Page 107 of Midnightsong
“He’s gonna get in my way,” she whined. Rosie’s gaze pleaded with Angie to keep Jack with Mia. Jack hopped over to Rosie, and grabbed her hand, his eyes round and pleading.
“Mia?” Angie asked. Her sister looked like she was ready for a break and Angie wasn’t about to deny her.
“Rosie.” Mia reached into her purse and pulled out a novel with what looked like a topless white-haired winged man seductively caressing a scantily clad petite woman.The Dragon Lord’s Kisswas displayed across the front in gilded letters. “Let your brother come with you.” She settled in and kicked her feet up. Angie couldn’t help but grin. Her sister was an avid reader and frequent visitor to their tiny village library in her late teens and early twenties, with young adult and later, adult romance novels as her favorite genres. Though after marrying Nick, Mia had stopped reading.
Rosie made a noise Angie couldn’t decipher and let out a dramatic sigh. “Okay, fine. C’mon Jack, let’s go get our coats.” She walked to the entrance and Jack happily followed.
Angie motioned with her head to Mia’s book once the kids were out of earshot. “Happy to see you’re reading again.”
Mia peeked at Angie over the top of her book. “Yeah, I missed this while I was married.”
“I thought you said you were too busy with Rosie to read. How do you find time with two kids now?” Angie quirked an eyebrow.
Mia’s gaze flickered to Rosie and Jack, still getting dressed. She lowered her voice and leaned closer to Angie. “Uh, well, that’s what I told you. But Nick didn’t like me reading romance novels. He said he tolerated it while we were dating, but he made his, erm, displeasure known after we married.”
Angie’s eye twitched. Her cheeks flushed hot with irritation.“Are you serious? So, on top of everything else, he was also insecure?”
Mia rested the open book on her lap and rubbed her face. “He said he never looked at or thought about another woman twice, in real life or anywhere else, after he proposed.” She shrugged, puffing out her cheeks when she exhaled. “I believed it. And he thought I shouldn’t be either. So, I respected my husband’s wishes.”
“But they’refictional men. He shouldn’t have tried to stop you from a hobby you loved.” Angie gritted her teeth. Not to mention he forcibly kissed a mermaid and Mia never knew.
“Oh, I agree. At the time, I agreed to make him happy.” Mia shook her head, one corner of her lips turning upward, her expression solemn. “The kids are ready to go outside. Do me a favor?”
“Yeah?”
“If Jack has a meltdown, or they won’t come in, tell them we’ll give them hot chocolate.” Mia gave her a dismissive wave before returning to her book.
“We make snow angel!” Jack clung to Rosie’s hand as Angie led them out, strapping her winter boots on and helping Rosie and Jack with theirs.
The three trudged outside to their backyard, and memories filled Angie of when she was a child, making amorphous shapes she called mermaids in the snow. Mama used to come help her, and Bàba when he was home from the docks. The memory slowed her breaths, of Mama standing over her patiently while Angie played, before eventually getting on the ground and making snow angels and mermaids with her. Thoughts of when Mama was healthy were her favorite ones.
“Angie ayí, I want to go diving with you,” Rosie announced once they got to their knees and put their hands to the snow.
Angie brightened. “I’d love to take you when it’s safe again. But you’ll have to wait until you’re eight.” “Okay.” Her niece stopped what she was doing and flipped around so she was on her hands and knees. “Why do the merpeople have to hurt us? Why?” She burst into tears, and Angie froze making the bottom half of a snowman. She rose to her feet and strode the three steps over to Rosie and gathered her in her arms. Her niece’s seaglass bracelet glinted under the sunlight from when Angie found one in a fishing net shortly before she discovered fish were vanishing.
“Mew-people?” Jack blinked, walking toward Rosie and sitting beside her.
“Papa is gone because of them. I miss him.” A fresh wave of tears came, crystallizing on her pink cheeks, and Angie brushed them away.
“He’s always watching you,qinàide. He’s with our ancestors, watching you grow up, and I bet he’s so proud of you two.”
The three resumed making their snow angels and snowman.
An hour later, Rosie announced she wanted to go back inside, and Angie climbed to her feet. “Jack, honey, you ready?” The toddler stared at her. Angie lowered her voice, as though she were telling him a secret. “There’s hot chocolate inside.”
“Yay, hot chocwit!” That made Jack jump to his feet and he eagerly followed behind. She grabbed his hand with Rosie tugging on the bottom of her jacket to follow along back to the house.
“I’m cold, Angie ayí. I want my hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows.”
“Okay, let’s go.” She picked up her pace, and she let the kids get ahead of her when her phone pinged, an incoming email from Dr. Williams to the school’s faculty and student email list.
Hi everyone,
Ty Williams here. Just wanted to give an update on what’s been happening with SMOSA. MDRT is working with them and is preparing to deploy to the seas. In the meantime, keep your distance from the shorelines. Hope we’ll all be safe soon.
Angie dry-heaved, and her stomach plummeted to her boots.
Forty-Seven
