Fins Are Forever
Page 43
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“Just a second, okay?”
Rather than the glib response I’ve come to expect from her, she quietly says, “Okay.”
I hear the door click shut.
“Gotta go?” Quince asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “Doe needs to use the phone.” Neither of us wants to hang up. After a few seconds of listening to each other’s breathing, Quince says, “She’l come around.”
“I hope so.” Closing my eyes, I focus on my transformation, returning to my land legs. “I’m not sure what to do if she doesn’t.”
“She wil ,” he insists.
“How can you know that?”
“Because I have faith in you,” he says, and I can hear the grin in his voice, “And I have faith in love.”
“Me too,” I say, echoing his smile.
“I’l see you in the morning.”
“Yes please.”
We exchange I-love-yous and good-nights before hanging up. I pul the plug from the bath, splash the soap film off my chest, and climb out as the water swirls down the drain.
“Doe,” I cal out as I wrap a towel around my dripping body. “I’m read—”
“Great.” The door pops open, and she steps into the bathroom. “I need to communicate with Brody.” With a sigh at her near-invasion of privacy, I hand her the receiver and explain how to dial the phone. She stares at the buttons, confused. Pushing it back at me, she says,
“You do it.”
I start to take the phone but stop myself. If Doe is going to learn how to appreciate humans, she’s going to have to learn how to be human. “No,” I insist. “You dial it or you don’t talk to him.”
She throws me an evil look but careful y pushes the talk button. As I recite Brody’s number from memory—at least three years of crushing left me with something useful—she dials, only messing up and having to start over once. When she’s finished, I indicate that she needs to hold the receiver to her ear.
“It’s buzzing,” she says, sounding concerned.
“Ringing,” I correct. “That means you did it right.” Her attention shifts as the ringing stops. I can hear someone say something on the other end.
Doe asks, “May I speak with Brody, please?” There’s a pause and then, “It’s Dosinia.”
Holding her hand over the mouthpiece, she says to me,
“His mother is fetching him.”
I smile.
Until she adds, “You can leave now.”
My first thought is to strangle her. Her attention is back on the phone; she’d never see it coming. But that would leave Brody heartbroken by an unsevered bond. I couldn’t do that to him.
Besides, I don’t have the energy to do it right.
In the end, I just clench my teeth, take a deep breath, and leave the room. Doe slams the door behind me. Maybe, if I ask real y nicely, Aunt Rachel wil get me my own line. Or, even better, a cel phone. Though I can only imagine the cel phone company laughing when I bring in my soaking phone for replacement.
Maybe I should just stick with the land line.
Suppressing the temptation to listen in on her conversation—if she doesn’t know how to dial a phone, she can’t possibly understand about extensions—I head to my room and hold the door open for Prithi to join me. Traitor that she is, she’s stationed outside the bathroom instead of fol owing me.
“I’m the one who feeds you, you know.”
She gives me a wistful look, like she wishes she could be in two places at once, and then turns and presses her nose to the crack under the bathroom door.
“Fine.” I swing the door shut behind me.
After retrieving my rainbow pajamas from beneath my pil ow and trading them for my towel wrap, I sit down at my desk and pul out markers and a blank sheet of paper.
Using an exercise we learned in freshman English, I fold the paper in half lengthwise and prepare to make a pros-and-cons list. I use a purple marker to draw a line down the middle. Then I title each column and begin fil ing them in.
Accept Tellin’s Proposal
Reject Tellin’s Proposal
Duty
Love
Daddy
Aunt Rachel
My kingdom
Myself
Legacy
Future
Living up to my potential
Discover new potential
Responsibility
Dedication
The people of Thalassinia
Quince
Leading my people underwater Protecting my people from above I’m not sure what I’d hoped to accomplish by making this list. Maybe I thought one side of the decision would far outweigh the other and I wouldn’t have to fret about it anymore.
The truth is there are valid reasons for me to make either choice. The only difference is… it’s a choice I’ve already made. I’m giving up my title and living on land, living with my human half and forging a future with the boy I love.
Without another thought, I crumple the list and toss it into the trash. That’s the end of that mental debate.
Then why do I stil feel so adrift?
Chapter 11
y lunch the next day, Doe and Brody are back in each Bother’s laps. By Wednesday afternoon I’m ready to throw them both back into the ocean. If only the waters of south Florida were chil y enough to cool them off.
When I stomp through the kitchen door after school and find them sharing one of the dining chairs, I stomp right on through to the living room before flinging my backpack to the ground.
Rather than the glib response I’ve come to expect from her, she quietly says, “Okay.”
I hear the door click shut.
“Gotta go?” Quince asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “Doe needs to use the phone.” Neither of us wants to hang up. After a few seconds of listening to each other’s breathing, Quince says, “She’l come around.”
“I hope so.” Closing my eyes, I focus on my transformation, returning to my land legs. “I’m not sure what to do if she doesn’t.”
“She wil ,” he insists.
“How can you know that?”
“Because I have faith in you,” he says, and I can hear the grin in his voice, “And I have faith in love.”
“Me too,” I say, echoing his smile.
“I’l see you in the morning.”
“Yes please.”
We exchange I-love-yous and good-nights before hanging up. I pul the plug from the bath, splash the soap film off my chest, and climb out as the water swirls down the drain.
“Doe,” I cal out as I wrap a towel around my dripping body. “I’m read—”
“Great.” The door pops open, and she steps into the bathroom. “I need to communicate with Brody.” With a sigh at her near-invasion of privacy, I hand her the receiver and explain how to dial the phone. She stares at the buttons, confused. Pushing it back at me, she says,
“You do it.”
I start to take the phone but stop myself. If Doe is going to learn how to appreciate humans, she’s going to have to learn how to be human. “No,” I insist. “You dial it or you don’t talk to him.”
She throws me an evil look but careful y pushes the talk button. As I recite Brody’s number from memory—at least three years of crushing left me with something useful—she dials, only messing up and having to start over once. When she’s finished, I indicate that she needs to hold the receiver to her ear.
“It’s buzzing,” she says, sounding concerned.
“Ringing,” I correct. “That means you did it right.” Her attention shifts as the ringing stops. I can hear someone say something on the other end.
Doe asks, “May I speak with Brody, please?” There’s a pause and then, “It’s Dosinia.”
Holding her hand over the mouthpiece, she says to me,
“His mother is fetching him.”
I smile.
Until she adds, “You can leave now.”
My first thought is to strangle her. Her attention is back on the phone; she’d never see it coming. But that would leave Brody heartbroken by an unsevered bond. I couldn’t do that to him.
Besides, I don’t have the energy to do it right.
In the end, I just clench my teeth, take a deep breath, and leave the room. Doe slams the door behind me. Maybe, if I ask real y nicely, Aunt Rachel wil get me my own line. Or, even better, a cel phone. Though I can only imagine the cel phone company laughing when I bring in my soaking phone for replacement.
Maybe I should just stick with the land line.
Suppressing the temptation to listen in on her conversation—if she doesn’t know how to dial a phone, she can’t possibly understand about extensions—I head to my room and hold the door open for Prithi to join me. Traitor that she is, she’s stationed outside the bathroom instead of fol owing me.
“I’m the one who feeds you, you know.”
She gives me a wistful look, like she wishes she could be in two places at once, and then turns and presses her nose to the crack under the bathroom door.
“Fine.” I swing the door shut behind me.
After retrieving my rainbow pajamas from beneath my pil ow and trading them for my towel wrap, I sit down at my desk and pul out markers and a blank sheet of paper.
Using an exercise we learned in freshman English, I fold the paper in half lengthwise and prepare to make a pros-and-cons list. I use a purple marker to draw a line down the middle. Then I title each column and begin fil ing them in.
Accept Tellin’s Proposal
Reject Tellin’s Proposal
Duty
Love
Daddy
Aunt Rachel
My kingdom
Myself
Legacy
Future
Living up to my potential
Discover new potential
Responsibility
Dedication
The people of Thalassinia
Quince
Leading my people underwater Protecting my people from above I’m not sure what I’d hoped to accomplish by making this list. Maybe I thought one side of the decision would far outweigh the other and I wouldn’t have to fret about it anymore.
The truth is there are valid reasons for me to make either choice. The only difference is… it’s a choice I’ve already made. I’m giving up my title and living on land, living with my human half and forging a future with the boy I love.
Without another thought, I crumple the list and toss it into the trash. That’s the end of that mental debate.
Then why do I stil feel so adrift?
Chapter 11
y lunch the next day, Doe and Brody are back in each Bother’s laps. By Wednesday afternoon I’m ready to throw them both back into the ocean. If only the waters of south Florida were chil y enough to cool them off.
When I stomp through the kitchen door after school and find them sharing one of the dining chairs, I stomp right on through to the living room before flinging my backpack to the ground.
