Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath (11 page)

“Hey, wait!” Cori called out over them. “This isn't over. They can't just do this.”

But people were already heading for their cars and the campers were being herded back onto the Camp Whycocomagh bus.

“No. We don't have a case.” My eyes blurred with tears, thinking the whole rally had been for nothing. “They have every right to be building where they're building.”

“And here's the proof,” Lainey said as she stalked over toward us, waving what looked like the Environmental Assessment in the air. She stuffed the papers in my hand. “Are you happy now?”

“I'm sorry, Lainey.” I reached out to touch Lainey's arm, but she turned and walked away.

Luke, Trey, Cori, Chelse, and Bridget all huddled around me as the crowd dwindled, offering encouraging words.

“Thanks, guys.” But as the construction trucks rumbled to a start and headed down to the site once more, my stomach twisted in a horrible gut-wrenching knot. If the epically powerful web presence of Chelse Becker couldn't help save Mom, what chance did I have?

I sat on a large rock by the ocean, just down the hill from the construction site, waiting for Dad to pick me up. The crowd was long gone, the trucks had restarted their caravan back and forth through the chain-link gate, and the gang was catching a ride back to Main Street in Bridget's van. I suppose I could have gone with them, but the thing I wanted most was to be alone.

Large waves crashed against the rocks where I sat. On one hand, I wished the surf would grab hold and sweep me out to sea. On the other, I wanted to run far, far inland and never see the ocean again.

I imagined the sentries blocking the mouth of the culvert underwater and the locked chain-link gate behind me. I'd failed Mom on both land and sea. Even after everything that had happened, nothing had changed.

Someone sat down beside me.

“Luke.” I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my T-shirt and sniffed louder than I had planned.

Luke leaned over, nudging my shoulder with his. “Hey.”

“I thought you guys were all gone. Didn't you go with Trey and Cori?” I turned to see if the others were with him.

“I was going to, but then I remembered you still have my phone.” He smiled his adorable curvy-lipped smile.

“Oh.” I felt in my pocket and realized I'd gone totally klepto on him. Reese would have been proud. I stood on the rock, pulled out his phone, and handed it to him. “Sorry.”

“No.” Luke slipped his phone into the side pocket of his board shorts. “I'm the one who's sorry. I should never have gotten your hopes up about that Environmental Assessment thing.”

“You were only trying to help.” I waved a hand back in the general direction of the mall parking lot. “In fact, everyone's been so amazing—even if they don't understand how this is about more than just butterflies for me. Much more.”

“For me too,” Luke said quietly. That's when I realized this was bigger than just me and Mom. The tidal pool was important to all mers, Luke included.

“I just don't know what to do next.” I jumped from rock to rock, trying not to slip into the crashing surf. Luke followed behind, step for step. He picked up large rocks along the way and tossed them into the water beside me, splashing my jean shorts. “Hey, are you trying to soak me?”

“Maybe.” Luke laughed. “Or if I'm lucky I'll knock out one of those culvert guys.”

That's when something occurred to me.

“Where is that thing anyway?” I followed the shoreline, trying to figure out where the large metal culvert could be, but the water came all the way up to the rocks making it impossible to find. I scrambled up the bank to the road.

“What are you looking for?” Luke asked.

“That spot where the road bumped up a little.” I scanned the road. “There!” I pointed.

We followed the hump back to the water. The culvert was still underwater but even deeper than the last time we'd checked. I listened and could just make out the faint ring of the sentries over the pounding surf. Luke must have heard it too.

“So, I should aim for down there, huh?” He picked up another rock and heaved it into the water, but we both knew it would take more than a slowly sinking rock to get past those guys. But seeing Luke tossing rocks into the water reminded me of something.

“You remember that puddle on the beach below Toulouse Point, where we first heard Reese?” I asked.

“You mean the one with the crabs and barnacles that got trapped at low tide?” Luke asked.

“Yeah. I'm just wondering, do tidal pools work the same way?”

“Maybe. I'm not really sure,” Luke responded.

I looked down into the water, thinking through my idea and hoping I was right. If the barnacles and crabs got trapped in that puddle when the tide went out, would the same thing happen to the tidal pool? Did the tide go down far enough so that we could actually walk through the culvert?

“When is low tide?” I asked excitedly.

Luke had his cell phone out. His fingers flew over the screen for a few minutes. “According to Weather.com it'll be low tide at 7:32 p.m.”

I looked at the time on his cell phone. It was 1:23.

“Darn. That's still six hours away. How low does the tide get here?”

“It's about a five foot drop at my grandfather's place.” Luke looked down into the water. “That looks deeper than five feet.”

“Yeah, but if it's shallow enough, the sentries might not be able to swim through,” I said.

“Only problem is it'll still be light out at 7:30.” Luke rubbed his chin and looked down into the water.

“We have to try, though, don't we? When it's dark?” I looked back at him.

“I'm in.” Luke slipped his phone back into his pocket and hopped onto a higher rock to get a better look.

“Yeah. Except I'd rather not drag everyone else into this. All those people up there. Plus Chelse. And Cori and Trey. Bridget.” I glanced back at the mall parking lot feeling sad that they'd all put so much effort into the rally only to have it all fall apart. “If this is another dead end, I'd rather not have an audience. So…just us?”

Luke held out his hand.

“Just us.” He took my hand to help me up to the rock where he stood. My heart quickened as I stepped onto his rock and realized how close we were standing once I made the trip over. My face was inches from his, close enough to see a new spray of summer freckles across his cheeks and to smell the coconut sunscreen scent of his skin.

Just
kiss
him, you idiot,
I thought, ignoring Dad's voice droning in the background. A whole flock of butterflies fluttered in my stomach and my face grew hot. But if we kissed again that would make him my boyfriend, probably, and me his girlfriend, I guessed. What then? How lame would it be to have a boyfriend and not actually be allowed to date?

I turned my head to give myself a chance to think, but just then, my phone rang.

“Sorry. Excuse me.” I shuffled on our now seemingly teeny tiny rock and struggled to get the phone out of my pocket without accidentally knocking Luke into the ocean. “Dad, where are you? I think I might have a solution to our problem. Just meet me at the shore below the mall, okay?”

“I'll be there as soon as I can. Don't do anything until I get there, okay?”

“Yeah, okay, okay. But hurry,” I said hanging up.

Luke looked at me slyly.

“So. Just us plus your dad, then?” He took my hand and helped me up the bank to wait for Dad.

“Sorry.” I looked back at the rock where we'd stood and gave myself a mental slap upside the head for ruining a perfectly romantic moment. Did Luke think I didn't like him now? Argh! Why did I have to be such a dating dork?

“Actually, it's perfect.” Luke picked a long strand a grass and put it between his lips. “Your dad can drive the getaway car.”

•••

By the time it was dark enough to launch Operation Culvert, the tide was low but rising. It had rained since dinnertime, and now a steady cold drizzle fell, adding to the eerie darkness. A knee-deep stream flowed out from the culvert, down the shore, and to the ocean about ten feet away.

“There's no way those mers can get up here.” Dad shined the light from his flashlight helmet up and down the shallow stream and held a hockey stick over his shoulder, ready to strike at any time.

“I wonder if they stayed in the ocean or if we'll find them waiting in the tidal pool.” I waved my flashlight into the hollow vastness of the dark culvert. The light bounced off the corrugated metal walls.

“Well, either way, there are three of us and only two of them, right? Speaking of which, where's Luke?” Dad spun around and nearly took my head off with his hockey stick.

“Whoa there.” I ducked. “Easy with that thing, Gretzky.”

“Oh, good. There he is.” Dad's helmet light spotted Luke scrambling down the bank to the shore. “Are they gone?”

“The security guard just left for the night,” Luke said as he joined us. “We should be good to go.”

“Perfect.” I'd been waiting all day for this moment. It was a relief to have it finally arrive. “So the plan is we go in, get Mom, and get her into the Merlin 3000 if she hasn't finished transforming, right?”

“Yeah.” Dad hesitated. “About that—”

“What?” I wasn't sure how many more surprises I could take.

“Well, the computer had to be rebooted after Eddie and I made some modifications,” Dad said.

“Isn't it working?” I cried.

“We just haven't had the time to recalibrate it yet,” Dad said quietly.

“Dad!” I cried.

“Sorry. I can go back to the trailer now and see—”

“The tide is rising,” Luke reminded us.

“Okay, okay.” I closed my eyes and tried to stay calm. “The longer we stand around here the less chance we have of making it through that culvert. Electronic devices.” I held out my hand for Dad's and Luke's cell phones and stashed them in the waterproof bag inside my backpack. “Let's go.”

I waded into the knee-deep water and crawled on my hands and knees to enter the culvert, followed by Luke and then Dad. I knew I could easily mer-micize if I inhaled water for a few breaths, so I kept my head well above surface.

“How long is this thing, anyway?” Luke asked as we sloshed through the tunnel.

“Not sure.” I shined the flashlight in front of me, but it didn't help much. Plus, a knocking sound reverberated against the top of the culvert, making it hard to concentrate.

“Dad!” I turned and caught the beam of his headlamp straight in the eye, burning pinpricks of light onto my retinas, which didn't help the freaked out feeling running through my body. “Could you tuck your hockey stick under your arm so it doesn't bang against the ceiling? Not exactly stealthy, you know what I mean?”

“Oops, sorry.”

The walls of the narrow, four-foot wide metal culvert felt claustrophobic as we crawled through. Wondering if the mer sentries could actually swim in the knee-deep water, my heart rate quickened. Or what if they'd ramped up security and added a night shift at the construction site? Maybe Grumpy McGrumpypants was waiting for us on the other end of the culvert!

I'd managed to whip myself into a big ball of nerves, but finally, after another thirty feet or so, I could see a circle of twilight up ahead.

“I think we're almost there,” I whispered over my shoulder and tried to steady my breathing, which was quick and uneven from the slog through the culvert. I couldn't believe we'd actually made it. We were SO close to discovering whether or not Mom was safe!

I crawled out of the culvert and took a step forward, but the water was deeper than I'd expected.

“Ahrkk—” I fell forward with a splash, dropping my flashlight into the water. Someone (or something) grabbed my arm! “Get off me!” I cried as I lashed out, working to find my footing.

“Jade?” Dad called out, but soon I heard another splash, complete with a wave of water knocking me off my feet once more.

“Dad!” Had someone got him too?

I struggled away from the hand on my arm to try to get to Dad, whacking someone in the head in the process.

“Ow!” It was Luke. “I was only trying to help.”

“Oh, sorry!” I brought a hand to my mouth, realizing that the hand on my arm had been his.

“It's okay.” Luke laughed. “Just remind me not to meet you in a dark alley. You okay, Mr. Baxter?”

“Yeah, I'm good,” Dad replied.

Finally, after a few minutes of stumbling and splashing, we managed to drag ourselves to the edge of the pond.

“You didn't breathe anything in, did you?” Luke asked.

“No, just a mouthful and it's disgusting,” I replied. I'd caught a splash of water in the mouth and sputtered out the mucky taste. All those truckloads of earth must have started running off into the water. The rain was only making things worse.

“Let's start looking.” Dad's headlamp flickered on and off from his unexpected dunk.

“Where do we begin?” I looked around, trying to make sense of our surroundings. “And how are we going to find our way back to the culvert to get out? I won't be much help. I lost my flashlight when I fell.”

“Why don't I stay here?” Luke suggested. “Call out when you're ready to come back and I can flash my flashlight to lead the way.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Shouldn't we all stick together?”

“Only if we all want to get
arrested
together when we can't find our way back,” Luke joked.

“He's got a point,” Dad said. “I'd rather not have to get a father-daughter jail cell.”

I laughed and turned to Luke before setting off.

“Yell if you see something, okay?”

“You got it.”

•••

Mom?
I rang out over the water for what seemed like the millionth time.

We'd traveled around the edge of the tidal pool for over an hour and found nothing. It was slow going in the dark and rain, and the mucky spots along the way made progress slow. Plus, Dad's headlamp kept flickering and only lit five feet ahead of us.