Whispers Beneath The Waves (Boy x Boy) [Shortlisted for The Wattys 2018!]

Chapter 6 - Answers

Hey guys!

A huge thank you to everyone who is still reading this, I hope you're enjoying the unravelling mystery... Today's chapter includes a lot of answers from Lennon's Mum Josephine, did you guess what was going on? 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this installment! 

Love Becky x

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Chapter 6

Answers

I was sat at the kitchen dining table, directly opposite Mum. We were both clutching mugs of green tea, waiting for the other to make the first move.

This room was so cosy and familiar to me. It was where I'd baked cakes as a kid with Mum, where Keiko and I had run around shooting water guns at each other and where a cup of tea was always waiting for me after a bad day. I couldn't help but feel like that sense of familiarity was about to be shattered.

Maybe the whole world as I knew it was about to come crashing down.

Mum let out a pained sigh. "Lennon, I don't even know where to begin with all this."

"How about you begin with the mermaids?" I said. It was pointless treading around the truth. I just wanted her to come out and tell me the whole story. "They really exist, right? And they live in Melwyn Bay?"

"Not just Melwyn Bay," Mum answered. She was staring into her cup as she spoke in a small, quiet voice. "They live in oceans all over the world. But yes, I've only ever met the ones in the Bay."

"You've actually spoken to them?"

Mum finally met my eye and nodded. "Yes. Many of them. I was their helper for over ten years. Just like my mother before me, and her mother before her. The responsibility has been passed through the women in our family for generations, tracing right back to the late 1800s when merpeople first started coming to the human world. Of course, their folklore spans even further back than that, but they weren't always allowed to come up to the surface."

Merpeople. I thought they were a myth. A fairy tale. Something you found in a Disney cartoon, not in real life. I probably should have been shocked to my core, but somehow the revelation brought a peaceful sense of calm to me. I wasn't crazy to talk to the ocean after all. It was literally in my genes.

"What do you mean by helper?" I asked.

"Well," Mum replied, clearing her throat. "I mean that... I help. If a mermaid or merman wants to integrate into the human world then I get them all the documents they'll need to do that. Plus food and shelter and clothes. I'll teach them anything they don't know about living here." She stopped for a second then corrected herself. "Or rather, I used to teach them. I don't do it anymore."