CHAPTER 3—A MOMENT OF SURPRISE

 

 

It seemed to take Dan and her cousins forever to get to her. By the time they arrived, Stacey knew why the girl under the jetty wanted the wheelchair to come into the water. And she really didn’t know how she was going to explain it to the others.

Dan, now. Well he would do anything to help her. As far as he was concerned, she had saved the holidays, and his sanity, and made it possible for him to do the thing he loved most in the world—which was the same thing Stacey had loved doing. He loved that she had made her mum and dad keep the beach house, that she was trying to live by the sea even though she couldn’t surf any more. And he loved that she’d argued he should still be allowed to, even when she couldn’t.

“It’s just not fair otherwise—and hasn’t there been enough unfairness already?” she’d argued, when they first arrived, and her mum and dad had started out by telling Dan that, if Stacey couldn’t surf, then neither could he.

In the end, they’d seen just how stupid that would be, and Dan had been allowed out on the waves.

But her cousins… well, they just didn’t seem to get it. She had lived, hadn’t she? Then what was all the fuss? They should be grateful. At least, that had been what her mum had said her aunt had said. And Stacey didn’t think Jelly and Wade would be much different. This was going to be the first time they’d seen her, after the accident, and she was going to be telling them they had to help a mermaid, called Veleia.

She glanced up the beach. Most of the men were still working their way over the rocks, but one of them had started to come down along the sand. Stacey didn’t think he could see her under the pier, but she didn’t think he’d just walk past without looking. The thought gave her the shivers.

From the way Veleia was watching the men at the other end of the beach, the mermaid had a lot more than the shivers. She turned to look at Stacey, fear written across her face.

“Hey! Stace!” Dan’s shout cut across whatever the mermaid was going to say. “You here?”

Down the beach, the man by the shoreline looked towards the boat ramp, and Stacey held her breath. After a couple of minutes of staring towards them, the man went back to his careful search. He would walk along the edge of the waves, and then take a pace up the sand and work his way back, then take another pace up the sand, and repeat.

The other people on the beach watched him warily, and Stacey didn’t blame them.

The man looked dangerous. Honestly, who wore black this time of year? And not just any black, but the same kind of black that any special forces bad dude wore in any of the action movies.

“Way to not be remembered, guys,” she whispered. “Idiots!”

“Stace!” Dan called again.

“I’m over here. In the shade,” she called, trying to sound normal.

This, of course, meant she had to call out, normally, too. And that was bound to draw attention. She heard the mermaid take a sharp breath inwards, and looked out at the beach.

The man on the shoreline had stopped his pacing, and was speaking into a squarish lump attached to his shoulder. On the rocks, two of the other men stopped their search, and began to make their way towards him. They had to move carefully to get off the rocks, though, so they weren’t going to be very fast.

“Hurry up, Dan,” she said. “Please.”

“Okay, okay, okay. Keep your hair on. What’s the emergency?”

“Yeah, Stace,” echoed another voice, teenage and male, and Stacey rolled her eyes. “What’s the emergency?”

Honestly, if she didn’t know Wade was older, she’d think he was trying to impress Daniel, and Daniel was two years his junior. Of course, Daniel was a better surfer, and got better grades at school, and more people listened to Daniel than ever listened to Wade, so…

“Just hurry,” she said, casting a nervous glance down the beach, “and I’ll explain on the way back to the beach house.”

“What are you doing all the way down there?” Dan asked, ducking as he came under the pier, and blinking as his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness after the brightness of the morning beyond.

“Who’s she?” Wade asked, just as Stacey replied.

“Talking to a friend.”

“Who?” Dan wanted to know, and Stacey waved her hand to where the mermaid waited nervously in the shadows. “Whoa!”

“Shhhh!” Both girls hushed him, just as Jelly came into the shade.

“Phew! It’s nice under here,” she said, “but we’d better get you out before the tide… comes… in.”

And Stacey knew she’d seen Veleia, too.

“Guys, this is Veleia. She’s a mermaid, and she needs our help. Veleia, this is Dan, my brother, and Wade and Jelly, my cousins.”

She gave them the briefest of moments to look at each other, and then spoke again.

“And we really, really need to get out of here, because the bad guys are coming closer. Wade, can you and Jelly help Veleia into that other wheelchair?”

“Sure,” Wade said, sounding anything but sure, as he and Jelly made their way to where Veleia was inching her way out of the waves.

“Dan, I could really use a hand, here,” Stacey said. “Really, really, really.”

And he took her under the shoulders and dragged her back up beside her chair. She didn’t need as much of a hand to get back into the chair, but it was still an effort.

“Quick,” she said, as soon as she was settled. “Give Veleia that t-shirt, and tuck the blanket in over her tail. Quick!”

As Wade and Jelly moved to obey, Dan covered Stacey’s lap with the other blanket, making sure her feet were on the foot rest, before he turned the wheelchair and started dragging it after him over the sand.

“You know this is going to get wet, don’t you?” he asked, as they approached the ramp.

“Yeah. Mum is going to kill me.”

“Don’t worry,” Wade said. “I’ve got the gear to dry it out. We’ll make sure nothing seizes, okay?”

“’Kay. Thanks.” Stacey had trouble hiding her surprise.

The way her cousins just accepted the fact she came with a wheelchair, now, surprised her. From what she’d overheard her mum and dad say about their mother, Auntie Janice hadn’t been very understanding at all.

“So, no one got killed?” her aunt had said. “Then what’s the problem. Just because she’s ended up in a wheelchair, doesn’t mean the rest of you have to give up the beach.”

And mum and dad hadn’t spoken to her since. It was pretty amazing that they’d even told her they were still coming to the beach. Even more amazing that they’d let her children come to visit.

Maybe that’s why mum had wanted to come and get me, she thought. Just to make sure the cousins didn’t say anything to upset me. It made sense in a sad sort of way, but it also made her feel sad. Her mum shouldn’t have to protect her from her own family. She was glad, mum had given them the chance to meet unsupervised.

From the way Jelly and Wade had looked at her, though, they didn’t know what to say, so maybe it was just the chair itself they could deal with. Like so many people who had known her before the accident, the two of them seemed to have trouble looking at her. At least, they hadn’t burst into tears at the sight of her, though. That was a plus.

Stacey figured she had Veleia to thank for that, and she hoped they could get the mermaid to safety before the guys on the beach reached them. And speaking of which…

She glanced over her shoulder. The guy who’d been working his way back and forth, was now talking to the two he’d called over from the rocks. From the way he kept looking at the jetty, it didn’t look like it would be long before they arrived.

Stacey looked up at her brother, and saw he had followed her gaze.

“Change of plan,” she said.