Moonfin (6 page)

Sugar showed up with a tray of scrumptious cinnamon rolls for all to share, and Phil Pinkerton, Jeff's grandfather, donated the contest prizes. Kai and Lizzy didn't win any of them, but Jeff won a new clamming fork for digging up the most bivalve mollusks—a total of ten in only five minutes. His grandpa was beaming with pride.

Captain Quinn stopped by to drop off some catch to roast over the fires. He briefly caught Lizzy's eye and a pained glint crossed his face before quickly turning away. All the middle school teachers, including Mrs. Gates, joined in on the festivities, but the looks she gave Lizzy and Kai weren't exactly on the friendly side. Lizzy wondered how they were going to survive seventh grade if they didn't get on her good side.

Mr. Sniggles better not swallow any more of her pens or I'm toast.

Chapter 5
THE WAVE GROWS FINGERS

“I
t's the Tiki Turd.”

Kai slapped a hand to her face.

“Jeff,
really.
”

“What! It's brown and round—”

“Lovely.”

They stood on the boardwalk that ran behind the lodge and peered inquisitively at the unusual building.

“It's supposed to look like a coconut,” said Lizzy, tilting her head from side to side.

“Well, yeah, fail there,” chuckled Jeff.

While the Tiki Lodge got that inglorious title around town for its odd shape, the rocky nook it sat next to had been named after some obscure local hero, but came to be known simply as Abalone Cove, due to the ample supply of shells that washed up there.

A long spiral staircase linked the boardwalk above to the beach below. They climbed halfway down the winding stairs and jumped over the rail, setting off along a sandy path that wove along the ice plant encrusted hillside, passing a sign that read CLIMBERS BEWARE! on the way down.

“How do the abalone shells get plastered along this cliff, anyway?” Kai wondered aloud.

“The otters,” said Jeff. “They hunt the juicy abalone meat that populate this ocean shelf and let go of the shells. When the tide comes in, and the surf pounds the cliff, the abalones get stuck there, free for the taking. The Shell Shack buys them for five buckaroos, and that's good business.”

“Yeah, the Shack turns around and sells them for fifteen dollars to tourists,” said Lizzy, digging her toes in the cool sand. “That's even better business.”

Lizzy scanned the gently sloping hillside. It was a mere tilt for fifty feet before dropping sharply into the treacherous trench of swirling froth below. The locals called it the Dragon's Mouth because of the way the water made a horrible sucking and sloshing sound:
harrruuggmmph—harrruuggmmph
—over and over again in perfect timing. The trail stayed parallel with the cliff for a bit, eventually climbing back up to the main road. But they needed to go below the path to reach the shells, which was tricky footwork, and one slip could mean getting caught in the swishing mouth of the dragon.

Jeff knew all the best mining spots and led the way. “I can see about forty abalones just up ahead. Let's do it.”

They scurried down to a patch of shells and worked swiftly. The abalones dislodged from the hillside easily in some places, but in others the sand was packed like soft cement, and they had to dig around the shell with a trowel to loosen it. Working away for over an hour, they filled their sacks to the brim, the roar of the ocean growing much louder than when they first started.

“We'd better get back in!” Kai shouted as she tugged on her last shell.

The ocean frothed ferociously below them, a hungry wave splashed high and grazed Lizzy's foot.

“Okay!” she yelled back. “Just one more to go!”

“It's not worth it, the waves are too close!” Kai called back.

Sea wind blew them off their feet in sudden gusts; hair whipped around faces, stinging eyes and confusing senses.

“I can do it!” Lizzy climbed down a few more feet to reach the last shell. Only a few more inches …

She had just pulled it from its sandy home when a wall of seawater came up and crashed heavily down on top of all three of them. Kai and Jeff were able to grab on to something and hold tight, Lizzy lunged for a vine and missed. It felt like the wave had grown fingers and wrapped around her arms and legs, prying her nimbly from the hillside.

Falling, falling, falling
for what seemed like an eternity, then
swoooosh
! The churning water swallowed her small body, propelling her forward into the salty deep.

“HEEEELLLPPGURGLEARGH!” she cried out.

Then the next second, complete noise obliteration.

White bubbles surrounded her on all sides. The mighty wave pulled her backward and
down, down
,
down
for several seconds … several minutes …

The ocean felt unusually warm.

A soothing calm washed over her—like the feeling you get after having a warm blanket wrapped around you on a cold winter's night. She decided to stop fighting and let the force pull her ever downward into the sloshing waters.

Confusing words flowed in and out of her head. She tried to speak what she saw, only it wasn't like using one's mouth to form words, or the vocal chords to give them sound. They were more like thoughts with color that she could see, and Lizzy could visualize them very clearly coming from her own mind—

“
So quiet
. I should be afraid, but I'm not
,
” she uttered in this new way.

The evening twilight pierced through the green waters and shone as pillars of light. Lizzy suddenly felt strong arms wrap around her, tugging and cradling her. It caused her to spin around in circles, and she wondered if she might be tangled in some seaweed, yet looking around, saw nothing. She made one last effort to kick herself back up to the surface. It was no use. Finally reaching the seabed, she sat crossed-legged in utter silence, unable to move.

Her lungs began to burn.

“I can't breathe,” she spoke into the hushed waters.

At any moment, she would be forced to open up her mouth and breathe in seawater. She panicked and horrible thoughts filled her mind: What if she was to die and wash up on shore, or get caught in a fishing net, or worse, never seen again! This last thought struck terror in her heart. She thought about her lab, and all her pets and plants stored there. Who would take care of them?
Certainly not Jade, she couldn't keep a slug alive.

Lizzy was close to accepting her sad end when a conch shell circled her shoulders and rested in her lap. “
That's odd
—they're too heavy to float like that,” she said to no one in particular.

A few crabs scurried by. A sea snake slithered along her feet, and a pufferfish bumped into her back a few times, as if she were an annoying road block, and called her names she'd best not repeat.

She could feel her lungs suffocating, and in her fear, she thrashed and wriggled violently.

My lungs are on fire!

Just when she was going to open her mouth and inhale a gallon of seawater, the conch shell floated to her face and pressed firmly over her mouth and nose.

“Breathe,” she heard someone say.

There wasn't any choice in the matter—she did and her lungs filled with wonderful oxygen.

“Ahhh, thank you. Wait. How is that possible?”

“Mhmhmhm, you are welcome,” said the voice. “Breathe deeply, Lizzy, and remember the Way of the Deep.”

There it was again.

“How am I supposed to know the way to anywhere under here
?
” she said dizzily. She had no idea what this person, or Iddo, meant by this
Way of the Deep
business, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

“You have only forgotten what you once knew.”

Lizzy took deep draughts of air and felt rested for a moment. The voice was soothing as it spoke, and when Lizzy formed words in her head, they were mysteriously understood, just like if she said them out loud.

“I can't see you.”

“In time.”

She sat still on the ocean floor, not moving from her spot, not understanding how she was able to stay down with lungs full of air. It wasn't terribly deep, as she could still see the waning light above. Time went by … minutes, maybe an hour, she couldn't tell. Being under the sea was very disorienting. When her lungs began to ache, she would breathe deeply into the conch and be fine for several more minutes. Before long she was able to go for longer and longer spans of time between intakes of breaths. Sounds faded in and out. Some of the sounds even carried a tune.

“Is that music I hear?”

“That is
conversation,
as you would call it.”

“I've never heard it before
.
”

“You have never listened. Most do not. The music comes from all the sea creatures near and far. They have many sounds and communicate in many ways. To you, it will always sound like music. To them, it is as simple as saying, ‘Good day to you.'”

Bubbles swirled around her.

“And if they suffer, it will not sound like music at all, but
other
sounds you do not want to hear. That is how it is for some at present.”

“Who are you?”

Silence.

Lizzy tried again—“May I ask …
what
you are?”

“Did not Iddo speak to you? He was supposed to explain things to you by now.”

“I met Iddo at the aquarium. He spoke to me a little about the sea music and also showed me something in my mind—some sort of animal.” She was starting to get used to talking like this now.

“Lizzy, I cannot keep you under for much longer. Your friends are looking for you even now, so you must listen carefully.”

Lizzy couldn't be sure, but specks of light danced around and through a clump of bubbles, and little by little, she was able to make out some form of a person. From the voice, Lizzy guessed it was female. She reached out her hand and tried to touch the flakes of light whirling about her.

The water-lady continued, “It is imperative that you free Iddo from the aquarium as soon as possible.”

That was a jarring thought.

“Um—y-you want me to steal a grown octopus from its tank?” It's not like she could plop Iddo on her head, like a hat, and walk past security. He didn't look anything like the foam squid hats in the gift shop.

“Dr. Krell is going to change Iddo soon, and you must free him before it is too late.”

“Dr
.
Krell … the
aquarium director
? Why would he bother with Iddo?”

“There is much to explain, but all I can say to you now is he keeps secrets in one of the rooms beneath the aquarium labs. If you find the room, the answers you seek are there.”

The water-lady became more fervent.

“You must stop him from doing to Iddo what he has done to other poor creatures.”

“I don't understand—
what
poor creatures?”

Lizzy had no idea what she was talking about. Why would Dr. Krell want to hurt the sea animals? It's his job to protect the aquarium life, after all. She began to float gently upward and took one last breath from the conch. Many hands seemed to be lifting her from the seafloor. She broke the surface where gentle waves carried her toward shore.

She heard a whisper in her ear …

“Do not forget.”

“B-but—can you at least tell me your name?”

A wave lifted her above the sea and laid her lightly on the soft sand. One last ripple of water washed over her and she heard these words, “My name is Xilinx. My friends call me Xili.”

“Xili,” said Lizzy, using her voice for the first time since falling into the ocean.

She rested on the shore with her eyes closed, the sun warming her damp skin. It was such a nice feeling to have lingered there on the ocean floor, and she wanted the feeling to last. It was so
familiar
.

Suddenly Lizzy heard voices coming closer, but for some reason her brain couldn't form human language properly to call out to them. When she tried to speak, only one word came off her tongue: “PANCAKE.”

She tried again, and again, “PANCAKE!” popped out.

“Shoe-mop-beard-glop-patty-cake-baker's-man!” tumbled from her lips. Shortly afterward, sand splashed against her legs as someone skidded nearby, but she couldn't move, her mind and body held captive by the garbled language.

“Golly, I think she's dead!” Kai gasped, leaning over Lizzy's still body.

The mishmash of words came together and actually started to make some sense: “Boil the pot and wash the hippo. A cookie in your hand is worth two in the couch!”

“She's having a seizure. Quick—I'll give her CPR, and you blow puffs of air in her mouth so she can breathe!” said Kai, motioning Jeff toward Lizzy's head. “Just like in the movies!”

Lizzy became frantic.

“Milk the cat, you dumb green mouse!” she blurted before her brain snapped back to normal. “Don't you dare,” she threatened Jeff.