The Sirens Gift

Chapter 18.

“Keep the stitches clean with antibacterial soap, keep it wrapped if you plan to be working or anything… I’ll probably have you see your doctor in 10-14 days to have the stitches removed…”

I nodded “Yes sir…” I said. My dad nodded in agreement.

“Thank you…” he said.

“Jan will be in shortly to get your IV removed and get you ready to go.”

“Thank you Dr. Shaw.” I said, and he smiled.

“Not a problem. Stay safe.”

It was 8AM by the time we got home. My dad's dark bags had only seemed to get worse. I assume from staying up all night but he trudged downstairs and opened the diner with Greg, who agreed to help cook and run tables with Miss Jean, giving Sabrina and I the day to rest. He said he wouldn’t let me work until I was feeling better, so he left Sabrina and I upstairs while he managed the restaurant himself.

I took a shower before pulling my hair into a ponytail and pulling on tight-fitting pants and an orange tank top and sweater before sneaking through the living room where Sabrina had fallen asleep on the couch.

I slipped out the back door and down the steps, but as I slipped out the door a hand caught me as I stepped into the alleyway and I looked back to see Sabrina following me out.

“Addy…” she hissed in a whisper, “Where are you going?”

I paused, looking into her blue eyes. “I promised Caspian I’d…”

“No! Addy, no more Caspian!” She cut, “you can’t keep this up!”

“Sabby I promised him…” I whimpered as I pulled from her grasp. “I can’t break that promise…”

“Adalaie… they haven’t even caught Otis yet… What if he finds you? What if he murders you himself!?”

“I’ll be safe I promise…”

“No!” She hissed, “I won’t let you!”

I paused and looked at her, my lip began to quiver as tears came to my eyes. “I have to Sabrina…” I breathed. “Caspian, he…” I looked down at the ground for a moment and then back at her. “he’s… special to me… I have to see him… he’s… he's the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced… I feel so at peace with him…” her eyes had softened as my voice wavered with a sob. “I… I look at him and feel… I feel at home… that empty feeling I told you about… that feeling of never belonging… he changes that…”

“Addy…” she sighed, shaking her head. “We… can’t lose you Addy… Dad and I were so worried we… we can’t…”

“Then… Come with me…” I said softly, reaching for her hand, “Come meet him… and see for yourself…”

“Meet him?”

I nodded, “That way you know I’m safe, safety in numbers, right? Then you’ll see…”

It took a moment but she finally nodded and agreed with a hesitant “Okay…” before she trotted back up to the apartment to grab her shoes. She poked her head into the diner and let dad know we were going on a walk before we left and he argued about safety, but we promised him we’d stay together and call if something happened…

“We are taking my car…” she said as she stepped back out, closing the door behind her.

“That’s fine…”

“Wait here…” I said as I stopped her at the dock on the side of the sirens lighthouse.

“What? Why?” She asked.

“Because… well it’s hard to explain… Just wait, okay?”

She raised an eyebrow at me but nodded hesitantly.

I trotted to the alcoves beneath the lighthouse and waited at our spot for a few minutes. I sat down in the sand shoal and dug my fingers into the sand before I heard a small splash. I watched that familiar mop of curly brown hair rise timidly from the water, as his eyes caught mine he smiled. I smiled back and waited for him to come closer and pull his upper body from the water in the shallows.

“Caspian…” I started. He c****d his head to the side as if in question and nodded. “I… have a favor to ask if you…”

It took a few moments to convince him, he shook his head over and over again as I pleaded.

“Caspian… please… I promise she won’t say anything…”

He made a grunt as if he was sighing, then hung his head in an almost defeated way before looking up at me with blackened eyes. He nodded slowly. I grinned.

“Do you want to come to the dock or…?” He nodded. “Okay, I’ll meet you there?” He sighed and nodded. I trotted back out to the dock and she waited with her arms crossed over her chest, giving me an uninterested look as she watched me come back to her.

“So?” She asked.

“C’Mon.” I motioned her to follow me to the end of the dock. We sat on the edge of the dock. She still seemed incredibly agitated and dismissive of the situation. After a few moments, I caught a glimpse of green shoot through the water ahead of us. Sabrina was still looking toward the lighthouse. I nudged her arm and she grunted angrily as she looked back. I pointed to the water as she scowled at me and her eyes followed my finger, watching the green blur come closer.

I watched Caspian's head slowly peek from the water. He stared up at us cautiously, keeping an eye on my sister's movements as her jaw dropped to her chest.

“Sabrina… Meet Caspian…” I said with a triumphant smile.

“No… f*****g… way…” she whispered as he let the rest of his head emerge from the water. He reached his hand up and gripped onto the dock, doing a similar pull-up to the one he did when I first met him. His well-muscled arms flexed as he leaned himself onto the dock. Caspian looked over to me, surveying me up and down before his eyes fell on my stitched arm.

“No… no way…” she stammered.

“Caspian… this is my sister Sabrina…” I said to him. He gave a dismissive wave before pointing to my arm.

“Ah… the doctor took the fishing line out to stitch…” I said.

He gave an irritated shake of his head while his eyes rolled and gave a thumbs down as he stuck his tongue out. Then he pointed to one of the cuts on his shoulder which had previously been stitched with a fishing line and gave me a thumbs up.

“Well, I couldn’t exactly explain to the doctor how mer-medicine works so… stitches it is.” I teased with a laugh.

Then we both looked at Sabrina, who’s eyes were about as wide as saucers. Her mouth still hadn’t rebounded from its gapped position and she stared at Caspian in disbelief. He smiled, his cheeks forming the little dimples I was becoming so fond of before he arched his back and his tail emerged from the water, falling over himself and allowing water to drip onto his head as it trickled from his fins. He waved his fins side to side like a proud peacock as he grinned.

Sabrina peeked over the edge of the dock and looked down on his body, reaching her hand down, likely trying to find a seam like I had looked for the first time I saw him. When her fingers touched him where his scales met the tanned skin on his hip, she withdrew and looked at me. Questions laced her eyes as she looked back and forth between us.

“There’s… that’s not… possible…”

“Sabrina…” I said softly, “I told you… I’ve been telling you for two weeks…”

“Yeah but… but mermaids… aren’t real… they just… they aren’t…”

“I thought that too…” I agreed as I looked into Caspian's eyes, “But… but here he is…” I whispered as a new smile broke on my face. Just as I heard the far off hum of a motor. I looked up and couldn’t see anything, but it sounded sickeningly familiar.

“Otis…” I said softly.

“What?” Sabrina asked. Caspian nodded as he looked back toward the opening of the bay.

“It’s Otis… that’s his skiff.”

“I don’t… see anything…”

“You can’t hear it?” I asked. She shook her head. “We have to go… if Otis sees us…”

“Okay…” she said in a questioning tone.

I turned back to Caspian as he lowered himself down into the water. “Same time tomorrow?” I asked. He nodded and signed “goodbye” to me before he dipped back into the water. I could see his iridescent scales for only a few seconds before he faded beneath the water toward the lighthouse.

“Let’s get out of here…” I said to Sabrina. She nodded and followed me off the dock where we ran back through the park to her car before Otis entered the bay. I could see his skiff only shortly before we got too far to see the bay.