The Mermaid's Mirror Read online

  “He won’t find out.”

  “How are you going to get there?”

  “Walk.”

  “Walk? You’re going to walk all the way to Back Yard with a surfboard?”

  Lena hesitated. “No.”

  Pem stared at her, puzzled, then went still as a stone. “No,” she whispered. “You don’t mean Magic’s.”

  “I do,” said Lena.

  “You’re, like . . . messing with me, right? Tell me you’re just messing with me.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “You can’t be.”

  “I am.”

  “Lena . . .” She struggled for words. “You just learned to surf. Magic’s is for extreme surfers!”

  “I can handle it.”

  Pem grabbed her hand. “Don’t do this. I’m begging you.”

  “I have to.”

  “Have to? What are you talking about? Lena, listen to me. Have you ever seen a girl surfing at Magic’s?”

  “Well . . . I guess not.”

  “Why do you think that is?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Because they know you could get killed out there! Why do you think they call that one spot out there the Cauldron?”

  “I’m not going to get killed, Pem. Jeez. Dramatic much?”

  Pem glared at her.

  “Theatrical?” added Lena, smiling.

  Nothing.

  “Uh . . . hysterical?”

  But Pem would not play. “And there’s the Boneyard,” she said. “You know about the Boneyard, right?”

  Lena hesitated. Oh, yeah. The Boneyard.

  Pem leaned in so that her face was inches from Lena’s. “It’s that shallow spot, nothing but reef and rocks. It will cut you up like hamburger if you get washed out there.”

  Lena swallowed.

  “Yeah,” said Pem. “How do you like Magic’s now?”

  Forcing a light note into her voice, Lena said, “I won’t wash out in the Boneyard. I promise.”

  Pem stared at her a minute longer, then sighed and shook her head. “If I can’t talk you out of this, at least wear a helmet,” she begged.

  Lena smiled.

  “I’m serious! If you’re going to do this insane thing, at least protect yourself.”

  “I’m going to be fine. Nothing’s going to happen. I just wanted to let you know. In case . . .”

  “In case what?” Pem’s face was strained.

  “Nothing. I just wanted to tell you because you’re my best friend.” She stood up. “Let’s get something to eat. I’m hungry. What is Mama Mia making for dinner?”

  Pem stood up, too. “Lena,” she said, “if the conditions are bad tomorrow, swear to me you won’t go through with this.”

  Lena did not answer.

  Chapter 19

  “See you later, Dad,” said Lena, climbing out of his car.

  “Thanks, Mr. Whittaker,” said Martha, who smelled unusually floral and who seemed to take a long time exiting the car.

  Leslie got out of the car and joined Lena, rolling her eyes.

  “You’re welcome, Martha,” said Lena’s dad. “Leslie’s mom is picking you girls up after the movie, right?”

  “Yes,” said Leslie.

  When Martha took too long to close the door, Lena called, “Have fun on your date.” Her parents were going to a winetasting event and art show in Santa Cruz—they would be gone for hours, which played a big part in Lena’s scheme.

  “I will. Call if you need anything. Bye, honey.”

  “Bye.” Lena waved to him as he drove away.

  The three girls walked into the mall and headed for the movie theaters. Lena stood in line with them, paid for her ticket, and sat down. She tried to participate in the conversation, but her mind was on her alternate plan. As the lights went out and the coming attractions blared onto the screen, Lena gripped the handrests of her seat. Any minute now.

  The coming attractions seemed to go on and on. At last, the opening credits appeared for the feature presentation. Lena waited until the first scene was under way, then took a deep breath, leaned over to Leslie, and whispered, “My stomach is kind of bothering me.”

  Leslie looked over at her. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You okay?”

  “I think so.”

  “Okay.”

  She counted to two hundred in her head, then leaned over and whispered, “I’ll be right back. I’m going to the bathroom.”

  “Okay.”

  Lena walked out of the theater and headed for the bathroom. She stood in a locked stall in the bathroom for several minutes. To pass the time, she went through the names of famous surf spots around the world: Phantoms, Himalayas, Alligators, Outer Logs, Pipeline, Lance’s Right, Blacks, Haleiwa, Thunders, Pit Stops, Telescopes, Avalanche, Bowls, Gas Chambers, Dungeons . . .

  Magic’s sounds almost safe, compared to some of those places, she thought.

  Finally she stepped out of the stall, washed her hands, and returned to the theater, making her way past rows of people in the dark.

  As she sat down, Leslie whispered, “I thought you were never coming back!”

  “I know . . . it’s my stomach.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “It must be something I ate.” Lena felt her face heat up with the lie. Good thing it was dark in the theater.

  “Oh, no,” said Leslie.

  “Yeah. I think I’d better go home.”

  “Want me to call my mom?”

  “No. I’ll just call my dad.”

  Martha leaned over. “I thought your parents were going somewhere.”

  “Shhh!” hissed someone behind them.

  Lena leaned across Leslie so Martha could hear her, too. “They’ll still be home. It’s no big deal. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Want us to go with you?”

  “No!” she said. “No. You guys stay and watch the movie. I’ll talk to you later.”

  Lena zipped herself snugly into her wetsuit and slid on her shoes, then risked a glance out the door of the garden shed. She could see Cole and his babysitter, Janni, in the family room. They were playing on his Mindbender.

  It was now or never. Lena took a deep breath, then grabbed her duffel bag and Max’s surfboard. Crouching low, she hurried around the side of the house, in the opposite direction of the family room. When she reached the sidewalk, she hitched up the heavy surfboard under her arm, adjusted the strap of her duffel bag, and headed down the street.

  She was sweating before she even reached the parking area. I’m going to be exhausted before I ever get there, she thought. But beggars can’t be choosers . . . I need to do this while I have Max’s board.

  By the time Lena reached Magic Crescent Cove, the sun was no longer high in the sky. She checked her watch. 4:15. She sank down onto the sand, tired and frustrated. After all this planning and lying, she wouldn’t even have much time in the water, now that she was finally here. But it couldn’t be helped. Sneaking around was harder than it looked.

  Lena’s heartbeat slowed as she gazed out at the sea. Her breathing calmed. She didn’t try to study the conditions; she just drank in the soothing ocean breeze and the hypnotic sound of the surf. When she felt at peace, she turned her attention to waxing Max’s board and reading the waves.

  They were coming in regular sets, but they were huge—fifteen-foot rolling pins of heavy water. Lena had seen the waves at Magic’s bigger than this . . . but not often.

  Just my luck, she thought with a sigh. The one day I manage to snag a board and get away for some stealth surfing, the waves are almost un-surf-able.

  No one was in the lineup, but there were four guys in wetsuits hanging around onshore. The size of the waves must have discouraged them.

  Not me, thought Lena. She stood up. “Okay, mermaid,” she whispered. “Here I come.”

  Chapter 20

  The other surfers eyed Lena
curiously as she headed toward the water.

  “Hey,” called one of them.

  Lena glanced back.

  It was a youngish guy with blond dreads. “You’re not going in, right?”

  Lena nodded and turned away.

  “Aw, go home to Back Yard, little girl,” he jeered.

  Lena quickened her pace a little.

  Someone else called, “Miss? Hey. Wait up.”

  Fighting an impulse to snap, “What?!” Lena looked over her shoulder.

  A middle-aged guy with a dark beard was walking in her direction. “You’re not really going in, are you?”

  “Yes, I am,” she said, and kept going.

  “Don’t do it,” he called. “They’re breaking too big. You’ll never make it outside.”

  Lena didn’t slow.

  “I’m serious,” added the guy, raising his voice. “This is the kind of day people need a tow.”

  Lena lifted a hand to acknowledge that she’d heard him, but she didn’t stop. She knew that surfers sometimes got “towed in” to the big waves by friends on Jet Skis . . . it saved having to swim out past these monster breakers.

  “Fine,” yelled the dreads-guy. “Don’t come crying to us when your board snaps in half.”

  There was laughter, but Lena ignored it.

  As if having a bunch of guys yell at her wasn’t bad enough, she heard Ani’s voice in her mind, “Magic’s is only for advanced surfers, and even then, it’s dangerous.”

  But she also told me it takes some people years to develop the kind of instinct I already have, Lena reminded herself. I’m a natural.

  Today the surfing was secondary. Lena had come here to look for the mermaid.

  Lena splashed into the surf, letting a few small waves surge past her before she set Max’s board down in the water. Then she lay down on the board and started paddling.

  After a couple of minutes, she realized she was farther down the shoreline from where she had started. She would be busy enough just paddling parallel to the rip tide. She kept up a steady butterfly motion with her arms, pulling herself and the board through the water. A wave broke a few yards in front of her, and a froth of tumbling white water rushed toward her. Lena clutched the rails of the board and turned turtle.

  For the next several minutes, Lena battled the punishing breakers, which seemed intent on throwing her back onto the shore. She had to turn turtle over and over as the waves towered above her, far too big to jump. Twice she rolled too late, and the waves crashed on top of her, tossing her violently around under water. She was more aware of the ocean’s power than ever before, and of her own insignificance. “This isn’t a swimming pool,” she heard Ani’s voice in her head again.

  When she paused to get her bearings, she saw that she had been dragged closer to the Boneyard. One more smashing wave, coupled with a bad rip, and she would be scraping across the reef. Maybe Pem was right about the helmet, she thought.

  Gritting her teeth, Lena whipped her arms as fast as she could, the surfboard slicing through the water, carrying her closer and closer to the next swell. With a giant intake of breath, she rolled with the board once again. The wave passed overhead . . . and then she was on the other side of the breaking waves.

  Lena lay on her belly, resting and catching her breath.

  A sleek head popped up in the water nearby.

  Her heart leaped. Then she saw it was a sea otter. She rested her cheek on the deck of the surfboard, waiting for her heart to quit hammering, and trying to stay still.

  The otter floated on its back, apparently unconcerned about Lena’s presence. It had a flat rock on its chest, and it used its agile little paws to smash a clam against the rock. Lena watched, giddy at being so close to the wild animal. After its meal, the sea otter blinked at her and slid smoothly beneath the surface of the water.

  Magic, thought Lena. It feels magic out here. She has to be here.

  But the ocean remained empty, a huge, shifting blue and gray tapestry. No other living creatures appeared.

  The sun will be going down soon, she thought. I should catch at least one wave. I can paddle back out after.

  She couldn’t bear to think that the mermaid was not here. Not yet.

  A nice big swell was forming, and Lena began to paddle quickly, using butterfly strokes as the wave rose up. She popped up at the last minute, and then she was flying, racing through the dark blue barrel, faster than she had ever gone. This wasn’t so much like riding on the back of a dolphin as it was falling off a house.

  The lip of the wave began to crash just behind her, then the walls of white water caught up to her, and she was flung under water with what felt like an avalanche of ocean on top of her. She felt her leash snap, then she was tumbling, waiting to see which way was up.

  Ani should have been here to see this wipeout, she thought. After what seemed like a full minute but was probably only a few seconds, she was able to orient herself as to which way was up. She swam toward the surface, hands above her head as Ani had taught her, in case she came up under her board.

  She broke the surface and took what felt like the biggest breath she had ever taken. She could see Max’s surfboard near the shore. But she’d hardly had time to take a second breath when the next wave was rushing toward her. She ducked. This time the wave surged harmlessly over her instead of picking her up and smashing her beneath. She broke the surface again and began to swim for shore.

  Exhausted, she picked up Max’s board and trudged onto the sand.

  “You got nads, girl,” said dreads-guy. “Either that, or you’re just plain baked.”

  The weak sun would be setting any minute. And she had broken her leash. So that’s it, she thought. I can’t go back out without a leash.

  But this is why I came, another part of her protested.

  Lena turned her face to the water again. She felt oddly unafraid as she walked back into the sea.

  “What the hell!” cried someone.

  “Hey!”

  Ignoring the calls, she lay down on the board and paddled out. Her arms were trembling with exhaustion, and it felt like she was pulling them through thick mud, trying to stay in one place. She struggled past waves as high as a two-story house, turtle-rolling several times to let the waves break over her.

  Finally, she made it to the main point break. She barely had time to turn her board around before another big wave was rising up behind her.

  Legs shaking, Lena hurried to pop up. She had just steadied her feet on the board when she found herself racing through the barrel again.

  She maintained her balance on the board as long as possible, feeling the lip of the wave curl ever closer to her head. Then it was breaking over her . . . and she was wiping out.

  The houseful of water seemed to push her down endlessly. Lena did not panic; she knew that she would surface eventually. You can hold your breath a long time, she told herself, Ani’s words reassuring in her mind. Sure enough, the churning waves shot Lena waist-high out of the water, but she barely had time to take a breath before she was being sucked down under again. She felt her body being driven deeply into the underwater hole once more.

  You can hold your breath a long time, she told herself again, more desperately this time. She felt that she should have been washed out closer to the shore by now and was scared to see that she was still in the same spot when she finally did surface.

  This is it, she realized suddenly. I’m in the Cauldron.

  Then she was sucked beneath the waves again. The waters churned, tossing her back and forth beneath the surface like a rag doll in a washing machine.

  Pem was right, she thought, as a terrible weariness came over her limbs. I should never have come.

  She was too tired to struggle to the surface again. She was not even sure which direction was up. She knew she should try to remain relaxed in order to surface. Now it felt strangely comforting to relax and allow the boiling waters to toss her. Black dots danced at the edge of her vision.

/>   I wonder if I’m going to die, she thought, but there was no longer a sense of panic to the idea. This is where Dad almost died.

  At that moment, Lena felt something touch her arm, then a hard object was pushed into her hand. She clamped her fingers around it automatically.

  Before she even had time to wonder about the object, Lena felt two small hands grasp her beneath the arms and pull her out of the deadly grip of the Cauldron.

  Chapter 21

  Lena coughed and gasped, sucking in lungfuls of precious air.

  As she dragged herself up onto the sand, she saw that the man with the beard was hurrying to her side. The other three surfers watched in the background.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, leaning over her.

  She nodded, unable to speak. All she could do was keep breathing—she would never take air for granted again.

  “I thought we’d lost you!” said the man, his voice shaking. “I didn’t think you were going to make it out of that hole.”

  Lena stared up at him, trying to catch her breath. She wanted to open her hand and look at what she was holding—what someone had shoved into her hand—but she didn’t want this guy to see. She turned to look back at the ocean. The sun was setting, bleeding orange and pink and gray, and the waves were turning darker every minute.

  “Who’s out there?” she panted.

  “No one. You were the only one out there.”

  She glanced up and saw a guy her age standing a little farther up the beach. Max’s board had been pulled out of the water and was sitting on the sand. The other two surfers were leaving. The show was over.

  Lena looked out at the ocean again and saw a dark head bob above the surface of the waves. She squinted into the setting sun.

  It was the mermaid.

  Lena splashed into the water.

  “Hey!” the man yelled.

  The dark head disappeared in the waves as suddenly as if it had never been there. Lena stared hard. “Don’t go!” she cried.

  “What are you doing?” the man called after Lena. “You can’t go back out there, it’s getting dark.”

  “Leave me alone!” yelled Lena, struggling through the surf, scanning the waves. It was the mermaid who pulled me out of the Cauldron.