them. “You must take them back to the harbor right now!”
“Yes, Marina,” they chanted in unison.
“I’m sorry Ethan.” A look of horror was dawning on his face. “But I made a deal.”
Two mermaids lunged out of the water and clamped onto my arms, plucking me out of the boat and dragging me into their midst. Several more grabbed hold of the boat and started swimming it back. The last thing I saw before they pulled me under the water was Ethan’s agonized face. My vision had come true.
At that moment I knew that he loved me too, and that I had just broken his heart.
~
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
COUNCIL