Page 17 of Dry as a Fish
"Right of course," his mom beamed at him, but instead of sitting down, she circled around the table and walked over to where I was standing in the entryway. "Sloane is it? I'm Darlifin, Delphon's mother. I hope you slept well. Delphon told us you had a heck of a time yesterday. He frightened you so bad that you clawed his gills? He is going to have a lot of work to make up for that as a first introduction. Can I give you a hug? You look like you need a hug."
"Uh, sure?" I said.
She wrapped her arms around me and enveloped me in warmth that smelled like freshly-baked bread and salt. "We're so happy you're here."
Her hug was more salt in my open wounds, rubbing it into them deeper with the comparison of what could have been. Istiffened, and she released me, stepping back as her hands slid from my back to my shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze before letting me go and turning back to find her seat. Delphon was setting a plate down at an empty spot, so I went over and sat down. As I did, Delphon pushed my chair in slightly for me, and I gave him a small, tense smile.
He clearly told his family all about me.
What must they be thinking about how my parents treated him?
"My parents aren't always like that," I blurted out, my thoughts forming words without the context of the present moment to guide them.
"Like what?" Delphon's father said before lifting a forkful to his mouth.
I looked down at my plate. It looked like scrambled eggs with a side of bacon and fruit, though the bacon was paler looking than I was used to, there were small bits of green speckled into the fluffy eggs, and the fruit was blue with taut geometric skin like a cherimoya.
"Delphon must have told you about my parents," I said, restarting.
"Delphon didn't say much about them other than the fact that we likely wouldn't meet them," Darlifin said.
"I didn't know if you would want me talking about your family," Delphon said.
My heart warmed at his words, and I shot him a grateful look. He was so considerate.
"You're welcome to, of course," Darlifin interjected. "We want to know anything about you that you want to share with us. Finding a heartsong in a mundane hasn't happened before, not that I'm aware of, so you are quite the lake cucumber.Everyone is going to want to know everything about you, what you like, where you grew up, how he found you... I'm betting there will be a lot of people tracking me down today to ask."
Cucumber? I blinked, not understanding her reference at all. I took a bite of the eggs. They were delicious.
"I want to know what is wrong with her parents," Orcalia said. "Are they jerks or something?"
"Orcalia," Delphon's father said, his voice gentle yet firm with admonishment.
"What?" Orcalia asked. "You know Delphon, he loves singing everyone's praises so the fact that all he said was that we wouldn't meet them means they must be really shit people otherwise he would have come back here talking about how wonderful the inlaws are. You all know that, too. What if they're kelpie eaters? Shouldn't we know if Delphon's heartsong descends from Kelpie eaters?"
"Orcalia, Sloane is a kelpie eater," Delphon's father said, his voice low. "Don't be cruel."
"I'm a what?" I asked.
"She doesn't count if she didn't know," Orcalia said. Then she turned to look at me, pinning me with her gaze. "Did you know?"
"Know what?" I asked, even more confused. I continued to work on my food, eating several bites. I took a bite of one of the fruits, and it tasted like a very sweet strawberry.
"That you ate kelpies," Orcalia said.
"What is a kelpie?" I asked.
"Orcalia, you know that most of the mundanes don't know what they're eating in the commons, so drop it," Delphon said. "Sloane, you don't need to answer any questions. My family accepts you for who you are, whether or not you want to talk about yourself or your family."
He gave his family a stern look.
"Right?" he asked.
"At the very least, she could tell us what kind of things she likes," Orcalia said. "So we can convince her that staying here is better than going back to kelpie eaters."
"Orcalia!" Delphon said, exasperated.
I liked her, even if I didn't understand what she was talking about. Her tone was friendly, and she had a smile the whole time. Everything she said distracted me from the aching cuts on my heart, smothering them in a warm blanket of friendly attention that was a little invasive, but still comforting. It was nice to know that she really wanted me to stay.
