Until the Tide Returns

“I think it’s time I explain how our family became the Keepers.” Gram said as she sat in her favorite chair. Landon was sitting beside me working on his math homework while I glanced over occasionally to check it. “I’m assuming you know what a mermaid is?”

“I’ve seen The Little Mermaid.” Gram smiled and shook her head.

“Hans fell in love with a Keeper and in confidence she told him of our story, in turn he turned it into something else entirely.” She took a sip of her tea before continuing. “Merfolk were real, they lived for a very long time up until a Keeper killed all of them because of our curse.”

“Curse?” It had never registered that I should ask how we became Keepers of the Tide, something I should have done once Landon told me what I was.

“Yes, it is a curse we carry. Mermaids were nothing like the depiction of Disney movie, they were mean and selfish. They were quite beautiful and their voices the most enchanting sound ever heard, the would often sing to sailors and lure them to their deaths. One day though, a mermaid princess and the only daughter of the King fell in love with a human. She did not kill him and instead went to her father asking to be turned human. He loved his daughter dearly and did not want to lose her so he refused. For days and days she stayed in her room crying, eventually the king told her he would turn her, warning her that if she did so he would also punish her greatly for leaving and becoming human. The mermaid readily agreed believing that any punishment would be worth it to be with the young sailor whom she loved. After some time getting used to her legs she eventually found the young man and they fell in love and married. A few months later she became pregnant and that is when her father told her of the curse he had placed on her as her punishment.” Landon had since stopped working on his homework and was now paying attention to Grams story, from the level of interest he was showing I assumed he hadn’t heard this before. “If his daughter wished to be a human and have a child with a human then she would be the one to keep them safe. She would hold the Tide inside her and pass it onto her child at the time of her death, however, should she see her daughter before then she and the child would die and the humans would drown. Horrified by the curse her father had placed upon them she and her husband set out in search of a wizard to lift the curse. A few weeks before their daughter was born the young couple found one. While he could not lift the curse he was able to manipulate it. Instead of the Tide being passed on at death it would happen when the child turned 18. The mother though unable to have physical contact with her daughter would be able to watch over her and speak to her through her mind. As further protection the wizard chose his apprentices daughter, who was only 3 at the time, to serve as the protector of the child, should mother and daughter accidentally stumble upon each other and wipe out the human race the young child would be alerted to any danger surrounding the child. The magic in her blood helped her in her task.”

“Mom never told me how our family came to be the protectors.” Landon said.

“I’m not sure she ever knew, from what I and your grandmother understand she never asked, she simply accepted what she was supposed to do. There are some things Beckett, that because of our lineage I should tell you. The first being the little quirks of our appearance.”

“Quirks?”

“We all take after our fathers, something you know, except for our eyes. Our eyes are blue because we hold the tide. We take after our fathers because while we are essentially human we still have mermaid blood in us, though the one who was first placed with the curse was turned human and looked human her daughter and her daughters daughter took after their fathers in appearance. We can’t walk around looking like mermaids now can we? The mermaid blood while not much is still very much there. It is why our features are very feminine and very beautiful. It’s what we like to call ‘The Siren’ in us. Those who are pure of heart and who are related to us are not affected by it, like your fathers friends, Landon, and Relik. Unfortunately those who are not seem to flirt with us or attempt to get a little handsy.”

“Great.” Landon muttered under his breath. Gram smiled softly at him.

“One other thing Beckett is that you must never sing. If we sing it would have the same affect on men as it did so long ago, humming isn’t a good idea either. I was stalked for well over a month when a boy caught me humming once.”

“So no singing, got it. Gram?” She raised an eyebrow. “Why did you choose to tell me this now?”

“You never asked.” She shrugged. “And Tyler brought to my attention the way your ceramics teacher behaved around you.” Landon shifted beside me uncomfortably. “I can imagine this bothers you Landon but you have no need to worry, he will not do anything and you know Beckett loves you.”

“I’m just not entirely thrilled by the thought of Beckett getting hit on for the rest of her life.” He sighed.

“Just look at it the Marissa with the roles reversed. I know you aren’t going anywhere so it doesn’t bother me. And you know I’m not going anywhere.”

“What she says is true Landon. I have seen, through peeking in on Maya’s future a bit of yours, you two are meant to be together.” Her eyes moved up to the wall where the painting of our future family hung. I had insisted on keeping it in the garage but Gram wanted it displayed proudly. “Now, I am going to see if there was something in the journals I may have missed. Seeing as your future has thrown us a curve ball.”





“Have I mentioned how much I don’t like the cold?” I grumbled stuffing the books I didn’t need to take home into my locker. “Ever since it started snowing I’ve felt I don’t know… stiff.”

“There is a reason Gram and I keep telling you to drink more hot liquids, it’s so you don’t freeze.” Landon chuckled lightly.

“Wait? That could actually happen?”

“Well, no, you’ll just feel like you have arthritis.” That was not what I wanted to hear. “I have something to drop off in the office before we leave and you need to go pick up the plates you made from the ceramics room.” He handed me my coat before he started walking away backwards. “I’ll meet you there.” The ceramics room was on the other side of the school and with the stiffness setting in from the snow I was getting a bit lazy.

“I could just get them Monday.” Landon smiled and shook his head. I also had to pack them in the box so they wouldn’t break on the way home. I stopped by Grams classroom and poured myself a cup of coffee from the pot she kept plugged in near her desk taking her insulated cup with me and leaving her a note on the whiteboard promising to return it before I left the school completely. If the stiffness was going to get worse than I was going to do whatever possible to keep it from happening.

“Forget something?” Mr. G asked as soon as I opened the door.

“Plates.” I set my bag and now half empty cup on the table nearest me and began to pack up the plates I made.

“Did you take a ceramics class at your old school?” He asked as he stacked the stools on top of the tables.

“I was home schooled, Maggie had me paint. Why?”

“You always finish your projects before the rest of the class and yours seem to be near perfection.” I shrugged and packed the last of my plates safely into my box. “I thought maybe you had a lot of practice before you came here.”

“Not unless homemade play dough as a kid counts.” The door opened and Landon stepped in with a large smile on his face, something that, considering where I was and who I was with, was odd.

“Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Just do it. Is that Grams coffee cup?” I nodded closing my eyes. “You know she’s going to completely flip when she realizes it’s gone.” I heard soft, hesitant footsteps.

“I left a note on the whiteboard, why are my eyes closed?”

“What’s up oh important one?” That voice was female and right in front of me when it should have been hundreds of miles away. My eyelids snapped open taking in a very smiley very bouncy Loraine who immediately wrapped me into a tight hug.

“What are you doing here? You aren’t supposed to be here for another week!” I hugged her back watching as Landon laughed from the doorway.

“It is amazing the things I’ll do to get an extra week of vacation. Like study. I exempted all of my exams thanks to Maggie. She sent me with a letter for you by the way, but it’s in my suitcase.” She released me and stepped back looking around the room until her eyes landed on Mr. Gardener. “So you’re the ceramics teacher.”

“You talk about me?” He smirked in my direction. “I’m touched.”

“He is hot.” Loraine whispered in my ear. “She doesn’t, trust me. She’s too in love with Land-o over here to even give you a second thought. Seeing as I was her first interaction with the outside world I’m kind of attached to her. Like a lost puppy kind of thing.”

“Loraine.” Landon groaned.

“I’m not saying she’s a lost puppy I’m just simply comparing- ok, I’ll stop with the puppy thing. Anyway, what I was trying to say is Beckett here is a dear friend of mind and Landon is the brother I should have had instead of the idiot who knocked up the town goody goody. These two are my people and they up and left me to move across the country together without so much as a goodbye.”

“Loraine, the point.” Landon sighed.

“I was getting there, chill dude. When they were on their little excursion- a word Maggie taught me by the way- I was having a mild meltdown, Landon quit rolling your eyes, and after a lot of redialing I finally got Beckett to answer the phone.”

“Here we go.” Landon muttered.

“You see, Mr. Ceramics Teacher, I was speaking to my dear friend here when she not so kindly screeched into the phone. Twice. All because some jerkwad decided that he was going to jump into a pool and splash someone who was sitting outside of the pool. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but if someone is sitting outside of the pool rather than in it doesn’t that mean they oh, I don’t know, want to stay dry?”

“So you were the girl on the phone?” He smirked.

“The one and only.”

“And?”

“And what you creep? You think asking underage girls if they think you’re attractive is cool? Because it isn’t and my boyfriend who is twice your size feels the same way, and he could take you. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder why Beckett’s dear old Uncle Billy hasn’t stepped in yet. Tell me Beckett, why hasn-”

“Loraine.” Landon groaned grabbing her and pulling her towards the door. I quickly grabbed my stuff and followed them out.

“I’ve got to give Gram her cup back.” Landon nodded and we began walking towards Grams classroom.

“You know you missed me.” Loraine sang nudging Landon.

“Totally.” He said trying miserably to hide his smile.

“When do I get to meet Gram?”

“Well, seeing as we are on our way to her classroom…” I trailed off turning down the hall where her classroom was located. “Wait, how did you get to the school?”

“Tyler picked her up and brought her, I convinced him it would be an excellent way for him to earn points with you.”

“Oh gee, thanks.” I muttered.

“Look who finally got some sarcasm in her bones.” Loraine grinned wrapping and arm around my shoulders. “I’m so proud.”

“Gram?” I stepped into the classroom looking around for Gram. She still hadn’t come back yet. I glanced at the whiteboard. Meeting had been written beneath my note. “I guess we’ll see her at home.” I erased the previous message and wrote a new one for Gram finishing just in time to watch Marissa come through the door.

“Landon, I thought I heard you.” She smiled placing a hand on his arm. Loraine looked at me and arched one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. Marissa’s eyes flicked over to Loraine. “I’m Marissa, a friend of Landons, and you are?”

Loraine began laughing and turned to me wiping a tear from her eye, “This is the bitch you and what’s her face were telling me about?” Loraine had called a few weeks ago while Bernie and I were at the mall when we spotted Marissa and Bernie happened to make some comment about her. Loraine immediately demanded I switch to speaker so as not to be rude to my new friend and then demanded Bernie tell her all about Marissa. “She’s not even cute.” Marissa’s face was now a deep shade of red, her eyes nothing more than slits.

“We should get going.” I sighed and began walking towards the door. Landon grabbed my hand lacing his fingers through mine and followed me.

“Let’s go Lo Lo.” Landon ordered. Loraine let out some sort of laugh/snort and followed behind. “We still have a few hours before we need to pick Relik and Bernie up.”

“I wasn’t aware we had plans tonight.” Bernie had been uncharacteristically quiet today though. “Where are we going?”

“Yeah Land-o, where are we going?”

“Out.”

“Where?” Landon shrugged and held the door open for us. “What happened to being honest and open?”

“Well then that would ruin the surprise wouldn’t it.” He smirked.

“No.” Loraine groaned. “When you decide to ‘surprise’ someone it usually ends horribly. Do you not remember the birthday dinner debacle? Yeah, Tank told me all about it. Don’t look surprised that Tank knew, Beckett told him.”

“You did?”

“I didn’t realize it was supposed to be a secret.” I said getting into the car.

“I’m just surprised.”

“It came out accidentally when we were headed to the mall to get Billy’s birthday present. He was talking about you being into me or whatever and I said I didn’t believe him and we were just friends.” Loraine snorted in the backseat. “So then he asked if you had indicated that you wanted to be more and I started to say no but then I remembered what you had said in the hallway but I wasn’t sure if that’s what he meant by you ‘indicated’ and he asked why you would think I would kick you and I explained what happened with the waiter, and he laughed. And I also think he was glad I kicked the waiter.” I realized pretty quickly that they didn’t actually need that entire story. Landon was smiling softly at me.

“You haven’t rambled in awhile, I was starting to miss the nose scrunch.” I felt a blush rise to my cheeks and decided to turn my attention to the passing scenery.