The Mermaid's Daughter by Ann Claycomb

Author:Ann Claycomb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-02-01T16:00:00+00:00

HARRY

Aria for Mezzo-Soprano

I dozed uneasily when Kathleen left me, drifting off for minutes at a time and then coming back to an awareness that I was wet and cold. The lights inside the cabin were flickering. I was so tired. I leaned my head against the wall just above the porthole and shut my eyes. Then the ferry leapt out of the water and smacked back down so hard and at such an angle that my head slammed into the wall. Several people screamed, a little boy started to cry—and then out on deck there was a chorus of shouting, screaming, a crew member roaring, “Man overboard, starboard, to starboard, dammit!”

“Lights,” someone else shouted. “Get the light on the water!”

Feet pounded down the metal steps that lead from the wheelhouse, like thunder in the ceiling. I sat up, rubbing the bump on my head. Through the porthole the water suddenly lit up in the white glare of a searchlight.

“Oh my Lord,” murmured the woman behind me. “Oh my Lord.”

Out on deck a man called, “It’s a girl! She’s keeping her head up!”

Then I was on my feet and stumbling through the cabin, clutching the backs of the seats to steady myself and half-falling with every step. By the time I made it to the deck they were hauling Kathleen in on a life preserver, two crew members braced at the railing with their feet planted far apart, one man ducking under the rail to catch her under the arms and lift her up. Another man stood by and swaddled her in a blanket as soon as she was on board.

“There, miss, there, we got you, you’re all right.”

The ferry lurched and I fell, caught myself on the rail, went down on my knees in front of her. One of the men who had pulled her in bent over us.

“Was there someone else went over?” He had to bellow over the wind and his voice was urgent. “There’s a fellow was standing near you said he thought he saw a man in the water too.”

Kathleen stared at him. “A man?”

“There wasn’t a man with you?”

Incredibly, bizarrely, Kathleen smiled. “No. No man.” She raised her voice so we could hear her. “It was just me. Maybe it was a seal he saw.” She turned to watch the water, still smiling, though she was shivering so hard that she couldn’t keep the blanket up and it kept slipping off her shoulders.

“Not likely to see seals out in this,” the crew member shouted. “Are you sure no one else went in with you?”

“I’m sure,” Kathleen cried. The wind whipped a length of her hair across her face so she had to spit it out. “Look!” she said. “Out there, you see?”

The circle of spot-lit water was dark green and frothing under the driving rain. Two pinpoints of red caught the light, vanished, then reappeared. Eyes. They were eyes in a sleek dark head that you might mistake for human unless you knew it wasn’t.

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