Mermaid

Chapter 15

"So what was it that you wanted to talk about?" Erika asked as she sat on the small sofa in Sherrie's bedroom.

"It's about your mother." Erika frowned at Sherrie, even though she could not see her face for her back was facing Erika as Sherrie looked out the window with her arms crossed over her chest. "I really do think your mother came from Japan, and that staying here won't do you any good ether."

"I know that." Erika said. "But I just can't go at the moment, even though I really want too, I just have to wait for now." Sherrie was quite, causing Erika to frown slightly. "What's wrong Sherrie?"

"A few things, but those don't matter right now." She turned to face Erika. "What matters is that you need to go to Japan." Sherrie walked over to Erika and placed her hands on her shoulders. "So I'll be sending you there the day after tomorrow."

Erika's eyes went wide, before her head snapped upward to look at Sherrie with shock. "What?" she said, not sure if what she had heard was correct or not. "Did you just say that... you're sending me to Japan...?"

Sherrie nodded. "I am, and you might not have noticed, but I think... your mother is alive Erika."

"You... saw my mother..." Erika spoke in a quiet voice, before grabbing on to Sherrie's arm's and began to shake her slightly from where she sat. "You actually saw her? Where? Where and when did you see her? Tell me Sherrie! I need to know!"

Sherrie merely looked down at her, her expression filled with sadness, before she gave in and told her. "It was on the day after that incident in the ocean with the drowning boy. I actually saw you walking away from the house, though if you can recall the distance with my room to the front door is a bit of a stretch. Though when I saw you walking down the street I saw someone watching, at first I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. But I knew who it was, it was your mother Erika, she's alive."

"But..." she looked up at her with disbelief. "How can you be sure? I mean ...how?"

"Because of what happened to my mother's room. When I stayed over at Alison's that evening someone came and destroyed the place leaving my mother stricken with panic. When I had asked her later when she calm down who had done it she told me. "It was Yara, she's mad at me for what I did. It was Yara she did it not me." things like that." She wrapped her arms around Erika and hugged her close, Erika resting against Sherrie's stomach. "But I know it was your mother, white hair, and that same dress she wore that day."

Erika pushed Sherrie away before getting up, her mind racing, lavender eyes darting about. "But that's impossible! I saw her die!" she looked at Sherrie as if she was suddenly reliving the horror of that day. "I saw my Mom die... she fell off that cliff and into the ocean. No one could have survived from that!" she fell to her knee's eyes now downcast to the floor. "I... I saw her fall... she died... didn't she...?"

Sherrie once again drew close to Erika, kneeling down to be at her level, only this time she was much more hesitant in touching her, not sure if she would allow it or not, but when she rested her hand on Erika's shoulder she didn't jerk away. "It might be possible that she did survive that fall, you and I both know that her body was never found." She paused, waiting for a response when she didn't get one she continued. "You need to go to Japan Erika, your dreams and the way you've been feeling recently. Something's happening that you're not telling us and I can understand that. But if your mother is alive, you might be able to find out why. She might even want you to go to Okinawa; this is something you need to look into Erika, because you never know what you might find."

Later that evening Erika woke up to the sounds of shouting coming from down the hallway. Erika rolled in the bed to stare out the window as her mind ran through in a constant loop over what Sherrie had told her.