The Secrets of Pimsim Cove - 9. Chapter 9

“Annaaaaaa!”

What was that?

“Annaaaaaa!” It hissed again somewhere in the darkness.

I sat straight up in bed and listened. “Who’s there?” I demanded, but the silence was thick and heavy. The soft soothing sounds of the ocean were missing. I started to climb out of bed when I heard it again. I jerked my feet back, clutching my trembling legs to my chest.

“Annnnnna!” The voice was even closer this time as a dark shadow flickered near the dresser. Afraid to get up from the bed and afraid to stay put, my mind raced…what do I do? Maybe if I turn on the light, it will chase away the boogieman. Then again, if I turned the light on and the boogieman was real…I would be able to see him, but he would see me too!

Forcing myself off the bed, my feet touched down on the cool wooden floor. The lamp on the dresser was only a step or two away. Well, more like three or four steps with my short legs, but if I needed to make a mad dash out of the bedroom, then, hopefully I would be faster than it.

I held my breath while turning the knob on the lamp that suddenly washed the small room in pale yellowish light. My eyes franticly glanced around, but the room was empty! Whooo hooo…I let out a long sigh of relief.

Thank goodness because I really didn’t want to find a boogieman…YIKES!

“What the smurf?” I screamed!

Boogiemen are real! It was grotesque, standing there with its huge green eyes. When it reached its hideous slimy arm out to grab at the front of my shirt, I stumbled backwards out of its way and tumbled over the edge of the bed.

***

“GET OFF ME!” My shouts echoed off the walls of Dad’s old bedroom. The crisp clean sheets tangled around my legs as I desperately tried to run, but instead, I fell out of bed…onto the wooden floor…with a loud THUMP!

The soft lullaby of the ocean filled the little room. Early morning light painted the sky pink and lavender. I inhaled breath after breath of salty air, filling my burning lungs that felt as if they were going to burst.

A dream? It had all been just a dream…a terrible freaking nightmare. The little light on the dresser was off. The room was empty except for me and I wasn’t a boogieman.

“Crap!” I scrambled out of the fabric knotted around my feet and dashed over to the mirror on the dresser. Green slime didn’t cover my body, but a small cluster of purple scales encased my neck, like a beautiful intricate necklace. The design looked like delicate flowers strung together by vines.

Then it suddenly hit me…I’m not wearing purple! My nightshirt was bright yellow. Leaning closer to the mirror, I thought about the color turquoise. Just like one of those big gaudy stones in Gigi’s jewelry collection.

My scales suddenly turned the same bluish-green shade. It shimmered for a moment then disappeared all together. “Wow, Sean was right!” I’m not quite Human and not quite Triton…I’m definitely something entirely different…but what am I?

***

Everything was too crazy. I just needed to feel the ground under my feet. The Human in me needed to feel the wind in her hair and the sun on her face. I needed to get away for a while so I could think…I needed to go jogging! Changing clothes in record time for a teenage girl, I brushed my teeth, grabbed my tennis shoes and hurried downstairs.

The house was quiet. Tiptoeing to the kitchen, I planned on gulping down a mug of yummy camu before heading out for a long run, but before I got there, I was engulfed by the smell of blueberries.

The delectable scent clung to the warm summer air. A small cloth package sat on the counter with a note: ‘Anna, I hate to rush off before you wake. A stuffy old lady’s work is never done. Enjoy the muffin. Love, Grandma.’

The handwriting on the note matched the back of the old photograph that I carried around with me. The cloth kept my muffin nice and warm. I devoured every last sweet crumb before bouncing out into the fresh sunshine.

***

Back at home, Coach Calhoun’s first rule of track & field is everyone stretches before a run. I could still hear his twangy voice yelling at us. “If you’re not limber…you’re lumber! And a piece of wood can’t run as fast, or as far as a lion, and they stretch all day long.” Coach didn’t always make sense, but he knew how to make running fun.

Counting silently while I held each position, I limbered up and within minutes I felt like a tiny lioness ready to take on the world.

The gravel lane that led back to Pimsim Cove made a decent jogging surface. It wasn’t perfect, but I’ve run on worse. Trotting at a slower pace gave me a chance to check out the neighborhood.

Like the McLoughlin’s home, they were charming little cottages in varying shapes and sizes and every one of them had a long wooden dock that stretched out into the ocean. The first two houses had a boat parked along their docks, but the next two docks were empty, like our dock was right now.

Waves caressed the shoreline along a narrow strip of sand. A salty breeze swirled around my suntanned skin before racing off to play in the grass edging either side of the gravel lane. I watched the long blades dance around in the gentle breeze.

It looked so soft and inviting that I stepped off the gravel path and into the wide open meadow. The soft blades tickled my ankles as I sprinted through the grass, heading towards the mysterious forest beyond.

Water bubbled and rushed along the deep crevasse. Weird how the water hugged tight against the stone wall, forming a moat surrounding the town, but then the water cut sharply away from the wall, separating these peculiar trees from the rest of the wide open field.

Amazed at how the tree branches and thick trunks were all beautifully intertwined together, I watched the breeze swaying the long tree limbs instead of paying attention to where I was running.

Without warning, I tripped over a broken piece of wood. Sprawling forward, I threw my hands out to help break my fall. My knee smacked down on the jagged branch, peeling back a thick layer of flesh. Skidding to a stop several feet away from the stupid tree limb, I shook my dazed head and pushed myself up with scrapped and bloodied palms.

CRACK! SNAP! The loud sounds shook the grass in the open field. I looked up and gasped…the trees were moving!

Maybe I got some dirt in my eyes…I wiped at them with my bloody hands and looked back up to see tall thin creatures standing amongst the trees. What looked like thin tree limbs were actually the creatures’ limbs. Their arms and legs were thin and stick-like with shocking white skin stretched over their bones.

Their eyes were huge compared to the tiny nose and lips that completed their faces. Colorful untamed hair stuck out from their heads in vibrant shades of purple, green and orange.

They appeared to step right out of the tree bark. There were three, then four, and finally five of them…whatever they were! The creature in the front must be their leader. She stopped and sniffed at the salty air.

Her delicate little lips curled into an evil grin revealing a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. My heart pounded against my ribs and I could hear my blood roaring inside my head. It got louder and louder until I couldn’t hear anything at all.

“Anna! Take my hand!” Sean shouted over the rumble of his motorcycle engine.

The creature was shimmying along the lower tree branches to cross over the moat. She leaped down to the soft field without a sound. It was their leader. For something so fragile, she sure could move awfully fast.

“Now, Anna!” Sean’s frantic voice snapped me out of my confusion.

Whatever those creatures were, they were coming after me. I jumped up and slid onto the back of his bike. “Hold on!” He ordered. Punching the gas, he didn’t wait to see if I followed his command.

***

“What were you doing back there?” Sean’s voice was a strange mix of anger and fear. I climbed off his bike while he continued to bombard me with questions. “Have you lost your mind? Everyone knows that Tritons don’t go near the forest--”

“I’m not a Triton--” I snapped back at him.

“Close enough!” He yelled. “You could have gotten yourself killed back there--”

“Well I didn’t.”

Sean glared at me with his icy cold eyes.

“What the smurf were those things?” I shouted.

“Forest Fairies!” He growled through clenched teeth as we stared at each other.

His hands trembled as he ran his fingers through his windblown black hair. Sean closed his eyes and silently counted to ten before opening them again.

In a calmer, but still strained voice, he kind of apologized to me. “I’m sorry, Anna.” A lopsided grin slowly curled around his lush lips. “But even if nobody warned you that the forest was dangerous…you don’t just go prancing off into--”

“I was not prancing!”

“--the woods alone. This isn’t Atlanta…there are real dangers here--”

“I know that.” I cut him off. TAP! TAP! SQUISH! Still continuing with his semi-apology, I tapped my foot like I always do when I’m annoyed, and I was majorly annoyed right now. TAP! SQUISH! SQUISH!

When the nervous little rhythm of my foot didn’t patter the same sound it always did, I looked down and gasped in horror. My tennis shoe was filled with blood! Each little percussion oozed blood from around my ankle, that spilled onto the ground.

I had been so mad at Sean for yelling at me, that I hadn’t taken a moment to inventory my injuries. My palms were only a little scrapped and bruised, but there was a mega-gash just below my knee. Blood was running down my leg, filling up the inside of my shoe. I felt the color drain out of my face. If I pass out again, Sean was gonna think I’m a total wussy!

Sean noticed my face growing whiter and the tinny smell of blood filled in the air. He scooped me up in his strong arms and carried me up the front porch steps.

Until now, I had been concentrating on his anger and had not noticed that he parked his motorcycle in front of a house that I’d never seen before. Sean was obviously familiar with this home since he ran inside without knocking, deposited me onto a chair in the small kitchen and ran off to fetch a towel, but the man who came back, a second later, was definitely not Sean!

Michael D’Gloma might be a couple inches taller than Sean and carrying a few extra pounds of pure hard muscle, but beyond that, the two of them could almost pass for twins. Michael rushed into their kitchen and dropped down to his knees in front of me.

“Sean,” he shouted over his shoulder, “also bring some peroxide and a few butterfly clips with you.” Michael hollered out to his son somewhere in their home, before turning his attention back to my bloody leg.

He pressed a clean towel against my knee and then looked up at me, giving me a weak smile. “You look so much like your father.” He said and I forced a smiled back at him through my pain. “And you look so much like your son.”

“Touché!” Michael’s laugher was a deep, low rumble. He pulled off my shoe and tossed it aside, just as Sean returned to the kitchen. He kneeled beside his father as the two of them assessed my wound.

“It’s a diagonal gash,” Sean pealed back the bloody towel. “I think if we place four clips…like so…it will pull it closed and probably leave little or no scar.” Michael’s eyes shimmered with pride as he watched his son assess the best treatment for my boogered-up leg.

Michael scooted over to let Sean in front of me. “Sounds good. Let’s get her all fixed up.”

“What?” I squawked. “You’re not honestly going to let him do it, are you?” I pleaded to Michael who only laughed again. “And you sound like Windsong, too!” Michael said.

Hey! I wished Michael would stop changing the subject. I rolled my eyes at him as Sean poured some peroxide straight from the bottle over my knee. YIKES! My skin went hot and cold all at the same time. The open wound fizzed and popped as Sean wiped at the corners of the cut.

Michael patted my hands that were now tightly clenched around the arms of the chair.

“Deep breaths, Anna,” The older D’Gloma tried to sooth my frantic nerves. Sean saw the panicked look on my face and quickly worked to close up the large wound. He placed the center clips first then applied one on each end of the gash. “There, I’m all done.” Sean smiled up at me while I continued to pant like a crazy person on the verge of hyperventilating.

***

Laying in the warm sunshine on the end of the D’Gloma’s dock, I watched the fluffy misshapen clouds roll across the clear sky. My view was suddenly blocked by a dark shadow with eyes the same piercing color as the sky.

“Are you hungry?” Sean asked, hovering between me and the fluffy puffs.

I gingerly rolled onto my side before pushing myself up to a more comfortable position. He was holding a little wicker basket containing the essentials for a summer picnic. Okay, I think I’m gonna get whiplash from Sean’s uber-berserker-emotional-rollercoaster.

First, Sean stole my bag, so he should be a bad guy, but he only did it to keep me safe, so that makes him a good guy…right? Then, I thought he was a nutty head-case when he told me about Pimsim City, but it turned out he was actually telling the truth. And last, yesterday I thought we were having a good time while he taught me all about the Tritons, but then he suddenly took off without another word like he couldn’t get away from me, fast enough.

Like all theme-park rides…it’s all fun and games until someone vomits up a chilidog.

I graciously accepted the sandwich he offered and took a big bite, while he poured each of us a tall glass of camu.

“Where did you learn to take care of an injury like that?” I asked him.

“Nineteen years of watching Rosy mend up cuts and wounds has taught me a thing or two.” He paused and I thought that was all he was going to say, but then he continued. “She and Stony are the closest thing to grandparents as I’m ever going to have. Rosy practically raised me--”

“What about your mother?” Way to go, Anna! Sean was just starting to open up and I couldn’t keep my big mouth closed.

His eyes darted to the wide blue ocean and he just shook his dark head.

“Well,” I continued. I had already interrupted him, breaking his contribution to the conversation, so I might as well poke and prod him a little further. He’d already stopped talking, so what else was there to lose? Poke Sean D’Gloma…hehehe!

“Have you ever thought about medical school? You would make a great doctor.” I softly asked.

Now his eyes shot back to mine as he laughed. Not a cynical laugh, but a real chest rumbling laugh. “No, I’ve never thought about medical school, even though it’s not a bad idea. But I’ll probably wind up working in Pimsim Mine like my Da. There aren’t many jobs here in the Cove. Rook works hard fixing motors and I keep hoping that someday he will hire me as an assistant, but I’m sure that now that I have finished school, I’m destined for the mines as well.”

“There’s a rock mine here?”

“No, not here silly,” he shook his head, “down there.” And he pointed out towards the water as confusion washed over my face. “You see, Anna, the bottom of the ocean is full of rocks and minerals. They are used to build everything that is down there in Pimsim City. Did you know that the ocean floor has deep cracks that vent heat from the earth’s core? It’s hot enough to melt sand into glass--”

“Sean,” I really need to work on the rude interrupting thingy. “Is that what you really want to do? Can you honestly say that you want to work in some dirty rock mine, digging and shoveling stone for the next thirty years? Don’t you want to go to college?” Sure it would make him even sexier with super-duper-muscles like his father, but was it really what he wanted to do with his life?

For the first time, his eyes looked weary. “You don’t understand. Talbot doesn’t tolerate his people leaving him! Da told me that old crab was furious when he figured out that Rook was covering for Windsong. Tritons have limited opportunities at education, jobs, even where they live. We don’t have the same kind of doctors or high priced lawyers here. We have elders that pass their knowledge down to the next generation. I don’t want to work in the Mine but, I will do it right alongside of Da and Stony.”

“If his people can’t leave him, then how come he lets all of you live up here?” I asked waving my arms around in the warm summer air.

“We can thank Talbot’s father for Pimsim Cove.” Sean’s eyes lit up. “King Finnegan was the people’s King. He was fierce when he needed to be, but he always had his people’s best interest in mind. Rosy told me that in the 1950’s a group of Tritons came to King Finnegan and asked permission to leave the sea. He listened to their wishes and their plans for this new community.”

“As long as the people were still under the rule of his Kingdom,” Sean continued, “then Finnegan would allow them to live as ‘Greenies.’ When the King died, Talbot tried to force everyone to return to the sea, but the Greenies refused. Someone sent word to the other Kings, behind Talbot’s back and he was called before the Grand Court.”

“Wait…Talbot’s not the only King?”

“Jeez Anna, I keep forgetting that you weren’t raised here. That you don’t know all the ancient legends.”

I frowned at him and said sarcastically, “humor me, okay? So how many Kings are there?”

“Seven! The first King of all the Tritons was King Marcus--”

“That’s gonna be my baby brother’s name!”

Sean smiled. “It’s a tremendous honor to be named after a King. King Marcus had seven sons and when he grew very old and frail, he called his Advisors and his children to his death bed. He told them that instead of passing his crown to his eldest son, Gotzon, he broke his crown into seven pieces and handed a part of it to each of his children. ‘Go out my seven sons, take your piece of my Kingdom, and find your own way in life.’ The King told them and each man did just that. The Triton people were allowed to choose which King they followed. The waters of Hawaii, Jamaica, India, South Africa, New Zealand and Ireland all have vast Kingdoms hidden away far below the sea. King Marcus’s original Council was dispersed and an Advisor was sent with each son.”

“Wow!” What an awesome story. “That’s really cool. So the other six Kings ruled that Talbot had to honor his father’s decision to let the Greenies live in peace?”

Sean nodded his dark head. “Yeah, but evil old Talbot was so mad that he tried to make the Greenies the lowest class of citizens in our social order. Triton social status really only affects the very wealthy and the very poor and most of the Greenies were already mixed up somewhere in the middle, so it really didn’t matter much to them. Rosy was already on the Solstice Committee appointed by Finnegan so Talbot couldn’t change her or Stony’s lives very much.”

“The Solstice Committee,” Rosy had said that she was meeting with them yesterday. I searched the back of my brain and dusted the cobwebs off my useless science file. I remembered that the Solstice happened twice a year, once in June and again in December. It was the date that the earth was tilted on its axis the further or closest to the sun. Doing some quick mental calculations, I blurted out. “The Summer Solstice should be in just a few days.”

“Actually it’s tomorrow. There’s a huge celebration in the Kingdom. It is the longest day of the year and in a world far below the dark sea, it is a time to celebrate the light.”

And if I can’t figure out how to do more than grow a few colorful scales…my tailfins will be sitting home alone. “Is Talbot’s dungeon inside his precious Palace in the Kingdom?” I watched Sean, carefully waiting for his response.

“I know what you’re thinking. I can see it in your eyes, Anna…you are not going to break into the dungeon! I already told you what Talbot does to people who try crap like that. He would scale you alive and make your father watch, just to be spiteful.”

“But--”

“No!” Sean shouted. “Rook is going to find Talbot’s Ring and get Windsong back, end of discussion.”

I don’t like being told what I can’t do, but I really hate the fact that if I can’t pass for a Triton…it wouldn’t really matter, because I couldn’t save Dad, anyways. I mulled over everything I had learned so far.

“So what are your big plans for the future?” Sean asked me as he watched me closely.

“I assume that you mean, what am I going to do after Dad is safe and back home where he belongs…” That thought was enough to keep me going. “I want to be a writer--”

“You could do that right here.” His eyes were dark and his face lacked emotion.

“Hence the major appeal of being a writer,” I gave him an awkward laugh. “My best friend, Cassy, thinks that I’m crazy for signing up for a bunch of Advanced Writing and English Composition Classes for my last year of high school. She said that this is the year for fun and to goof off, but I’m serious about my writing. I’m going to be a writer someday.”

The waves sloshed against the pylons as his intense gaze swept across my face before dropping lower to my breasts and hips. I felt my freckles turn red under his intense stare.

“So the Tritons are a hierarchy society?” I asked pulling his gaze back to my eyes.

“I’m sure you’ve seen the same thing in America. The rich and famous don’t mingle with the dirty and poor.” Images of Gigi’s ritzy country club flashed through my mind. I smiled when I thought about Lisa Hetherington. The beautiful young girl caused a scandal last year when she was caught in the back of the golf cart garage with a gorgeous hunky gardener.

Sean noticed the smile tickling my lips. “Well, are you going to share that lovely thought or keep it all to yourself?”

I shook my head. Strawberry blond hair blew around my face in the warm ocean breeze as his eyes darkened. I couldn’t tell him that I had been thinking about an exquisite young socialite who was shunned after being caught having sex with the hired help. I didn’t want to tell him that I was thinking about anyone having sex right now.

Oh goodness, Anna, get your mind out of the gutter! “I don’t understand the whole good side of town versus the bad side of the tracks thing. If two people love each other, that’s all that should matter.” I quickly said.

“Well, it doesn’t always work that way. Here, a man can marry a woman from a lower social class and it’s perfectly acceptable, but if a woman fell in love with someone below her family, she would be banished or even killed.”

I gasped at the thought of one of the Hetherington’s killing Lisa. The beauty queen might get cut out of the family fortune, but nobody was going to kill her!

“It’s a different world here, Anna.”

“I don’t care…true love should never be forbidden.”

Sean brushed a lock of dark hair away from his forehead and gave me one of his adorable lopsided grins. “Forbidden love is what brought my family here, to Pimsim City, in the first place.”

Goodness he was gorgeous. How could someone be so sexy wearing a beat-up pair of jean shorts and an old paint splattered t-shirt? My heartbeat quickened as I listened to him recount the story of his grandparents, Jacqueline and Nicholas D’Gloma.

“My grandmother, Jacqueline was the fifth child of King Cartwright. He was a frightening man. Rosy once told me that his people were terrified of his icy cold eyes.” He looked slightly ashamed as he kept his gaze cast downward at the wooden planks. “She said I have his eyes, just the same as Jacqueline’s eyes, but I have Nicholas’s jet black hair. Hopewell City sits deep below the clear waters of South Africa’s, Port Elizabeth coast. With two older brothers and two older sisters, Jacqueline wasn’t burdened with as many of the Royal responsibilities as her other siblings. The King’s first born son would inherit the throne someday and his older daughters would be used to form alliances with other noble families, either in Hopewell or among other Kingdoms.”

“Your grandmother is a Princess?” I was amazed because I had never met a Royal before.

“Was a Princess--”

“Oh my goodness, they didn’t kill her did they?” I rudely blurted out. Mom really needs to make me a doctor’s appointment to see why I can’t control that little voice that’s supposed to stay inside my head.

“No, Anna,” Sean shook his head as he chuckled softly, but his eyes remained closely guarded. “In the end, Jacqueline died of a broken heart. She fell madly in love with one of the King’s guards, Nicholas D’Gloma. One night, she confided in the Queen, of her deep love for Nicholas. She had hoped that her mother could convince her father to let her marry Nicholas, but instead, King Cartwright was furious. He ordered Nicholas to be locked away, and even though Jacqueline’s older sisters were still unmarried, he demanded that his Advisors find her a suitable husband. It was absolutely unheard of, to bypass eligible Princesses of marrying age, for a younger daughter. The Queen begged her husband to stop his Advisors. She was afraid of the repercussions that such an impulsive action would bring down on their entire family.”

“The Queen knew that the older sisters would be tarnished and considered undesirable, they would never be wanted for marriage if Jacqueline married first. King Cartwright reluctantly agreed with his wife and called his Advisors back to the Palace. He was upset that his irrational behavior had almost led him to be hasty and careless. But the King was still furious with Jacqueline, so Nicholas was ordered to take her and the two of them were ordered to leave Hopewell, forever. They were told to never return again.”

Now, I’ve had some whopper fights with my parents, but I couldn’t imagine them telling me to get the smurf out. They would never boot me to the curb or disown me for life. I could feel my face growing red with anger.

“Jacqueline had heard about Pimsim City and how King Finnegan allowed the Greenies to live at the Cove. She and Nicholas were granted asylum here and they built this home,” Sean pointed at the cute little cottage nestled into the top of the hill, “and made their new life here. Rosy said that they were very happy. But when Da was about ten years old, Nicholas was killed when the south mine collapsed.”

I gasped and wasn’t able to contain the tears that I felt stinging the back of my eyes, threatening to spill over my freckled cheeks. Sean suddenly looked at me, like he’s never seen me before. What? Every girl cries at the end of a sad love story…hasn’t he ever heard of ‘The Notebook’? Ryan Gosling is such a total hotty!

“Five men lost their lives that day, but Jacqueline never recovered from losing Nicholas. He was the love of her life. She was devastated after the accident and she died three weeks later. Rosy told me that she died of a broken heart.”

Now the waterworks really started flowing. “How terrible…that’s so sad!” I sobbed.

Sean was obviously used to the dark gloom surrounding his grandparent’s lives. Forbidden love, incredible passion, unimaginable heartache, I sniffed and blinked my eyes trying to stop the flood of tears. If Michael was still a child when it all happened, then Sean wasn’t even born yet when his grandparents had died. He had never met them.

Wiping at my eyes with the back of my hand, Sean looked at me like he was examining a bug for a science experiment. Overhead the sky was bright and sunny with only a random puffy white cloud floating along in the warm summer breeze.

TINK-A-LINK-A-LINK! Light reflected off the whimsical glass shapes hanging near the windows and doors of the D’Gloma home. It was the same sparkly wind chimes that decorated everything in Pimsim Cove.

“What’s the deal with all the wind chime-thingies?” I asked, pointing to the sparkly glass hanging on their house. Sean looked happy to change the subject.

“They keep the Forest Fairies away.” A cocky grin crossed his handsome face. “Unlike lunatic American’s who like to serve themselves up on a silver platter for breakfast. The rest of us Tritons don’t like to be on their menu.”

I was still a little embarrassed about today’s earlier run-in with the creatures, so of course I got defensive in a purely bitchy way. “Well, they didn’t eat me now, did they?”

Sean smirked. “Good thing too or Rosy would have scaled me alive.”

“They wouldn’t have really eaten me…would they?”

“Probably not,” with a wicked grin he laughed, “I heard that American’s taste horrible. That would have probably stopped them before they completely finished you off.”

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Real funny, Fish Boy!” This banter with him felt so good, almost like… foreplay.

My heart skipped a beat when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me up to my feet. Sean took a step closer to me, and I took a step back. He took another step to narrow the space between us, but when I stepped back again, I teetered on the edge of the dock. Instead of pulling me in from the perilous edge of the dock, Sean just smiled.

He leaned in close as if he was going to kiss my lips and purred, “sink or swim, America,” and pushed me off the dock.