Page 52 of Between Salt and Serenades
I watched the ruined dress sink into the depths, slowly growing closer and closer to the seafloor below as if something lurking under the sand beckoned it. Before I crossed over into our territory and into the Dreslee, I unhooked my necklace and palmed it.
When every reminder of my time of land was out of sight, I dashed forward, chasing lingering fish further and further into my home. As I dove deeper, the water grew colder, reminding me just how far from the sun I’d been all these years. The colorof the water down here was an otherworldly blue, as deep as the night sky.
The Ever Wanderer was nothing but a hazy smear in the distance. I could feel my stomach in my throat as I wondered how Breena was faring. Was she darting through the water with the kelpies and other selkies, or was she already basking along the rocky shoreline, catching Niven up on her adventures in Barthoah?
I wondered then how much I would tell Zellia and my mother of my time on land and what all I would keep to myself. There was no time to decide, though, because out of nowhere, a flash of white streaked across my vision. There was no mistaking who it was, but my eyes didn’t get to focus on her before she was already in my arms.
“Zellia!”I pulled my sister closer to my chest, squishing her flat against me, like if I hugged her hard enough, I would absorb her into my very soul. I clutched my pendant in my hand, careful not to drop it amid my excitement.
“Sid, you’re alive!”her sweet voice echoed through my mind a little too loudly. She pulled back to take me all in, and only then did I see her face clearly. A single bubble fled my mouth as I gawked at her. Had her cheeks been that sunken in when I’d left, or had I grown accustomed to the starvation written plainly across the faces of those I loved?
“Where have you been?”she asked when I’d done nothing but stare at her.“We all thought you were dead!”
“Not dead, just on land. It’s a long story, but I ended up in Barthoah, Zel.”I’d let that sliver of information sink in before I bombarded her with anything additional.
Now, it was Zellia’s turn to stare.
“Barthoah? The village where Dad grew up?”she asked. I nodded and finally let go of her arm.
“Take me to Mom, and I’ll tell you both everything.”I’d known when the words left my mouth that they had been a lie, but my mom and Zellia didn’t need to know about that little fib. What good would telling them about my relationship with Breena do? What good was it to tell Zellia about a secret family member she would never be able to meet?
“Wait a second. You brought fish, didn’t you? Oh my gosh, there’s so many!”Zellia’s eyes went wild as she followed one of the larger fish with her eyes. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Zellia was the hunter of the family as her pupils stretched into focused slits.
“I may have brought a few gifts. Come on, let’s go tell Tetwin and Xifi,”I said.
Zellia led me into the Ever Wanderer, and as she did, sirens we passed placed their hands on me. They bowed their heads as I swam, someone placing their palm on my shoulder as someone else pressed the pads of their fingers into my tail fin.
Didn’t think I’d be missed so much,I thought to myself as I flashed everyone half smiles. When we arrived at our little spot of the Ever Wanderer, I found my mom running her hands over my box of glass.
“Mom!”I called out into her mind, darting toward her.
“Sidra? Is that really you?”she asked, confusion written plainly across her face. My mother was slow to close the distance between us, her mossy tail flicking back and forth with apprehension. Squinting her sky-blue eyes at me, she placed her shaking hand on my cheek as soon as she could reach me.
“I’m truly here.”I set my free hand on top of hers, my other hand remaining loyal to the pendant it gripped.
“And she has a lot to tell us apparently,”Zellia said.“She has been on land.”
“Land?”my mother echoed.
“Barthoah, to be exact,”Zellia continued, playing with the ends of her silvery blonde hair as she waited for our mother’s reaction. Mom’s face dropped, as did her hand on my face. The area she’d once held was now cold, the sting of her disapproval that much more intense.
“It’s not what you think, Mom. I had no choice. I left the Dreslee to find food, and when I did, I was scooped up by a fishing vessel.”
Zellia’s gasp cut me off, and my mother’s mildly aged face morphed into an immovable stone.
“You were captured?”they asked at once, both in their own tone. Zellia’s was borderline excited while my mom’s was a mix of horror and disbelief.
“I cut myself free of their net and hid on their ship until they returned to land. I snuck off the vessel before anyone noticed me and found myself in Barthoah. There was no way I would risk transitioning again so soon, so I stayed in the village until I felt strong enough to come back. I’m sorry I was gone so long, but I had no other choice but to wait.”
“What was it like? It’s been ages since we’ve been!”Zellia asked, but my mother’s deadly stare under sand-colored brows silenced her.
“Mom, it’s not like I intentionally left. I would have never gone to land and left the pod if I’d had the choice.”
My mother’s face finally softened, and when it did, her gaze dropped to my hand. I gripped the pendant tighter, but it was already too late. She reached forward and looped the rope of the necklace around her finger. Upon her tug and pursed lips, I dropped the glass piece that was pressed into my skin.
“Zellia, please leave. We will catch up with you later,”my mother said as she stared down at the necklace with dagger-like vision.
“I’m not leaving. Despite how you treat me, I’m not a child.”Zellia fixed her tail fin into the sand scattered across the bottom of the ship. Sometimes, I had to remind myself that she’d been alive for two decades. I knew my mom forgot this even more than I did.
