Bayou

Chapter 20 ~ Sleeping Mermaid

Chapter 20

Life went on, and my peace returned. Croc kept Danny away from me, and a lot of the flashbacks went with him. He put him to work, cleaning fish, picking vegetables, helping Julia plant and water and pull weeds from the garden while Gator followed close behind, ready to take him out if he so much as sneezed.

Danny's absence wasn't all that changed. The relationship between Croc and I completely evolved. He stopped being a hunter and started being a friend. We were companions, family, and we focused on the children, teaching them books after breakfast and swimming after lunch. We laughed, talked, and worked together.

Eve and Eric grew and thrived. They were normal kids, getting to experience things the way they were intended to, and I was a part of that. It was the greatest accomplishment I'd ever made. It was personal. I was giving them something I'd never had, and I relished the feeling knowing that.

Croc and Eric knelt at the end of the dock, searching for fish worthy of dinner while Eve and I navigated the water further down the canal. I'd been teaching her to swim, focusing on how to feel and move the way Croc had taught me. She was older than Eric—more ready to try—and she took to it like a natural. We moved together, a little more each day, mainly above the surface, but today, I wanted us to do more.

"Are you ready?" I asked her, nervous that I may be moving too fast.

She smiled her snaggle-toothed smile, holding onto a branch with one arm with her feet prepared to kick off as if it were an Olympic race.

I laughed at her seriousness. "Under the water, as far as we can. If you need to breathe, just stop, and we'll take a break before heading back."

She nodded. "Okay, okay. I know that stuff. Can we go?"

Her skin had a glow to it, cheeks rosy and eyes shining with life. Nothing like the girl I'd found, frail and frightened yet still ready to fight to protect her younger brother. Healed. The water, the current, Croc and Gator and plentiful food and freedom had given her the tools she needed to reach her potential, to be this amazingly, determined and tenacious child. It'd given her wings, and I loved watching her fly. "Alright...Ready...Set—"

She kicked off, diving under, and I dipped down to watch her. Her feet became little propellers, and her body waved like a dolphin's, how Croc's did, how mine did. Warmth flooded my chest. She was amazing, doing the things that I'd taught her. I'd shown her how to do that. My cheeks hurt from smiling as I hurried forward, keeping just behind so I could track her progress and intervene if a problem presented itself.

Eve had no problems. She dodged rocks, maneuvered around logs, and reached out her hands to pet the many fish she zoomed past. She was a little mermaid, and my heart swelled. She made it far, all the way to where Croc had led me, then seeming to know that was as far as was safe, she pulled herself above the surface and turned to find me. "Did you see me?" she shouted the instant I emerged. "Did you see me, Willow? Did you see how good I did?"

"I saw." I laughed. "I almost couldn't keep up."

She sucked in lungful after lungful of air, glowing in the light of her accomplishment, staring out at the horizon. The sun shone onto her face, illuminating her golden curls. An angel. Had I ever been that innocent? Had I ever felt that accomplished? That proud? That happy?

I knew my answer the moment I asked myself the question. I had, just now. In that moment, I felt all those things, because when Eve turned to look at me, she didn't see an orphan or trash or someone less than. She looked at me how Julia looked at Merle; how they all looked at Croc. She'd remember me, this event, years from now, long after I'd gone, and within that memory, I'd be something good, something important, something to smile about.