By the time she disembarked at the port in Avalon, evening was settling over the island. Tiny lights flickered on in the pastel houses that crawled up the side of the hill and inside the cabins of boats moored at port. Goldie walked not toward her cottage, but down to the promenade along the shoreline. An unseen force dragged her back to the same beach at the end of the bay where she’d met Cosimo the week before.
The beach was nearly deserted as twilight descended. Only a few workers lingered to finish stacking the lounge chairs beneath a palapa. They joked with one another, discussing their evening plans as they folded the sandwich signs advertising the rental of snorkeling gear.
Goldie kicked off her loafers, feeling the cool pebbled sand between her toes. Then she walked past the far end of the beach, picking her way over the jutting rocks that protected a small colony of jewel-toned tidal pools. Water surged in between the rocks here as the tide came in. She glanced back at the beach, reassuring herself that she was alone. The last worker had packed up and gone for the day.
Cautiously, she edged out toward the water’s edge, creeping along the ledge of a large jutting rock. When she reached the edge, she settled herself there with her feet dangling above the sand and the rushing water below.
“Hello,” she whispered, feeling simultaneously ridiculous and like she was greeting an old friend.
The water surged forward, nearly touching her feet before retreating, as if beckoning her closer. A pelican cried overhead, the sound eerily resembling her name, not Goldie, but the other one. Her real name.
Ondalune.
In the crevice between two rocks beside her, she noticed a large spiral shell, washed clean, polished and bleached white by sun and waves. She picked it up and held it to her ear, not sure what she expected to hear. The usual hollow roaring? The faint echo of her name? For once, she heard neither.
Instead, she heard the refrain of a distant melody, haunting and familiar, though she couldn’t quite place it. She dropped the shell, startled.
“I’m losing my mind,” she murmured, but bent to collect another, smaller shell on a shelf of rock beside her. The same music, slightly louder this time. Tentatively, she stood and picked her way back to the sandy beach, gathering a third shell, and a fourth. Each one was singing the same mysterious tune. Goldie retraced her steps, heading back into town.
The water in the bay before her seemed to glimmer with unnatural iridescence as it reflected the last lingering streaks of pink and orange in the sky. As she made her way past the Casino and back to the promenade, Goldie could still see the bright orange flashes of Garibaldi fish darting through the kelp forest just offshore. But they seemed much clearer than should be possible in the dimming light of twilight. The swaying kelp looked like streamers, welcoming her to a party.Herparty.
She thought of the film reels, of the way her skin had shimmered when soaked with seawater, of her youth suddenly restored, and felt something shift. The moon rose overhead, and the tide rushed closer to land, and she realized that the truth, however impossible it seemed, was undeniable. Something within her had awakened, and it would not be ignored any longer. She could not, would not, deny who and what she was.
Goldie walked along the shore until she reached the pier.
Without crowds of tourists, the wooden structure seemed ancient and mystical, stretching out into the darkening water like a bridge to another world. Her world, perhaps.
She stepped up the ramp and walked toward the end of the pier, her heartbeat accelerating with every step. Behind her, the lights flickered and dimmed as she passed, as if to offer her privacy. Not that she was particularly worried about who might be watching. She was beyond caring now. The song was too overwhelming. She could still hear it.
The distant music she’d heard in the shells seemed to emanate from far out in the channel now. Below her, the water rocked and rolled sensuously, like a compelling dancer with swaying hips. Dark and secretive yet somehow welcoming. It called to her, begging her to follow its waves and offering to wrap her up in its velvet embrace.
Goldie looked back toward shore, at the twinkling lights of Avalon, at the life she’d built on the island for herself. Then she turned to face the vast ocean before her. Without giving herself time to reconsider, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and jumped.
For one terrifying moment, she felt nothing but panic. A century of fear and conditioning couldn’t simply disappear in an instant. The cold Pacific shocked her system as she plunged beneath the surface. She flailed, eyes squeezed shut, lungs already burning. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold her breath. She sank down deeper, into darker waters.
It wasn’t long before her instincts won over. She simply couldn’t fight the primal urge to breathe. It was far stronger than her fear. It could not be denied. She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with sea water.
Immediately, she felt better.
Her skin tingled, pleasantly now rather than painfully. A warmth spread through her body despite the icy cold water. Instinctively, Goldie knew what to do. She stopped struggling and simply surrendered, allowing herself to sink even deeper, letting the current take her. She felt comforted in the ocean’s embrace, and let the tide carry her farther out to sea.
Her skin tingled with new sensations. Temperature, current, and the slightest vibrations tickled her, making her fight the urge to laugh. Her clothes were only getting in the way, so she wriggled out of them.
She opened her eyes, watching as the current carried her human clothing away. Then she looked down at her feet.
The curious transformation was happening before her eyes. What had appeared painful and alien in the film reel felt more like returning home after a long journey and slipping into her pajamas.
Her legs grew warmer. Her feet crossed at the ankles, calves overlapping, ankles together. Then they seemed to lose their distinction, melting together. The same strange silvery shimmer she’d noticed before spread across her skin, forming delicate scales that caught what little light penetrated the water.
Goldie watched in wonder as her body remembered what her mind had forgotten. Her lungs no longer burned or ached at all. She was breathing naturally underwater. Her hands remained human-like but slightly webbed between the fingers. Finally, as the transformation became complete, where her legs had been, a powerful tail now undulated. It was covered in scales that shifted between silver, pale blue, and iridescent purple, depending on how the moonlight struck.
She gave an experimental flick of her tail and shot forward with preternatural speed. The sensation was exhilarating. Far more powerful than human swimming. Another flick and she rose toward the surface, breaking through with a joyous splash before diving deep again.
In the water, she was grace personified. Every movement came naturally, as if she’d been doing this her entire life, which, she supposed, in another existence she might have done. The distant music grew louder now, emanating from somewhere out in the channel. Goldie swam toward it, each powerful stroke of her tail carrying her farther from shore.
The underwater world opened before her like a dream. Schools of fish parted to let her pass, some choosing to trail in her wake for a moment or two, though none had her speed, and didn’t keep up. The kelp forests that swayed in the current felt like caresses against her new form. Even the temperature of deeper water in the channel, which would have been challenging for an unclothed human to bear, felt mild and comfortable against her newly armored skin.
Goldie dove deeper, discovering the pressure that would have hindered a human diver had no effect on her. Colors that should have been lost in the darkness remained vivid to her enhanced vision. She could see details of the ocean floor that she knew had to be thousands of feet below the surface. She marveled at her other senses as well. She could sense the presence of creatures that were miles away via a combination of sound and movement. She even had a sense of smell beneath the water that rivaled her senses on land.
