Page 145 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
“What will happen to you?” I whispered. “When I leave?”
“I’ll stay here.” He touched the tip of his nose to the top of my head in a soft, lingering kiss.
“Alone?”
A consoling purr tumbled out of him.
“Do you have other people you can talk to? People who can keep you company?”
“None who can hear me,” he said. “I’ll be okay. Pippi. I p-p-promise.”
But a deep sorrow hammered into my bones, nearly sending me sinking into the water.
Alistair hastily recalled his errant emotion, murmuring apologies as he nuzzled the top of my head.
“I’m so sorry, Alistair, I—” I yelped when something slithery and solid swatted my butt beneath the water.
Alistair’s laugh warmed my insides.
“What”—I puckered my lips at him—“body part was that?”
With awhoosh,the whip-like tip of his tail popped out of the water and waved at me.
“We haven’t ex…ex…experimented with this. Yet,” Alistair said.
“I’m not sure if we should. I’m pretty open-minded—” I squealed when Alistair snaked the tail along the water and gently flicked water in my face. “But I might have to draw the line at getting banged by a butt extender. Who knows where that thing has been?—”
“Abutt extender?”Alistair sonic boomed that laugh.
I hefted myself against him to avoid the angry onslaught of waves.
“You’re safe, Pippi.” He wrapped his tail around me to keep me steady. “Always. Even from my d-dirty butt extender.” The tip of his tail caressed my cheek as his mouth brushed the top of my head.
“Pippi…” He chawed on my name, savoring it until it gummed up his tongue, making it hard for him to get the rest of the words out.
“Pippi…Pippi, you…I…”
I craned my head, kissing his nose when I felt his aggravation burbling.
“I’ll miss you,” he finally said.
“Oh, Alistair.” I leaned into him, sighing when his tail gave my midsection a comforting smoosh. “I’ll miss you too.”
Dawn came too quickly.
I hated when time did that.
I’d stared at my phone calendar before we’d left home and had wanted to weep at how far away the end of this trip had seemed. But now it was here, and I wept at how frustratingly short that final night had been.
I’d started crying when Alistair mumbled,reluctantly, that he’d have to take me back through the inlet.
“The waters…thetidewill lower. Soon. It’s time, Pippi.”
The tears only worsened as he swam slowly through the rocks. And by the time he dropped me off at our usual spot, I was fully in the throes of big, snot-faucet central sobs.
“Oh, dear,” Alistair said as I stepped off his head and clambered up the rocks. I slipped once. Twice. Both times he made sounds of distress. So I gulped a breath down, squeegeed the tears away, and got my feet back under me.
“You’ll be alright, Pippi,” he murmured as I popped my feet back in my shoes. “C-c-c-chin up…that’s the saying. Yes?”
