Shifting (Swans Landing) (4 page)

“I didn’t ask you to come here, you know.” I pulled my hair back, grabbing a rubber band from my dresser and twisting it quickly around the ragged ponytail.

Elizabeth shrugged and then slid from my bed. The bottom of her shorts rode high on her thighs, revealing white skin I couldn’t help staring at. “Fine. Maybe I won’t come back.”

I scowled at her, tearing my eyes away from her thighs. “Fine. What is this anyway? Some random hook up? Something to laugh about with your friends?”

Her eyes flashed as she returned my scowl. “My friends can
never
know about this. No one can. Got that?”

“Afraid they’d start tormenting you as much as you’ve tormented us all these years?”

She wrinkled her nose, crossing her arms. “Like anyone would believe you over me. If you say anything about this to anyone, I’ll deny it ever happened. I’ll make you sorry you were born.”

“I’m sure Kyle and his idiot friends would be more than happy to pummel me in order to protect your honor.” I leaned against the dresser, smirking. “Don’t worry. Your dirty little secret is safe. Do you know what Mara would do to me if she found out about this? Or Sailor?”

“Well,” Elizabeth said, tossing her hair over her shoulder, “I don’t have to worry about Sailor, do I? She’s long gone.”

I clenched my teeth. “She’s coming back.”

“If she didn’t get eaten by a shark.”

I glared at her and then stalked across the room, pushing open the window. “Get out,” I said.

Elizabeth sneered. “I’m not climbing out your window.”

“There’s a wraparound porch, you’ll be fine. Go around to the staircase and you can disappear back to your perfect life. No one will know.” I raised my eyebrows at her. “Unless you’d like to walk out the front door and explain to my brother why you’re here. He’s not very good at keeping secrets, by the way.”

Elizabeth shot me a withering look, but she climbed onto the window sill. She paused, one leg outside and the other still inside, then leaned over and kissed me once again. “It was fun, Fish Boy. Hope to do it again.”

With that, she slipped out of my room. I heard her footsteps thump across the wooden deck as she headed toward the stairs leading to the backyard. A memory of another girl slipping out that window flashed through my mind. Not that long ago, Mara had sneaked out of my room just like this after spending the night with me.

Two girls in my bed within the space of two months and yet I still hadn’t managed to score more than a few kisses and gropings.

I felt like I needed a cold shower, but I’d settle for a cold bowl of ice cream.

Reed sat at the kitchen table, dunking cookies into a tall glass of milk. “Did I see someone on the deck?” he asked.

I buried my head in the freezer as I searched for my mom’s homemade ice cream. She always added more salt than the recipe actually called for, which made it perfect for finfolk tastes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I told him.

“I could have sworn I saw someone running down the stairs. Someone who looked like a girl.” Reed gave me a sly grin, his teeth coated with black chunks of cookie.

“No girls here.” I grabbed a bowl and plunked two generous spoonfuls of ice cream into it, then headed over to the table. “What would a girl be doing here anyway?”

Reed raised his eyebrows. “Do we need to have the talk about the birds and the bees? Or in our case, the jellyfish and the dolphins?”

I flicked a piece of ice cream across the table. It hit him in the center of his forehead.

“Hey!” Reed wiped the ice cream away with the back of his hand, then licked it off.

I bent over my bowl, eating slowly. Whenever I brought my hand near my face for another spoonful, I could smell the faint scent of Elizabeth’s perfume on my skin. I breathed it in, remembering how soft and warm she had been.

“It’s cool, you know,” Reed said. “I mean, if you do have a girlfriend hiding out in your room. I won’t tell Mom and Dad.” He looked hopeful, like maybe he wanted me to tell him about my secret love life so he could live vicariously through me.

But what would I tell? I didn’t even know what all of this was.

“No,” I said in a flat tone. “No girlfriends. Sorry, kid.”

* * *

“Miss Gale?” I opened the door slowly, dropping my keys back into my pocket. Sailor had given me a key to her house long ago, as a backup in case she ever lost hers. That had never happened, and so my key hadn’t been used until now.

I didn’t normally walk into other people’s houses uninvited, but I’d been knocking for ten minutes and Miss Gale still hadn’t come to the door. I couldn’t stop the gnawing feeling in my stomach, like something was trying to eat its way out. Miss Gale hadn’t shown up for work at Moody’s that day. When I’d asked Mr. Moody about it, he had shrugged and said she wasn’t feeling well.

Miss Gale didn’t get sick. She’d never taken a day off in all the years I’d known her.

The house was dark, the curtains pulled shut over the windows. The only light came from the skylights overhead, where dozens of crystal prisms hung from fishing line. Sailor and I had helped Miss Gale put those up one summer when we were seven. I still liked the way the rainbow light flashed along the blue walls. Being in Miss Gale’s house almost felt like being underwater.

My footsteps echoed through the silent house. The air conditioner was running high, and my skin prickled in the cold air. “Miss Gale? It’s Dylan. Are you home?”

Like most other people on the island, Miss Gale didn’t own a car, so I couldn’t check the driveway for indication of whether she was home or not. But I didn’t think she’d be anywhere else, since Mara had said Miss Gale was spending a lot of time at home lately.

The floorboards creaked as I walked down the hall. “Miss Gale?” I knocked softly on her door. “Can I come in?”

I thought I heard a noise inside, though I couldn’t make out a word. I pushed the door open carefully, peering in at the big bed across the room.

The only times I had ever been in Miss Gale’s room were when I was a kid and Sailor would convince me to go along with one of her plans, which usually involved getting into something of Miss Gale’s that she didn’t want us to touch—her expensive face cream or old letters—and always ended with the two of us getting into trouble. I couldn’t even remember how many times Miss Gale had threatened to whip my behind, though she never actually did it.

The room hadn’t changed much from what I remembered. I took in a quick glance at the old wooden furniture, the dresser filled with dozens of framed photographs, and a plush blue chair in front of the tall window, then I walked over to the bed, where I could see Miss Gale’s shape under the covers.

Her eyes were opened halfway, but she looked pale and her gaze unfocused. Her lips were a light pink, her long white hair loosened from its usual braid and her breathing slow and ragged.

“Miss Gale.” I sat down on the edge of the bed, reaching over to smooth back a lock of hair from her cheek. She felt cold, and if it weren’t for the steady sound of her breathing, I would have almost thought she was... I gulped, pushing away the thought.

“Are you okay?” I asked. “Are you sick?”

Miss Gale’s eyes fluttered open the rest of the way and she looked at me, searching my face for a moment. “Dylan,” she rasped. “Is Sailor...” Her voice trailed off, even though her lips moved.

“Sailor isn’t back yet,” I told her gently. When Miss Gale’s mouth curved into a deeper frown, I added, “But she should be back soon. She can’t stay gone forever.”

I didn’t know if my words were the truth or not. Sailor’s mother had never come back, neither had any other finfolk who had left Swans Landing over the years. One by one, they had all disappeared, and no one came back despite the songs we sang each month on the night of the new moon.

But this was Sailor Mooring. If anyone could come back, it would be her.

Miss Gale swallowed, an action that seemed to take a lot of effort. I frowned and asked, “Have you had anything to drink lately?” I looked around for a glass or a bottle or some evidence that Miss Gale had been drinking—or even eating—but there was none.

“I’ll be right back,” I told her.

I hurried to the kitchen and filled a tall glass with water. Then I pried open the salt shaker and dumped half of the canister into the glass. I stirred the water as I walked back to Miss Gale’s room.

“Drink.” I helped her to move into a sitting position and then held the glass while Miss Gale drank.

When she had taken several large gulps, she leaned her head back, sighing. Already, her skin looked better, closer to her normal color. Her eyes were brighter and more focused.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Do you need to see a doctor?”

Miss Gale closed her eyes and shook her head. “Doctors can’t help our kind, Dylan, you know that. Ever since Sailor left, something hasn’t felt right. It’s like when her mama left all those years ago. Except this time I’m too old to fight back.”

I reached for Miss Gale’s hand and squeezed. “I miss her too. She’ll be back soon, I know it.”

Miss Gale frowned. “No, it’s not just that. I do miss her, but there’s something
else
. Something...I don’t know. Something
missing
. Something that was here but is now gone. It’s not just Sailor. I’ve felt it in the past, when others have left the island.” She looked at me intently. “Don’t you feel it?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Miss Gale sighed. “Maybe it’s because you’re young. You’re stronger. But us older folk, we can feel it. Something changes on the island every time a finfolk leaves.”

“Like the song?” I asked. Every time a finfolk disappeared, it was heard in our singing on Song Night. The song was never as strong as it had been before and the voices didn’t blend as they once had.

“Maybe,” Miss Gale said. She shook her head again. “I’m not sure exactly what I mean.”

She looked so tired and frail, something I had never seen Miss Gale look before. “Do you need anything?” I asked her. “I’ll stay with you if you want, until Sailor comes back. I’m sure my parents will understand.”

Miss Gale smiled up at me and patted my hand. “No, thank you, Dylan. Jim comes by to check on me every so often, and Mara and Lake come. I’ll be fine.” She reached up to tug at my hair. “You’re such a sweet boy. But you do need a hair cut.”

I laughed. “You always say that.”

“And you never listen,” she said. “You and Lake both. But I reckon y’all wouldn’t be right any other way.”

I fluffed up the sides of her pillow and tucked her blanket around her. I didn’t know if she wanted to be tucked in, but it was what my mom had always done for me when I was sick. It was comforting, at least I hoped it was.

“Sailor loves you,” Miss Gale told me as I stood. “So I know she’ll be back, because she wouldn’t leave you for good.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. We’d had a fight the day before she left and I had said some things to her that I wished I could take back.

“I always imagined you two getting married one day,” she went on, smiling as she closed her eyes. “I’d be happy to have you as my grandson-in-law.”

My stomach churned as memories of kissing Elizabeth flooded my mind. I had kissed Sailor once, years ago when we both wanted to get our first kiss over with. But kissing her had never felt the way it did when I kissed Elizabeth. How terrible of a person did that make me, that I couldn’t even feel the same way about the most important person in my life as I did about the person I had always hated?

“I’ll come back tomorrow to check on you,” I said softly as I walked out of the room, leaving Miss Gale’s comment unanswered.

Chapter Six

Mara blinked up at the gray sky, nodding approvingly at the clouds overhead. “Perfect,” she stated, pulling her camera from around her neck and turning a few dials.

The wind whipped my hair around my head and I pushed it back with one hand. “Are you sure?” It didn’t look like a perfect day. A storm threatened on the horizon and the clouds looked fat with rain. The ocean crashed against the pilings of the broken pier. We stood under the structure where it rose up from the wet sand. I glanced up at the rotting wood over my head, hoping the rest of the pier wouldn’t crash down on me.

“I’m sure,” Mara said confidently. She adjusted a dial on her camera again, then held it up so she could see the LCD screen on the back. She clicked the button a couple of times, taking a few test shots. I didn’t know a lot about photography, but I’d been around her enough lately to know that she never started a photo shoot without testing her exposures first.

Honestly, I wasn’t excited to be Mara’s model for the day. If Josh had been here, I was sure she would have asked him to pose for pictures by the pier and not me. I tried not to let it bother me that I was her default choice since Josh was gone. I should have been happy she’d asked me at all. I
liked
spending time with Mara. I wanted to spend as much time alone with her as I could.