Flipping the Scales

Copyright © 2014 by Pete Tarsi
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author.

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This book is dedicated to my three daughters. You have flipped my life upside down and turned it into the greatest adventure ever.


~ Chapter One ~

“We should not be doing this.” Marina brushed away wet strands of blonde hair that had clumped together in front of her eyes.

Her friend Lorelei danced ahead along the boundary between the ocean and the shore, and her long, wavy red hair streamed behind her. “Running on the beach, Marina. No other experience like it.” Her outstretched hand held a piece of some translucent material, which rippled in the air behind her like a pennant blowing in the breeze. In the early morning sunlight, it shimmered with almost every color of the spectrum. When she stopped running and started twirling, her teal sundress billowed in the breeze, and while she fluttered her arm up and down, a rainbow appeared to circle around her. “Look at the sky from out here!”

Yellow and orange filled the panorama as the morning sun slowly revealed itself through the wispy clouds streaking the sky. Waves rustled as they gently rolled onto the island beach, and seagulls squawked as they glided above the water. The air was warm but breezy, filled with the light aroma of ocean salt. It may have been as close to a perfect summer day as possible.

Marina lagged behind her friend and kept one arm at her side against the damp yellow sundress, even though it was already clinging to her thighs. Clasped tightly in her other hand was a similar iridescent piece of material, but because she held it close to her with her back to the sun, it wasn’t sparkling. “Lore, are you sure we should do this? The others—”

Lorelei looked over her shoulder at the ocean stretching to the horizon. “The others have not come this far north yet. My father knows we are here, so there is no reason to worry. He has allowed me to do this before.”

“I know you have, but I have not. We should be back in the—”

“You almost did that one other time. Little steps, Marina.” Lorelei turned around and saw Marina walking tentatively over the sea foam towards her. “Today is time for bigger steps. Come and catch me!” Then Lorelei skipped off in the opposite direction.

Marina ran as quickly as she could, but by the time she reached her friend, she was breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating. “You move…much quicker than I do…out here.”

“Can you feel that?” Lorelei pointed at their bare feet. “The way the wet sand squeezes its way between your toes? Between your toes, Marina! There is no other experience like that feeling.”

“Lore, please listen to me.”

“Try it.” Lorelei grabbed Marina by the shoulders and then pointed down at their feet. “Do it there with those toes! Oh, there has got to be a better word to describe this sensation. Scraping, but crunching the sand—scrunching! Yes, that flows. Scrunch the sand between your toes.” Lorelei swiveled her hips, which dug her feet deeper into the moist sand.

“I do not want to scrunch sand. I want to go back.”

“One day, Marina. It will be like no other experience.”

Marina sighed. “What if I think otherwise?”

“Give it a chance.” Lorelei pranced around her friend, who simply stood there with her arms and the translucent pennant folded across her chest as the tide rolled in and out at their feet. “Simply feel the water on your feet. Your feet, Marina! And the bottoms of your legs. If that is not one of the flowiest feelings ever, well, then what is?”

“Lore, you know I trust you, but what if—?”

“You know what I always say, Marina. Sink or swim.” Taking Marina’s hand, Lorelei tried to lead her friend away from the water.

After a few steps, Marina hadn’t budged. Letting her arm flop back by her side, she said, “I choose swim.”

“That flows, Marina. Today is going to be an adventure like no other.” Lorelei continued ahead while she babbled to herself about the day’s plans.

Marina turned toward the water and started smoothing out the object in her hands until it separated into two layers. Once Lorelei realized she was walking alone, she turned and saw Marina opening the material into one continuous tube. Dashing back, she snatched the coarse material out of Marina’s hand and said, “You promised me.”

“Please give it back to me,” groaned Marina.

“Not until you promise me that you will not put it back on.” Lorelei held the sparkling object high above Marina’s head. “Please share the day with me.”

“Lore, be careful with that.” Marina tried to stretch as much as her legs could, but she felt like her feet were firmly stuck into the ground.

“Do you know what really flows?” Lorelei glanced down at Marina and giggled. “I did not expect my head to be so much higher than yours.”

“This is not funny, Lore.” Marina wiped tears from her eyes. “If anything happens to my—”

“Nothing will happen. You have got to come out of your shell sometime.”

Marina’s shoulders slumped as she sighed. “Not going to let this one float, are you?”

“Of course not.” Lorelei grinned broadly. “So which is it? Sink or swim?”

Marina hung her head in the knowledge that once Lorelei had her mind on an adventure, there was no convincing her otherwise. As she was going to give her answer, Marina noticed that the wet sand had swallowed her feet and ankles. “Sink,” she replied.

“Sink? Not swim?” Lorelei frowned. “Please join me for the day, Marina.”

“I mean I have sunk in this stuff.”

Lorelei crouched down, her eyes following Marina’s legs from the knees downward until she saw Marina’s ankles and feet buried in the over-soaked sand. A wave broke nearby, and foamy water rushed toward them. Some splashed against Marina’s legs, which sprayed and tickled Lorelei’s shins. As the wave receded, the ground underneath Lorelei shifted as it got softer. “I never knew that would happen.” She looked up at Marina. “Now I see why our heads were at different heights. See all the things you can experience out here?”

“One day,” said Marina, holding up one finger. “Now get me out of this.”

After Lorelei hopped up, she returned the shimmery skirt to Marina and took hold of her free hand. Together they counted to three, and then Lorelei pulled Marina out of the wet sand and away from the water. They took off quickly, but Marina’s footing gave way as the terrain changed, and she tumbled onto the sand.

“The ground is different here.” Marina sat up and sifted some sand through her fingers. “What is it?”

“Dry sand. And it gets everywhere.” Lorelei helped Marina back to her feet. “Now come on. Today will be a wondrous adventure.”

Marina held up the translucent skirt. “What do we do with these?”

“Hide them.”

While walking away from the water, the girls scanned the area. A sign stated that it was a private stretch of the beach, which Lorelei insisted would be better for them because fewer people would be around during the day. Of the three houses in view, she focused on the one in the middle because it would be the easiest to recognize later. While the other two stood only one story, had expansive back decks, sliding glass doors, and many windows, the middle house looked more old-fashioned and welcoming.

Less sprawling than the others, probably because it had a second floor, it was a small cape-style cottage, though the girls didn’t know the specific architectural names. It was painted red, making it stand out to them more prominently than the bland shades of white and gray of the two more modern-looking houses. After a few wooden stairs upward over the line of large rocks that served to stop stronger waves from reaching the houses, a small footbridge led to the yard behind the house.

Lorelei ran up the steps and then lay down across the length of the bridge. Carefully, she inched forward until her head was underneath the lowest crossbar of the railing. She peeked underneath the walkway and fiddled around with some of the boards.

Meanwhile, Marina was a little further down the row of rocks, cautiously climbing over them. Each step was difficult, especially while barefoot, and she found herself holding on tightly to some of the protruding stone edges just to keep herself steady. Between two rocks, she saw a space barely wide enough to fit her arm. She reached inside and explored the nooks and crannies. It was a dry place and out of direct view, and since getting there required balancing skills, she deemed it the perfect hiding spot. After a quick check to both her left and her right, she stashed the piece of material deep into the crevice and then slowly climbed back down to the sand.

“Are you ready?” Lorelei had unexpectedly appeared beside Marina and startled her.

“Yes. Now will you please stop bobbing up and down so much?”

Lorelei bounced one more time and flailed her arms. “Wait, you have got to see this! It looks much better from some distance.” Lorelei put her arm around Marina to face her toward the water. “That way is south, from where we came. Now look this way.”

They turned to the left where the sun had made its full presence known in the eastern sky. The ocean water reflected the sunlight and caused the crests of every single ripple to sparkle.

“Beautiful. Would you agree?” asked Lorelei.

Marina nodded her head, having never seen the sun so large and magnificent. As she basked in its post-sunrise glow, she took a deep breath, a little anxious about whatever Lorelei had planned for the day.

Lorelei took Marina by the hand and led her to the footbridge. “First, we find shoes, so we do not injure our feet. There are so many wonderful things we can do with them.” She clapped her hands and then hopped off the other end of the bridge onto the cool green grass. “Later, we get ice cream.”

“Ice cream? Does it flow?” Shaking her head, Marina knew the exact answer Lorelei was going to give her.

“Flows fastest.”

They swiftly made their way past the red house, hoping not to wake the sleeping residents inside. As they headed down the road to begin their adventure, Marina hoped that her stay on land wouldn’t last too long.

~ Chapter Two ~

Sitting on one side of a booth near the snack bar on the enclosed middle deck of the ferry, Meredith took her eyeglasses off her short brown hair and slid them back onto the bridge of her nose. She opened her paperback novel to the bookmark about midway through it and continued reading. On the table in front of her was an opened single-serving carton of orange juice and a plate with a cranberry muffin, both untouched since she sat down.

“I can’t believe you and my mom ganged up on me.” Her best friend Jill plopped her face and chest down on the table. Jill’s mane of uncontrollable dark hair sprawled all over the place. “I thought you were my best friend.”

“I am your best friend.” Without taking her eyes off the book she was reading, Meredith moved her plate to the side before her muffin was attacked by untamed hair. “But your mother made a logical point.”

The second ferry for the island left at eight-thirty in the morning, and without traffic it was almost a thirty-minute drive to the terminal. Walk-on passengers were recommended to arrive at least a half hour prior to departure in the event that the ferry reached vessel capacity on busy weekends and holidays. The nearest holiday was July Fourth, over a week away. Though it was the start of summer, it was early in the morning on a Thursday. An authority on schedules and timetables, Jill’s mother had correctly assured them that the boat would be nowhere near full and that they’d have more than enough time to buy their tickets.

“Seven-thirty in the morning, Merri. You convinced her to leave the house at seven-thirty in the morning!” Jill clutched the tall cup of coffee beside her and raised her head to look across the table at Meredith. “That means we had to be up earlier than that. During summer vacation. That’s just wrong.” She sat up and took a gulp of the hot liquid.

“Just because you do drama in school, it doesn’t mean you have to be a drama queen right now.” Meredith took a sip of her juice. “Besides, shouldn’t you be excited? We’re going to visit your cousin, after all.”

School had been out almost two weeks, and the girls would be spending three weeks on the island with Jill’s family: her aunt, uncle, and cousin Hailey. It was an annual summer trip for Jill, and in exchange, Hailey usually spent a school vacation week in either February or April off-island with Jill and her parents. Jill’s older brother Jeff usually came to the island also, but he had just graduated high school and was spending his summer working both a full-time and a part-time job to save money for college in the fall.

“That’s right!” blurted Jill. “My cousin’s cottage on the beach. A private beach. I don’t see why you’re not more excited about it.”

“Oh, I’m excited.” Meredith turned the page of her book. “A private beach means that there will be very few people around to disturb me.”

Meredith’s parents had left the day before to go on a two-week African safari for their twentieth wedding anniversary. When they had planned the trip, they asked if Meredith wanted to join them, but she told them that she was planning to spend the summer studying and researching colleges. With a mother who was a surgeon and a father who was a mechanical engineer, it was a foregone conclusion that she’d study science—a subject she both enjoyed and excelled at—but which precise field or career goal, Meredith wasn’t entirely sure.

“You’re seriously going to sit there on the beach and read all summer?” Jill groaned and swung her head back and forth.

“You’re also taking AP Lit. You have to read this book too.”

“Yeah, like a month from now. After we get back. How can you study on the beach? On an island? With all that beautiful sunlight?”

“I don’t tan; I burn.” Meredith broke off a piece of her muffin and popped it into her mouth.

“All that water?”

“I don’t swim.”

Jill rolled her eyes. Apart from being a straight-A student, Meredith was on the student council at school, and she played varsity field hockey in the fall, where she was one of the regular starting players during their junior year and was named a co-captain for the upcoming season.

Though Jill admired Meredith’s commitment to her education, it seemed to be at the expense of free time. Jill occasionally asked if those extracurricular activities were mainly to pad her college applications, but Meredith denied the accusation and insisted that she actually liked what she did. Jill observed Meredith’s dedication to the sport and student government, but not passion for them like Jill had for theatre. Whenever confronted further, Meredith said that she wanted to make her parents proud above all else. At their respective high schools, Meredith’s mother played field hockey and was homecoming queen, and her father was class president and pitched for the baseball team.

“Forget swimming.” Jill was tapping her fingers on the table. “What about just playing in the water? Splashing around?”

“Bathing suit.”

Jill sighed and swept her hand through her hair, sending it all to her left side where it draped over her exposed shoulder. “Merri, how do you think you’re going to attract any boys?”

“I’m not.” Meredith hadn’t yet looked away from her book.

“It’s the best place to meet boys. No strings attached. Flirt with ‘em and then leave ‘em at the end of the month. Summer lovin’, nothing more.” Jill started singing about it as her character had in the school’s spring musical.

While Jill was engrossed in the song, Meredith inserted her bookmark into the crease of the page she was on and stashed the book in the backpack hanging from her shoulder. Quickly finishing her orange juice and muffin, she grabbed the trash and slid out of the booth.

“Where are you going?” asked Jill.

Meredith reached down and grunted as she lifted her heavy suitcase. “Upstairs.”

“Is it my singing? Well, my volume, I mean. Because if it’s that, I can sing quietly.”

“Not the singing. Not the volume. And we both know you’re rarely quiet.” Meredith headed for the door and thrust herself into opening it, which revealed stairs heading up to the top deck of the ferry.

Her flip-flops thwapping on the floor, Jill darted after her friend. “You liked that song, remember? You were in the chorus after I got you to audition this past spring.”

Meredith started up the stairs. “Yeah, I remember.”

After returning to the booth to get her suitcase and, more importantly, her coffee, Jill went back to the staircase, but Meredith had already gone out to the upper deck. She stood there for a moment, feeling guilty for upsetting her friend. All because boys were mentioned.

Jill knew that Meredith hadn’t gone on many dates yet, despite being interested in a boy or two over the years. Meredith had asked one of them to the junior prom but was turned down, not because the boy wasn’t interested in going with her, but because he had already asked someone else to go with him. So Meredith went alone, mainly because her parents encouraged her not to miss the event. She wore a full, frumpy dress, hiding her figure. Jill couldn’t understand why since Meredith was somewhat athletic and far from unattractive.

But Meredith wanted a boy to be interested in her for who she was, not for how she looked. Maybe the boys at school were intimidated by her because of her intelligence or her involvement in so many activities. Her parents would tell her there’d be time to date after high school, after college, and once she was fully immersed into her career. Plenty of time.

“I’m sorry,” said Jill when she came outside onto the upper deck.

Due to the breeze from the ferry slicing through the ocean and air, Meredith could only barely hear Jill’s voice. She turned to find her friend, standing there by the door. Wearing a pair of denim shorts that gave an accurate definition of the word short, Jill’s legs seemed to extend forever. Meredith knew Jill stood six feet tall, but she imagined her friend in high heels, towering over her like an Amazon princess. Add to that image a flat stomach, and Meredith wasn’t surprised that she’d never had a boyfriend when she compared herself to Jill.

Meredith zipped up her gray hoodie as the chilly New England air rushed by. And to further hide her average body compared to the figure of her supermodel-like friend.

Jill trudged over to the railing where Meredith was leaning and looking out to the ocean. “We don’t have to meet any boys if you don’t want to. This vacation can be about we girls.”

“About us girls. Objective case of the pronoun after the preposition.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.” Jill twirled her fingers in the air. “School’s out. No grammar lessons. And no boys, if that’s what you want.”

Meredith muttered, “More for you and your cousin then?”

Chuckling, Jill swayed her hips and gently bumped them into Meredith. Meredith smirked and returned the hip nudge, but against Jill’s thigh.

“I’m not going to stop you from meeting boys, Jill.” Meredith looked up to the clear blue sky and shook her head. “They’re going to want to meet you whether either one of us wants them to or not. I’m sure they’ll show off for you any way they can.”

“Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Some of the guys out here actually grease up their chests. Lots of shirtless hotties on this island in the summertime.”

Meredith looked over and up at Jill, whose eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets. She was smiling broadly, and her hair was blowing in all directions. “You really do have a one track mind, Jill. You know that, right?” Meredith was trying her hardest not to burst out laughing.

“You sure you don’t want to change your mind? Live outside your comfort zone; shed your skin for a few weeks. We can find you a guy with rock hard abs who can’t seem to keep his shirt on.”

Meredith turned her head away from Jill and down towards the water. She watched the long streaks of white-capped waves left in the wake of the ferry. They stood there against the rail and stared out to sea in silence for a few minutes until Meredith noticed the island in the distance. “Only if he quietly serves me lemonade on the beach while I read my book,” she mumbled.

“Nice to look at, but doesn’t speak much?” asked Jill, holding up her hand for a high-five. “Girl, I like the way you think.”

~ Chapter Three ~

The ferry ride lasted just over an hour, so the girls disembarked shortly after nine-thirty. At the bottom of the gangplank, Jill squealed and started running, weaving her way through the line of slowly moving passengers ahead of her. Standing immediately beyond the entry gate, her cousin Hailey was jumping and frenetically waving her extended arm.

Meredith trudged behind, dragging the suitcase along on its rickety wheels. She watched the two cousins hugging and bouncing and shrieking at each other. Their mothers were identical twins, and it was obvious that these two girls were related not only by their strikingly similar appearance, especially in their faces, but also by their similar behaviors.

Hailey was almost as tall as Jill, and they more or less had the same slender build. Maybe Hailey was a little slimmer. They both had long, dark hair almost halfway down their backs, but where Jill’s was curly and wild, Hailey’s hair was straight, the last six inches or so tinted with hot pink streaks. And they were dressed similarly, denim short shorts and cropped tees, Jill in white and Hailey in pastel pink.

“Hello, Hailey,” said Meredith when she finally passed through the gate. “Good to see you.”

“Come here, Merri, and gimme hugs!” Hailey didn’t wait for Meredith to come to her, instead rushing ahead to inflict a claustrophobic squeeze upon her. “I think it’s so cool that all our moms went to school together. We’re gonna be like B-F-Fs these three weeks.”

Hailey led the way to the parking area, which was a single row of twenty or so spaces. “Check this out.” She pressed the button on her keychain, and after a series of boops, the trunk of a red convertible popped open.

“Sweet, you’ve got the top down!” Jill bounded ahead, tossed her suitcase into the trunk, and hopped over the closed door into the front passenger seat. “Your parents actually let you drive this thing?”

“F-Y-I, my dad is off-island for work until right before the Fourth,” started Hailey, who then continued to speak rapidly without coming up for air. “And my mom made plans to get a ride to the library where she works while you’re here, so O-M-G, the car is ours during the week!”

“Now, Merri’s never been here before.” Jill had turned around and kneeled on the front passenger seat. “So we’re going to show her everything and take her everywhere. Oh, remember that time…”

Meredith tuned out their conversation and feared there would be many more like it to come. She knew that Jill and Hailey were close cousins, so she expected to be somewhat of a third wheel for a good portion of the vacation. Since she was already planning to read and prepare for the next school year, Meredith didn’t mind if they left her alone.

Jill’s suitcase had landed haphazardly in the center of the trunk, leaving limited space for anything else. Meredith stood hers upright and started rearranging the trunk’s contents to make room.

“Let me get this for you,” said Hailey, reaching for the handle of Meredith’s suitcase. Not expecting it to be so heavy, she nearly lost her balance. “Whoa, W-T-H do you have in this thing? Bricks?”

“Schoolbooks,” called Jill, checking her make-up and primping her hair in the mirror on the backside of the visor. “Someone wants to study. Think we can do something to change her mind?”

“Absolutely!” Hailey heaved the suitcase into the trunk and slammed it shut. “This island has a way of changing people.”

With that, Hailey opened the rear driver’s-side door for Meredith, and then she climbed into the driver’s seat. After buckling her seat belt, she adjusted the rear view mirror and lowered her sunglasses from her hair to her eyes. Turning the ignition as she turned to the others, she said, “Hold tight.”

The car jerked backwards out of the parking space, lurching Meredith forward until the seat belt restrained her, but launching her eyeglasses off of her face.

The ferry dock was on the northern coast of the island, but Hailey lived with her parents along a private beach on the southern shore. There weren’t any divided highways on the island and only a few major two-lane roads. Since the island wasn’t much more than twenty miles across at its widest, the shortest route to Hailey’s would take at least half an hour. Still early enough in the morning and with so much free time ahead of them, Jill suggested that they take a more scenic route around the island to show Meredith the sights.

The car moved slowly in the traffic when they reached the first public beach, which already had visitors at it, though not anywhere near full capacity. “This is nothing,” said Hailey, one hand on the steering wheel and the other pivoting one way then another as she spoke. “Wait till the Fourth. O-M-G, this place will be, like, totally packed.”

“I’m sure it gets very crowded.” Meredith found herself having to shout over the bustle of pedestrians and other slow-moving, horn-honking traffic.

“Some of the people don’t like it,” explained Jill. “Too many tourists taking up space, not taking care of the place, littering, and so on. They forget that people do live here year round.”

“I’m sure their presence bolsters the island’s economy.” Meredith squinted to read the high prices printed on the sandwich-board sidewalk menu outside a seafood restaurant. “Especially at those costs.”

“Whatevs,” said Hailey. “I like the tourists because, I-M-O, off-island guys are usually hotter than the ones who live here. And I know all the guys here ‘cause there’s only one high school.”

“It’s like I told you, Merri.” Jill turned to look at her friend in the back seat, and then she hummed the melody of her musical number.

A pair of boys sitting in the back of a parked pick-up truck called for Hailey and whistled. She identified one them as a big jerk who dumped his girlfriend because she wouldn’t change her online relationship status to mention him.

Then, the driver of an open jeep going the opposite direction honked her horn and waved at Hailey. The male passenger had his arm around the girl, but he leaned in front of her and lowered his sunglasses to see the girls he didn’t know in Hailey’s car. “Nice,” he said, smiling and bobbing his head as he checked Jill out.

“Four-one-one, Jill,” said Hailey when the convertible had moved forward away from the jeep. “He’s also dating a girl on my swim team, but I don’t think either of them know about it.”

“Hi, Hailey.” A tall, muscular, shirtless boy smiled at them as he walked by on the passenger-side sidewalk.

Jill leaned over the door to examine him from behind. “Please tell me there’s nothing wrong with him.” Jill’s tongue was practically hanging out of her mouth.

“Great guy,” said Hailey. “Sweet guy. I dated him for a bit.”

“But?”

“Kisses like a fish.”

Meredith wasn’t entirely sure what Hailey’s comment to Jill even meant, so she chose to ignore it. She took her novel from her backpack and tried to read, but due to the jerky, stop-and-go motion along the beach, she couldn’t focus on the printed words without starting to feel the nausea of carsickness. So she had no option but to listen to Jill and Hailey. Even though she didn’t swim, falling off the ferry and swimming home appealed more to Meredith than the possibility of listening to incessant boy talk for three weeks.

Once they got away from the beach, Hailey could drive faster without having to stop as often. However, the air rushing by the open convertible rippled the pages while Meredith was trying to read. She wasn’t going to be obnoxious and ask Hailey to put the roof back up. After all, it was a sunny day, warm but with a nice ocean breeze. Perhaps too sunny, thought Meredith, so she removed a tube of sunscreen from her backpack and lathered a generous amount on her arms, neck, and face. Then she offered the tube to Jill.

“Thanks,” she said. “Now would you look at all the cool places to explore here, Merri?”

“I live here all year long, and I still think it’s the coolest place ever.” Hailey pointed to a tall, red-brick lighthouse, standing solitary atop a cliff with white-capped waves of the ocean beyond it. “S-W-I-M? Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“I don’t swim.” Meredith leaned forward to look, but then slumped back into her seat. “Especially not at a dangerous place like this.”

“No, not swim. S-W-I-M. See. What. I. Mean. See what I mean?” Hailey giggled.

Meredith sighed and shook her head in disbelief that it required a translator to understand the language of the island natives. “Yeah, I see, but why would you spell it out? It’s two fewer syllables to say the words than the letters.”

“It’s less letters when texting, though.”

“But we’re not texting.”

“I could say dubs for W. Let’s see: S-dubs-I-M.” Hailey shook her head and stuck out her tongue. “Nah, doesn’t sound right.”

Quickly changing the subject, Jill reached across her cousin to point at the water. “Hey Hailey, isn’t this the place where you thought you saw a—”

“T-M-I, Jill. Only family knows that.” Hailey glanced at the rearview mirror to see Meredith looking away. “I think the Fourth of July fireworks would look great here, but they’re on the other side of the island.”

Hailey’s tour around the perimeter of the island continued until they were back where they started. Hailey parked the convertible, and they got out and walked to Jill’s favorite fried clams stand. They bought their lunch and sat on the beach wall across the street to eat. Throughout the meal, Hailey and Jill finished each other’s sentences while they told Meredith stories about previous summers on the island.

“I’m thinking we can check out some shops here first,” said Hailey, when they were throwing away the trash from lunch. “Then drive back to my house and…”

“…do the beach thing there,” continued Jill, without skipping a beat.

Convinced that the two cousins had telepathic abilities, Meredith shook her head.

“Fewer people, more fun. What do you say, Merri?” Jill put her arm around Meredith. “And before you tell me you don’t swim, we’ll barely be wading.”

“No bathing suit,” said Meredith. “I didn’t bring one.”

“W-D-Y-M you didn’t bring one? Beaches everywhere.” Hailey’s body shook as if in shock. “I could lend you one.”

Shaking her head, Meredith eyed Hailey—about four inches taller and almost rail thin. “I appreciate that, Hailey, but I don’t think so.”

Clapping, Hailey bounced up and down, and then she took Meredith by the hand. “I know the coolest little shop.”

Across the street from the beach, the sidewalk was lined with all sorts of stores. They passed ice cream stands, an arcade, several restaurants, a bicycle rental lot, and various souvenir stands selling shirts emblazoned with island images.

Outside a gift shop specializing in aquatic-themed artwork, figurines, and other such knick-knacks, two barefoot girls gawked through the window as if in a trance. “Lore, why do you suppose they picture us that way?” asked the blonde-haired girl.

“I am not sure, Marina,” replied her friend with red hair. “Though it is curious what they believe.”

“But they have our lifestyle all wrong. How can you enjoy it here if they clearly misunderstand us?”

“Their misunderstanding does not make them any less interesting. Maybe one day, they can learn the truth. That could be a wonderful experience for them.”

Marina looked around at the passersby, all seemingly oblivious to each other and in some cases to their own surroundings. “They seem to be in too much of a rush even to stop and look around. I doubt any of them could ever—”

“It takes only one.” Lorelei noticed the girl with the short brown hair who lagged a few steps behind the two taller girls. “If one understands, others may follow.”

When they finally reached the shop, Hailey skipped away from Jill and Meredith to rifle through the racks of swimsuits.

“I don’t know, Jill.” Meredith shuffled her feet. “My parents only gave me so much money to spend. I don’t want to waste it on something so expensive.”

“Consider it an early birthday present from me.” Jill waved her arm towards the corner of the shop. “You can even go over there and not look at what I pick out, so it will be a surprise when you open it later at Hailey’s.”

“Fine, but nothing too…well, you know.”

Squeezing Meredith’s shoulder, Jill said, “Trust me. It’ll be tasteful, and you’ll look great.”

Meredith was afraid of that.

~ Chapter Four ~

“Come out, Merri.” Jill knocked once more on the door to the guest room in Hailey’s house. “I’m sure it looks fine.”

From beyond the door, Meredith called, “I’m only doing this for you.”

The door opened, and Meredith emerged wearing a blue two-piece bathing suit with a tankini top. Jill, in her black halter-top two-piece, applauded and said, “See, told you it wasn’t that bad.”

“When in Rome.” Meredith shrugged in partial agreement. Though the top covered her well, and there was only a thin sliver of exposed midriff, the bottom piece revealed more of her thigh than she was comfortable showing. But it was more modest than what Jill was wearing.

Wearing the hot pink string bikini she had just bought, Hailey quickly closed her bedroom door behind her when she entered the hallway. Meredith turned away, embarrassed to be looking at how it contrasted against so much of Hailey’s lightly bronzed body. The two of them dwarfed her, and as Meredith crossed her arms in front of her chest, she couldn’t help feeling inadequate next to them.

“We’ll totally hit the big beaches Saturday,” said Hailey, emphasizing each word with her hands. “There’ll be lots more guys then. Hot guys. Just the two of you and me tonight.”

Meredith was about to correct Hailey’s grammar but thought better of it when she saw Jill shaking her head and glaring at her. Instead, Meredith meekly said, “Girl power?”

“Girl power, L-O-L.” Then Hailey actually did laugh out loud.

They went out the kitchen’s sliding door onto the back deck, and then across the yard and over the wooden footbridge. Leaving the three beach towels hanging over the railing, they made their way to the water. Jill and Hailey ran ahead, and Meredith dawdled behind.

It wasn’t that Meredith had anything against the beach, only the portion of the beach that accumulated everywhere—sand in her hair, between her toes, in her shoes—and followed her home. And it wasn’t that Meredith had anything against the concept of swimming; she simply wasn’t that good of a swimmer, and she detested not being good at something. And it wasn’t that she had anything against being in the water; pools were fine to have fun in, but the few beaches she had visited back on the mainland were infested with seaweed. She hated the feel of slimy things unexpectedly brushing up against her.

For the sake of her friend, she would give this beach a chance. It was private, and there was no one other than the three of them there. The sand granules were finer than at those other beaches, and they didn’t seem to clump and collect like coarser sand. The water looked crystal clear, almost inviting. When in Rome, she reminded herself as she jogged ahead to join the others.

The ocean was warm and calm, with steady waves that weren’t very high. Displaying her skills from her team, Hailey quickly swam away from them until she was chest-deep in the water. After Jill had joined her, they rode the waves back to the shallower water where Meredith was staying. All the while, Jill and Hailey described different places on the island they wanted to show Meredith and different activities—like hiking, biking, or even parasailing—they could do. Some of it sounded interesting to Meredith, maybe even fun, but it frustrated her that neither of them had asked her what she wanted to do. She wanted some freedom to schedule her own time, even if it would be for studying.

Eventually, they got out of the water, and Hailey wanted to show them this one spot further up the beach where they could see directly into her cute neighbor’s weight room. It was nearing his usual workout time. They smoothed over their wet and windblown hair—Jill clumping hers together and letting it hang in front of her left shoulder—before heading towards the house on the left.

Jill and Hailey were already several steps ahead, but Meredith didn’t care. She preferred the alone time rather than listening to them drone on about boys or hair or clothes. She didn’t need to or want to be part of that conversation, so she headed for the footbridge and her towel to dry off. The wind had blown the towels off the railing, scattering them along the wall of rocks.

Meredith gathered the two that were closest to the stairs and then went to get the third. She cautiously climbed onto the wall of rocks, and as she reached for the towel, she saw something sparkle inside a crevice. She carefully reached inside so she wouldn’t cut herself if it was a piece of sea glass, and she pulled out an object that looked like a rumpled piece of fabric.

Wanting to examine it closely with empty hands, she returned the towels to the railing. She shook the material to let it unfold, and despite being compacted and crumpled, it was free of wrinkles. Though it appeared smooth, it had a coarse texture. Its shape was an irregular trapezoid with a leg perpendicular to the two parallel bases, one of which was a few inches shorter than the other. It was sheer and translucent, and when she held it up, the sunlight made it shimmer.

As she held it at different angles, it sparkled vividly through every color of the visible light spectrum from red to violet, though orange seemed to be the most dominant. Without her glasses, she squinted and held it up to her face as she tried to find any threads or fibers. There was a faint crisscross pattern as if the material consisted of two layers, each one refracting the sunlight in a different direction. Static friction kept the two halves clung together, and Meredith struggled to separate them.

When she laid it on her lap, her damp thighs twitched as if receiving a light electric shock. She wondered if the material had scratched her, but it felt curiously smooth when she spread it across her legs. The two layers easily slid apart to reveal that it was one continuous piece of fabric, almost like a skirt, but she couldn’t find a seam.

The waves rolled gently onto the shore, and their sound calmed her. Suddenly compelled to try on the skirt, Meredith stepped into it and pulled it up past her hips, where it fit snugly even without an elastic waistband. The longer end hung almost to her right knee, and she was pleased that it covered the bottom of her bathing suit.

The cousins were further down the beach behind Hailey’s neighbor’s house, but Meredith didn’t want to show them her find in case they didn’t think it was fashionable. Drifting toward the water, she was overcome with an inexplicable desire to go swimming.

Upon entering the ocean, Meredith noted that the water seemed colder than it had only minutes earlier. Shivers coursed up her legs, and though the feeling was mildly uncomfortable, she stood there knee-deep in the water and watched as goose bumps erupted all over her thighs.

She knew something wasn’t right, so she turned around to get back to her towel and back to the cottage. A slightly larger wave struck her from behind and knocked her down. Bracing her fall with outstretched hands, she found herself keeled over in the shallow water, submerged up to her chest.

Suddenly, there was a sharp pain around her waist, as if her stomach muscles were constricting. Fighting the aches inside her, she elevated herself to a kneeling position. The translucent skirt was drenched, having absorbed plenty of water, and it appeared to have contracted around her.

Meredith tried to remove the garment, but she couldn’t wedge her fingers between the skirt and her body. She tugged on the fabric wrapped around her waist to no avail; the skirt wouldn’t budge. However, as she gave one more yank, she knocked herself backwards and heard something tear.

Hoping she had pulled off the skirt, she stood, but in her hand was a partially shredded piece of blue fabric that matched her tankini. Quickly, she reached around herself to the small of her back and felt it was bare. She had torn the bottom of her swimsuit completely off her body, but the skirt was still covering her.

She panicked upon remembering that it was made of see-through material. She squeezed her thighs together and kneeled back in the water up to her stomach to preserve her modesty. But when she looked into the clear water, she saw that the skirt had become completely opaque and iridescently orange.

Her skin underneath felt like it was burning, and her legs were itchy and prickly, as if they were falling asleep. Slowly, she stood but found it difficult with her thighs sticking to each other. She reached down to pry her legs apart, but gasped when she felt the skirt. When she ran her fingers down its length—which somehow had elongated to her knees—the material felt smooth and slippery. But when she retracted her fingers upward, the material was jagged, even sharp.

“What is this thing?” she asked aloud.

The skirt seemed to have been activated by the water, so she hypothesized getting to drier land would reverse its effects. Unfortunately, with her knees bound, all she could do was waddle. Whatever the orange-red stuff was, it was now skintight and creeping further down her legs, wrapping around them like she was an Egyptian mummy. She took short hops forward but ultimately lost her balance and fell over.

Meredith landed face first into the salty water. She couldn’t see what was happening to her, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to look. The prickling of the pins-and-needles sensation reached her ankles, making it difficult for her to separate them from one another, let alone stand. She tried pushing down on the soaked sand to lift herself upward, but she could only raise her upper body. Everything beyond her waist remained immobile, the numbness feeling like her legs were no longer there.

Her face clenched as she wailed, and her feet were overcome with a new, excruciating pain. It was as if a steamroller had landed on her ankles and was slowly moving toward her toes, flattening her feet and sprawling them outward.

When the pain and numbness finally subsided, Meredith devised scientific explanations for her symptoms. An allergic reaction could cause her legs to become unusually bloated. A jellyfish sting could explain the aching of her feet. Still having difficulty moving her lower body, she craned her neck to examine her condition.

But a wave washed over her and obscured her view. Water thoroughly soaked her hair, and she had swallowed some, the taste of saline lingering on her tongue. Oddly, her gag reflex didn’t kick in, and she simply spit out the water left in her mouth and throat. Finding out what had happened could wait, as getting out of the ocean became her top priority.

Her legs and feet wouldn’t cooperate, so she dug her elbows into the wet sand and dragged herself forward. No longer numb, her lower body was exceedingly heavy as she hauled it along with her.

Once she could feel dry sand on her stomach, she heaved herself over onto her back, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. The next wave rushed up to her ankles, which she flexed up and then back down, hearing a loud thwap upon the foamy film of ocean water.

Her eyes popped open. Curious about what had made the sound, she repeated the movement at her ankles and could feel her wide, flattened feet smack against the wet sand.

Another wave approached as she raised her upper body. Again, she flexed her ankles, hearing the sound and seeing water splash upward.

Meredith stared at her chest and stomach, which were still covered by the tankini top. As she let her view drift downward, she lifted the bottom edge of the bathing suit to reveal her navel. Just below, her pasty pink flesh started blending with glimmering oranges that reminded her of the translucent skirt. The garment had vanished, replaced by a cocoon that secured her legs tightly into a single mass, which was covered with thousands of thin discs in different shades of orange, all glistening in the sunlight like sequins. Wide at her hips, the shape of Meredith’s lower body slowly tapered to a considerably narrower width at her ankles.

The water from the wave receded and revealed the shape of her now singular, flattened and expanded former feet. Upon viewing her full form for the first time, Meredith shrieked.

Jill and Hailey heard the noise and looked toward the source. At the edge of the water behind Hailey’s house, Meredith sat with her back to them. She was rocking back and forth, her arms holding the sides of her head as her screams continued.

The two cousins sprinted across the sand. As they got closer to Meredith, they could see that she was trembling and could hear that she was whimpering.

“Merri, what’s wrong?” called Jill.

Meredith craned her neck to the side and saw them approaching. “I…I’m…I don’t know what…how…but I’m…I’m a…” She turned away and buried her face into her hands.

Jill and Hailey decelerated and slowly circled around Meredith until they could see what had happened. They stood there, their lower jaws slowly dropping in a mixture of awe and confusion.

“O. M. G.” Hailey turned to her cousin. “You never told me you were B-F-Fs with a mermaid. That. Is. So. Cool!”

- - - - -

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