Marker 11,090 reads and 1,011 votes
(Published 3-24-19)

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Summer Present

I gently guided Sarah to sit in one of the mismatched chairs. Once she sat down, I chose a seat beside her. Arthur did not follow our example and instead walked in the opposite direction from us. From the corner of my eye, I saw Arthur settle himself against the door frame of the church's door. I could tell that Arthur's distance from her put her at ease. I'm sure it had been a terrifying sight to see Arthur lung at her, even if he hadn't meant to do her harm.

I noted the string around her neck and the hint of something awful poking out of the thin white t-shirt she wore. It glimmered red in the light. At that moment, I was reminded that I had the same object in my pocket. Arthur had been telling the truth that he had to give one to his sister.

Sarah's head drifted down to her lap, and she began to fidget with her figures.

While my eyes watched her hands, my mind turned over and over its self in my head, while I tried to find out what Sarah knew, but my mind was coming up with nothing but to ask her directly what she heard. But I couldn't do that, right?

Sarah spared a quick peek at me before her eyes returned to her lap. "You're that girl that ran away from Tim at the beach. It looked like you were afraid of him. Why were you afraid of him?"

"He just surprised me is all. We're friends now, and he's helping my friend and me right now."

Sarah nodded her head at my words, "I thought he was just flirting with you at first, but your face looked scared. And girls that flirt with Tim usually don't look scared.

"Tim used to flirt a lot, a lot of girls like him, but he doesn't like them anymore. At least now since..."Sarah shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "Dad's boat sank, and mom left with her new friend."

" How did your dad's boat sink?" I asked, intrigued by this new piece of information.

"Don't know, it happened when we lived in Ghana for the summer. Jojo thinks it was a Miami Wata who caused him to crash. Jojo was my friend that lived next to us in our house there. But I told him that if any monsters got my dad, it was
the adaza, because there were a lot of fireflies out that night."

"So you believe in monsters?" I asked her.

Sarah nodded, and I felt the pufferfish expand in my stomach at her words. Did she believe in monsters because she heard me admitting I was one?

"Are you guys monster hunters like Tim? If so can you keep him safe, I don't want anything to get him."

I felt myself relax. Sarah couldn't think that we were also monster hunters if she knew I could be classified as one.

"Yes, we help Tim out."

"Marina, could you come join me over here for a moment," Author called.

I stood from my seat beside Sarah and joined Arthur at the door.

"We have to do something about her. I can only imagine what she heard!?" Arthur whispered.

"We aren't going to throw her off a cliff," I replied dryly in an equally hushed voice.

"I'm not going to ask you to throw a little girl off a cliff. I'm not that much of a heartless monster. I was going to inquire about the memory erasing magic you mentioned."

"I can't perform that type of magic. That's beyond my capabilities."

"Than get someone who does know how to do it! What about your servants on land?"

"I can't, not with our revealing Tim and potentially you. We are just going to have to hope she didn't hear us or couldn't make sense of what we were saying

"Um excuse me?" Sarah's voice rang out through the small space.

We both turned to look at Sarah. She had raised her head from her hands.

"I'm not supposed to be up here, and if-"

"Sarah?" a woman's voice called suddenly from outside in the distance. Sarah's eyes widen, and her eyes moved back and forth between Arthur and me.

"Aunt Laura can't know that I come up here. Please, she can't know I left the yard!" Sarah said, her voice was saturated with urgency. "And then she'll find Tim's secret clubhouse. Then he'll be mad too!"

"Why would he be mad?" I asked, and crossed the church to reclaim my spot beside her on the chairs.

"Tim's not supposed to be up here either. Aunt Laura said it's too dangerous for us to go inside the church. Tim likes to come up here a lot and look at that book he has..."

"Sarah!?" the voice was louder this time and a bit more urgent.

"I'll make a deal with you Sarah," I said. "If you don't tell you're Aunt Laura that we were here, I won't tell Tim that you came into his clubhouse. And I'll keep Tim safe."

"Alright shake on it?" Sarah asked and extended her hand to me. I reached out and grasped it in mine.

Sarah stood and darted to the door. She was almost at it when abruptly her way was blocked.

Sarah let out a small gasp and took a small step back from Arthur. She stared up at him with wide, frightened eyes.

"Arthur you can let her out? She isn't going to tell her aunt about the secret clubhouse."

Arthur shook his head at me.

"Arthur..."

He mouthed a not yet at me.

"Author..." I said a bit more firmly this time.

"Right," Arthur relented and looked down at Sarah and gave her a nod and stepped aside to let her past.

Sarah was out the door in a blink of an eye. Her blonde pigtails disappeared into the sunlight outside. Once she was gone he closed the green door behind her so that the room was only lit by light filtering in through the cracks in the door.

"So do you think we are in the clear?" Arthur asked.

"I can't say so for certain," I answered,

"What!?" Tim exclaimed. "You mean to tell me that you don't know if Sarah heard us or not?"

"No?"

"Then now what!?" Arnold asked. "We can't kill that Tim fellow because we now have an eye witness placing us here, and we can't murder the witness for a very long list of reasons. So what are we supposed to do!?"

"We wait and see, or we go somewhere far far away from here," I replied.

"I elect that we go somewhere far, far away from here. In fact, I was planning on just that, before you distracted me with mind erasing spells and werewolf'. I chose Yorkshire as my far-far-away-place. Because I shouldn't have left it in the first place!"

"Which you would have to cross an Ocean to get to," I remind him.

"Oceans can be crossed by air, you know. Amelia Earhart proved one could almost cross all of them in an airplane. But damn, Americans do has strict flying restrictions, so not entirely sure how to hop across the pond without using my ID. I can always use the family plane, but who's to say they would let me, after I sunk the family boat.."

"Why do you have to leave this county to get to safety? America is big with lots of places far away from the ocean, go to one of them."

"Yeah sure, no money, no friends,no legit US citizenship. I can make it anywhere said no one with any rational brain cells in their head."

"I shrugged. Then I guess we wait and see."

Arthur sighed, "Fine but I do want news on the crew and my boat, and I'm allowed to tell at least one of my family members I'm alive, as long as I swear them to complete secrecy. If I'm going to figure out how to hide from the mermaids, I'm going to have to have some help from good old England."

"Okay, fine," I relented.

Arthur grinned at me, "Great! Knew you would come around!"

I shook my head at him, before I crossed the room and resumed reading Tim's research on mermaids. It was scary how much he had uncovered, but it was mixed in with a lot of myths. Some of which, contradicted what was actually true.

I was reading an article claiming that a mermaid came up and took someone's dog when Tim finally came back from his shopping trip.

"Hello? Are you guys in here?" Tim's voice came from outside followed by a knock at the door.

Arthur, whom had passed out in one of the chairs, awoke with a start and got up to open the door for Tim, who came staggering in holding two large white bags.

"So.." Tim began and lumbered over to the table I currently stood beside and placed his bags on its wooden surface, "I got enough food to last someone at least a week. I'm not sure how long you are planning on staying here, but I hope it's a week because that's how long I can afford to feed you for."

He began to rustle in the bags and pull out varies boxes and cans from them, along with a bag of bread.

"I got you so canned beans, bread, peanut butter, and some tea. Tim looked over his shoulder at Arthur, hope you don't have any dietary restrictions dude."

"None over here, unless that tea doesn't happen to be Assam."

"No, I think the tea I got is.." Tim picked up the box of teas and squinted at it, "Earl Gray?"

"And you expect me to drink that rubbish without milk? At least did you get some lemon?"

Tim turned around and gave Author an inquisitive stare.

"What you think all us Brit's drink our tea black?"

Tim shrugged his shoulder's, "I guess that I never really thought about it too much before," he replied."I don't drink tea."

"Well, mate do all American's drink there coffee's black?"

"I guess not, "Tim replied with a small laugh and smile.

"Now, I hope to dear God that I won't have to live off of peanut sandwiches and canned beans for the next week. Let's see what you got for me," he said and walked over to stand beside Tim. Ah, at least you brought some Jam!"

I noted that for someone that had been planning to push Tim off a cliff, he was acting awfully friendly towards him now.

"Marina," Ray's voice rang inside my ears so loudly I turned around to see if she was standing at the doorway, but she was not.

"I'm coming," I replied when I realized her voice had come from the sea.

"I have to go, I'll be back tomorrow," I said out loud and hurried out of the church without waiting for a reply from the boys.

I raced down the sandy steps and onto the winding road leading up to the cliff.

I was out of breath before I reached sand beside the pier. I walked towards the waves until the sea lapped at my toes.

"Ray!?" I called.

"Marina?" I turned, and this time Ray was standing behind me. She was still dressed in a white dress, but her curls had been tied into a high ponytail that flowed down her back.

"Ray," I breathed.

"How's Arthur?" she asked, he gray-green eyes held worry in them.

" He's fine," I replied. "Do you remember that church those humans built on the cliffs all those years ago?" I asked.

"Yes," Delphine replied.

"He's staying up there, for the time being."

A look of relief crossed her face, "Good," she replied. "I knew you would take care of him," Ray closed her eyes, "I came to tell you that I will be marrying the prince of the South Atlantic tomorrow in an unofficial ceremony upon father's wishes and request."