“What’s wrong?” he asked.

The older one whipped her head around. When her eyes landed on Chrys she gave a polite but apologetic smile.

“I’m not sure- he’s been crying the whole time.” she said, “Hey come on, quit crying, you aren’t making any sense.” The girl was stern in voice but gentle with her hands as she continued cleaning up the young boy’s face.

“No!” the boy wailed, “I told you! I said I didn’t want to go but he made meeee!”

Lily and Chrys exchanged confused glances. The older child looked back.

“He’s been babbling the whole time like this.” she lamented.

“Uhm, what do you mean by he made you?” Lily piped up, her voice straining to be heard. The young kid, seeming to latch onto someone finally paying attention to his cries focused on Lily.

“I didn’t want to come here, but– but that puppet got scary!” he said through hiccups.

“Come on, you’re speaking nonsense and working yourself up.” the girl sighed.

He ignored the girl and began to stare at Lily through his tears as if expecting something from her. He was on the verge of wailing again as Lily struggled to come up with something to say.

“U-uhm, why...” Lily started but before she could say anything else a single shimmering butterfly landed gracefully on the boy’s pink stuffed nose. He blinked, watching the butterfly’s transparent, yet filled with flickering colors, wings flap lazily before popping into fizzing soap and water. Then more butterflies surrounded the three, popping as soon as they landed on the boy’s skin. He stared in fascination, forgetting his own reddened face.

Lily looked over to Chrys who was now blowing bubbles with a jar in his other hand. As the bubbles separated from the circular film of the wand they began to warp from the circular shape into delicate soap butterflies.

Butterfly bubbles.

“Man, I used to love these.” the girl stood up, watching the butterflies’ brief flights.

“Want to try it out?” Chrys asked, handing the bubbles to the boy. He nodded sheepishly and took the jar and stick. He blew bubble after bubble, watching intently as the butterflies took five sweeping motions with their wings before popping. The pop sounded sweet like twisting off the cap of a glass soda bottle.

“Thanks.” the girl said, “My name is Indie, and this crybaby is Oliver, my little brother.”

“It’s whatever,” Chrys shrugged but his usual frown had softened a bit. “Actually we could use a little help.”

Chrys explained the situation, describing how they were looking for Riley.

“Have you seen anyone who looks like that?” Lily asked.

“Hm...I’m sorry, I haven’t really noticed anyone.” Indie said after thinking for a minute. The group was silent for a bit, letting the surrounding noise fill the dejected feeling Lily and Chrys harbored. “Hey, the parade will start soon. We can help you look after!”

“Oh, we didn’t mean to make you help us...” Lily said.

“No, no I want to, besides it’ll be fun, like a scavenger hunt or something.” Indie smiled. Looking at Indie’s soft smile, tiny dimples on her cheeks and brightened by a scattering of freckles, Lily thought she must be friendly to everyone she meets. Lily gave a shy smile back.

“Cool we can add you to our–

Chrys was interrupted by a fanfare of trumpets blaring within the square. Every child’s head turned toward the center square where high in the sky floating trumpets bobbed up and down as they belted grand music.

“The parade is starting!” Oliver yelled. He was now fully over his crying episode and bubbling with curiosity. Unable to control his excitement he charged off toward the center, weaving through taller kids and bumping smaller ones. He was eager to see his favorite thing in the world, mermaids.

“Oli, wait!” Indie cried after him. “Ugh, he’s too much sometimes.”

“Let’s move up.” Chrys said.

The three of them slowly made their way through the crowd. Some kids gave them annoyed looks but sheepishly looked away when facing Chrys’ hard scowl, daring them to do something. Indie and Lily exchanged glances and giggled. As they made their way forward, the trumpets transformed into a more soothing melody of harps, xylophone and ocarinas. Above all their heads a giant bubble of water began floating down from above, the light from the purple crescent moon making it sparkle. Within the large bubble Lily could see shadows swimming around. They stopped just shy of the front of the crowd of children and watched as the bubble came to float just above the ground in the center square. Children were silent with awe as they watched mermaids swimming and weaving around each other in bright blues, purples, and greens. The music from up above paused for a moment of silence. The biggest mermaid, with a long purple shimmering tail and eyes that reflected a calm sea on a cloudless day approached the edge of the bubble, smiling sweetly at the crowd. Then she began to sing, each note hauntingly airy and dreamy. No child dared speak as she sang. The music began again, and her sisters joined in. Their voices brought up every child’s favorite memory. Lily could remember her parents sleeping under canopies as she read books under the summer sun. The smell of the ocean and whisperings of conch shells made her heart feel warm. She looked over at Chrys and his face had a small somber smile on it.