There was a mermaid in the back of her mom’s minivan. It was not the sort of thing Riley ever expected to joke about, much less have as a reality, but it was staring her in the face. Literally. She was twisted in the middle seats while her mother drove so that she could keep an eye on the impromptu rescue. The mermaid stared straight back, though her wide, hazel eyes were glossy and unfocused.

Moving her up the beach had been a struggle. The mermaid’s one arm was badly broken and she was littered with cuts and bruises, and Sophie had mentioned she would not be surprised if there were other internal injuries too. She had clearly been beaten pretty badly up against those rocks. Moving her had elicited many agonized cries and a great deal of thrashing from the mermaid, so Sophie had given her an extra-strong dose of meds and now she mostly just looked stoned. She and her mom had worked to swaddle the mermaid in a thick spare blanket in the back to help keep her arm as still as possible since they did not have a brace or means to set it.

But the mermaid was far from safe as they transported her. Her breathing was shallow and shaky, and she rasped terribly with each inhale. Her skin was pale and blotchy, and her lips were twisted into a grimace. Even with the medication keeping her calm, she was in pain. Riley was supervised to ensure her situation did not deteriorate further.

They hit a particularly decent bump in the road and suddenly the mermaid began to chitter frantically. Her voice had a lyrical lilt to it, but the whistles and clicks held no meaning that Riley could decern, but the way the mermaid was staring directly at her gave Riley the sense she was trying to communicate.

“Hey, it’s okay,” she murmured back. “We don’t want to hurt you, we just want to help you feel better.”

“How’s she doing, Riley?”

“Scared…I think she’s still in a lot of pain.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” her mom agreed. “Hang on just a second while I make a phone call.”

Her mom’s phone was mounted to the dash and a moment later, it began to ring through on Bluetooth. Three rings and then a click as the line connected.

“Soph, hey, how did things go at the school?” Lewis’ voice echoed through the car as he spoke. “It’s taken you a lot longer than I expected, is Riley alright? Do you need me to come…down…what’s that sound?”

The mermaid was getting restless and her vocalizations had grown louder.

“We had to make a detour on the way home,” her mom said. “We’re coming back now, but we’ve got a rescue with us.”

“In the van? Are you both alright? Why didn’t you call the team?”

“It’s a bit more…delicate than that,” Sophie replied with a grimace. She met Riley’s gaze in the rearview and her bright green eyes were glittering with worry. “Can you ready up a room and one of the rehab pools? We’re looking at multiple lacerations from an ensnarement. We couldn’t get all of the netting off of the tail, it’s too tight, and there are at least two broken bones. Don’t bring an intern.”

“Sophie, what’s going on?”

“It’s hard to explain over the phone. Just…be ready and don’t tell anyone. This is better off staying a secret.”

“Soph, you’re starting to scare me.”

“I know…you’re just going to have to trust me. We’re ten minutes out.”

For a stretch that felt like ages, there was silence on the other end of the line. “I’ll meet you around the back then,” Lewis sighed after a moment. “I love you. Both of you.”

“Love you too,” Riley and her mom both echoed before the call cut. Once it did, Riley glanced back to fix her attention on the mermaid once more. She had slumped down since the start of the call and fallen silent, but her breathing still rasped and her eyes were half-lidded now, though she continued to study Riley back through them.

It was cramped for her in the backseat of the van, and they’d had to bend her tail to get her to fit, since Sophie had wanted her lying as prone as possible with how mangled her arm was, so her tail was angled up over the top of the seat, and when she flicked her fin, the tips of it thunked against the roof of the vehicle. It didn’t seem like she had the strength to move from how they positioned her, but when her fin struck the roof, she stirred a bit more and chittered something new before falling slack again.

“Everything okay back there?” her mom checked.

Riley swallowed the lump in her throat as her gaze raked over the mermaid, bundled up in a blanket and looking paler than a ghost. “I hope so. She seems calmer now, but I don’t know if that’s the medication or if she’s just…”

“Dying?” her mom finished.

Riley gulped again. “Y-yeah.”

“Whatever happens, we did our best, Riley. You know that. These rescues don’t always have a happy ending, but we still always have to try.”

“I know,” Riley agreed. “I just…really don’t want her to die.”

“Me either. Listen, when we get to the sanctuary, you need to be ready to jump. The sooner we get her inside and set up the better her chances. Lewis is going to have to work fast and he’s going to be working alone, so on your toes, okay?”

Riley nodded in agreement.

A minute later, they were pulling into the back loading lot of the sanctuary. Lewis was already there with a wide porpoise stretcher. It was not good to leave dolphins and small whales supporting their own weight for long, but sometimes moving them without water was necessary in case of emergencies and Riley wasn’t surprised her father figure had pulled one out since he didn’t yet know what they were bringing back with them.

As soon as her mom had the car idling, Riley leaned into the very back to lower the backseat all the way flat. The mermaid cried out and began to chitter at them again as it jostled her body, but Riley was trying to be as careful as possible. If they could get the seats flat, there would be more room to pull her out through the trunk and onto the gurney.

“Good thinking,” her mom praised. Sophie got out of the car and made her way around to pop the trunk of the van. Lewis pulled the gurney around, but his dark eyes were wide and his lips parted as he glanced inside.

“Sophie, why didn’t you call an ambulance…what…?” Lewis trailed off as the mermaid squirmed and hissed loudly. Her dolphinesque language was spilling frantically from her throat and she was lashing her fin. Her lips were twisted into a grimace and she had grown a few shades paler.

“That’s why,” Sophie responded. “I think her arm is broken pretty badly at the elbow and the wrist, and all that netting still needs to come off,” she paused to gesture where blood was oozing down the tail and fin from where a thick bundle of netting had gotten pulled tight enough to slide under the scales and split the skin.

“Alright, let’s get her inside, quickly,” Lewis urged. The three of them carefully tugged and maneuvered the frantic mermaid out of the car and onto the gurney. As soon as she was lying prone, Lewis rushed her inside. Riley moved to follow when her mom put a hand out and stopped her with a firm shake of her head.

“But I want to help,” Riley protested.

Sophie shook her head again. “You’re going to go up to the house.”

“But I-”

“You’re going to go up to the house,” her mom repeated firmly. “You’re going to get a shower, get cleaned up, and put on fresh clothes.”

Riley glanced down at her blood and mud-crusted pants and shirt that were now also crusty with salt, sand, and gunk from the rescue. Sophie’s clothes weren’t much better, but at least she hadn’t been in a fight just prior. She supposed her mom had a point.

“And then,” her mother continued. “You’re going to sit down and write an apology letter.”

She could accept needing to change and tidy up, but indignation rose like a beast in Riley’s chest and she huffed and shook her head. “I am not going to apologize to that-”

“I wasn’t referring to the boy in the fight, Riley. I don’t expect you to be sorry about that, all things considered. But you are going to write a letter to your principal, and to the teacher who broke up the fight, for being involved in disorderly conduct and causing a disturbance.”

“But-” Riley bit back a growl as her mother cleared her throat to cut her off.

“Riley, I’m not asking. This is not up for debate. You’re going to go up to the house, tidy yourself up, and write a letter, now, while it’s fresh. This is not a punishment, it’s the proper thing to do. You were just suspended for brawling on school property. I know you don’t want that to loom over you when the time comes for letters of recommendation or applying to college. So go do as I’ve asked and do it properly. Afterwards, you may come back down if you like, but not before.”

Riley growled again and curled her hands into fists, but ultimately sighed. “Fine,” she caved. She felt it was a stupid exercise and that it was definitely a punishment, but she supposed there were way worse reactions her mother could have had over the incident. And the more she stood here and argued, the longer Sophie was standing here too, and she knew that her father was going to need help. That had to be more important right now. “But I’m not sorry that I broke his nose.”

A small smile twitched at Sophie’s lips and her shoulders shook as she chewed her lip and shook her head. “I’m not either. Now go on.”

***

Riley pushed back from her desk with a sigh and stood up. Her muscles creaked in protest as she pushed her arms high into the air and arched her back into a stretch. She was still bitter about the letter she had finished writing, but she understood the logic in her mother’s request. She couldn’t go through life making enemies and never making friends or making amends. She wasn’t sorry about the fight or about Jeremy’s nose, but she didn’t want to damage relations with her teachers or plant a target on her back with the principal, so she had just needed to grit her teeth and follow through with what her mother advised. Now that it was done, however, she was eager to get back down to the sanctuary.

She’d showered and her hair was still damp in the braid she’d tied it back in. She’d changed into a fresh tee and a pair of black tights, and as she made her way to the front door, she traded her sneakers for a pair of sandals.

It was only a five-minute walk down the hill from their home to the sanctuary. It wasn’t where they lived when she initially moved in with them, but it was what Riley considered home. Sophie and Lewis had the home built on the back hill of the sanctuary property to be closer to work when Riley was eleven and they had lived there for the last five years.

As she made her way down the road, Riley peered beyond the buildings of the sanctuary to the beach beyond. They had to be right on the water to support the rescue programs, but Riley adored the bonus of the view.

The trip was short, but she found herself at a loss once she entered the sanctuary itself. It smelled sharply of saltwater and there were volunteers and staff milling about, but she wasn’t actually sure where her parents were. She didn’t imagine they would have announced the mermaid’s presence to the staff, so she had no way of knowing where they were. On a whim, she pulled out her phone and typed in her mom’s number, but after a few rings, it went to voicemail. Riley frowned. She didn’t want to try her dad in case Lewis was in the middle of treatment still.

She was saved from having to figure it out on her own, however. “Riley! Nice to see you around, how have you been, hon?”

Riley glanced up to see Jonah grinning at her. He was only a little taller than her and in his late twenties. He’d been volunteering at the sanctuary in the evenings for years now, and Riley knew him pretty well. He had a scraggly beard and dark hair and eyes, and he gestured at her phone. “Looking for your mom?” he checked.

“Yeah, or dad. Have you seen either of them in the last hour or two?”

Jonah’s chin dipped as he nodded and he pointed behind Riley. “Apparently, there’s a filter problem with one of the rehab pools, so they’ve got someone in fixing it. Asked not to be disturbed, but mentioned you might come looking for them. You’re probably welcome to go take a peek, but I’d be careful in case they’ve got any equipment running.”

Riley grinned. “Thanks, Jonah, will do,” she assured him. She waved at him as she spun on her heel and hurried down the hall in the direction that he’d indicated. Sure enough, towards the end of the hall was the entrance to one of the main rehabilitation pools and the doors had a Closed For Maintenance sign posted on them. Her parents had taped up paper in the windows to block any inside view as well. She leaned against the door and tested the push latch. It wasn’t locked, but she still rapped her knuckles on the glass to alert them so they wouldn’t be startled. “It’s just me,” she called as she pushed the door open and slipped inside.

Her mother had been coming over already, so it only took her a few more strides to reach Riley. “Hey, how did it go?”

“I got it done,” Riley replied.

Her mother’s smile widened and she reached up to cup Riley’s cheek on the good side of her face. “You look a little better now, but you’re probably going to get a black eye from this. Does it hurt?”

“Not really.” Riley shifted her weight from foot to foot. “So…how is…” Riley trailed off.

Her mom stepped back and inclined her head towards the pool. “Your dad just went to get some feed, we’ll see in a little bit if she has an appetite. We got all the netting off and treated the lacerations. Her arm is really messed up and Lewis had to get quite creative with a cast because she cracked some ribs too, but most of the damage was superficial. She should be okay with time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if recovery is slow.”

“Is she aggressive?”

Sophie pursed her lips and shrugged. “Very vocal, likes to growl, show her teeth, but we didn’t get bitten if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t know if she’s just disoriented, but it seems like there’s more bark than bite. That’s no reason not to be cautious though.”

“No kidding, did you see those fangs?”

“Mhm.”

Riley chewed on her lip. “Can I go see?”

“If you like, but don’t get too close and keep your voice low, alright? We’re trying to keep her as calm as possible right now. The more she thrashes, the more she risks further injury.”

Her mom stepped back and gestured towards the pool, and Riley followed her hand with her gaze. She took a breath and then began to walk slowly forward. She knew a lot of marine creatures could be very sensitive to vibration, so she tried to move slowly and lightly to keep from disturbing the mermaid too much.

The rehabilitation pools were wide bodies lined with a special foam so that sensitive porpoise skin wouldn’t be irritated by concrete or tiling. The water was kept just deep enough that a dolphin’s weight would be supported, but no deeper so that if they were too injured to swim, they couldn’t dive deeper and drown being unable to get back to the surface. They had one deeper pool for orcas, but it was seldomly used.

As Riley approached, she could see the mermaid. She was below the surface, huddled up in the corner. Since the pool was shallow, Riley could have reached an arm in up to her elbow at most and made physical contact, but it was concerning to see the mermaid entirely submerged. She had been breathing air earlier, so despite the scales, Riley was more inclined to guess she was an aquatic mammal. “Hey, mom? Can she swim okay right now?”

“She hasn’t been. That netting cut pretty deep into the bottom of her tail, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s too tender right now. When your father and I got her into the water earlier, she just huddled up in that corner and hasn’t moved since. She’s either hurt, exhausted, or too frightened to move. Probably a mix of things.”

Riley’s frown deepened. “But what about air? The water is a little deep for her to be able to surface to breathe if she can’t swim.”

Her mom stepped up behind her and wrapped her arms around Riley from behind. Though Riley was taller than her mother, it always made her feel little again when her mom hugged her like this, and she hummed. “I’m proud of how thorough you are, Riley. But it’s okay. She has gills.”

“Gills? But we watched her…in the car? Surely she would have suffocated?”

“There are some fish and crustaceans that can remain out of the water for a while. They get a special coating on their gills. I don’t think that’s quite what’s happening here, but somehow, she can do both. We won’t know more until we get a chance to observe her more, but until then, so long as she can breathe, I don’t want to disturb or stress her out more than necessary.”

“I suppose not,” Riley agreed. She gently extracted herself from her mother’s embrace and stepped up to the edge of the pool. Slowly, she crouched down, crossed her legs, and hunched over to peer into the water better. The mermaid certainly looked exhausted, because her head was drooped and her tail was swaying limply from side to side. Bandages were wrapped around her torso and she had a thick brace belt around her ribcage. Her father had secured a cast up most of her arm, and it looked like he had belted it in a bent position to the belt so that it couldn’t be moved.

The mermaid was using her good arm as a brace, and small rivets of bubbles were breaking from the sides of her neck to flutter to the surface. She really did have gills. Now that Riley could see her better, fully stretched out and not wrapped in fishing wire, she could see the long, solid tail that glittered like a gem, with the triangular fin branching from the tip. It had scaled sides, and the lavender membrane between looked thin and delicate, but Riley suspected was probably stronger than it looked. There were more scales running down the mermaid’s spine in a long arm with more webbing beneath. It was ruffled and appeared even more delicate than the tailfin, and was only partially extended. Riley imagined that at full height, it was an impressive sail.

“Wow,” Riley murmured. “I can’t believe this is real.”

“Me either,” Sophie agreed. “But I think the world should keep believing they’re a myth. At least until we know more about her. If possible, I’d like to get her back in the ocean as soon as possible.”

“What if she can’t be rehabilitated safely?”

“We’ll cross that bridge if it comes, but I think she’ll be fine.”

Riley nodded and peered back into the water. She had no one really to tell even if she had wanted to – which she didn’t – and she didn’t want anything bad to happen to the mermaid either. She was an amazing sight. And she was looking at Riley again too. Earlier, her head had been bowed, but since then, she’d curled her tail around on the floor for better support and had raised her chin. She was still hunched in on herself and it was hard to read her expression from across the pool when they were separated by the surface, but it still caused Riley’s breath to hitch with wonder and she smiled. She raised a hand and waved at the mermaid, but the motion seemed to spook her because she flinched, and Riley saw her lips pull back into a snarl. Hastily, she lowered her hand back into her lap. “I don’t think she wants company.”

“I can’t say I blame her,” her mom replied. “She doesn’t know we’re trying to help. Think about how today has gone for her and then in her eyes, all we’ve probably done is jabbed her with pointy sticks, made her broken bones hurt more by moving them, made her cry, and locked her up in a tiny box with no way out. We’re not friends yet.”

“She cried?”

“Yup,” her mom sighed. Riley glanced back to see Sophie stuff her hands into her pockets. “There were tears and lots of whimpering…it was pretty awful. Even when we were trying to help, it was hard to touch her in that state…she just seemed so…”

“Human?”

Sophie nodded. “And so not at the same time…It’s part of why I don’t want anyone to find out. A creature like this shouldn’t be in a tank and we know what happens if the world discovers her.”

Riley hummed, but then fell silent. She wasn’t sure exactly what to say in response. They were spared an awkward silence when the door to the room opened and Lewis re-entered. His pearly teeth contrasted brightly against his rich, dark skin as he smiled at Riley and she grinned back. He plopped a hand down on her head and ruffled up the roots into a frizz.

“So the slugger finally shows her face!” he exclaimed, which made Riley flush and duck her head away. “I hear you got yourself into quite the scrap at school today.”

Riley hummed.

“What’s the rule on fighting?”

Riley pursed her lips and grimaced. She knew where this was going. “Finish it, but don’t start it, and only if I have to.”

“Did you start it?”

“Nope.”

“Finish it?”

“I would have, but the teacher interrupted.”

There was a few moments of silence as her dad sat down beside her and crossed his legs. “Did you go looking for it?”

Riley chewed her lip and avoided his gaze, but offered up no response. She hated disappointing either of her parents, but she still firmly believed Jeremy had gotten what he deserved.

“Riley?” Lewis pressed. “Did you go looking for a fight today?”

“Maybe a little,” she sighed finally. “But he had it and more coming to him, he’s a bully who picks on anyone who can’t fight back.”

Her father hummed and fell silent beside her. Then, after a minute, “did you win?”

Riley leaned back on her hands and shrugged. “Well, I got slapped around a little, bruised my face, really bruised my pride, and got suspended. But I broke his nose and I’m pretty sure he got suspended too. Dunno if it’ll change his tune or not though, so define winning?”

“I’d say that you won.”

“Lewis, do not encourage this,” her mom warned.

“I’m not. Riley, I’m proud of you for standing up for others and holding your ground, but this was not a good thing that happened today. Fighting is still wrong except as a last resort and, I know that you know and are better than that, and getting suspended is even worse. No schoolyard bully is worth your future or wellbeing; not when there’s a better way. I don’t want to hear about you getting into any more fights, do you understand?”

Riley felt her gut squeeze as once again, a pang of rotten, festering guilt began to eat at her. She was never phased by anything nasty anyone had to say, hardly ever backed down from a challenge or dispute, but when it came to her parents, she wanted to tie herself in pretzels to keep from troubling or disappointing them. Against her will, she felt tears water in her eyes and she bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”

Her father clucked his tongue and draped an arm across her shoulders. “Hey, don’t get upset, it’s alright. You know I’m not mad at you, Riley. Besides, I’m sure your mom already laid into you pretty hard, I’m not going to repeat.”

Riley bit her lip to smother a chuckle and shook her head as she wiped at her eyes. “Not really,” she admitted.

She saw her father turn and raise a brow, though there was mirth in his tone as he spoke. “But I’m the one enabling the behaviour?” he teased.

“Riley and I had a talk on the way home,” Sophie replied. “But I think given the circumstances, she’s endured punishment enough.”

“I disagree.” Her dad’s voice was calm and there was no anger in his tone, but he fixed her with a firm glare that made Riley want to wilt. She didn’t though, and instead met his gaze evenly. She loved her parents fiercely and if they felt she had done something wrong that warranted repercussions, she would endure that.

“Lewis, I-” Sophie broke off when Lewis held his hand up.

He was still staring at Riley. “Riley knows I’m right. I warned her years ago when we first started practicing a little self-defence together that there would be trouble in a situation like this. I gave you two rules; never start a fight and never go looking for one, and you’ve broken one of those rules. There have to be consequences to that.”

Riley took a breath and nodded. “I know,” she agreed. “There should be. I’m not sorry for fighting – I can’t be when I was stopping someone from hurting someone else – but I know that I need to maintain control of myself and I lost that control today,” she acknowledged.

Her dad nodded. “Good. Then you’re on duty for this room then.”

“What?”

“You heard me. We can’t have the regular staff in and out of here right now, so you’re going to handle all the little jobs. Mopping floors, cleaning the filter and the bottom of the pool, feeding, enrichment, the works. You’re not to corral without your mom or I here, just in case, and I’ll be handling bandage changes and medications, but all the rest of it is your job now, so I expect to see you in here every day this week. When you return to school, we’ll re-evaluate certain tasks, but you’re still going to pitch in and see this through.”

Riley felt her heart rate quicken. Lewis was giving her a poker face like this was meant to be a punishment, but she could see the glitter in his eyes and she could barely contain a grin. This was no consequence. She loved pitching in at the sanctuary, but her father had essentially just given her the job of keeper over the mermaid that Riley was already smitten with. She was already looking for an excuse to spend time in here and he had given her permission to spend as much time as she wanted. “You mean it?” When he nodded, she squealed and threw her arms around him. “Thank you.”

“Well, don’t sound too devastated now,” he laughed.

Riley flushed and cleared her throat. “I mean…oh no, this is such a harsh punishment,” she giggled.

“Are you up to the responsibility?”

Riley glanced back at her mother, who was waiting for an answer with her brow raised. Clearly, her mother and father had already discussed this, and Riley took a breath to calm herself as she nodded. “Yes,” she agreed.

“No more fighting,” her mom reminded.

“I know,” Riley agreed with a dip of her head. “I promised already, I meant it.”

Her dad patted her on the back and grinned. “Good.”

Riley leaned around him to hook her fingers through the handle of the metal pail her father had brought in with him. It smelled sharply of fish and was filled with water and hunks of fish pieces. “She’s got those fangs, but do you think she’s a carnivore or omnivore, or just an opportunist?”

“Well, those fangs are definitely for ripping flesh off the bone, but she does have back molars, so who knows, maybe she does eat vegetation too. We’re just going to have to do a little trial and error with her diet,” her father replied.

Riley nodded. She rose and hefted the bucket with her and began slowly making her way around the pool to the corner where the mermaid was huddled up. The closer she got, the more Riley felt her pulse quicken. The mermaid needed to eat and food was a great way to build a bond with most aquatic mammals, but more than that, Riley was just eager to get closer and see her better. It should have been absurd that mermaids were real or that she would feel this giddy about it, but it suddenly felt like she was six years old and hanging on the edge of her seat watching mermaid cartoons again.

She crouched down and peered into the water. The mermaid’s gaze was fixated on her too, and if anything, her body language had grown more rigid. The sail on her back raised higher and her lips pulled back while her head tucked in. Her brows were furrowed and her nose and cheeks were scrunched up into a grimace. Riley’s heart squeezed as she watched how the mermaid swayed and shook. “She looks like she’s in so much pain.”

“I know,” her dad agreed. “But we can’t give her anything more for it for at least a few hours. I can’t risk her having a reaction to too many meds.”

Riley grimaced and then forced her features to soften into a gentle smile as she reached into the water-filled bucket. The water was a little chilly and the cuts of fish felt slimy between her fingers, but it didn’t bother her. She pulled a piece free and reached out over the water. A few drops of water from the long strip of meat plunked into the pool and the mermaid flinched. Her gaze kept darting back and forth between Riley and the piece of fish in her hand.

“Riley, don’t get too close,” her mother warned.

Riley shook her head and slowly lowered her hand until the meat was trailing in the water. Though the mermaid had flinched back and shied away further into the corner, her wide eyes were fixated on the fish and she was no longer focusing on Riley. She wasn’t surprised that the mermaid was hungry after what she had been through. They had no way of knowing how long she had been tangled up like that.

“Riley, please be careful,” her mom urged. “Got tongs, that would be a nasty bite.”

“I’m not afraid,” Riley murmured. She kept her voice soft after seeing how her mother’s voice had made the mermaid flinch. She didn’t seem aggressive, just frightened. Riley wriggled the fish scrap through the water until she had the mermaid’s attention once more. She dipped her hand into the water up to her wrist and then released the meat.

It drifted down in front of the mermaid’s face and she made to grab it with her good arm. However, that arm was keeping her balanced upright in her current positioning, so when she moved it, she began to fall forwards and sideways in the water. The mermaid’s face warped into a scrunched-in mess as though someone had just pounded their fist into a ball of clay as her tail waved and she replanted her good hand to steady herself. Though the water was a bit of a barrier, Riley could hear her whimpering softly and it made her chest squeeze.

The mermaid’s tail was visibly mangled up near her fin. Several of the scales were missing and the thin skin beneath looked red and irritated, and with her arm and chest restricted in casts to keep her still, her mobility looked almost non-existent. And she was gazing at the food that had settled on the ground near her. It wasn’t out of reach by any means, but from the look on the mermaid’s face, that scrap of fish may as well have been a million miles away.

Riley set her jaw and reached back into the bucket for another piece. She would try again now that she knew the mermaid couldn’t easily grab at anything.

She had barely finished pulling another scrap out of the pail when her mom put a hand on her shoulder and leaned around to hold out a pair of oyster shucking gloves. “Put these on,” she instructed.

“I don’t need them,” Riley refused. She wanted to do this naturally. Deep down, she knew it was stupid, that the mermaid was a wild animal that they knew nothing about and could do some serious damage if she lashed out, but Riley had an urge in her gut to bond with her. She wanted the mermaid to trust her and for that, she needed to show trust in return.

“If you’re going to insist on feeding by hand, you need to put these on,” Sophie pressed. “Or you need to get a pair of tongs. Riley, for your safety and for hers, you cannot be hasty. She is in a lot of pain and she’s scared, and if she lashes out and bites you, not only are you going to get seriously hurt, but it makes it so much harder to help an animal that’s become violent. I will not risk you and I will not risk the staff on a biter, you know that.”

Her mother was right, of course, so Riley reluctantly accepted the gloves. She hastily pulled them on and winced as the little links clinked together. She hoped it wouldn’t spook the mermaid further, but she knew that it wasn’t fair to either of them to put herself at risk the way she was. She picked the fish back up and carefully dipped it back into the water. The mermaid’s attention was back on her almost immediately, but now her features were warped into a grimace and she was hunching in on herself.

Riley shifted her weight on the edge of the pool and leaned a little closer so that she could sink the fish deeper into the water and closer to the mermaid. As she did, the mermaid grimaced and raised a hand as if to take the meat from her, only to stumble again and chitter something as she flailed to rebalance herself.

Shaking her head, Riley pursed her lips and whistled. She had no way of matching the pitch of the mermaid’s calls, but there was a lyrical whistle to her vocalizations and Riley wondered if attempting a similar sound might soothe her a bit.

The mermaid tilted her head and her brows furrowed, but otherwise didn’t react to the attempt, so Riley just held the fish out closer to her face in hopes that she might just take it with her teeth.

Her hazel eyes were fixated on the fish, but then she glanced between it and Riley’s hand and her eyes darkened to more of a stormy brown than the vibrant yellowish brown-green mix and her lips pulled into a snarl before she violently twisted her head away from the offering. The reaction startled Riley slightly and she wound up dropping the piece. It floated past the mermaid’s face down towards the floor of the pool.

Her mom’s hand was on her shoulder before Riley had begun to pull away, but clearly, their thoughts were in sync because she vocalized what Riley was already thinking. “Maybe we let her rest for now. We can try again later.”

“Yeah,” Riley agreed. “Good idea.” She pulled her arm free and shook free some of the water before stripping off the shucking glove and rising back to her feet.

Her mom patted her on the back as they walked back around the other side and rejoined her father. “Don’t look so disappointed,” her mom soothed. “We don’t know anything about mermaids yet and she’s had a trying day. We’ll just let her have a nap and see if that helps. Don’t forget, you’re the one who saw her in the first place. She’s alive and we’ll get her better.”

“Come on,” her father encouraged. “Gotta show you something.”

She followed him and her mother into their office, where Lewis guided her into his office chair and clicked on the mouse. His dormant computer screen flared to life with a camera feed. The picture had a slight tint to it from being underwater, but Riley could see the mermaid through the lens. She was still bunched up in the corner, but her head was tilted and her jaws were parted. This time, she wasn’t snarling, she just had her mouth open slightly and Riley could see the tips of her fangs. Her attention was directed towards the surface of the pool. “You put a camera in?”

“I’d like to see what her behaviour is like when she’s alone. Our presence scares her. I’m also concerned about her social dynamics. There’s no way to know for certain if mermaids are loners or travel in pods, but if she does have a family unit out there, I don’t want them moving on without her. It’s probably going to be a couple of months before we can release her. I’m hoping the camera will be able to capture a few of her vocalizations. Now that she’s alone, she might call for them. Other pod mammals are prone to doing so when separated from their groups,” her dad reminded. “If we can play a recording out in the water, perhaps a pod will be attracted to it. If they are, we can tag one or two of them so that we can locate them again when she’s ready to be released.”

“That’s a good idea,” Riley agreed. She leaned forward in the seat and studied the mermaid more closely. She had finally stopped staring at the surface and seemed to slump in on herself. Now she was gazing at the fish scraps on the floor. Her nose wrinkled as she slid her hand forward to curl her fingers around the closest one without her palm leaving the ground.

The more Riley watched, the more sympathy rose in her throat. The mermaid lashed her tail and cried out as she twisted onto the butt of the tail to sit up. Her panting could be heard through the speakers as she shifted herself to lean up against the wall of the pool. She whimpered and chittered with every movement that she made. It wasn’t surprising, with her cracked ribs, broken arm, and the numerous shallow lacerations making her body look like a diamond-patterned piece of fabric rather than skin, but it was incredibly difficult to watch.

Behind her, her mom clucked her tongue. “Poor thing,” she whispered. “All this damage because people are too lazy to dispose of their nets properly.”

“Is there anything we can do to ease the pain? This has to be detrimental for her,” Riley asked.

“Unfortunately not,” her dad sighed. “Without knowing anything about their bodies, giving her any medicinal dosage is a trial process. I’m worried if we give her anything more so soon, it could have a serious reaction. I’ll risk giving her another dosage of painkillers before we leave for the evening, but not before.”

Riley grimaced and began wringing her fingers in her lap. The mermaid had leaned back against the wall of the pool and was looking over the piece of fish she had managed to grab. She pulled it close to her face to inspect and parted her jaws again. It reminded Riley of how a cat might try to scent something better and she wondered if that was what the mermaid was doing.

After eyeing it suspiciously for a few more seconds, the mermaid finally took a bite. She chewed and swallowed, and then apparently hunger got the better of her because she practically stuffed the rest of the piece into her mouth at once.

When her food was gone, the mermaid then lifted her good arm and trailed her fingers down the cast and the brace belt around her ribs that the cast was secured to. Her face twisted into another grimace and her whimpers came through the speaker once more. She dropped her hand away and Riley watched her gaze flick to the other piece of fish still in the pool. It was out of her reach now and after a moment, the mermaid merely slumped and leaned her head back. She was still chittering softly and her chest was heaving in shallow, rapid breaths that twisted her face up more and more. Then, after a moment, her eyes closed and her body shuddered before she fell slack. Only the faint rise and fall of her chest and the bubbles streaming from her gills indicated she was even still alive. The rest of her looked so broken and limp that she may as well have been a corpse.

It was awful, seeing her like this. The mermaid seemed so human, especially now, while she was sleeping and had her good arm wrapped around her waist as if it would protect her from further pain. It was wrong that she was enduring all of this and that they couldn’t even medicate her enough to make it better. It made Riley tense and filled her with the desire to punch something, though she knew that would be counterproductive.

“There, that’s good,” her dad murmured. “She’ll need the rest. There’s nothing more we can do for now except keep an eye on her progress. I’m going to hang around here for a bit and make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“Alright. Riley and I will head on back to the house and start some meal prep then,” her mom agreed.

“But I want to stay!” Riley protested.

“Nah, kiddo, go on up with your mom. Our patient is likely going to sleep for a while and I don’t want any of us going in there in case it wakes her up, so there’s nothing more for you to do right now.”

“Besides,” her mom added. “The mermaid isn’t the only one who’s had a long day.” She placed her hands on Riley’s shoulders and squeezed. “There has been more than enough excitement for one day already. Let’s go get dinner ready and then I think I know someone who should call it early. Tomorrow is probably going to be another long day. Your dad is going to need help corralling her for medication and bandage changes, and if I recall, you are now officially volunteering for that.”

Riley hesitated a moment more before pushing herself out of the chair so that her father could have it back. She knew her mom was right and she was finally starting to feel exhausted. Her face stung and she was sore and ready for her bed. “Alright,” she caved reluctantly.