The Tail of Emily Windsnap (4 page)

I ducked under the water as another beam came around. What if he’d seen me? I stayed underwater until the light had passed. When I came up again, I looked back at the lighthouse. There was no one there.

And then the light went off. I waited. It didn’t come back on.

I tried to imagine what it was like inside. Just Mr. Beeston, all by himself, rattling around in a big empty lighthouse. Footsteps echoing with emptiness whenever he climbed up and down the stone spiral stairs. Sitting alone, looking out at the sea. Watching the light. What kind of a life was that? What kind of a person could live that life? And why hadn’t the light come back on?

Dark questions followed me home.

By the time I reached the pier, it was nearly morning. Shivering, I pulled myself up the rope ladder.

I snuck back onto the boat and hung my jacket near the stove. It would be dry by morning. Mom likes the place to be like a sauna at night.

As I crept into bed, I thanked the lucky stars on my ceiling that I’d gotten home with my secret still safe. For now.

“Don’t forget your things.” Mom reached through the side door, holding an object that filled me with dread.

“Oh, yeah.” I took my swimming bag from her.

“And get a move on. You don’t want to be late, do you?”

“No, of course not.” I looked down at the rippled sand between the wooden slats of the dock. “Mom?” I said quietly.

“What, sweetheart?”

“Do I have to go to school?”

“Have to go? Of course you have to go. What crazy idea do you have in your head now?”

“I don’t feel well.” I clutched my stomach and tried to look like I was in pain.

Mom pulled herself up through the door and crouched on the jetty in front of me. She cupped my chin in her hand and lifted my face to look at hers. I hate it when she does that. The only way I can avoid her eyes is by closing my own, and then I feel like an idiot.

“What is all this about?” she asked. “Is it your new school? Don’t you like it?”

“School’s fine,” I said quickly. “Mostly.”

“What is it, then? Is it swimming?”

I tried to move my head away but she held on tight. “No,” I lied, looking as far to the side as I could, my head still trapped in her hand.

“I thought we had that all fixed,” she said. “Are you worried in case it hasn’t worked?”

Why hadn’t I thought of that?
I couldn’t believe how stupid I was! I should have realized that if I let her think I was cured, I’d have to go swimming again!

“I’ve got a stomachache,” I said weakly.

Mom let go of my chin. “Come on, sweet pea, there’s nothing wrong with you, and you know it. Now, scoot.” She patted my leg and stood up. “You’ll be fine,” she added, more gently.

“Hmm,” I replied, and sloped up the ramp and along the pier to wait by the promenade for the jitney that drops me off near school.

I slunk into homeroom just as Mrs. Partington was closing the attendance book. She looked at her watch and said, “I’ll turn a blind eye, just this once.”

She always says that. Everyone laughs when she does because she actually does have a blind eye. It’s bright blue, just like her other one, but it doesn’t move. It just stares at you, even when she’s looking away. It’s a bit freaky. You don’t know where to look when she’s talking to you, so we all try not to get in trouble. She always has the best-behaved class in the school.

I didn’t laugh with the others this time, though. I just said, “Sorry,” and went to sit down, pushing my hateful swimming bag under the table.

The entire morning was a disaster. I couldn’t concentrate at all. In addition to being my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Partington was also my pre-algebra teacher. We were doing some simple equations, and I kept getting
x
wrong. I was really mad, because I’m good at math, and usually I can solve the bonus questions easily. Mrs. Partington kept giving me sideways looks out of her good eye.

When the bell rang for break, I actually did start to feel sick. Next was swimming. Everyone ran out of the room, but I took ages putting my pens and book away in my backpack.

Mrs. Partington was wiping the board. “Come on, Emily,” she said without turning around. “It might be nice to do something on time today.”

“Yes, Mrs. Partington,” I said, and crawled out of the classroom, reluctantly dragging my swimming bag behind me.

I walked to the gym like a zombie. We were supposed to catch the bus right outside to the Brightport Community Center, where the pool was. It crossed my mind just to keep walking and not stop at all. I’d gotten as far as the double doors when Philip North called me back. “Oy — teacher’s pet!” he yelled. Everyone turned to see who he was talking to.

“Teacher’s pet? What are you talking about?”

“Come on, we all saw you showing off last week in the pool. Bob couldn’t stop going on about how
amazing
you were and how we should all try and be like
you.
”

“Yeah. We all heard what he said.” Mandy Rushton came up behind Philip. “And we
saw
you.”

I glared at her, speechless. She saw me? Saw
what
? My tail? She couldn’t have! It hadn’t even formed —
had it?

“I can’t help it,” I said eventually.

“Yeah, right.
Showoff,
” Mandy sneered.

“Shut up.”

Mr. Bird, the P.E. teacher, showed up then. “All right, break it up. Come on, you guys.”

I found a seat on my own. Julia sat across the aisle from me. “Philip is such a pig,” she said, putting her bag on her knee. I smiled at her. “He’s only jealous because he doesn’t know how to swim.”

“Thanks, Ju —”

“Move over, Jules.” Mandy plonked herself down next to Julia and flashed me a smarmy smile. “Unless you want to sit with
fish girl.
”

Julia went red, and I turned to look out of the window as the bus bumped and bounced down the road. Mandy’s words swirled around and around in my head as if they were in a cement mixer.
Fish girl?
What did she know?

The bus stopped in the community center parking lot. “You coming?” Julia hung back while Mandy pushed and shoved to the front with the rest.

“In a sec. I’ll catch up with you.” I pretended to be tying my shoelaces. Maybe I could hide under the seat until everyone came back, then say I’d fainted or fallen over or something.

I could hear chattering outside the window, then it went quiet. A moment later, there was a huge groan, and people were shouting.

“But
sir,
that’s not
fair,
” I heard Philip whine. I snuck a quick peek out of the window. Bob was standing there, talking to Mr. Bird. The kids in the class were just milling around; some had thrown their bags on the ground.

Next thing I knew, somebody had gotten back on the bus. I ducked down again and held my breath. But the footsteps came all the way to the back.

“You’re not still tying your shoelaces, are you?” It was Julia.

“Huh?” I looked up.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m just —”

“Doesn’t matter anyway.” She sat down. “Swimming’s canceled.”

“What?”

“The pool’s closed. Budget cuts. They forgot to tell the school.”

“You’re kidding!”

“Do I look like I’m kidding?”

I looked at her face; she was totally miserable. I stared down at my lap and shook my head. “God, it’s just not fair, is it?” I said, trying hard not to grin. “Wonder what they’ll make us do instead.”

“That’s what Mr. Bird’s talking about now with Bob. They’re going to send us on a nature trail, apparently.”

“Duh — boring.” I folded my arms, hoping I looked in as much of a huff as Julia. Bob soon turned back toward the building, and Mr. Bird announced with a smile that we were going to Macefin Wood.

Mandy glared at me as she sat down across the aisle. I had to sit on my hands to stop myself from punching the air and shouting, “YES!”

I went to bed really early so I could get a few hours’ sleep before sneaking out to meet Shona. I easily found my way to the rocks again and was there first this time. A familiar flick of a tail spreading rainbow droplets over the water soon told me she’d arrived.

“Hello!” I called, waving, as soon as she surfaced.

“Hi!” She waved back. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” She splashed rainbow water in my face with her tail as she dove under.

We seemed to swim for ages. The water reminded me of those advertisements where they pour a ton of melted chocolate into a bar. Warm, and silky smooth. I felt as if I were melting with it as we swam.

Shona was ahead of me, gliding through the water and glancing back from time to time to check whether I was still there. Every now and then, she’d point to the left or right. I’d follow her hand to see a hundred tiny fish swimming in formation like a gymnastics display, or a yellow piece of seaweed climbing up toward the surface like a sunflower. A line of gray fish swam alongside us for a while — fast, smart, and pinstriped, like city businessmen.

It was only when we stopped and came up for air that I realized we’d been swimming underwater the whole time.

“How did I do that?” I gasped, breathless.

“Do what?” Shona looked puzzled.

I looked back at the rocks. They were tiny pebbles in the distance. “We must have swum a mile.”

“Mile and a quarter, actually.” Shona looked slightly sheepish. “My dad bought me a splishometer for my last birthday.”

“A
what
?”

“Sorry, I keep forgetting you haven’t been a mermaid very long. A splishometer shows you how far you’ve swum. I measured the distance from Rainbow Rocks yesterday.”

“Rainbow what?”

“You know — where we met.”

“Oh, right.” I suddenly realized I was out of my depth — in more ways than one.

“I wasn’t sure if it would be too far for you, but I really wanted to bring you here.”

I looked around. Ocean everywhere. What was so special about this particular spot? “Why here?” I asked. “And anyway, you haven’t answered my question. How did we do all that underwater?”

Shona shrugged and tossed her hair. “We’re mermaids,” she said simply. “Come on, I want to show you something.” And with that, she disappeared again, and I dove under the water after her.

The lower we went, the colder the water grew. Fish flashed by in the darkness.

A huge gray bruiser with black dots slid slowly past, its mouth slightly open in a moody frown. Pink jellyfish danced and trampolined around us.

“Look.” Shona pointed to our left as a slow-motion tornado of thin black fish came toward us, whirling and spiraling as it passed us by.

I shivered as we swam deeper still. Eventually, Shona grabbed my hand and pointed down. All I could see was what looked like the biggest rug I’d ever seen in my life — made out of seaweed!

“What’s that?” I gurgled.

“I’ll show you.” And with that, Shona pulled me lower. Seaweed slipped and slid along my body, creaking and popping as we swam through it. Where was she taking me?

I was about to tell her that I’d had enough, but then the weeds became thinner. It was as though we’d been stuck in the woods and finally made our way out. Or into a clearing in the center of it, anyway. We’d come to a patch of sand in the middle of the seaweed forest.

“What is it?” I asked.

“What d’you think?”

I looked around me. A huge steel tube lay along the ground; next to it, yards of fishing nets sprawled across the sand, reaching up into the weeds. A couple of old bicycles were propped up on huge rusty springs. “I have absolutely no idea,” I said.

“It’s like our playground. We’re not really meant to come out here. But everyone does.”

“Why shouldn’t you come here?”

“We’re all meant to stick to our own areas — it’s too dangerous, otherwise. Too easy to get spotted. And this is really far from where we live.” Shona swam over to the tube and disappeared. “Come on,” her voice bubbled out from inside it, echoing spookily around the clearing.

I followed her into the tube, sliding along the cold steel to the other end. By the time I came out, Shona was already flipping herself up the fishing net. I scrambled up behind her.

“Like it?” Shona asked when we came back down.