03 The Fate Of The Muse - Marina's Tales (27 page)

I went to go change back into my sweatpants,
frowning as I pulled on my oversized T-shirt. Ethan had always been
a hard worker, but he used to take the time to surf and hang out
with friends. Ever since we’d made a vow to stay together forever,
he’d changed. Was this what the future held for him, a relentless,
pleasure-less grind?

I looked in the mirror and grimaced;
apparently my sex-appeal was no match for my muse powers. If I
married Ethan, I’d be dooming him to a life sentence of hard labor.
I shuddered, imagining the endless toil grinding him down, robbing
him of his youth, and aging him before his time.

Only seven full moons had passed since the
mermaid council presented me with their ultimatum. That left me
with over three more years to decide– three years to watch Ethan
wear himself out while growing more and more attached to me. Tears
filled my eyes.

I’d probably be doing him a favor if I
slipped under the sea and never came back.

I padded back to him on bare feet, pausing
for a few moments to watch the flickering candlelight reflecting
off the planes of his face. I bent down to blow out the candles and
squeezed back onto the couch behind him, curling my body around
his. He shifted a little, and I inhaled his hair, kissing his sore
shoulder. I snuggled closer to him, finally falling into an uneasy
sleep.

I dreamed an electric blue sea churning
under a pink sky. I floated on my surfboard in the surrealistic
landscape, completely alone, rolling on endless waves of mystery
that crested, but never seemed to break. A strange mermaid’s head
pierced the surface, followed by another, and another, until I was
surrounded.

“
The best way to predict the future,” they
sang, “is to create it.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

WARNED

“Hey Dollface,” his voice softly called me,
“Wake up.”

I sat up, blinking myself back to
consciousness. Ethan put his arm around me and started nuzzling my
neck, sniffing behind my ear.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” I asked in a
rough voice, looking around, trying to get my bearings in the
pre-dawn pitch black.

“I’m sorry it’s so early… But I’m gonna need
a ride to work,” he said, “I made you some coffee.”

He got up and went over to my little
makeshift kitchen, returning with two cups.

“Where are you going so early?” I asked,
stretching and yawning.

“I’m crewing another fishing charter for my
dad.” He set them on the table, sitting down close to me with a
smile, “Can you drop me off at the Marina… Marina?”

I yawned, “Sure…What time is it anyway?”

“It’s five. I wish I didn’t have to wake you
up. I didn’t know you had overnight plans for me.”

I blushed, looking down. All the sadness from
the night before came flooding back to me, tightening my throat,
“OK.”

“Are you alright?” he asked.

I nodded yes, reaching for the coffee, and
asked hopefully, “Can we go surfing after you get back?”

“Sorry, but I have a couple of jobs lined up
for this afternoon. They’re gonna keep me going all day.”

My God, I thought, it’s getting worse. My
eyes welled up and burned with hot tears, and I turned my head so
he couldn’t see. I tried to blink them back, but they spilled over,
rolling down my cheeks and splashing onto my lap.

“Hey!” he reached over to turn my face
towards his, alarmed, “What’s wrong?”

I swallowed, meeting his eyes, “Don’t you
think you’re working a little too hard lately? I mean… you never
want to do anything else anymore…”

He draped his arm around me, pulling me
close, “I’m sorry, don’t be upset. I just wanted… I just needed…”
His voice trailed off as he stroked my back thoughtfully.

“I’m fine,” I straightened up and wiped my
eyes. I shouldn’t make him feel bad with my self-pity. He couldn’t
help it; it wasn’t his fault.

He squeezed me a little, “It’ll be different
once we’re married.”

I sighed, looking down again. His vision of a
sweet idyllic future was like an old story that was no longer
entertaining. I’d heard it so many times I doubted if it could ever
be true.

He nudged me, “Hey, what are you doing on
Friday?”

I forced a smile, “I don’t know. What do you
have in mind?”

“Let’s spend the whole day together… Just me
and you.”

“Surfing?” I asked hopefully.

He looked at me speculatively, “I have a
surprise.”

“What should I wear?”

“You’re perfect just the way you are,” he
said, right before he kissed me.

I dropped him off at the harbor just in time
to see the first brilliant rays of light peek over the horizon. He
told me that he’d pick me up at Abby’s first thing in the morning
on Friday, and gave me a goodbye kiss so full of love and longing
that it took my breath away. I started to feel a tiny flicker of
hope that maybe I could get him to slow down a little bit. I drove
back to my studio, looking forward to a day of painting and reading
in solitude.

Around lunchtime Cruz called, bubbly and full
of stories about Shayla’s continued success in Paris. Listening to
him made me feel better, but it also reminded me of Evie and
Olivia.

“Do you know when Evie’s coming back to San
Francisco?” I asked him casually.

“She’s flying in on Saturday. That’s one of
the reasons I called,” he said excitedly, “We’re invited to her
place for a dinner party Sunday night in honor of some friend of
hers that’s coming back with her. She told me to tell you to bring
Ethan. I’m bringing Brad over to meet her… Oh Marina, do you think
she’ll like him?”

My heart started pounding in my ears, “Of
course she will,” I said, steadying myself on the arm of the couch.
Olivia sure wasn’t wasting any time. Now I could seriously smell a
rat.

“It’s formal, so she said to be sure to dress
up… How formal is formal? What should I wear?” I could practically
see Cruz swooning over the phone. I knew he’d love one of Evie’s
fancy dinner parties.

“Uhm, I don’t know… A tux I guess.”

“Do you want to know why else I called?” he
asked coyly.

“I don’t know… do I?” I was feeling faint,
and I sat down with my palm pressed to my forehead.

“Yes silly! Brad and I are coming down this
weekend, remember? We’d like to schedule a day to go out surfing
with you!”

“Sure,” I heaved a sigh of relief, “Sounds
good.”

“How about Friday?”

“I have plans with Ethan. Maybe
Saturday?”

“It’s a date! I can’t wait to see Brad surf!”
Cruz chattered on and on about how fabulous Brad was, and the
wonderful places he’d decorated in the city while I sat numbly,
trying to decide what to do about Olivia. By the time he hung up,
I’d thought it through. I would find a way to get Evie alone as
soon as possible and tell her what I suspected. Once she was in the
safety of her own place, surely Boris could protect her.

After painting for hours I locked up the
studio and went home, trying to look on the bright side. I had an
entire day with Ethan to look forward to, followed by a fun day of
surfing with Cruz and Brad. I would deal with Evie and Olivia after
that. There was nothing to be gained by fretting.

All I had to do was get through the next
twenty four hours. I got ready for bed and turned in, burrowing
under the white down comforter in my little blue room. All things
considered, it could be a whole lot worse, even if I did feel a
little bit like the fabled Damocles, trying to enjoy myself while a
sword suspended by a single hair dangled over my head.

I tossed in bed for hours, watching
fast-moving high clouds alternately cover and reveal the bright
moon in my window. It enthralled me with its blue light and then
disappeared, reminding me that I shouldn’t be entertaining thoughts
of surfing. I rolled over and tried not to look, but I was being
jerked around like a marionette in a perverse game of peek-a-boo. I
finally sat up in bed, unable to lie still one second longer.

Without even thinking, I automatically
reached for my bag and started to slip on my wetsuit. Once I got
down to the dark and deserted beach I zipped up, donning my hood,
booties and gloves for extra protection against the cold night
breeze. I had a good five hours before the first glimmers of
breaking dawn would signal me to start for home, and I trembled
inside with anticipation.

“
Lorelei!
” I threw my head back and
called her, sitting up on my board on the blustery nighttime sea.
She arrived swiftly, as excited by the moon as I was, ready to
play.

“
Marina! Let’s go see Nixie!
”

Why not? I thought, there was plenty of time.
I went prone on my board, relaxing and letting Lorelei take me out
to the wild waves. I let go of everything, all my fears, desires
and ambitions. Being with my mermaid sisters was like a vacation
from thinking, a state of grace with all logic and responsibility
washed way. My father would have hated it, but I knew that my
mother craved it even more than I did.

Nixie and Nerissa’s glowing heads appeared
out of the foggy night sea, as excited about my nocturnal visit as
they ever were. I wondered if it was my imagination, but in just
the few days since I’d seen her, Nixie appeared to have gotten a
little bigger. At this rate she’d be fully grown within a few
year’s time.

I watched as she greeted Lorelei with
enthusiasm, wrapping chubby arms around her neck. They tossed and
rolled in an exuberant reunion dance, a wild and fluid ballet that
seemed to be an expression of pure joy.

We surfed under the black velvet sky, each
one of us lost in the power of the ocean’s rhythms. The mermaids
tackled the surf with complete focus, obsessively gliding through
each wave as if it were the very first one, never seeming to tire.
I could feel myself growing weaker, increasingly having to pause
and rest my shaking legs. I told Lorelei that I needed to stop and
she pulled me out to calm water.

“
That was fun,
” I sighed wearily,
“
But I need to go home now.
”

“
This is your home. We are your
sisters.
”

I rolled my eyes at her, too tired to argue,
but my sarcastic look was completely lost on her, and she took my
silence as a sign I was considering her suggestion.

“
You should stay!
” she cried, as if
the thought just occurred to her. If she wasn’t being
exasperatingly vague, she was annoyingly persistent. I wondered if
she’d ever stop asking me.

“
Yes! Swim with us!
” Nixie chimed in,
tugging at my wrist.

I smiled weakly down at her, “
No. I have
to go back to the land.
”

Nerissa rested her cheek on the end of my
board, “
She’s going to leave,
” she sighed, tracing the wave
design printed on my surfboard with her finger.

I relaxed on the tow back to Aptos, and was
deposited on the beach in the densest fog I’d ever seen. I hauled
my board ashore and trudged onto the wet sand with a satisfying
feeling of tiredness. There were faint strains of music in the
background, and I looked around the foggy darkness suspiciously,
unable to make out more than just the sand around me. I hauled the
board up the beach, feeling my way to the dry sand, plunking down
with a grunt to take off my boots and gloves. Suddenly, the fog
swirled and parted to reveal a large ship docked at the end of a
pier, rows of lights along its side burning through the swirling
mist.

I startled, and sprang to my feet in
confusion. Where had Lorelei brought me? The dense fog moved back
in, obscuring my view of the ship and its surroundings. My heart
beat in my throat as I looked around for any sign of a landmark to
get my bearings, hoping I wasn’t too far from home.

A lone figure walking along the shoreline
approached me, and I tensed up, ready to ditch my board and break
into a run. As it drew closer, the silhouette of a young girl was
revealed in the faint misty light. She wore a vintage polka-dot
party dress that nipped in tightly at the waist, with cap sleeves
and a petticoated full skirt. A pair of high heels dangled from her
hand, swinging to and fro as she walked along the shoreline
barefoot. Her dark hair was softly waved and rolled up at the
sides. She seemed oddly familiar, and yet I was certain I’d never
seen her before.

I couldn’t imagine what she was up to,
dressed like that, all alone in the middle of the night. I found
myself staring at the incongruous sight as she drew near, singing
to herself softly and staring straight ahead. I stood watching her
silently, and just when I thought she was going to pass right by me
without any acknowledgement she paused.

She looked up at me with a sly smile, wagging
a finger at me, “Hey Kiddo, I see you’re up your old tricks again.
You best be careful, because that big cheese is still out to get
you. You got a real hellhound on your trail.”

“What?”

She put her hands on her hips, leaning
towards me with a gentle, knowing look, “They already pulled the
wool over your eyes once… Gosh! Whoever woulda thought that creep
was in cahoots with his sis?”

“Um, excuse me, but I’m afraid you must
be–”

“Listen Dollface, things aren’t always the
way they seem. You be on the lookout!” She smiled warmly and
continued on her way down the beach, shoes swinging alongside her
billowing skirt.

When I finally recognized Stella’s voice, my
knees gave out. I was kneeling on the sand when she called back
over her shoulder, “And watch out for that red-headed dame. She
sure gives me the heebie jeebies!”

When I looked up again she’d disappeared into
the fog. I was trembling, shaking with a combination of fatigue and
shock when the swirling fog receded again, revealing the wrecked
hull of the cement ship, sitting low in the water. I don’t know how
long I sat there, awestruck, but finally, when the first blush of a
pretty pink dawn brightened the horizon I staggered home to
bed.