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Kinda like the one where your dream mermaid was trapped, isn’t it?
Not exactly like it, though, I thought. But I wasn’t sure. I tried to recall it to mind, but honestly, I wasn’t sure. There’d been a shipwreck behind her, hadn’t there? Movement caught my attention— a mermaid came swimming into view. She had dozens of long sable braids that flowed behind her, and an elaborate white tail and bikini top against her dark skin. There were frilly, scaly fins on her forearms, and sparkles on her cheeks. The crowd applauded as she performed a series of graceful flips and turns, and eventually swam right up to the glass, eyes wide open, smiling brightly, and waved.
Cheers erupted, and she swam away out of sight.
Mason closed his hand around my fist on the seat between us when another mermaid came swimming into sight, way in the back of the tank where you could hardly see her. This one had long blond hair. I made out purple and teal in her tail, and her top was two iridescent purple oyster shells. Eventually, she looked up as if someone above was talking to her, then she swam forward a little, shrugged, and performed a somersault by spinning her arms out at her sides like a fourth grader in a swimming pool. On the final flip, she hit herself in the head with her tail, and rolled her expressive eyes as she stumbled into the light. She smiled with bubbles coming out between her teeth and peered out at the crowd through squinty eyes.
“Misty?” Mason whispered. And then he said, “No. That’s not Misty.”
“It’s Christy,” I said. And then I added, “What the actual fuck?”
* * *
Rachel: I’m at table six. Get your tail out here.
That was my text to Christy’s phone two seconds after the curtain lowered on the pretty, oversized fish tank. My hands were shaking so hard it took me three tries to send it. I’d gone ice cold.
“I’ve got you,” Mason said.
“I know.”
It’s not the same aquarium, Inner Bitch whispered inside my mind. It’s not the same as the one in the ride-along.
It wasn’t the same, not exactly. I called the memory of that vision up. The bottom had been lined in blue gravel. This one had what looked like sand lining the bottom, with sunken treasures sticking up out of it: a golden goblet, a pocket watch, jewelry, along with natural treasures like seashells and corals and sparkling silver stones. The tank in my memory had a ruined castle, leafless tendrils of waving seaweed, and two boulders; the tank in front of my eyes had leafy, flowering plants dancing around it. And two boulders.
Are those rocks the same? I think they might be the same.
I don’t know, Inner Bitch. A rock is a rock.
But I knew very well they could’ve changed the layout a dozen times in ten years. I pulled my attention from the watery depths to watch my phone, but no reply came. Our food did. I sampled the offerings on my plate, moving on autopilot while my stomach warned me not to even think about sending any of it down. I tasted every item anyway. Then my phone finally chirped.
Christy: What are you doing here?
Rachel: You didn’t return my call.
Christy: So you show just show up?
Rachel: Yes, I just show up. What are you doing here? And where is your sister?
I tapped my finger on the table and waited.
Christy: …
Shirtless came back. “Can you bring another place setting? Our mermaid’s joining us.”
Christy: …
Rachel: Christy, answer me right now.
My thumbs tapped the screen so hard they made noise. But only the ellipses appeared in reply as our confused waiter hurried away. He came back with a plate and a set of utensils, but wisely retreated without a word while I drummed my fingers on the table and stared at the phone, impatience radiating from my very being.
The phone pinged at last.
Christy: I’m coming already! It takes time to get out of that tail.
“I bet it does,” I said aloud. Then I turned my phone face down on the table, sighed heavily and took a long sip of my alcoholic beverage. Nothing was wrong. No one was in danger. No one had died.
As I lowered my glass, the mermaid from my vision surfaced, glared at me from brown eyes within a jungle of brunette curls, and vanished again.
