Deep Blue (The Mermaid Chronicles Book 1) (9 page)

             
She walked in and up to the counter. The shop had just opened and there was no one else in there.

             
"I need a haircut. Can you squeeze me in now?" Alice asked.

             
The woman at the counter looked up, "Yes, you do." she said, looking at Alice’s hair rather than her face. Alice tried a smile. It was so rusty it came out completely distorted, and she was sure she probably looked more scary than happy to the woman. The woman turned away awkwardly. Next thing she knew, she was in the chair with the cape wrapped around her.

             
The stylist was staring at Alice’s reflection in the mirror, handling her hair with distaste. Alice was sure that her hair was probably the stylist’s worst nightmare come to life.

             
"I don't think I could wash all this in our little sinks, so we're gonna cut some and then wash it, if that's okay, unless you just want a trim.” It was clear that a trim wasn’t actually an option.

             
Alice pulled the picture from her purse. "I want this back," she said, pointing to her shoulder-length ‘do.

             
"Cute kid. Is that your brother?" The stylist brightened slightly.

             
"Yeah."

             
"What's that statue?"
             

             
"Just some random statue in Portland."

             
"You sure you wanna lose that much? I mean, I could cut it up to the middle of your back if you wanted…” The stylist stared at Alice’s hair, not sure at all if she could perform even that small miracle. It was like looking at the destruction a tornado had performed on a house and having to figure out what to fix first.

             
Alice looked at her frumpy self in the mirror again. She was going to change, she was resigned to it. Her grandmother wouldn't have approved of the mess she had become. It was time Alice came out of the clouds. "Yes, I'm sure."

             
Alice walked to work as usual, but this time she had just finished shopping and she was carrying a few bags full of clothes.

             
"Hey, Alice! Nice ‘do," Ted said as she walked in. Alice forced another awkward smile. The smiling thing was hard to get used to again.

             
"Do you mind if I change into some of my new clothes before work?" Alice asked awkwardly. 

             
"Something not frumpy?" Ted said hopefully. He hadn't really agreed with Alice's choice of clothes, but hadn't dared talk to her before. She was an okay worker, but her attitude was subpar. She was supposed to be a salesperson, not a zombie in the corner. He had given her the job at the request of her father, who he was seeing for massive dental work. The only reason he said something was that her forced smile and new hair-cut had made him daring. Her hair did look great. It looked like honey, lit by the sunshine. It had body, it framed her pale cheekbones. There was more mist than cloud in her eyes and the bright green definitely shined.

             
"Something not frumpy," Alice affirmed. Ted nodded.

             
Alice emerged from the dressing room in a mostly green halter and form-fitting jeans. Ted spit coffee all over his books.

             
"What do you think?" Alice asked tentatively, not sure what his reaction meant anymore. Ted couldn't believe it. This frumpy girl who had been working for him for a few months was a model in disguise. She spun around. Ted was her dad's age. He was friendly with everyone but didn't scare Alice one bit. He was heavyset and happily married; at least, happily married for the second time.

             
"Your, uh, tag is still on the halter." Ted said. "Let me get that for you." He grabbed the scissors, approaching her slowly. Alice flinched slightly when he cut the tag from her, but she knew he was just trying to help.

             
The rest of the day passed uneventfully until around three. Ted looked up from the books he did in between customers. She was hanging new swim suits on the rack and he was looking out the window.

             
"Here comes one of the strange girls," he nodded. Alice looked up. All her awkwardness about her new-old look suddenly disappeared as Kari, distracted by Alice’s new look, ran straight into the shop’s glass door. Alice laughed without meaning to at little Kari face-planting herself into the glass with that gaped mouth look on her face. It was impossible not to laugh; except, apparently, for Ted, who jumped when he heard Alice laugh.

             
If her parents had been there, if her brother had been there, they would have stared in disbelief. This wasn't an awkward smile, this wasn't a forced laugh; this was mirth, true and real, something they hadn't heard from her since before her unfortunate history. For years her family hadn't heard a laugh like that. After his initial reaction of surprise, all Ted could do was smile. He thought it was strange that he didn't remember her ever laughing before.

             
Kari picked herself up, not hiding the fact she was openly staring at Alice through the glass. After a moment of disbelief, Kari ran at top speed toward the ocean.

             
Alice was wiping tears of laughter out of her eyes. "Why do you call them strange, Ted?"

             
"They're always buying swimsuits, but not a whole swimsuit, no, not those girls. They only buy tops. God only knows what they're doing with themselves." Ted sounded disgusted, Alice suppressed another laugh. She knew exactly why they didn't buy bottoms. She had definitely shredded enough clothing to know exactly what would happen to a swimsuit bottom on a girl who grew a tail after jumping in the water.

             
Alice was okay. Well certainly far from okay, but she was herself, she noticed people. She was there. She wasn't just a wall that people occasionally addressed. As she left work, she looked at the ocean and smiled faintly.
Not tonight,
she thought. Tonight Alice headed home. She didn't know why, she just knew that right then it was where she should be.

             
She got home a little after seven. Her family looked up from dinner. There was a spot set out for her, but she had never used it before. Her parents couldn't believe what they were seeing as she stepped through the door. David looked up from his meal, eager to return to his games but froze.

It was as if he was seeing a ghost, his sister, it was her again, but the look in her eyes belonged to someone else. He stared at her up and down looking at her, looking at the person she was combined with whatever she was now.
After a moment of staring at each other, David pushed his chair back and came toward her. For a tense moment he just studied her
closer
, and she looked back at him, into his sad eyes.
In one sharp instant,
his arms
were
around her.

             
"I love you, Aly," he said. After freezing stiff for a moment, unsure of how to respond, she wrapped her arms around her little brother. In his embrace she felt as calm as she did in the water. It was a small step, but it was a step all the same, and a big one for Alice. No one had been able to touch Alice in a long time. Alice smiled a real smile.

             
October began, refreshing breezes blew off the water, and everyone was out on the beach. The water was absolutely perfect in the rising temperatures. Alice was never herself more than when she was alone and swimming through the wonders of the blue. She liked to swim with one whale in particular; it sang to her, told her of wonders she hadn't explored. The mer world touched her occasionally, but, for the most part, she kept to herself. It was becoming harder to avoid their world when she knew so little about it.

             
This was how she found herself on a mission after work one day. She had a destination in mind, so she single-mindedly set out for it. She walked straight into the clinic.

             
"Is Adam in?" She asked the receptionist, idly noticing the gaudy nameplate that said Natalie.

             
"Yes; he's just stitching a cut on a boy's leg." Alice moved to go in through the back door. "But you can't go in there!" Natalie called after her. Alice didn't notice; she certainly wasn't listening. She walked past one of the rooms, lucky that the door was open. Inside, Adam was carefully lecturing a young boy.

             
"Let's try not to do any more dangerous stunts, Johnny. You could’ve broken a leg." Johnny, clearly not paying much attention, looked past Adam and smiled, a sucker perched precariously in his mouth. Adam, confused, turned to follow the little boy’s gaze.

             
"Alice!" He yelped in surprise. It was a good thing he had been done stitching: he hadn't seen Alice since her haircut and shopping spree. At that point, Natalie caught up to them, out of breath; she must have been at least thirty years older than Adam.

             
“I’m sorry, she just barged in. I couldn’t stop her.”

             
“It’s okay, Natalie. Alice is a friend. Would you mind taking Johnny back out to his parents?” Natalie agreed and began to usher the boy out.

“Alice…what are you doing here?” Adam asked as Natalie turned to leave.
He knew a pretty girl had hidden under all that hair and clothes, but to see her in person blew him away. It was a drastic change.

             
"I want to know more," she demanded. They both knew the office wasn’t a good place to talk, so Adam invited her to walk with him.

             
"What do you want to know?" he asked as they started down the sidewalk. It made him slightly uncomfortable to stand next to the person she was now. The change in her was palpable.

             
"Anything you do. Finn's posse talked about mating. What’s the deal with that?”

             
"Honestly, it's like an animal in heat..." Adam said awkwardly, looking Alice up and down out of the corner of his eye. "I mean they just, it's just...I don't know how to describe it,” he rubbed some of the building sweat off his brow. “The folk mate for life, and somehow they know."

             
"Know what?"

             
"Well, you know the old sayings about kissing a ton of frogs before you find the right one? Well with the folk, you know the instant your lips connect that you're destined to be."

             
"How is that even possible? I mean, with all the people divorcing these days…"

             
"Yeah, humans divorcing, sure. But, like I was trying to say, with the folk, they know. Something about the electrical current, I think. I really have no idea. You guys won't really let me study you, after all."

             
"How would one mate with a human, then?"

             
"You know, a human has a low current, too.” He paused, sighing with frustration. “I honestly don't know. Half of what the folk are is pure magic to me, because my science can't grasp it."

             
“So now you’re calling me magic?”

             
Adam stopped and looked at her. He wasn’t quite sure if she was joking; he couldn’t read the tone in her voice. She just stared back at him with no hint of what she really meant. He shook it off and just continued.

             
"Somewhere between winter and spring, I guess, is the peak for mating, but I don't know much about the social aspects. I mean, certain members of the folk I'd know...You're really talking to the wrong person,” he scratched his head. She was confusing the issue with the way she was looking at him; she seemed so different from the woman he had seen so often in the bar. “All I really do is treat the wounds from your fights."

             
"Knife fights?"

             
"Yeah, territorial, female or male disputes, they're all settled by your weapons. That's why it was so important you had one. Where is yours, anyway?" he said, trying to change the topic.

             
"Under my pillow."

             
"You should find a better place for it." They were continuing their walk, and it was all Adam could do not to just stop and stare at her. Why were all the folk so gorgeous, anyway?

             
"Why are all the women chasing Finn? He's an asshole. I don't care if his grandmother is dying." Adam stopped in his tracks. That was one way to get his attention.

             
"How do you know that?"

             
"How do you?" Alice countered.

             
"I treat her."

             
"He told me."

             
"Finn told you about his grandmother? Brassila?" Finn didn’t talk to anyone about anything, let alone someone who was completely new to their clan.

             
"Brassila?" Alice’s eyes widened with surprise.

             
"Yes."

             
"I didn't know." Alice said, shocked. Brassila had just been a story that a guy in a bar told her. She hadn't really applied Adam's story to what was happening to her now. Adam shook his head, clearing some line of thought he wasn't going to discuss.

             
"The girls chase him because he's a prize: the mansion will go to him, which means he has a safe landfall. He also has a lot of human wealth and power. And because he's waited far longer than usual to choose a mate."

             
"How old is he?"

             
"Around 26. His brother's about 18: this is Tommy's first mating season."

             
"They don't pair before?"

             
"Well, I know they kiss people, maybe experiment some, but they can't feel that spark before 18." He eyed her suspiciously, "You're not planning on going after Finn, are you?"

             
She looked shocked. "Me? Finn? No offense, but he's a pampered brat. Besides I don't need anybody." He stepped away from her as he watched a spark reflexively travel across two of her fingers. "No man gets that close to me," she said, slipping back into her old clouds briefly. It had a different effect when she was all cleaned and primped like one of the other maids. He watched the current travel across her fingers again: she was dangerous but beautiful, but she was also one of them. Somehow he just couldn’t get his mind on one track. 

             
"Please, don't do that near me. It was bad enough when you were drunk; I don't want to know how bad it is sober." Alice turned to him, seeing an odd fear in his eyes. For a moment they stood there, looking at each other, before they both burst into mild laughter. Alice looked around as she recovered: they were at his doorstep. She hadn't even noticed which direction they had been going..

             
"Why do you care if I go after Finn anyway?"

             
"I have a feeling some of those maids think Finn is their territory. They'd defend it with their knives. Which is why you should always keep yours on you. Your haircut could be enough to set them off, let alone...the rest," he said, pausing and looking away. At the mention of knives, Alice's hand instinctively went to her scar. Adam noticed but said nothing. "You, uh...wanna come in for dinner?" Adam asked awkwardly. She looked up. Was he asking her on a date? She couldn’t be sure, and she certainly didn’t trust the doctor who was paid to deal with her kind. Adam didn’t even know why he was asking her; he certainly didn’t want to get involved with the mer, it just seemed like the courteous thing to do.

             
"No, I should go home," she said after a pause. "My family, they just, they need me right now. I'll see you later. If I have more questions."

             
"You know, there're people in the underwater city like Misa who will answer your questions. Not to mention she would know way more than I could ever tell you." Alice froze for a moment, then continued on her way. She didn't tell him that she wanted nothing to do with either humans or merfolk, that she wanted little more than being left alone. Just because she had changed her appearance didn't mean she wasn't still the scared and traumatized woman inside.

             
Alice looked better, but it was for herself, and her family’s benefit. It was a start, but it wasn’t the solution. Alice didn't want anyone else. The only reason she was curious about the merfolk was because she figured she should probably know more if she was going to survive. The only thing she cared about was the ocean, and her family. Her family hurt for her, hurt with her, hurt because of her, and needed her to put back together what she had torn apart. She walked home that night and ate dinner with her family. Eating with her family was a singular act that did nothing but bring smiles to her parent’s faces, and that was reward enough. She had put them through enough suffering.