My suspension carried me to the end of the school year, and I spent only seconds thinking my summer vacation had started early. I missed Track and Field Day, which was always the best day of school. The last day of class was always fun, too, because after cleaning the classroom we spent the rest of the day playing.

Instead, I spent the entire time grounded. When Papa was home, I had to stay in my room. Mama at least let me out, even if it was to do chores.

Part of me wanted to sneak away for a short time when Mama ran errands. Whenever I thought about Lysi, I felt desperate, because I didn’t know if she’d tried to come back, or if she’d been hurt, or . . . I couldn’t think about it. Not knowing if she was all right was tormenting.

But another part of me didn’t want to go back to the beach. When I thought about our friendship, my stomach gave a strange twist.

On the last day of school, I was helping Mama pull weeds in the backyard when someone knocked on our door. I crossed through the house and opened it to find Annith’s long, freckled face smiling at me. I jumped forwards and hugged her, making a point of being silent so Mama wouldn’t hear us and make her leave.

Annith held out a big orange bag. “Your stuff from your desk.”

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“Gosh, you look miserable.”

I pulled off my gardening gloves and wiped an arm across my clammy forehead, pushing strands of frizzy hair out of my eyes. “What’s happened at school?”

“Nothing really,” she whispered, pushing her sleeves up her bony arms. “Everyone heard about you being suspended, but nobody saw what happened. So Dani told everyone you went crazy and tried to sock some little kid for no reason, and Dani was like, the big hero who pulled you away, and you punched her in the middle of your rage.”

I gaped at her. “What? She said that?”

She flipped her long hair over her shoulder and scoffed. “She’s unbelievable. Now everyone’s saying you had to get sent to the mainland for two weeks to go to a correctional school or something.”

“I didn’t—you don’t believe—I wouldn’t—that horrible—”

“I know,” said Annith, reaching out to pat my arm. “Don’t worry, I don’t think you tried to beat up a little kid.”

“Everyone else does!” I said, my voice high.

“Not everyone. Most kids know Dani lies a lot, so they don’t really believe her.”

I didn’t know what to say. My guts twisted in anger. I wanted to push Dani into the mud all over again.

“Meela?” Mama’s voice rang through the open back door. “Who is it?”

“I want to know why you got in that fight though,” said Annith quickly. “What happened?”

 I looked past her at the road, then back to her curious eyes. I spoke to one of the freckles on her right cheek. “It was the shell necklace. She tattled on me.”

Annith gasped, looking infuriated. “So you’re grounded for two weeks because of a necklace?”

I lifted one shoulder. Annith and I always shared secrets, but the fact that I’d been going to the beach to talk to Lysi was one secret I never shared with anybody except Charlotte.

“Meela?” Mama’s voice drew nearer. I could hear her footsteps.

I jumped back from Annith and closed my hand on the orange bag.

“Well, thanks for bringing this, Annith,” I said loudly, then turned to see Mama stop in the doorway.

“Hi, ma’am,” said Annith, staring at her own gumboots.

“Annith was just bringing me my stuff,” I said cheerfully.

“That was nice of you, honey,” said Mama. “Thank you.”

She said it in a final way that did not invite Annith to stay over and play.

Annith met my eyes and I grimaced apologetically.

I stuffed the bag in my closet and left it to fester until September, then went back to the yard to continue helping Mama. Most days, I felt lucky when my chores were outside. Today, however, I did not feel lucky to be in the yard. It was gloomy and misty out, and my hair kept sticking to my face. The inside of my gardening gloves had grown wet long ago, and my jeans were soaked through at the knees and ankles.

“Can I go inside and watch TV now?” I asked for the hundredth time after another hour of pulling weeds. I hadn’t given up on asking since I first got suspended, figuring she must let me watch something if I proved to be too annoying.

In addition to the Eriana Kwai news station, we got a handful of channels from British Columbia, which meant I could watch some of the English television shows. TV was the only reason I liked learning English in school.

“Of course not.” She stood, looking as sticky and as cold as I felt, and peeled off her gardening gloves. “Stay out here and finish weeding. I’m going out for groceries.”

I glowered at the dirt beneath my gloved hands. She was just making an excuse to go indoors and be warm and dry.

“It’ll take me hours to finish this by myself,” I said in a whiny voice. It was true—the weeds Mama made me pull were Ravendust bushes, a stubborn plant that grew all over Eriana Kwai and had deep, thick roots that clung to the ground. Mama hated them around the garden because its leaves were black as tar, and she said it made the whole garden dreary.

Not long after our old, rusty car sputtered out of the driveway, I decided cutting the weeds would be faster than pulling them. I’d make double-time without Mama there to make me dig the roots all the way out.

Mama and Papa always told me not to go into the shed because I could get hurt from Papa’s sharp tools, but I was ten now, and I would be careful.

I opened the shed door to the sound of tiny claws scuttling out of sight. I squinted into the blackness, hunting for Mama’s pruning shears. Nothing but shadows met my eyes, so I slipped inside and felt along the wall for a light switch. The shed stunk like gasoline and mildew.

My toes bumped into tools, and I stepped carefully over them. Still, I found no switch—though my fingers did break through a thick cobweb. I leapt back with a small scream.

“Gross,” I whispered, wiping my hand on my pants.

After a minute spent squinting at the shadows around me, shivering, I had the revelation that the light must have been above my head.

My waving hand caught the chain and pulled. The light clicked on.

My eyes fell immediately on the back wall. Above the lawn mower, hanging all by itself in the centre, was a black crossbow. Beside it sat three rusted coffee cans overflowing with bolts. Two were sealed in place by a blanket of cobwebs. One was recently disturbed.

Papa’s Massacre weapons.

I couldn’t stop myself from walking over. I pulled a plastic bin out from under the shelf and stood on top of it, bringing my eyes level with the crossbow.

This bow shot Lysi. Before that, it must have killed hundreds of mermaids.

Mouth dry, I closed my fingers around the nearest bolt. The cobweb crackled as I removed it from the shelf. The ammo sat heavy in my palm—solid iron, longer than my hand and wide as my thumb. I placed it back and reached for the crossbow. My arms shook, straining to support the huge weapon as I took it from the wall. The handle was cold—and also made of iron. I wondered why they didn’t make the whole thing out of wood, which would’ve been lighter.

Beneath my feet, the bin creaked suddenly, and I screamed as it snapped under my weight. The crossbow fell from my hands and hit the lawn mower with a crack.

My feet landed on a stack of books inside the bin. Heart jumping, I leapt out and stared down at the fallen weapon. Nothing was broken, except for the bin.

I breathed deeply to calm myself, glancing over my shoulder impulsively. My eyes fell onto a pair of pruning shears hanging near the door.

Remembering I was supposed to be gardening, I snatched up the shears. I turned off the light and backed out of the shed, leaving the crossbow on the ground. I felt silly, but my pulse raced and I didn’t want to be near those cold, dark weapons.

I wished I’d never gone into the shed. The sight of the crossbow and bolts only made my chest tighten. My eyes blurred with tears, which I blinked back as I chopped the Ravendust weeds with vigour.

I finished quickly and went to watch TV, knowing it would be a while until Mama came home.

TV did nothing to lighten my mood. I watched SpongeBob and Plankton sing about friendship, and when that was over and Carly and Sam started celebrating their best friend anniversary, I changed the channel.

I was about to change it again, not caring to watch the news, when I noticed the scene in the background: it was the beach, not far from where Lysi and I met every day. Annith’s mama was Eriana Kwai’s news anchor, and she spoke very seriously into the camera.

“You can see behind me the devastation caused by the demons. The origin of this boat is yet unknown, but it raises questions about the state of fishing in other countries. It seems the demons are doing everything in their power to clear these waters.”

I stood and moved closer to the television, as though that would help me see behind her more clearly. An empty fishing boat had washed ashore; it was tipped on its side, exposing its barnacled hull to the sky. The fishing nets were torn in dozens of places, strewn across the rocks. The sight of the upturned boat made my stomach queasy, and I tried not to think about what happened to the fishermen who were aboard.

The camera turned towards the sea. I watched the rocks and the waves go by, feeling wistful.

Then something on the beach made my heart jump. Was it—it couldn’t be—was I imagining it?

I put my hands on the sides of the television as if to push myself through the screen.

The story switched to an interview with the old man who owned the grocery store.

“No!” I said, pushing my face closer still. “Go back!”

“Ordinarily, the price of fish in a shortage would skyrocket,” said the old man, “but I’m afraid I can’t even say that. The price of fish hasn’t moved, because there simply isn’t any fish. Our seafood deli is bare. Our main export has stagnated. The price of goods is through the roof and will continue to escalate until we find relief from the mainland.”

They never did go back to filming the beach. I backed up and sat on the couch, staring at the television blankly.

I was sure of what I’d seen on the beach: a rock tower stacked against the shoreline, subtle, but definitely there. Lysi had been there, and I had never shown up to meet her.

She was alive.