“Sorry!” Willa quickly retreated. She leaned against the closed door for a moment and shut her eyes. The scene flashed through her mind ... the silvery hair, the shiny white skin ... the green scales, the fins.
Belle was a mermaid.
Chapter Four
A weekend of worries and a very, very strange dinner
Willa finished up her work in the kitchen, trembling and anxious. Above her she heard Belle roll out of the bathroom and down the hall into her room, slamming the door behind her. Willa left for home soon after, ducking out before Miss Trang came home. It was Friday, so she had all weekend to fret and worry. Would Belle tell on her? Willa figured the fact that Belle was a mermaid would be pretty high on the list of things Miss Trang didn’t want her to know about. She shivered every time she thought about Miss Trang getting angry. And every time she shut her eyes she saw the glimmering scales. At least now she knew why Belle wanted so badly to go to the ocean.
The weekend crawled by. There was no distraction from her worries until Sunday night, when Grandpa came over for dinner.
“Willa the Whisp!” he cackled as she ran up to give him a big hug. His ratty old sweater smelled of pipe smoke and salt air. His sunbeaten face was set in a perpetual grin, and his white hair stuck out in all directions, like he’d just come in from a gale. Willa always teased him about his hair. She even put a comb in his Christmas stocking one year, but he’d just laughed and played a tune on it with tissue paper.
Over dinner Grandpa entertained them with his favourite topics: the weather, the sea, and the weather out on the sea. Willa even forgot about Belle for a few minutes, listening happily.
Grandpa was loud and full of life. She could just picture him out on the water in his little boat, waving and calling out to the other boats. She knew his bad luck had made him infamous among the other fishermen. They all had good years and bad years, but Grandpa hadn’t caught a single fish for as long as Willa had been alive, and even before. Whenever his boat wasn’t rented out he’d still go out on the ocean, but not to fish. He claimed his trips were “picnic pleasure cruises,” but Willa knew he still had nets and rods stowed away on the boat, all carefully maintained and at the ready. Once he’d told her some of the other fishermen wouldn’t even talk to him, they thought he was bad luck. Willa had been outraged, but he’d just laughed. “Superstitious old fools!”
Now, as Grandpa paused to shovel down his vegetables, Willa stared down at her peas and carrots and thought about the ocean. In her mind she saw Belle, slipping out of her wheelchair and sinking down into the sea, her silvery hair floating on the water and her tail flicking shimmery droplets into the air.
She cornered him after supper while her parents cleared the table.
“Grandpa ... there are a lot of ... strange things living in the ocean, right?”
“You bet.”
“Things that seem ... magic, even?”
He looked at her curiously. “Spit it out. What do you want to know?”
“Have you ever seen a mermaid?” She was afraid he’d laugh at her, but instead he started, his eyes wide with surprise.
“Well, now. What an odd question.”
“I was just ... I’m reading a book about them,” she fibbed. At this he relaxed, his face falling into the smile she’d been expecting in the first place.
“You want to know if there is magic out there in the world. Well ... that depends on who is doing the looking.” And that’s all he would say on the matter.
She was still thinking about his words when she went up to bed. She found a small white card on her pillow and smiled, thinking it was from him. It wasn’t. It was not signed, but Willa knew in the pit of her stomach that the long, spidery handwriting had to be Miss Trang’s. The card read:
It is not necessary for you to come in to work tomorrow morning, but you are cordially invited to join us for dinner tomorrow night. 6 p.m. Do not be late.
How did the card get there? Was Miss Trang angry? Belle must have told. What was going to happen? At best she would probably lose her job. And at worst? She had no way of knowing. Even Horace said he didn’t know what Miss Trang was capable of. And yet she had to go to the dinner. If she didn’t, she knew she would never be able to go back, and the thought of all her questions about the house going unanswered forever was enough to drive her up the wall.
And so the next evening she walked up to the front door of the boarding house at exactly six o’clock, knees shaking, hands trembling, and brain rattling. Baz swung the door open. She didn’t say a word, simply waved Willa into the parlour.
The lights were so low she could barely see. Miss Trang stood in the centre of the room and seated around her were Belle, Horace, Baz, and another gentleman in an armchair in the darkest corner — she could barely make him out at all. Miss Trang stepped forward, her eyes glittering in the gloom.
“Willa, we have invited you here tonight for a reason. You know ... about Belle.” She raised an eyebrow and Willa nodded. “A very serious matter. We held a house meeting to discuss what was to be done about you.” A shiver ran down Willa’s spine. Miss Trang looked her straight in the eye.
“Willa Fuller. Would you like to continue working here?”
Willa nodded quickly.
Miss Trang regarded her for a moment before going on. “This house is exactly what it appears to be. An ordinary retirement home for seniors. The only part that isn’t so ordinary is that we have retired from, shall we say, rather unusual careers in ... a different world from yours. A different time.”
The others were all nodding.
Miss Trang pursed her lips thoughtfully. “You might be someone useful to us, someone from the outside we can trust. Someone of uncommon character. ”
Someone useful? What did they want her to do? Willa wondered wildly. And did she have uncommon character? She didn’t think so. Miss Trang was looking her up and down as if she was thinking the same thing.
“We need to know whether you can handle the rather odd things in this house without losing your nerve.”
Willa didn’t know what to say, so she just nodded.
Miss Trang continued. “Tonight’s dinner will be your test. You will finally meet all the residents of this house and see them as they really are. You will have dinner with us and ask no questions. You will be on your best behaviour and not stare, understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.” How hard could that be? Just be polite, keep quiet, and eat. Still, butterflies were fluttering in her stomach and she felt short of breath.
“Fine,” said Miss Trang. “Let’s begin. You already know Mirabel.” Belle rolled forward in her chair and pulled the blanket off her shiny, shimmery mermaid tail. Willa glanced at it for only a moment then locked onto Belle’s cool eyes. She curtsied. Belle raised an eyebrow and nodded quickly.
“Baz.” Baz stepped forward, smiling, but looking her old self. No surprises there. “Tengu.” She hadn’t even seen the little man from the willow tree where he stood beside the piano. Now he stepped up, bowing to her, then adopting a fighting posture.
“Perhaps a display of my terrifying skills of combat—” He drew an elbow back sharply, knocking the birdcage behind him. Fadi hissed and gave him the evil eye. Miss Trang just shook her head wearily.
“No, no. Nothing of that sort is required, thank you.” Tengu gave a little karate chop in the air and stepped back, grinning at Willa.
Miss Trang gestured toward Horace. “Professor Horace St. Smithenwick.”
The