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“YOU STILL OWE ME,” Athena informs me as she catches up from behind.
“What are you talking about?”
“I gave you every piece of information I had about your parents’ case in exchange for the coin and the name of the person who gave it to you.”
I stop in my tracks. There’s already too much confusion and Athena is too much of a fantasy fanatic to handle the truth.
“I can’t tell you,” I turn to say then I keep going.
Athena grabs my arm, gripping it tight. “But you said you’d give me the coin and—”
“I know what I said!” I snap. “But to be honest, the information you gave me was hardly worth giving you the entire coin in addition to the information you want.”
“Why is it such a secret?” she whines. “Who are you protecting?”
“Ya know? For a book nerd, you’re not very bright. I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet.”
I take a few steps down the sidewalk and I notice Athena is not following me. Turning around, I see Athena standing in the middle of the sidewalk like she’s stuck in a trance as she rubs at the coin around her neck with her fingertips.
I walk back towards her because I know the wheels are turning in that nerdy brain of hers and she’s up to no good. I’ve known way too many fanatics in my lifetime so I recognize the crazy shit they are capable of thinking and doing.
As I open my mouth to speak, Athena cuts me off, “We need to get him out,” she says.
“Who? The murderer?” Yanka questions as she catches up. I huff and cross my arms.
“No, the merman,” Athena replies.
“You’re fucking crazy,” I say.
Yanka starts laughing. “You’re both fucking crazy, but if you’re planning on busting Blue out, I’ll help you. Anything to piss off Pike and move Blue back in with me. I’m good at hiding things from the authorities.”
Athena rolls her eyes. “Blue gave the coin to Shelley,” Athena says, fixating her eyes and pointer finger on me. “He chose you, Shelley. After everything you’ve been taught and everything you’ve been through, how can you not believe in him? How can you not want to help him?”
“He’s not a fucking merman, Athena!” I snap. “You sound like my aunt!”
“So, how did you get the coin?” Yanka asks me and I hope she’s not buying into all this merman business because if she is she’s going to be even more desperate for him.
I admit, “I can’t remember.”
“You’d better remember,” threatens Yanka. “If that thing is linked to him, to his past and who he is, then how did you get it? It was on you when you arrived at the hospital and, according to the doc, he nearly attacked you for it. And you can’t remember?”
I don’t remember, but I do recall my ride home on the seat of his lap as his arms worked hard to push the two of us all the way to Aunt Cora’s beach house. I remember how terrible I felt when I thought the worst of him and how sexy I thought he was after he got me off with his tongue.
Now, I think the worst of him again while Yanka and Athena are willing to do anything for him and continuing only to think the very best of him.
Why? How is it they can so easily give themselves up so quickly without knowing who he really is?
At the very least, I remember how excruciating it hurt when I found out my parents were never coming home. As a child, I wished every day since then a merman had, indeed, taken them to paradise together as Aunt Cora speculated.
Yanka is right. I need to remember, not just because this disabled man could be innocent, but also because he’s linked to my parents somehow and I need to find out why and how.
I look at the coin on Athena’s neck and I regret giving it to her. “I’ll help you,” I say. “I’ll help you both get Blue out of prison.”
IT’S BEEN RAINING SINCE yesterday. Despite the air-conditioning, it still feels muggy inside of Yanka’s car. It’s as if there’s no remedy for the humidity and I wish I had a better part in this prison break besides watching and waiting in the driver’s seat.
I can’t believe I’m doing this.
Athena thinks we’ll be able to stroll him right out. She knows where the security recordings are, which she will delete and disable, as well as where they keep the keys to the cells. She says she knows the police station well after going in and out to help the sheriff with cases. Athena mentioned she’s been the sheriff’s go-to girl for research and cataloging evidence and he uses her connections with the university, so he trusts her. Athena will be the one to open the cell and I think she really should’ve been a detective, but the way she dresses—like a librarian, says she’s hardly the type to get involved with criminals...but then again, here we are.
Yanka’s job is to distract the deputy. She says she’s willing to go as far as letting him grope her tits, especially since the deputy has had a hard crush on her ever since he came into the hospital room accompanying some kid he found a few years back with a broken arm after falling out of a tree. I don’t know why Yanka doesn’t date the deputy. He’s hot—short blonde hair, green eyes, and a tan to boast. But I figure Yanka won’t date him because the deputy is not the type of guy who needs saving. Yanka has a serious problem with being attracted to things desperate for her help.
I feel a patch of heat melting my forearm and I look down to see sunlight beaming on my skin. Looking down at my outfit, it’s stained brown in a few spots, which I couldn’t wash out, so I figure I had to have been hiking and fallen at some point. Beyond that I see my boots; I know I used them recently, but I can’t remember. If I’d known I’d be in on a heist, I would’ve brought tennis shoes from my apartment since my boots will weigh me down if we need to run for some reason.
The sunshine blares brighter and the rain has come to a sparse drizzle when I hear a knock at the window; it’s Athena waving her arms around frantically. I guess I locked the door.
Unlocking the car, I can’t help but notice the coin dangling around Athena’s neck as she opens the back door and pushes Blue’s wheelchair as close as she can. Helping him to get inside, she quickly folds the collapsible wheelchair Yanka took from the hospital. When I see Blue struggling to get in, my stomach churns. Not only do I realize what we’ve just done, but I also feel like I’ve been horrible to him.
I know why Athena wants him—she’s obsessed with testing out her theory of throwing him into the water from Yanka’s boat, which is where Yanka, however, is planning to keep him. But Athena thinks if she throws him overboard, Blue will grow fins and swim and she’ll have made the discovery of the century.
Yanka wants him because she thinks by rescuing him, he’ll be forever indebted to her and she can add him to her collection of adoring critters who have nothing but an incomprehensible and unfathomable I-will-never-leave-you type of love for her. Plus, he’s sexy and he can’t run away from her.
Me? I just want the truth. After I have it, I plan to leave him on the boat and send him on his way, back to wherever it is he came from.
Athena guarantees we won’t get caught. There’s already evidence of all of us at the prison earlier, so there should be nothing else to link us to the break, except Yanka’s presence, but the deputy feeling up her titties will be her alibi.
As I see Yanka scuttling out of the station, I start up the engine. Yanka gets into the backseat with Blue and I take off, trying not to peel away too quickly or attract any unwanted attention. Athena was right. We were able to just walk in and roll Blue right out of the sheriff’s department.
“I can’t believe we just busted a man out of prison,” I say driving us out of town and down a winding back road.
“This is a small town with simple minds,” Athena says. “I told you if we behaved like everything was normal, no one would suspect anything fishy is going on.”
“If Pike finds out it was us, he’ll go to jail for murdering us himself,” I say.
“Don’t worry,” Athena reassures as she glances back to Blue, “I’ve put in a failsafe.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“I left traces of evidence from smugglers who came through last year in the cell. They’ll think Blue is linked to them and they kidnapped him somehow.”
“But if he is found that’ll get him in more trouble!” snaps Yanka.
“He’s not going to be found because we are taking him back to the sea. Isn’t that right?” asks Athena as she turns around from the passenger seat to look at Blue.
Yanka starts arguing with her because we clearly did not think this through. It hurts my ears but I just keep driving. I do on occasion peep back at Blue; he is staring at me through the rear-view mirror with those two big blue oceans of eyes. Somewhere, deep within them, I know he’s hiding something; somehow I’m going to make him talk.
