Book Excerpt: Going Overboard

  

We both stared at him, waiting for him to breathe, but he didn’t.  I quickly grew impatient; Abatina began to whimper again.  I was fed up, but just as I was about to try slapping him again, his body lurched, and he made a terrible gasping sound, right before he started breathing. 

“You’re brilliant!” Abatina exclaimed, throwing her arms around me.  I was too relieved to respond, but I was thrilled, really.  Abatina released me and turned her attention back to the human as he coughed up the remaining water in his lungs, burying his face in the sand as he did.

 I glanced around, watching him breathe only made me crave water more.  I noticed that the storm seemed to be passing, and in the distance I could see that the ship had managed to stay afloat.  “Abatina,” I said, “We should go, before he gets back in his right mind and notices that we’re mermaids.”  Just as I said this, the man finished coughing, and then his ragged shoulders collapsed and he went limp again, pressing his nose in the dirt.  Now was our chance to get away.  Abatina gently flipped the sailor onto his back.  His eyes were shut and he was out again, but at least he was breathing normally.  “He’ll be fine,” I said, “he probably lives up somewhere near the castle.  The rest of the sailors will find him when they dock.” 

 I quickly realized that Abatina was paying no attention whatsoever to me.  Instead she was leaning over the sailor, just staring like he was the most fascinating thing ever.   To me he looked like a drowned rat.  And then she touched him, on purpose!   She slipped her fingers into his dull, curly brown hair.  “He’s so handsome,” she murmured.  I took another look at him; he was young, a few years older than us at most, and he was alright looking, for a human.

 I shrugged.  “Abby, we’ve got to go; the other sailors can probably see us from here…”

Still, she paid no attention; still, she ran her fingers through his mop of hair.  “Look,” she instructed, pulling it back off his forehead to reveal a gold ringlet set around his brow. 

I leaned in to inspect it closer, realizing that there was also a gaudy ring on his index finger.  Then I noticed that his clothes, no matter how torn up they were, were not the clothes of a normal sailor.  “Neptune,” I breathed shaking my head as it hit me.

 “He’s a prince,” Abatina said unnecessarily, “The prince…  He doesn’t live near the castle; he lives in the castle…”  She reached out her hand to touch him again, but I batted it away.

“Leave him be!” I scolded, now I was really beginning to worry, a prince?  What if he remembered what happened?  What if he decreed it to all his people?  What if he put a price on our heads?  I glanced around, suddenly paranoid, my tail tingled.  It was still dark, but in that moment I swore I saw a figure standing down on the beach far to our left.  I grabbed Abatina’s arm, “We’re going.” I commanded.  I had to drag her away.

“Wait!” she cried jumping back to the prince’s side, “I don’t want him to forget me…”  I watched in horror as she slipped off one of her sea glass rings and slid it onto his pinky.

I grabbed her arm again, this time sure not to let go.  “Well, he’d better not remember this.” I muttered.  We made our way down the beach with Abby glancing back at every second.  Soon we were swept back into the waves...