Eruption

Em

        She held out another cup of coffee. “Free.” She waved a thumb toward the owner. “Everyone got scared and tried to leave, so he’s giving out a round of free coffee. Sorry, it’s not a triple-shot.”
    Jake took the cup of coffee from the girl and sipped; it was so hot it almost burned his tongue.
    Even now, with the almost-fight and his new worries, Em’s casual grace, her easy way of moving, took his breath away. “Um. When do you get off work?”
    She pulled out her phone. Of course, he thought, she was glued to that phone.     “Thirty minutes,” she said.
    Jake needed information. “Do you have time to visit? I’m still new on the island and have so many questions.”
    Em smiled. “Sure. If you can wait.”
    “I’ll wait,” Jake said.
    While he waited, Jake tried to think what to do. Mom had forbidden him to call her unless it was a matter of life and death. Phone calls were too easily traced, so he had to do it through encrypted websites, which meant he had to have a computer. Besides, she was so busy with her Ambassador duties. It made Jake’s head hurt just to think about the possible scandals and repercussions if anyone found out about his parents.
    Dad was out of touch, as well, on some assignment. Since he’d been promoted to Commander a few months ago, his duties had doubled. It was one of the reasons he’d brought Jake to live with Sir and Easter on Bainbridge. Jake could get a message to him in an emergency, but was this an emergency?
    Sir and Easter. Jake’s Earth grandparents were kind, polite and tried to be helpful in getting his settled into school and life on an island. Sir was a slightly taller version of Dad, athletic and tanned. Easter ran a neat, efficient home, making Jake think of a great librarians who kept all her bookshelves alphabetized and dusted. But he didn’t know them well yet, didn’t trust them. When they asked about life on Rison, he barely answered because it was so different, they wouldn’t understand. Life on the Obama Moon Base was easier to answer, because that was an Earth Navy base. Anything to do with intergalactic politics, Jake strictly avoided for now.
    He had no one to turn to. It didn’t seem wise, though, to ignore all of this with Captain Blevins.
    When Em finally took off her apron and came to his table, Jake was ready to get away from his own thoughts. He remembered the manners that Dad had been trying to teach him and pulled open the door to the coffee shop for Em. He motioned for her to go ahead of him. She flashed him a smile and went outside.
    “I only live a mile away,” Em said. “On nice days, I just walk.”
    “I’ll walk you home,” Jake said. “Is that OK?”
    When she nodded, he tingled in anticipation. He’d never had a long conversation with an Earth girl before. Well, not with a Risonian girl, either. He’d left Rison about the time he was figuring out that girls were something different and exciting. The Obama Moon Base had no girls his age. For a moment, he worried that he’d latched onto the first girl he ran across. But no. He’d been around enough to recognize that Em was special.
    One thing about the Moon Base—there was plenty of time to read. Jake had read everything he could about Earth, especially its oceans, since Rison was asking Earth to allow it to colonize just the oceans. Risonians could breathe easily on land or on air. They reasoned that Earth was 80% water, but Earthlings all lived on land. Surely, they could share their oceans and save a race of people. On paper, it sounded reasonable, but of course, it was more complicated than that. So, Jake had read everything about Earth’s oceans that he could. Even folklore.
    One old story came back to him now: mermaids sitting on rocks combing their long hair and singing songs to entice unwary sailors to their death. A siren’s song.
    For the last three days, the new Earthling high school had overwhelmed Jake. He had seen other girls, heard other girls. But Em was different: she was his siren, he thought in a daze. She called to him like no other girl had ever done. He would have waited eight hours for her to get off work. He would have walked her home, even it was all the way across the Island. He just wanted to be near her, to get to know her better.
    He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.
    “That was Mr. Blevins, the science and civics teacher, right? But you called him Coach?”
    Em nodded. “Coach Blevins. He’s been here about five years,” Em said. “Teaches biology and civics. And coaches the swim team.”
    “Do you swim?”
    “Sure. I do backstroke and the IM.”
    “IM?” Jake asked.
    “Individual medley. That means I swim one or two laps with each of the strokes.”
    “Are you fast?”
    She checked something on her phone. “3rd in the district in back, and I’m fighting for first in IM.”
    Jake nodded, afraid to ask more lest he seem like a total idiot. He knew that his father had been on the Bainbridge Island swim team, but he didn’t know much more than that. He wasn’t even quite sure what a “district” meant. These were things he could ask Easter and Sir about; in fact, it would actually give them a topic for conversation.
    Em smiled, a flash of white teeth. “Before Coach Blevins, the Bainbridge swim team was a joke. But since he’s come, we took the state meet last year. He drives us hard, but we win. I think everyone on Bainbridge likes him.”
    “Where did he come from? Was he always a swim coach and teacher?”
    Em frowned, “No idea. I think he’s Canadian. He knows his science, though.”
    Jake decided that he’s have to do some research on the Blevins family. They were investigating his family, it only seemed fair.
    Em stopped and turned to look him up and down. “Say, are you a swimmer? We sure need more guys. What stroke are you best at?”
    “Oh, I don’t swim,” Jake said, but without conviction. “I do a little freestyle, but I’m not very fast.”
    “That’s OK,” Em said. “Swim team speeds you up. You work on your form and your times and before you know it—”
    “No.” Jake had to stop her. He desperately wanted to be on the swim team, to be in the water all the time. Or rather, to have the freedom to come and go, in or out of the water, as he liked. He wanted to go home to Rison. But Rison was dying, and he had his orders. More was at stake than just what he wanted.
    “Okay, okay. I get it,” Em said. Her face was bright red, and she started walking again, this time at a fast pace as if to get away from his refusal to consider swim team. “I just love the swim team and I get overly excited about it. I want every else to be as excited as I am. I’ll back off.”
    “No, no.” Jake almost trotted to keep up. “I mean—oh, I just get teased a lot because I can’t swim. But really, I just can’t.”
    “Oh.”
    There was a world of uncertainty in that “Oh.” Jake wanted to please her, to say that he’d give swim team a try. No, he had to convince her. “I’m too scared of the water.”
    “That’s all?” She gave a nervous laugh. “We can help with that.”
    “No,” Jake tried again. “I’m scared of the water because I don’t have the right lungs for it.” That part was true at least. His lungs weren’t good Earthling lungs; they were good Risonian lungs that could breath air on land, while his underarm gills breathed in the sea.
    “That’s just technique. Coach Blevins can help you with your breathing—”
    “No.”
    They stopped at a street corner. Em looked over his head, obviously embarrassed now.
    “Oh. Well, if you ever want to come and watch, we practice early mornings.” Em avoided his eyes and waved toward the left. “Well, thanks for walking with me a while. I live down that way and I’m sure it’s too far for you. You have better things to do.” She turned on her phone and concentrated on the screen.
    She was giving him the brush-off.
    Jake bit back the words he wanted to say: You’re beautiful. I would walk—or swim—anywhere with you.
    She didn’t want him to walk her home now, though.
    Em turned, and with a half-wave, she strode away. He let her go.
    He stood there watching until she turned another corner. Then he turned to trudge back toward his grandparent’s house on Yeomalt Point. It wasn’t home, not yet, maybe not ever. His thoughts turned back to Captain Cy Blevins and his father Coach Blevins. They were investigating him. Maybe his grandmother, Easter, could help him investigate the Blevins. But when he got home, Easter asked about the coffee shops and Jake forgot about the Blevins. Instead, he told Easter about Earth muffins, and they found a recipe, went to the store, and came home to bake. Earth muffins, he decided later, were delicious.