Her soul burned to name her fathers, to say aloud that which had been stripped from her. “Yes, say it—say it,” she urged the girl.
Allie Jo’s voice rose timorously. “A mermaid?”
Her heart crashed a hundred times upon hearing the girl’s words. Humans knew only of their own legends, and even then, often did not believe. The boy laughed, but Tara did not take her eyes from the girl.
“I am Selkie.” The power of the words caused her to straighten her spine.
Chase leaned over onto his elbow. “I thought you were Irish.”
She spoke into the gloaming. “My fathers swam in the seas of the North and the Irish, but my own folk roam the waters of America.”
The boy creased his eyebrows. “What?” he asked. She beheld amusement in his eyes. “Are you sailors?” he asked. This, at least, seemed to be of interest to him.
“We are Selkie,” she said again.
Allie Jo paled in the moonlight. Tara sensed that, although she didn’t understand, she believed.
She spoke to the girl. “My skin was stolen from me as my friends and I sat upon the rocks. When the man came, my friends slipped into their skins and dove into the water, but the man snatched my skin before I could reach it.”
The boy sat up, an unsure grin crossing his lips. “What skin?”
“My skin, my coat—” She searched for a phrase to make them understand. “My sealskin.”
Surprised laughter escaped his lips. “Your sealskin?” With an open grin, he glanced at Allie Jo.
Confusion swirled in the twilight, curling around her. Having now told them, she must have them believe.
“Without my skin, I am human,” she implored them. “With it, I return to the sea, my home.” Her voice cracked saying these last words.
She saw that still they did not understand. “My people are Selkie. We live in the sea and we are clothed in sealskin. Sometimes, at night, we come ashore and take off our skins and become human so we can bask on the rocks.
“If a human man steals a Selkie woman’s skin, she must become his wife. Many Selkies have been lost in this way.”
Allie Jo stared at her with wide eyes. “You’re a seal?”
“I am Selkie,” Tara said. “But without my skin, I am human.”
“Are you married?” Allie Jo asked.
“I’m too young for marriage.” She brushed away tears and cast her head down. “I want to go home.”
“So get your skin back,” Chase said.
“I can’t.” Her spirit diminished upon hearing her own words.
Seeming to sense this, Allie Jo touched her arm. “What happened? Is this why you ran away? Why you can’t go home?”
“My friends and I were sitting on the rocks. I strayed a bit to look for winkles, and when my friends screamed that a man was coming, I was too far.
“He watched them cloak themselves in their skins and dive into the water. They surfaced—seals now—crying out to me still. The moonlight shone on his greed. He understood perfectly what we were.
“When he saw me running, he spotted my skin and grabbed it. Then he grabbed me.” Human tears filled her eyes. “It was not my hand he wanted. He said I would make money for him—that he would provide water for me and I would become a seal for him on TV.”
“A magic trick,” the boy said.
Tara looked at him sharply. “It is no magic; I am Selkie.”
“But it’s a trick, right? Like an optical illusion—he puts you in a tank and distracts the audience while you put your costume on.” He grinned. “Awesome!”
Allie Jo leaned forward. “She’s not joking, Chase!”
Chase glanced at the spring, then openly took Tara in. “How’d you get those manatees to swim with you?”
She stared back, measuring how to tell him. But words failed her. Instead, she stood. “Come,” she said, not unkindly, for it was an invitation she bestowed. He would see with his own eyes. She held out her hand.
He rose to his feet, stood uncertainly. “You mean … in the springs?”
When she nodded, he said, “I’m not supposed to get my cast wet.” Then his face broke with light. “But I’m getting my short cast tomorrow.”
He strode up to her, his face glowing in the moonlight.
Allie Jo jumped to her feet. “Chase—”
“Your turn’s next!” He grabbed Tara’s hand.
Tara saw the shock on his face as she leaped into the water, taking him with her.