No one at the hospital questions my story about an early morning swim/dolphin attack. It’s not their job, I guess, and it’s not like anyone outside of Oceanica knows we have a dolphin. The nurse ushers me into a room and hooks me up to an IV of antibiotics while I wait for the doctor. All I can think of is what’ll happen to Erie if anyone finds out the truth.
Jen paces the room, driving me crazy. “You should probably get back to work,” I say. “Before someone notices we’re both gone.”
She turns to me, rubbing her face. “Erie will want to know you’re okay first.”
I hold out my hand, and when she takes it, I squeeze. “I’m fine—it’s like a cat bite. Once the antibiotics kick in, the fever will go down and they’ll let me go home. I bet it won’t even be an overnight stay. I’ll limp around for a week from the sprain, and then voilà—good as new.”
“Good as new? Finn, you almost died.”
“Nah. I almost died a month ago—today was nothing compared to that.”
Tears glisten in her eyes. Tears. And to think, she wouldn’t even look at me this morning. Jen takes a deep breath, so I squeeze her hand again. Before we can say anything else, Sergio appears in the doorway. Shit.
Jen releases me and steps back. Serge’s hair sticks up like he pulled at it all the way across the island. “What the fuck were you thinking, jumping into the arena with a Mer?”
“Uh . . .” How did he find out? Was there blood we didn’t clean? Did he find the ruined towel and wetsuit in my locker? Did he decide to watch the security footage for shits and giggles?
“He got it swimming off the dock,” Jen says. At least she’s willing to lie for me, though she doesn’t bat an eye as she does it, like she spends more time lying than not. I realize, once again, that I have no idea who Jen is.
“Bullshit,” Serge says. “Io told me her dolphin bit you when you jumped into the arena.”
“Goddammit, Erie,” I mutter. I told her not to talk to anyone, and what does she do? Tells the first person she sees something that could get her killed. “Jen, go make sure she doesn’t talk to anyone else.” She leaves, and I turn back to Serge. “She hasn’t talked to anyone else, right?”
“How the fuck am I supposed to know? You’re her babysitter.”
“I’m her trainer,” I say, although that no longer feels like enough.
“Then train her not to talk to people. In fact, train yourself not to be such a fucking dumbshit. When my aunt finds out about this—”
“You are not telling Aunt D.” My heart monitor races, the beeps so fast I’m sure the nurse will return any minute. “If you tell her, she’ll kill them both. Or give them to another trainer, which is the same as a death sentence.”
Serge clenches his jaw and stares at me without speaking.
“I’m serious, Sergio. You can’t tell anyone. Erie saved my life—we can’t let them kill her for it.”
“If you hadn’t jumped in—”
“What’s done is done, okay? I’ll be fine, so please, not a word to Aunt D.”
It’s a long moment before his shoulders sink. “If you ever do anything like this again, I’m going straight to Aunt D. For your own good.”
And so they don’t close Oceanica, he leaves unsaid. I know that’s his biggest concern—not me being mauled by a dolphin. He’s my best friend, but Corporate is family.
The beeping of the heart monitor slows, and I take a deep breath. “Deal. If Niku attacks me, you can run to Aunt D and kill him, but not Erie.”
Serge shakes his head, because I just wiggled out of a promise to not jump in the tank again. “Whatever, man, get yourself killed if you want. Just don’t shut us down.”
Us. The guy that hates the ocean calls Oceanica “us.” I used to be the one who called Oceanica “us.”
“I won’t let anything happen to Oceanica, okay? I won’t let anyone hurt Erie, either. She doesn’t deserve that.”
Serge throws up his hands and walks out.
I wait an hour before calling Jen. The entire time, I imagine Maddy and Nat suiting up, preparing the pink juice that will foam Erie. The phone rings three times before Jen picks up, and I don’t know if that’s good, or bad.
“Oceanica, this is Jen Stevens.” She doesn’t sound they-just-killed-Erie upset, so that’s good.
“It’s Finn. Is Erie okay?”
She sighs in relief, and now, all Jen sounds like is tired. “She’s fine. She didn’t tell anyone else, but she’s worried they’ll kill Niku, and worried that he still wants to kill you.”
If I was him, I’d want to kill me, too. “Tell her not to worry. Serge won’t say anything, and I won’t let Niku kill me.”
“Good.” A moment of awkward silence stretches between us before she says, “Any word on when you’ll be back?”
“Not yet. The nurse said the fever’s going down, but no one else has come by to check on me.”
Silence hangs on the other end, and I can imagine Jen nodding, a frown stretched deep across her face.
“In any case,” I continue, “I only took four days off when I was electrocuted, so this should be a quick visit.”
“This isn’t a joke, Finn.”
Now I’m the silent one. It’s kind of hard to come to terms with the fact that I almost died this morning, and that it was the Mer who saved me. I still don’t know why Erie freaked out, and I really don’t know why she saved me. It would have been so easy for her to let Niku drag me under until I drowned, but instead, she turned her back on the only friend she has to save the guy who’s keeping her captive. Can mermaids suffer from Stockholm syndrome?
“Finn?” Jen says, worried.
“I’m fine.” My voice sounds rough even to me, and I hope Jen doesn’t mention it. “Call me if anything happens with Erie.”
“Let me know what the doctors say.”
“Will do. Hold down the fort, grasshopper.” I hang up before she can reply; I can’t stand to hear the worry in her voice.
I try to figure out a way to free Erie while I wait for the doctors to release me. Breaking her out Free Willy style will land me in jail, but I don’t know what else to do. If I had the money, I’d buy her from Delmara, but I don’t think my salary will cover the cost. Maybe a Kickstarter? Who would donate money to free a Mer they’ve never met? I need to get her in front of an audience, need to make them fall in love with her.
Then again, the more popular she is, the less likely it will be that Delmara will sell her.
I sag against the bed and lean my head back. There’s almost no chance I can free Erie, and no way to keep her safe from the nets once she’s free. Frustrated, I close my eyes and listen to the steady beeping of the heart monitor until the doctor arrives.