Fathom L. Standage (books for 8th graders .TXT) 📖

as he stood up. “I’ll head down to the hotel and check things out, maybe build the pulley system if I can.”

“You can drop me off over to the aquatic supply company while you’re at it,” said Walter.

“Excellent.” Eamon slapped his knees. “I’ll go with Uther. Natasha, you can take Cordelia and Seidon shopping.”

“Shopping?” I said in confusion.

“For formal attire,” Natasha replied. “They’re attending the party, aren’t they?”

“But what about Marinus?”

Natasha gave a scowl of disgust at the name. “Trust me, after I’m finished with them, no one will have the faintest inkling who they really are. King Llyr himself won’t recognize them.”

I sat back, almost smiling at the thought of Linnaeus getting his real mermaids at the party after all. I stood to take my costume things to my motel room. As I took our purchases out of the bag and examined each one, the realization of what I was about to do and my persistent anxiety over Samantha turned my stomach over. I folded my arms across my abdomen. Someone knocked on the door. I went to open it. Calder stood there.

“You all right?”

I nodded, even though I wasn’t actually all right.

“Are you guys always coming up with crazy plans like this?” I asked, gesturing to the costume items on the table. He came into the room.

“Sometimes. But they always work. Usually.”

“Usually?”

“The crazier the better. And your idea with the costume was the craziest part, remember?”

“Right,” I said with a mirthless laugh. Now what? I looked around my motel room, grateful he was here, but feeling awkward at being left alone with him. Shake it off, you dummy! You’ve been alone with him before.

“Hungry?” he asked. I nodded.

Ten minutes later, we sat in the motel’s lobby, eating bagels and cream cheese.

“How long have you and Samantha been friends?” he asked.

“Honestly? I can’t remember,” I replied. “My first memory of her was the day she kicked a boy in the shins on the playground. He’d called me chicken legs. I think we were six.”

“Friends ever since,” he said. “I wish I had someone like that.”

“You have Eamon and the others.”

“You don’t know what life is usually like for us. I only see Eamon around twice a year.”

“Don’t you have any other friends?”

“Eh, a few back home.” He shrugged. “I see ‘em at the pub every now and again. They aren’t much for conversation.”

“It must be hard when you can’t tell them what you do when you’re away.”

“Right.”

“So, if you only hang out with Eamon a few times a year, what do you do the rest of the time?”

“I look after me mum and work in a pharmacy.”

“Really? You’re a pharmacist?” I grinned, picturing a silly image of the great adventurer Calder Brydon in a lab coat, handing out antibiotics.

“Only a technician.”

“That’s so funny.”

“Why is that funny?”

“I don’t know, I guess I just never thought of you as the nine-to-five type.”

He shrugged. “I have to support meself somehow. Uther’s money won’t do it all the time.”

“Does he really pay for everything? The house we stayed in, the motel? His equipment?”

“Actually, the house was foreclosed. He didn’t pay for it.”

My jaw dropped. “We were squatters?”

Calder smiled. Oh, I liked his smile. This was nice. He was nice. And a pharmacist. In Scotland. A very expensive plane ride away from Arizona. Soon he’d have to go back to that life, and I’d have to go back to mine. All of a sudden, I knew just how sails felt without wind to fill them.

“What’s the matter? You’re not bothered by that, are you?”

“By squatting?” I laughed a little. “No, it’s fine. It’s nothing.” I sighed as the distraction of Calder’s presence disappeared. My exhaustion, my worry over Samantha, and the insane plan we’d cooked up returned, weighing on me.

“Did you sleep at all last night?” he asked.

“Not really.”

“Why don’t you go up and get some rest?”

“No, I’m fine,” I said, even though I could use a few hours of unconsciousness.

“Go on up. I’ll keep an eye on things outside.”

I yawned, as though Calder’s suggestion itself had been a sleeping pill. “Okay.” I stood and headed toward the door to the stairs.

“Olivia?”

I stopped and looked back at him.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said. I gave him a little smile.

“Thanks.” I continued upstairs to my motel room, exhausted but frazzled.

I lay on my bed and stared at the pile of luggage in the corner. On the top sat Samantha’s camera bag and cell phone. I got up, wandered over, and picked up the cell phone. There was a new text from her mom.

Haven’t heard from you in a while. How’s it going?

A fresh pang seized my chest. I typed back: Great! Having so much fun. I’ll call you later.

Guilt wrapped itself around my heart and squeezed. I hoped beyond anything that the text I had just sent would actually happen. I put the phone down, opened the camera bag, and pulled out her camera. Clicking through the pictures she had taken, I smiled wistfully, swallowing back new tears as each image flashed on the camera’s digital screen.

Many of the ocean. Some of me. Several of Seidon. A couple pictures of Eamon, Uther, Walter, and Natasha. More of Seidon—some of him alone, some with her. Even some of Calder and me. I paused on the final one. It was of Calder and me playing cards. Sam must have caught it just before they sneaked out. In the picture, I smiled at my cards, oblivious to the look on Calder’s face as he gazed at me.

“I need a little more glue on this side,” I said to Natasha. She squeezed the tube of adhesive where I indicated, then held the fabric to my skin. After a few seconds, I pulled on the fabric to test it. My skin pulled with it.

I’d never been in a more awkward position. I sat on the bathroom counter, the silvery green mermaid tail binding me from hip to toe. Underneath the tail, I wore some boy-short bikini