The Mermaid's Chest by Donald Wigboldy

Author:Donald Wigboldy [Wigboldy, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-30T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17- Late Afternoon Sun

The late afternoon sun was just beginning to creep into the back room facing the river and only the trees’ canopy prevented the light from being blinding. With the television playing its noise in the background while David sat with a sandwich on a plate in the recliner, the two youngest girls sat on the couch working hard to ignore the rest while they sat reading. Adam and his mother stood in the kitchen leaning on the island just watching the two in mute surprise. It wasn’t that they doubted the girls were intelligent and certainly that they couldn’t read, but on such a fine day their elders both expected them to be outside swimming or lying out to deepen their tans.

“Did you girls need anything?” Nancy asked of her daughter and her friend. She had known Brook since she was a child and become fast friends with Faith. Like a shadow of her daughter, the two expressed the same likes and dislikes. Sitting inside reading during summer vacation was a first for either of them.

“We’re fine,” Faith said for her friend who looked up and nodded to her hostess.

“What are you two reading about? They didn’t send you home with a summer reading assignment this year. Did they?”

Without even looking up, her daughter replied, “No, just for fun. We saw these books today and thought they looked interesting.”

Brook held up her book, the illustrated one by the store owner’s grandfather, and said, “Mine’s about some myths and legends from around here. Maybe I’ll even find an interesting place to go check out while we’re on vacation. It could be a sort of treasure hunt.”

Nodding, but still unsure, Nancy suggested, “We could go catch the ferry to Fort Sumter tomorrow, if you girls want. If you’re looking for places to visit we haven’t been there since you were probably too young to remember, Faith.”

Wrinkling her nose in distaste at Brook, who had a similar reaction, Faith quickly shook her head. “Maybe some other time. We’re looking for less obvious places than a tourist trap, I think,” the youngest Cantrell answered trying not to hurt her mother’s feelings. She also didn’t want to come out and say anything related to mermaids more than the books might infer. Of course, the odds that anyone would think that two girls reading about mermaids and them being mermaids was quite a leap of imagination.

“Oh, okay, well let me know if you find something interesting then. We really haven’t done anything as a family or anything so far this trip except for dinner. Maybe we can think of something that your father and I can join you kids on before the week is up. We’d really like to get a little time with our kids before Emily and Adam head off to college, you know.”

Faith wanted to groan, but could tell that her mother meant it. Chalking it up to empty nest feelings starting, the girl simply nodded. She noticed Adam

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