It wasn’t until Skye was safely tucked up in bed back home that she realised that “first thing tomorrow” wasn’t a real time. To save the town from a flash flood, she rose at six and slipped out quietly to the beach just before seven.
It was different going in the morning. The cold, wet air seeped into her body and brought her skin out in goosebumps. Any excitement about wearing her first tankini out for the first time soon died as she scrabbled back down the rocks and settled down on the chilly ground to wait.
Coraline didn’t pop her head out of the water for another half hour. “You’re early! And blue.”
“Hello…” She felt a heat bloom in her chest. It didn’t spread to her limbs.
“Are you freezing? Wow. Let me fix that.” With an incantation and a flick of her finger, Skye’s body relaxed into a pleasant warmth. “Is that better? Can’t have you dying before our date.”
She managed a bumbling nod.
“Great. Let’s head off, then – I have a lot planned for us!” She gave another few flicks of her finger, then grabbed Skye by the wrist and plunged down.
Her grip was like an iron chain. Kick and push as she might, Coraline didn’t even flinch, and the surface drifted further and further from her frantically reaching fingers. She reflexively took a deep breath at the end of her scream. Only pure, salty air entered her lungs.
She heard Coraline laugh next to her ear. “Are you done? I put a spell on you, silly.” She pulled her into a hug. “How could I let my friend – I mean, my girlfriend – drown?”
If the princess had been beautiful sunning herself on land, she was radiant underwater. Her long, smooth hair became a living halo, twisting and wriggling just as the mermaid herself. The ropes of pearl and clam shells that had always lain flat on her hips circled her like the rings of Jupiter. Here, the light danced in her eyes mysteriously.
Coraline slipped her hand into Skye’s. “Come on – I have so much to show you.”
And she did. First, she brought her deeper into the ocean, where human hands controlled the sea less and the sea creatures thrived. She showed her shoals of fish, shimmering enchantingly in the light, and sea turtles crawling through the water. She guided her to find the secret hidey-holes of crabs that she would never have thought to check. With Coraline there, the animals didn’t flurry away, but obeyed her command to come right up to them. She coaxed the small fish to eat from Skye’s hand like little birds.
Then she took her by both hands and led her further still. There was an old sunken boat, now reclaimed by coral and fish. Its gaping windows were haunting to Skye but Coraline fearlessly wrenched open the doors and pulled her in. The rooms that had once housed humans now carried sea life in strange, almost frightening ways. The paintings had been long washed out. Forks were scattered over the floor. The ventilation shafts were dens for eels. Coraline scooped up a priceless diamond necklace and tried to get Skye to accept it as a present, but she shook her head until the mermaid scowled and let it drop back to the floor. Thankfully, there were no skeletons.
From there they drifted back out into the open ocean. Coraline sang her a song so sweet that it pierced her heart.
“I wish that I was a mermaid…”
Coraline shot a bright smile at her. “Dad knows a spell for that. If he cast it, you would be able to become a mermaid whenever you want and swim out to meet me.”
It sounded too good to be true. “Really?”
“Really.” She pulled her in so that they were hugging. “Let’s go and see him.”
Her stomach lurched as the water around them churned suddenly, propelling them along so fast that she had to bury her face in Coraline’s shoulder to stop herself from being sick. When it cleared a few minutes later, they were in unfamiliar waters.
“My castle’s just below us. We’ll have to swim down properly, or I’ll get in trouble for knocking people over.”
Taking her hand, she turned with an elegant swish of her tail and swam into the endless depths. She must have been holding back before, because she swam with such ease and speed that the water swiftly darkened around them.
Soon she could only see Coraline. The ocean around them flashed and twinkled constantly, but it lit nothing. Then even those lights disappeared.
The further they swam, the more her stomach was gripped by a primal dread. Eyes were watching her. Something told her, instinctively, that whatever lay below was not for her. She gripped her hand to try and pull her to a halt.
“Don’t, Coraline. I’m scared.”
She looked back. “What are you talking about? We’re not even at the trench yet.”
She pulled her down another few metres. Skye’s legs fought to kick her back to the surface, but it was like trying to push a wall. “Please stop!”
“Don’t be a big baby. This is the way to my home.”
Something dragged itself along her leg. She shrieked.
“It’s just a Black Swallower. Don’t worry, you’re with me – nothing can hurt you.”
“No more.” She wasn’t proud, but she cried. “Please take me back, Coraline… Please, please, take me home…”
Coraline scowled and the water rumbled. When she saw that Skye was really crying, though, she softened and came back up. “What’s wrong? Is my magic not strong enough yet?” Skye could only sob. “There, there… I’m sorry.”
The princess tenderly but firmly took her hand and led her back up. She swam slowly this time, with many guilty and concerned glances down at her. “I’ll take you down for real one day. Then you’ll never have to be afraid again.”
She sang another song to soothe her until they reached the sunny waters again. There, she called a pod of dolphins and several sea turtles to play with her until she cheered up.
It was evening when Coraline finally brought her back. She took them to a flat of rock across from the beach where they could safely watch the people playing on the sand. Humans, safe on shore. Skye noted with relief that she would be able to swim back alone if she was desperate.
Coraline gave her time to catch her breath before she spoke again. “So, how was it?”
“A lot of fun!”
“Does that mean you’re a lesbian, then?”
She faltered. “No, I think it’s normal to have fun with friends? It didn’t really feel like a date…”
“What? I spent ages planning that, though!” The mermaid beat her hand off the rock in frustration, pouting cutely. “I’ll have to try something super romantic.”
Skye felt her cheeks burn brightly. She dragged herself onto the rock so she could lie on her back, watching the passing clouds instead. The sunset tinted them an awe-inspiring gold. Somehow it only made her more aware of Coraline’s presence.
“Who do you think is the best looking?”
She had to sit up to see what she was looking at. A group of boys from Skye’s year were laughing and shoving each other about near the edge of the waves.
“I don’t know. They’re not very nice people, so it doesn’t matter.”
“You know them?” Coraline looked to her with a hopeful smile.
“We go to school together. They’re always stealing my stuff and calling me names.”
The princess sighed, dropping her chin into her hand sulkily. They watched the boys push each other into the water until one became angry. The pushing became more aggressive.
“I’ve got it!” Skye’s least favourite boy landed in the sea with a huge splash, but she tore her gaze away to give Coraline her full attention. She was sitting straight up. “I won’t know my true love until I save him from drowning. That’s how fated lovers meet. It’s how every other human-sexual mermaid met their lover.”
She was dubious. “There aren’t that many accidents around here. Do you want to pick your favourite and I’ll push him in?”
The thought of Coraline mooning over any boy made her stomach burn with disgust, but she pushed the feeling down. The mermaid turned to her with soft surprise.
“You’d really do that for me?”
She nodded. It would be fun to throw one of her classmates off a cliff, to be honest. As long as he didn’t die.
Coraline clasped her hands tightly in hers. To her confusion, she looked ready to cry despite smiling. “You’re a true friend, Skye. The best friend I’ve ever had.”
It wasn’t long before school broke up for the summer. Putting her lost friends behind her, Skye went to visit Coraline almost every day. They played from morning to evening, exchanging information on the world above and below water and exploring the wonders of the internet together. Through it, Skye was able to perform her duty to educate the mermaid on the ins and outs of human society – and was even able to show her all three of the Lord of the Rings movies.
The princess was serious about helping her test her sexuality too. Each day she tried something new to make her heart beat fast, from suddenly taking her hand to hitting her with some line she’d read in a romance novel. She had started to look forward to it as her daily surprise.
One day she had to screech to a stop on her morning sprint to their meeting place. Coraline’s hypnotic voice was drifting across the sand, not from the sheltered rock that they knew as their own, but from the cove where they’d first met.
She knew that no one else would hear or see her, yet a strange dread hardened Skye’s stomach. She followed her voice.
Coraline was beached in the shallows, bent over the unconscious body of Robert, an apparently hot but not very interesting boy from the class next door. His curly blonde hair was swept back in the way that had always made her friends shriek and giggle. His breaths were deep and peaceful. He was woefully unaware of the beauty whose head was only a metre from his own.
The sight was a punch in Skye’s gut. She was an intruder, she knew – an irrelevant spare wheel who ought to shuffle off before she ruined it all.
But her trainer crushed a shell and Coraline’s head snapped up. Her face was deathly pale. Rather than looking annoyed, she teared up with relief.
“Help me, Skye. Help me put him back in the water.”
Her plea was so desperate that Skye’s feet carried her forward before she’d even processed the words. “Back in the water?”
“I put him to sleep. He won’t wake up no matter what now.” She pushed him away from herself. “But I need you to drag him in.”
She knelt down on the other side of Robert. On further inspection, he didn’t look quite as charming as usual. There was a gash on his head that might have gone down to the bone.
“He’ll drown if we do that?”
“Exactly!” She crawled roughly over him to clasp Skye’s wrist. “I shouldn’t have saved him. I think it’s not too late to put him back – he hasn’t seen me yet.”
She was serious, Skye realised. She shook her off.
“We can’t kill him, Coraline!”
“Please… Please, Skye…” She tried to take hold of her again, her eyes filling pitifully with tears. Even Skye couldn’t be moved this time. “He was meant to die. I saved him without thinking about it. I don’t want this.”
“We’ll take him to hospital! To his parents!” She was glad to see Coraline flinch with guilt. “You’ll never have to see him again, but we’re not committing murder.”
“Will you… Will you keep him away from me? Forever?”
“Yes!” It was an empty promise. No one could keep tabs on Robert forever. But Coraline didn’t seem to remember that she would always be invisible to him. “I’ll protect you forever and ever and ever. But you have to help me save his life.”
The princess scooted rapidly back to his side. “I’ll heal his wounds and make sure that he wakes up in a few hours.” Her hands flew around like she was defusing a bomb.
Skye tried to carry him back to the town. She could just about drag him out of the ocean but, after that, her attempt to hoist him over her shoulder almost trapped her underneath him. Coraline watched intently.
“I’ll have to get an adult…” She struggled free, wincing as he dropped face-first in the sand. “You should go.”
“They won’t see me?”
“But I will. Go.”
They never spoke of that day again. As far as Robert and his parents were concerned, he’d sustained no significant damage from his tumble off their friend’s boat and Skye had been his only hero. No one called her a lesbian anymore and her friends were talking to her again. Still, day after day, Skye left them all behind to climb over the rocks to her true friend.
Nothing was the same, of course. There was a bleak tension that never left the air when they were together. Coraline never laughed now and didn’t want to talk about human boys.
In fact, they only ever spoke about girls and whether or not Skye knew if she liked them yet. Coraline was obsessed with getting answers. Her daily tests were now performed every five minutes, almost aggressively.
“Come and rest your head in my lap.”
She was as demanding that day as ever. Skye had learned weeks ago not to try to reason with her. When she didn’t move fast enough for her, she spread her tail further and patted it.
She reluctantly crawled into position. Between the wet, somewhat rubbery tail under her head and the cold rock under the rest of her body, it was miserable.
“I saw a mermaid doing this with her husband a few days ago.”
She produced a fine coral comb from the pouch she’d brought with her and did her best to run it gently through Skye’s short hair. When it slipped through the first lock in a matter of seconds, she nervously brushed it six more times.
She picked through the delicate notes of a love song just as carefully. In spite of her discomfort, Skye was soon floating on the edge of sleep. Only the spine-tingling touch of the mermaid’s fingers held her back.
It lasted for a long time, yet ended too soon. “How was it?”
“Very nice…”
Coraline leant forward with a grin. “So you’re a lesbian, right?”
She hesitated. “I don’t think it works like that. Anyone would find that nice.”
Coraline’s fin slapped a mile-long wave across the ocean. “Come on! You have an excuse for everything.” She shoved the comb roughly back into the pouch. “Wouldn’t you hate it if you were lying in the lap of someone you don’t like?”
“But I do like you… We’re friends.”
The mermaid’s face darkened with an anger that made Skye flinch back. The previously clear sky crackled with thunder and lightning. She scrambled to get out of her lap.
“You’re not taking this seriously at all!” screamed Coraline. The waves were whipping up in a frenzy already. “You’re never going to know at this rate!”
“I’m trying, I promise…”
“You’re not! You’re wasting my time! Skye Hutchinson, don’t you dare come looking for me again until you’ve sorted yourself out.”
She dove back into the water before Skye could say another word, and was swallowed up in an instant.
Comments (0)
See all