Keeper by Kathi Appelt

Author:Kathi Appelt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Now she held the ningyo in the flat of her palm. She chewed on the inside of her mouth. She had lost him once before, and now she would lose him for good.

The ningyo was almost entirely fish. He had no arms or chest or waist. Only his face was human. He had a long, single-strand mustache that hung down on either side of his mouth like the trailing whiskers of a catfish. To Keeper, he always looked solemn, as if he were grimacing at the tooth marks left in his lovely scales.

Ningyo, all the way from Japan. Mr. Beauchamp had told her that fishermen sometimes caught these mer-folk in their nets and ate them and that their flesh was supposed to be delicious. He also told her that anyone who ate a ningyo would live for a thousand years. “Older than barnacles,” he said.

Keeper rolled the tiny figure between her fingers one last time, memorizing the tooth marks. She looked at BD and smiled. Maybe BD would live for a thousand years because he had taken a bite out of the ningyo. It was a thought that made her happy.

She held the ningyo up so that they were eye to eye. “Go back to the sea,” she told him. And with that, she lowered the figure into the water beside her boat. She thought she would not miss the ningyo as much as she missed Sedna. But she was wrong.

For a brief moment she could see him floating on top of the waves, and then he was gone. “Yemaya,” she called out, “here’s another gift for you.” The water beneath The Scamper pulled her faster.

Keeper closed the lid of the shoe box. There were only five more figurines left. Only five. Four in the box. And one in her pocket.

And maybe, thought Keeper, if my perfect plan keeps working, Mr. Beauchamp will carve that juniper.

“Onward with Step G!” she announced.

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