The Sound of a Siren's Call

70.) South Hellendun's Sunset

I let the water wrap around me, flowing into my lungs. I let myself sink, long after my tail replaced my legs. I didn't know where Castor and Juniper had gone, but I was willing to be they hadn't ventured far from the spot where I'd left them.

I sank, the sandy bottom nearing me, with the hesitancy of a place that'd just started to forget me. I let myself wonder what would become of their relationship now that the adventure was gone.

Castor had a home. Would they go there, or would he leave? I didn't know, and it wasn't any of my business. But I wanted to know. I didn't want Castor to leave because then that meant that the adventure was slipping away for me too. The thrill would leave with him. Whatever shape Castor left Juniper's heart in would be mine to help her piece together too.

I felt the sand form a cloud around me. It was time to go, time to find out how it really ended. I didn't want to. I felt a drowsiness come over me. The kind where sleep was far away, but the water above me would be just as good as any sleep could have ever been.

I flicked my tail, letting myself point, like a compass toward Juniper. I swam, lazily. I didn't need to get there for a while. They were probably enjoying the time without me, the time alone where they could be themselves without whatever show they put on for me. Without signing.

Castor had to be better at speech than he was at sign. If it wasn't filtered through me... 

I would let them have that for a few moments more.

And I would let myself have the last traces of my journey abroad. I owed myself that.

I must've swam faster than I intended because I was subconsciously surfacing twenty yards away from the shore. Castor ad Juniper were still there, smiles plastered on their faces.

They looked like children, but they were the same age as me. Was I a child? 16 had always felt so old, but it really wasn't, was it?

I swam forward, allowing myself to drift until I was next to Juniper. She looked over at me, barely acknowledging me. She and Castor seemed to be positively glowing.

He wouldn't leave. Why had I ever thought for a moment that he would? No one joined the Navy because they had something to leave. That wasn't how it went. No, he joined the Navy to disappear. And now he'd stay because he'd succeeded.

I watched their faces, not bothering to lip-read. Castor met my eyes, raising his hands.

"How are you?"

"Good."

"That's good."

And that was that. A kind of hushed stillness fell over us. The moon was pale in the sky, as though it hadn't gotten the message that it was supposed to leave us in the shining light of the sun.

The sunset found us, only a few minutes after I found the couple. The sky lit up in that brilliant red it only showed South Hellendun. I'd never seen it anywhere else, and neither had the pirates. It was like it was a show just for our town.

I watched Castor's face, the color casting a golden glow over him. His eyes seemed to flash in a way that said he knew what he wanted his life to look like.

Did my eyes say that I didn't?

Did my eyes say I was absolutely clueless?

Juniper's hand brushed against mine, and I smiled at her. Her hair was tangled, hanging stiffly at her back. The golden glow was on her too, only it made her look like a goddess. I looked back and forth between them.

Humans fell in love with everyone. Sirens were made to be fallen in love with. It made sense. Sirens were women, ultimately. Women who'd been sacrificed to the sea. Women who hadn't all lost their loves to the sea.

I wondered who'd Juniper have been, who'd she'd be if she never found the sea. She wouldn't be here with me. That was one thing. I liked her, as she was, red tail watching a red sunset.

I wanted to freeze that moment, to force that moment to be ours, and only ours. To be something I could guard in a treasure chest, sink to the bottom of the sea, and die with the secret of it.

But moments aren't gold, and they pass on as though they weren't treasured by a pirate, a former soldier, and a siren.

I wanted to call it back, to sing it back from beyond the realm of seconds that had left me behind.

I wanted to scoop up that moment, and the moment where my dad had told me he accepted me, and Ryan's kisses, and the flashing of silver, and the rooms at inns, and my mother giving me a ransom, and so many more moments. I wanted to take every good thing that had happened to me, and protect it, and not let anyone ever see it. But instead, I just looked between Juniper and Castor.

"How long are you planning to stay?"

"Until we figure out somewhere else to go," Juniper signed, as though it were the simplest answer in the world.

They weren't leaving me yet, but we would all leave South Hellendun. I felt it like a hermit living on a bluff could feel the rain coming in his bones. South Hellendun wasn't a place that kept you and held you fast.

Juniper's hand reached out of the water, glowing in the last light of the sun. Castor's hand met it, holding each other. They worked together. They worked together in a way Ryan and I hadn't. I didn't want to admit it, but in a way, I already had. I'd admitted it when I left her with the silver-skinned Cal.

I let myself float in the water, as though I'd never had a care in the world.

Juniper looked at me, still for several heartbeats. Castor pulled his hand out of hers. A breeze blew, pricking the skin left above the water with the cold hand of the winds swept in from some faraway shore. I watched her chest rise and fall.

"Don't you just love it?"

"What?"

Juniper looked at me. "Don't you just love the way the sea smells?"

I looked back at her. And I did. Even if it was the expected opinion of the daughter of a pirate and a siren. 

~The End~