The Sound of a Siren's Call

12) The Human Flubb

Waking up with someone staring down at you has never been a reassuring thing. I frantically reached for my knife and was on my feet before I let myself process who it was.

Castor skittered backward, but I already had him in a headlock before he raised his hands over his head. I let go of him, noticing I'd attracted way more attention than I'd wanted to. The sun was just starting to rise over the waves, and I immediately noticed a ship.

It was on the horizon, but a series of quick flashes sank any doubt they'd miss us. They were being signaled to come rescue. They answered, and my heart sank.

Attention was shifting away from me, but that didn't stop Castor from following me as I raced to where the small island dipped into the waves. My mother smiled at me.

"That's a pretty ship."

It was a perfectly benign comment, but it made my stomach lurch.

"Can you not? Just once."

She looked at me amused. "You worry too much."

I took a deep breath. "Because I'm the one that shows up and makes a big deal of her teenage daughter going on a trip."

My mother swished her tail, deliberately splashing water on me. "Adventures have never done anyone any good."

I wasn't in the mood to argue. I was in the mood to go back to bed and forget the world existed, but there I was.

"Hypocritical, don't you think? You know Dad loves to talk about you guys' exploits sailing the seven seas together." She looked like she was about to argue, her hands poised, so I cut her off. "But that was a long time ago, right? I don't understand how you could just stop—"

A huge wave crashed into the rock and rose up like each individual water particle wanted me to shut up. I sputtered and blinked at my mother. She was smirking as she bobbed up and down.

I took a deep breath. "Just please don't today."

I turned and walked away, the new ship still flashing on the horizon. Juniper was waving desperately.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm working on it." Then I stopped. "Can you distract my mother?"

Juniper paused and then nodded quickly.

"Thanks."

I looked at the approaching ship. The little rowboat had to still be around.

I went to where I'd left it. Other than a siren who'd draped herself over it, it was untouched.

I met the girl's eyes.

"Would you mind getting off my boat?"

She shrugged and didn't move. I reached across to where her arms clung to the side and tried to gently push her off.

"Are you going home? I can't leave until you're going home."

"I'm going home," I lied. The girl smiled and slid off.

"I can pull you."

"No. I want to row."

"Ok," her fingers slid together. "I'll just tell your mother."

"Could you wait?"

She furrowed her eyebrows, making her affirmation seem like a question.

"I just want to take a little detour," I stressed the little, and she nodded.

I pulled the boat out and realized Castor was behind me. I shifted uncomfortably. If he was going to keep following me around, there was going to be a problem. He was very close to the line that separates friendly interest from being a stalker.

I took a deep breath. I didn't even turn to look at Castor. Tell your crew to meet here so you can row out to the other ship.

I wasn't a raving fan of speaking, but it was the only thing he'd understand. The only navigatable path took me right past Castor. I didn't meet his eyes, and let my shoulder bump into his so he stumbled back. In hindsight, that might've been mean, but at the moment I had too much on my mind to be polite.

I trudged to a rock where I could see the oncoming ship. I could Juniper talking to more people at once than I thought was possible.

Men trouped by me at intervals, Castor at the end. He paused, and I pointedly ignored him. He trudged on.

With a sigh, I got up to see how Juniper was doing with her distraction. When I got close enough to see her, she was in the middle of an animated story. Her face stretched into several animated expressions, and I sat by the water watching her.

My mother swam next to me. She looked up at me. "Want me to translate?"

I needed her distracted. I nodded.

"She's been telling this story about this guy she's seen wandering around on the docks. She's saying 'And then, you know, he was fall-over-drunk. So then he just falls off the dock. So I'm floating there, right? This drunkard has practically fallen directly on top of me at this point.'"

I stopped paying attention, opting to blankly stare at my mother's mothing hands. Eventually, I zoned out. Juniper was doing an excellent job of distracting.

At least she was until our lovely humans flubbed it. I didn't hear it, but unfortunately, everyone else did. Everyone's head snapped away from Juniper towards a dingy that was starting out to sea.

Juniper was in front of everybody before I could jump to my feet. The sirens were racing past Juniper before I could process what was happening. I was up and running.

I threw myself in the water, landing on my mother's back. I held on for dear life, hoping to slow her down. She stopped and tried to pry my arms off her. I hung on, ignoring the fact I was barely helping. Juniper was off doing something that I couldn't afford to look at.

It wasn't like I was afraid of drowning, but I suddenly realized that my mother could very easily get rid of me by going too deep. I'd have to take a breath, and then I'd be a disoriented siren.

My mother did the obvious thing and we were tumbling underwater.

I took in a sharp breath of the ocean water and kept grappling with her. If I looked up, I could see tails gathered around the boat. It was hopeless, but I still kept trying to keep my mother back.