Page 3 of Oceansong
“He’s part of the family, you know.” Mia’s tone became cutting. “But if you hadn’t gone to the lower forty-eight for college, you might see he’s not such a bad guy.”
Angie reeled in a sharp response. She wanted to spend quality time with her family in the few months she was home, not cause friction. Especially not over Nick.
“This came from the sea?” Rosie squeezed in between them, waving her bracelet at Angie.
“Yes, the fisherman got it with their catch.” Thankful for the interruption, Angie knelt to slip the bracelet onto Rosie’s wrist. “I’m glad you love the ocean as much as I do.”
“Oh, she’d come every day if she could. She must have been a fish in a past life. Or a mermaid, from Bàba’s stories,” Mia said.
“Mermaids dropped this?” Rosie’s hazel eyes widened with wonder.
Angie met Mia’s gaze which pointedly told her to play along.
“They might have,” Angie kept her tone neutral. Once upon a time, shewas just like Rosie. Wanting to believe fairytales were real as she fell asleep to Bàba’s bedtime stories of how merfolk with healing powers once frequented the waters around the Last Frontier but inexplicably vanished over three hundred years ago. She could keep Rosie’s mermaid dreams alive until she found out about their nonexistence for herself. “Maybe one day you’ll do what I couldn’t and find them.”
“Yay!” Rosie exclaimed, then looked to the side, eyes lighting up. “Papa!”
Angie moved aside when Mia walked around to greet her husband with a quick kiss before asking Angie, “Walk with us to the car?”
“Sure.” They made the ten-minute trek out of the docks, idly chattering about their days, the way they did after middle and high school. Nick walked ahead of them, holding Rosie’ hand and asking about her summer camp.
They crossed the threshold into the parking lot, the crisp, fresh air giving way to a leaden, brisk scent. Mia put a hand on Angie’s arm. “Tell Bàba we’re coming for dinner?”
“Sounds good.”
“And.” Mia stopped, letting Nick and Rosie walk ahead of her. “If you and Nick could try to be civil tonight, I’d appreciate that a lot.”
Angie gave her sister a tight nod, and caught the slightest shake of Mia’s head as she turned and joined her family.
She planned to be polite with Nick for her family’s sake, but he could make it so tough.
Once they were out of sight, Angie returned to the docks to grab her belongings. As she strolled, she reached into her pockets for her phone to check if Bàba had texted or called her.
“Damn it.”
They were empty.
The phone must be in her locker. She purposely kept it there to resist checking her texts all day to see if her sort-of college boyfriend had texted her back.
It was a half hour before the next ferry to her village came. She could make that work.
Angie dashed back to the waterside and into the nondescript building that was the staff’s locker room. Most of the staff had gone for the day, and she hurried to enter the code.
As the long metal door flew open, a glint appeared at the corner of her eye. Angie glanced out the window at the ocean, where calm ripples trailed over the brackish seawater, a reflection of the overcast skies.
She leaned against the windowsill. Against the larger-than-life backdrop of towering mountains and majestic glaciers, a lone fishing boat coasted by. A tranquil, everyday sight.
When it sailed past, the glint reappeared. A long, slender maroon fishtail, unlike any she’d ever seen, broke the water’s surface.
Angie staggered back, her next breath catching in her throat.
In a blink, the fishtail disappeared.
Two
Angie sat glued to herMacBook the next evening, fingers moving over her mouse scroller and keyboard, scouring her pre-downloaded e-textbooks for information on the mysterious fishtail.
The house was unnervingly quiet now that it was just her and Bàba in the spacious five-bedroom home. As it did at times in her childhood, the isolation was getting to her. The feeling that the rest of the world, including her old friends who left Creston, moved on while her little village was frozen in time. Back then, she eventually grew used to her own company, that of her family’s and their handful of school friends, and select workers and residents in her secluded village with a population of just over two hundred.
