A Mischief of Mermaids (16 page)

“So when would that be, then?” asked Nerissa, biting her lip.

Poppy scanned the article on her screen. “Oh.”

“How long?” Nerissa asked.

“It's not so bad,” Poppy said in a falsely cheerful voice. “Only another sixteen months . . .”

There was a long silence.

Then Nerissa almost shouted, “You mean I have to spend more than a year as a human being?”

“Shh!” Poppy said, glancing nervously at the door. “What about Franny? By the next blue moon, she'll be fifteen years old.”

And who knows what she'll be like by then, after all that time as a mermaid. . . 
.

She drummed her fingers on her laptop and thought hard for a moment, then said slowly, “You said that mermaids like making humans look like fools. But they don't like it when someone makes fun of them, right?”

“What do you mean?” Nerissa frowned slightly, and a sudden sharp breeze blew the window curtains into Poppy's face.

“You know,” said Poppy, batting the curtain away. “They get all . . . huffy.”

Nerissa's eyes narrowed and the lightbulb in the bedside lamp popped. “
I
don't,” she said. “
I
have a great sense of humor.”

“Uh-huh,” said Poppy, trying not to roll her eyes. “Like in the library when you kicked that bookshelf and I laughed and suddenly all those dark clouds appeared? Or when you got mad at the mermaid show and a thunderstorm came rolling in? Or when Coralie got angry because she thought Will and Henry were mocking her—”

“Okay, okay,” said Nerissa, rather grumpily. “So mermaids like to be treated with dignity and respect. What's wrong with that?”

“Nothing,” said Poppy. “But it made me remember something. Hold on a second—”

She reached down to grab a book from the floor. It was
Mermaids in Myth, Legend, and Life
, the book she had found in the library. As she began flipping through it, she said, “I was reading this the other night. There's a story in here about a man who outwitted a mermaid—”

“Impossible,” sniffed Nerissa. “Humans aren't smart enough.”

Poppy felt a flash of annoyance at that, but she said evenly, “Well, some humans are smarter than others, you know. And if this story is true and if we can figure out how he did it, maybe it will help us.”

“If, if, if,” muttered Nerissa, but she waved a hand toward the book. “Go ahead, then. It's better than nothing.”

Poppy turned back to the book. After a minute, she said, “Okay, here it is.” She scanned the page quickly. “So this story is about a sailor who saw a mermaid sitting on a rock. She was combing her hair and singing and her voice was so beautiful—”

“That he instantly fell in love with her,” said Nerissa impatiently. “All the stories start that way. And then the sailor forgets that he can't swim, jumps into the sea to be with her, and drowns. The end.”

“Hold on,” said Poppy. She turned the page. “This sailor happened to be a very careful person. So instead of just flinging himself over the railing, he leaned over to see how far away the water was—”

“She must not have been much of a singer,” muttered Nerissa.

“Anyway,” said Poppy firmly. “The sea happened to be very smooth that day, so he saw his own reflection in the water. As soon as he recognized himself, the spell was broken.”

There was a long silence, then Nerissa's eyes met Poppy's.

“So what are you thinking?” she asked.

For the first time all day, a grin appeared on Poppy's face. “I think we've only got one more day to turn Franny back into a girl and you back into a mermaid,” she said. “And I think I'm beginning to have what could end up being a brilliant idea. Even if I am just a human.”

Nerissa bit her lip, then she started smiling, too. “Well, you are one of the smarter ones, I have to admit,” she said. “So let's hear it. . . .”

And together, Poppy and Nerissa cooked up the perfect plan to get Franny back.

“F
ranny!” Poppy called out. Her voice echoed over the water. “Where are you?”

She paused and listened hard, but all she heard was the sound of waves lapping against the side of her kayak and a distant bird twittering cheerfully.

“We're not going to find her by yelling her name,” said Nerissa from the seat behind her.

“Well, we can't just paddle around the lake hoping we run into her, either,” snapped Poppy. “Maybe we should just go to the cove and wait—”

Then she heard the faint sound of a girl's laugh float over the water.

“Wait, did you hear that?” Poppy asked Nerissa. “Was that her? It sounded like it came from those rocks by the shore—”

The laugh sounded again, a little louder. This time it seemed to come from behind the kayak.

Poppy twisted around, squinting against the glare of the sun. All she saw was calm, still water.

“They're playing tricks on us,” said Nerissa. “That's probably Kali. She knows how to throw her voice so it sounds like it's coming from in front of you, then behind you, then over to the side—”

“Why would they do that?” asked Poppy. “They must know how worried we are.”

Nerissa gave a skeptical snort. “I keep telling you—”

“I know, I know,” said Poppy. “They're mermaids.” She took a deep breath, then shouted, “If this is your idea of a joke, it's not funny. We just want to see Franny and make sure she's all right.”

There was no answer.

Poppy sighed and looked at her watch. Mr. Malone had been so enthusiastic about the UFO analysis that Will and Henry had done the night before that he had laid down the law—everyone was ordered to help out as soon as breakfast was over.

Darting glances had flown among Will and Henry and Poppy when they realized that there was no way they would all be able to go back to the cove together. After a long, whispered argument, Poppy had been deputized to check on Franny, as long as she promised to return as quickly as possible. They had decided that Nerissa should be the one to confess that she had accidentally left the Geiger counter at the cove (Poppy knew that Mrs. Malone would never lecture a guest about carelessness). Their cover story accepted, the two had set off to find Franny.

Now time was ticking on, Franny was nowhere to be seen, and Will and Henry were probably getting more annoyed by the minute as they waited for Poppy and Nerissa's return.

Poppy tried to stay calm. She sat very still and thought as hard as she could about where Franny might be. Her kayak rocked gently on the water. A drop of sweat rolled down her nose. In the distance, she could hear the sound of singing. . . .

Singing!

Poppy turned her head sharply. “Did you hear that?” she whispered.

“Shh,” said Nerissa.

Together, they held their breath, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. A slight breeze seemed to make the voices waft into hearing. But then, as soon as Poppy caught the tune, the breeze would shift and the music would become fainter.

“It's coming from that direction.” Nerissa pointed past the cove where Poppy had first seen the mermaids.

Poppy tilted her head and listened hard. “I think you're right.” She took a deep breath and said, “Okay, remember the plan. We have to make sure Coralie thinks it's all her idea—”

“I know what we have to do!” snapped Nerissa.

“Good,” said Poppy. “Let's go.”

Slowly, they began paddling along the shoreline, following the sound of singing. A few times, the sound seemed to disappear altogether, and Poppy's stomach would clench, but then the breeze would pick up and she'd hear the voices once more.

Finally, they rounded a bend and saw another inlet. Poppy guided the kayak through the opening and down a narrow stream, while Nerissa kept paddling. Then the stream widened and they found that they were gliding into another cove with several limestone boulders along the shoreline. And on each boulder sat a mermaid, singing.

Ariadne was plaiting her hair into a long golden braid. Kali was gazing raptly into a hand mirror framed in silver. Coralie was holding one slender hand in front of her, smugly admiring her fingernails. And Franny was combing her hair with an ivory comb. All of them were singing the strange, wandering tune that Poppy had heard and all of them had the half-smiling expression of someone who is quite pleased with the way she looks.

Franny, Poppy noticed uneasily, seemed right at home.

“Are you okay?” Poppy's voice was sharper than she had intended, but it had the right effect.

Franny blinked, as if she were waking from a dream. She turned her head and looked blankly at Poppy. Then she frowned, as if she were trying to remember who Poppy was.

Or maybe, Poppy thought with a shiver, she was trying to remember who
Franny
was.

After a long, long pause, Franny said, “Of course. I'm fine. Ariadne and Kali and I are having such fun.”

Finally, she smiled—but that smile was sly and secretive, as if she were amused by a joke that only she understood. It didn't look like Franny at all.

Poppy said, “Well, I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, but—”

“I can't believe it!” Nerissa burst out, glaring at Kali and Ariadne. “You're the ones who made fun of me because I was interested in mortals. Why do you want to hang out with
her
?”

Kali raised an eyebrow and said sweetly, “Franny may be mortal, but she's got a mermaid's soul.”

“Yes,” Ariadne added. “She's one of us, deep down inside.”

“She is
not
,” Poppy and Nerissa said together.

“No, really, I think I could have some mermaid blood in me,” said Franny, her blue eyes wide. “Maybe generations ago, my great-great-great-grandmother was a mermaid who was courted by a handsome young man and they had children and the mermaid genes were passed down to me—”

“Which is why you spend so much time taking baths,” Poppy said sarcastically. “Really, that explains so much.”

“It does, doesn't it?” said Franny, completely missing the point.

“You are not a mermaid,” said Nerissa through gritted teeth.
“I am.”

Ariadne slipped off her rock into the water and, with a graceful flick of her tail, swam over to their kayak. Poppy couldn't help noticing that this meant that Ariadne was now between her and Franny. She shot a quick glance at Franny. Was it her imagination, or did Franny's expression when she looked at Poppy seem more blank?

“Now Nerissa,” Ariadne crooned, “you didn't really like being a mermaid, did you? You were always complaining about how you hated dancing—”

“And playing tricks on people,” added Kali.

“And singing,” Ariadne said.

“And Franny, on the other hand—” Kali smiled warmly at her.

“Franny,” Ariadne finished, “is a natural.”

“That's true,” said Franny, preening. “Everything Ariadne and Kali have been teaching me about mermaid ways just seems to make so much sense to me!”

Poppy shuddered, but she tried to sound casual. “Really. Like what?”

“Oh, you know.” Franny lifted one shoulder in a tiny shrug. It reminded Poppy of someone, but she couldn't think who. “How to make a face pack out of algae. How to follow the stars at night. How to sing so sweetly that sailors want to follow you anywhere—”

“That sounds pretty dangerous,” said Poppy. She knew she sounded prim, but she couldn't help it. “You could cause a boating accident or something.”

This caused another series of sly smiles among Franny and the other two mermaids that Poppy found both unsettling and extremely annoying. Unsettling because the smiles were colder than any human smile she'd ever seen. And annoying because, once again, Poppy felt as if Franny and her new friends were a little club and the only person who didn't belong was her.

“Oh, I think it might be funny to watch a boat tip over or run aground,” Franny said airily.

Kali clapped her hands in delight. “Oh yes, you're right, it's quite humorous! Every time it happens, we just laugh and laugh!”

“It wasn't that much fun when it happened to us,” said Poppy, remembering the night of their boat accident. “You should think about how other people feel, too, you know.”

Franny flashed an amused look at Kali and Ariadne. “She's very proper, isn't she?”

They laughed, and Poppy felt herself becoming more frightened, which only made her angrier.

“Franny, please.” Poppy didn't care about winning this argument, but she felt somehow that if she did—if she managed to convince Franny that it wasn't right to play tricks on people—that she might also help Franny remember who she was. “Someone could get hurt.”

Franny tossed her head. “Oh, who would be hurt?” she said. “Mortals?”

Poppy caught her breath at the disdain she heard in Franny's voice. “Well, yes, people,” she said carefully. “People like us.”

Franny cocked her head, as if she couldn't quite grasp what Poppy was saying. “Like us?”

“Yes, like us! Like you, me, Will, Rolly!” Poppy shouted, finally losing patience. “Like Mom and Dad.”

“Oh yes, of course.” Franny said vaguely, as if she was trying to remember who Poppy was talking about.

A tiny shiver ran down Poppy's spine.

She glanced at Nerissa. This was her cue.

There was a split-second pause. Poppy felt her stomach lurch at the thought that Nerissa had forgotten what to say—but then Nerissa tossed her head and said with great disdain, “That's okay. I don't need to turn back into a mermaid. I can join the mermaid show. They'll give me a tail to put on and I'll swim around the lake just like I used to.”

As one, the three mermaids turned toward her. Their eyes were suddenly sharp, watchful.