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I hadn’t heard anyone approach. Just a gentle tapping. And then a series of light tugs at my finger, like being brushed by a feather.
I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep. But when I opened my eyes, I was sure I was dreaming.
Moss blue eyes stared back at me—with irises that were larger than they should have been. Whoever he was had no lashes, but his upper and lower lids looked as if they’d been lined with black ink. My necklace was draped over coils of dark hair that were dripping with water. He must have been in the lake.
I stared, but only for a moment. I pulled my hand away and quickly stowed the bracelet in my tote bag.
“My necklace!” I said, reaching out. “Give it back.”
He shook his head but said nothing. He stayed where he was, propped on his elbows.
I raised myself onto my knees and leaned in. “Who are you?”
He backed away. His chest and arms were bare, which supported my assumption that he’d gone for a swim.
I kept my eyes on the necklace as I stood up, placing myself between him and the tote. There was no way I was going to let him take the bracelet too. He was bigger than me and no doubt stronger.
But he had no legs. I winced. From the hips down, his bottom half looked like a fish. Scales, that ranged in color from the moss blue of his eyes to deep violet, overlapped and shimmered all the way down to his tail fins.
Images flashed in my mind from when I’d searched for the necklace underwater. He had the same tiny fins at his elbows.
I swallowed. Keeping my voice steady, I held out a hand.
“Give me my necklace back, please.”
He remained motionless. I stood my ground.
The cluster of pearls at the center of his forehead glowed blue.
My limbs stiffened, paralyzed by the strangeness of it. None of the jewelry Pap showed me had glowed for him. The necklace hadn’t done that for me either. I remembered the eerie glow of the pearls when I’d seen them underwater.
“How did you do that?” I whispered.
I glanced back at my tote bag which emitted a similar blue light. The cluster of pearls on the bracelet was glowing the same way.
Unable to stop myself, I bent down and pressed my fingertips to the pearls. They were cool to the touch.
The glow faded.
By the time I looked back to see if the necklace had also dimmed, the creature was gone.
***
GRATEFUL I HADN’T LOST the bracelet, I decided not to tell Pap about the sea creature. At least not yet.
The creature had stolen the necklace. Of this, I was certain. Using the bracelet as a lure had worked, but I didn’t get the necklace back. I doubted a second attempt would result in greater success.
I would have to go to him, which would require a dip in the lake.
Sighing, I trudged to the house to drop off my tote bag and check in on Pap. My eyes widened when I found him. He was in the kitchen, with an apron tied around his waist, darting back and forth between the stove and counter top. A stand mixer whirred, unattended. There was flour everywhere except on his apron.
“Pap? What are you doing?”
He powered off the mixer with a click.
“I almost forgot to bake a cake.” He handed me a whisk coated with fluffy pink frosting. “What kind of birthday weekend is missing cake?”
I giggled as I accepted the whisk, twirling it like a royal scepter before tasting the frosting.
“Mm,” I said. “Raspberry?”
“You got it. Made with fresh berries from the gardens.”
I was impressed. Pap was a wizard at cooking fish he caught in the lake, but this was the first time I remembered him making dessert. That was something Grandma usually did.
“It’s really good.”
I inhaled through my nose. The air smelled of chocolate, which I assumed was the flavor of the batter.
Pap clapped his hands, sending a cloud of flour into the air. “I’ll have the cake ready and all this cleaned up in a few hours.”
“Oh, wait,” I said, hanging the tote bag on the back of a chair. “Let me help.”
“No, no. This is my treat to you. The weekend will end before you know it. Enjoy the lake as much as you can.”
I wrinkled my nose at the mess he’d made. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I am,” he said, waving his hands. “Go on. Get out of my kitchen.”
I felt bad, but Pap was right. I was going home tomorrow, and I wanted to return Grandma’s necklace to him before I ran out of time.
***
I STOPPED BY MY BEDROOM to drop off the tote bag. I smiled at the flowered wallpaper. It was my mother’s room, when she was a little girl. Some of her old toys were still there. A teddy bear with a patched foot was nestled against the bed pillows. An army of porcelain dolls filled one of the bookshelves. My favorites were the robot figurines whose eyes flashed red when you squeezed their middles. These were all things she’d left behind when she moved on-campus to study. For whatever reason, none of the toys made their way into the home where I grew up.
I sat on the bed and hugged the teddy bear to my chest. After seeing what the bracelet had done in the sea creature’s presence, I couldn’t risk bringing the item with me. I unclasped it from my wrist and set it on the bed stand. I couldn’t let the bracelet distract me from taking the necklace back. I didn’t trust it near the water. Or him.
The sea creature had been so strange. I’d never seen anything like him when I’d visited my grandparents before. Part of me wondered whether I was seeing things. Yet I couldn’t get the image of his hands—scooping the necklace away—out of my mind. Not to mention the elbow fins and his bottom half that looked like a fish.
I needed to investigate further, to confirm what I’d seen, before raising the topic with Pap.
Either way, I wanted to enjoy the last day of my birthday weekend at the lake.
Remembering my drenched clothing from when I jumped into the water the first time, I decided to change into something less cumbersome. I needed every advantage of movement I could get.
“Perfect,” I said, finding the striped one-piece I’d packed.
I tied a wrap around my bathing suit, tossed a beach towel over my shoulder, and headed outdoors.
I found a spot with soft grass that had been freshly mowed, between bushels of cattails and other plants that were in bloom.
After laying out the beach towel, I kicked off my sandals and sat down. This was such a relaxing place to be. It always had been.
I dipped my feet into the clear water, letting its coolness soothe and refresh me.
I glanced down. The spot I’d chosen wasn’t far from where I’d entered the water when searching for the necklace the last time.
I wondered whether the sea creature was below me right now. I had no idea how far from the lake’s edge he usually spent his time. He’d said nothing to me while on land, so I wasn’t sure how to ask. Did he understand me? Did he speak at all?
He had to have known I was upset. Was he afraid of me?
Both the necklace and bracelet had glowed when he was near. It was as if they’d responded to him. I frowned. They’d never glowed that way for me.