03 The Fate Of The Muse - Marina's Tales (8 page)

I put on a white eyelet sundress that looked
like summertime itself, fluffing up my hair in the mirror. The
aquamarine on my neck sparkled in the morning light, and I
automatically reached up to touch it, thinking about Ethan. When I
rounded the corner into the kitchen Abby looked up with a big
smile. She had a pen tucked behind her ear and a telephone in her
hand.

“You look pretty this morning. Are you off to
see Ethan?” she asked.

I returned her smile, nodding yes, “What’s
all this stuff?”

She was sitting at the kitchen table with
papers and notepads spread out before her. A stack of boxes was
piled high in the corner, nearly blocking the back door. I could
see cases of local wine, cellophane wrapped gift baskets and framed
prints. The place looked like the inside of someone’s storage
locker.

“I decided to add a silent auction,” she was
excited, “I’ve been collecting donations from neighborhood
businesses… Can you believe all the great stuff I’ve gotten so far?
We’re on track to raise a lot of money!”

“Wow… that’s a really great idea!”

I was impressed. Abby was a loving mom and a
compassionate yoga instructor, but I’d never known her to be so
organized and efficient. It seemed as though Ethan and Lue’s
misfortune was revealing some hidden talents.

“Should I sign you up to donate a painting?”
she smiled slyly.

“Of course!” I replied, “I’ll add one to the
pile. Can I pick you up anything from the market?”

“No thanks, Dutch is coming by to make us
dinner later–”

Her phone rang, and I waved goodbye to her
while she took yet another call. It was really gratifying to see
how the community had rallied around the cause. Once people heard
about the government’s plans, most of them were outraged. Soon, Lue
would have enough money and support to defend himself. I had a very
good feeling about the outcome.

I pulled up to the farmers market, heading
over to the espresso cart and picking up a couple of mochas. When
Ethan looked up to see me heading towards him, his face broke into
a wide grin, and he stopped what he was doing to watch me. The way
his eyes squinted melted my heart, and when I came around the back
of his stand he took the coffees from my hands and set them down,
reaching around my back to pull me in close.

“I was just thinking about you,” he bent down
to press his forehead into mine.

“I hope it was a good thought,” I said.

He kissed my breath away, “It’s always
good.”

We sat down together, sipping our coffees and
talking about plans for the rally. It was still a week away but
everything was coming together nicely, falling into place like
clockwork. Even the weather was shaping up to be in our favor.

“I can’t believe how much everybody’s helping
us,” he said, “Megan hooked us up with a sound system from some
musican guy she just met, and she agreed to announce the bands and
the speakers. Abby’s been calling all over town for donations. This
is gonna be great.”

I smiled, happy for him, happy for us… just
plain happy. I moved my chair to the back of his stand and watched
him work. The market picked up, and Ethan had to hustle to keep up
with all the customers. He refused my offers to help, and I was
feeling kind of useless, so I pulled a book out of my tote bag and
kicked back to read.

“Hey Ethan,” a girl’s voice called out
familiarly.

I looked up to recognize his ex-girlfriend
with a jolt of shock. She was standing there with a smile, a canvas
market bag slung over her shoulder with a bouquet of flowers
sticking out of it. She was even prettier than I remembered. I
could have sworn I’d gotten over it, but my body betrayed me, and I
tensed up, my heart pounding in my throat.

“Hey,” Ethan replied. He looked nervous, and
his eyes darted back to meet mine. Why did I have to pick today to
forget my sunglasses?

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your
friend?” Her voice sounded sweet, but her eyes were hard and
appraising. They told me everything I needed to know. She still
wanted him, and she knew I stood in her way.

“I’m Amber,” she said, holding out her hand
with a false smile.

I got up and came over to shake it, trying to
swallow the lump in my throat. “I’m Marina,” I replied. My voice
sounded funny to me.

She gestured to a girl standing alongside
her, “This is my friend Brittany.” The two of them exchanged a
glance before Brittany looked at me the same way she did, sizing me
up.

“How’s business going?” Amber asked Ethan,
gesturing to one of my posters hanging from the awning. “Is what I
heard true? That’s for the land that you’re buying from that
Chinese guy?”

The way she talked about Lue annoyed me, and
when she turned to face Ethan I got a better look at her. She was
really beautiful; a blonde, tanned golden girl– the perfect
counterpart to him. My heart sank, and my stomach tightened with
dread.

“Yeah,” he said, coming over to slip his arm
around my waist, “It was Marina’s idea.”

“Me and Abby,” I mumbled.

Amber turned to her friend, “We should go to
it! I mean, we
should
support our local farmers.” She smiled
at Ethan, flashing perfect white teeth. I cringed a little, and
Ethan’s arm tightened on my waist.

She focused on me, “I hear you’re best
friends with… Shayla.” Her voice had the faintest undertone of
contempt, and I remembered that there was no love lost between the
two of them. Then I realized there was only one way she could have
known that. I looked up at Ethan incredulously. They had been
talking… and they had been talking about me.

This just kept getting better and better.

I pulled away from him abruptly, feeling
betrayed. Then came the first flush of the anger I’d been trying so
hard to learn how to suppress, “Yes,” I said firmly, “I am.”

She looked triumphant, clearly pleased that
she had pressed my buttons, “Maybe we’ll see you and Shayla there.”
She and her friend turned to leave, “Bye Ethan.”

I was stunned. A few minutes ago I’d been
happy, feeling optimistic about the future. Now I stood there,
hollowed out, all the empty spots inside of me filling in with hot
boiling anger. An image of the two women crying at the
congressman’s office flashed into my mind. I had to stop this… I
had to stop this feeling before something bad happened… to her… or
to Ethan.

“I’ve gotta go,” I said, rushing to grab my
tote.

“Marina,” he grabbed my arm, “Listen–”

“I’ve gotta go,” I repeated, breathing
hard.

“She came by last week… just before you did.
I– I told her you were friends with Shayla…”

“Why?”

He looked chagrinned, “I dunno, she was
asking a lot of questions about you… like what you were like and
who you hung out with…”

I imagined them talking about me and felt
sick to my stomach.

“What is she doing here?” I fought to steady
my voice.

He swallowed, “She moved back home… she’s
transferring to the University here next fall.”

Great. She was back for him, they’d been
talking, and now I was going to be forced to see her cozy up to him
at college too. I hated her, and I was angry at him for putting me
through the humiliating exchange.

A surge of jealous rage gripped me; ugly
ferocious anger I hadn’t felt since I nearly shot Peter in cold
blood. I’d truly wanted him dead, and thanks to my muse powers, the
universe found a way to get that done. I thought about the
congressman’s car going off the cliff ; I started shaking like a
leaf, trying to push it away. Now I knew for sure that my anger was
threatening me and everyone around me. I needed to try to calm
down, I had to get to the water. Moving slowly, I pulled my arm
back from him.

“I’m okay,” I said, trying to sound calm, “I
just need to go now.”

“Marina…”

I bolted, running as fast as I could to the
parking lot. Ethan chased after me, catching me easily and getting
between me and the Rover.

“Marina… Don’t go.”

I couldn’t even look at him. He caught my arm
again as I reached for the door handle.

“Please don’t go,’ he said, and I could hear
the anguish in his voice.

“I’m fine,” I said, looking down, “But I have
to get out of here.”

“Please?”

I looked at his worried face, “Don’t you
see?” I said, struggling to maintain my composure, “I can’t feel
this way anymore… Something bad will happen…”

“Nothing is going to happen,” he said
firmly.

“You don’t know that,” I cried, twisting my
arm as his grip tightened.

“Marina–”

I struggled to pull away from him, “Let me
go!” I yelled. People around us stopped what they were doing to
watch, and Ethan let go, standing back as I jumped into the Rover
and sped away.

Get to the water. Get to the water, the
little voice in my mind urged me on. It was the only way I could
jolt myself out of the spiral of jealousy and anger I was
descending into. Slipping in and out of the house stealthily, I
grabbed my things and flew down to the beach, throwing myself into
the surf, swimming out as hard and fast as I could. When I finally
stopped to catch my breath, I lay down with my cheek pressed onto
my board, rocking in the soothing cradle of the sea.

“
Marina!
” Lorelei popped up inches
from my face. Puzzled, she turned her head sideways to mirror mine,
“
Can we go see Nerissa now?
”

I sat up, relieved to have something else to
think about, “
Yeah, I’d really like that
.”

Lorelei grabbed hold of my board with
enthusiasm, swiftly towing me north, further than we’d ever gone
before. I lifted my head to see us sail past Golden Gate Bridge
through a blur of white water.

After traversing a windy stretch of open
ocean we approached the jagged silhouettes of a knot of small
islands. Rocky and barren, they rose abruptly from the sea like an
apparition, engulfed in fog, lonely and forbidding. I shivered,
goosebumps rising inside of my wetsuit.

Lorelei called out for Nerissa, and I wasn’t
surprised at all to realize that she hadn’t made a sound. Her
thoughts were as clear to me as if she’d spoken them aloud. Another
voice echoed in my ears and I sat up on my surfboard, looking
around for Nerissa. When a third, tiny squeaky voice joined in the
mix I began to think I was hallucinating. Then a head broke the
surface of the dark blue waters.

“
Nerissa!
” I gasped. She looked happy,
beautiful and wild, a far cry from the pale weak creature I’d first
seen imprisoned by Peter.

“
Marina, have you come to swim with
us?
” her voice rang out, clear and sweet. She swam up close,
reaching out to inspect my surfboard. Her green eyes sparkled with
curiosity, and her jet black hair was as shiny as polished onyx. It
was a relief to find her as unaffected by her ordeal as Lorelei,
for she had been held hostage far longer, and suffered a great deal
more at Peter’s hands.

I looked down to her flat abdomen, wondering
what had become of the baby she’d been carrying when she returned
to the sea. Evie had ventured a guess that the baby might have
simply disappeared as a result of her transformation back into a
mermaid. It would be for the best, because as far as I knew,
pregnancy was a terminal condition for mermaids. Then I heard the
little voice again.

“
Who else is here?
” I asked them, but
before they could answer a third head broke the surface.

“
Sisters!
” she squeaked, and I nearly
fell off my surfboard.

She was small, about the size of a human
toddler, but she swam around my board gracefully, agile as a sea
lion. Her brick red hair fanned out in the water behind her. She
dove under the surfboard, and as I scrambled frantically to see
her, she surfaced behind me, shyly peeping up from the edge of the
board with huge green eyes.

“
Nixie!
” Lorelei squealed, taking the
baby mermaid in her arms and kissing her plump cheeks.

She giggled and ducked underwater, surfacing
to peek around Lorelei. Her eyes grew round, and she stared me
again. “
What is it?
” she asked Lorelei, dipping down to hide
behind her shoulder.

Lorelei and Nerissa burst into peals of
laughter, and the sound they made together was almost unbearably
sweet. For a second I thought I might be dreaming the whole
thing.

“
Do not be afraid, she is a sister too…
just like us.
” Lorelei explained to the little
mermaid
.

“
Only she lives on land,
” added
Nerissa.

“
But you weren’t… I mean, it can’t
possibly…
” I sputtered, completely flabbergasted. It had only
been a few weeks since Ethan and I had returned a pregnant Nerissa
to the sea, and then she was nowhere near ready to deliver. This
child looked to be at least a full year old.

“
What?
” Lorelei looked at me oddly, no
doubt confused by the time calculations she could hear me rapidly
doing in my mind.

“
Where did she come from?
” I
asked.

Lorelei sighed dreamily, “
Nerissa brought
her forth… she’s so lucky…
”

“
Lucky?
” I was aghast.

“
Of course! None have been blessed with a
little one for many, many moons.
” I could see images in her
mind of mermaid babies she’d seen in the past, realizing with a
start that these memories could go back hundreds or even thousands
of years.

“
Blessed?
” I repeated, “
How’s
that?
”

She looked at me like I was hopelessly
ignorant, “
The moon sent us a new sister… and Nerissa was the
chosen one
.”

My God, I thought, they had no idea where
babies came from. I sure hoped they couldn’t read my thoughts about
that
. I looked at the little mermaid with her chubby arms
wrapped around Lorelei’s neck, “
She sure is cute… What did you
call her? Nixie?”