Heart of the Sea

Isla had to wriggle free of her dress to swim properly, and her tail still hurt from where Oscar had cut her. She swam a slight ways away from the boat but turned her attention back to it once she’d gotten the wet dress off. She gasped when she saw Quinn topple into the water. She could tell that he was hurt, especially when he didn’t even try to swim once he hit the water.

She ignored the stinging in her tail and swam as fast as she could to where Quinn had fallen. She grabbed him under the arms and towed him toward the surface, finding that he was pale and unconscious and the water around them was red from his blood. Panicked, Isla held his head above the water. She’d have to swim to shore, but they weren’t far from the docks and people were bound to see her. She’d probably have to leave to avoid more people coming after her heart.

“Isla!”

She glanced up to see Kent on the deck of the boat.

“Grab onto the anchor,” he instructed. “I’ll raise it and pull you both onboard.”

Isla tugged Quinn to the boat and clung to the anchor chain, careful not to let Quinn slip out of her grasp. They flopped heavily onto the deck and she quickly used her magic breath to try and get the water out of his lungs. Kent also pushed down on his chest a few times and between them they got him to cough; Kent had her help roll Quinn onto his side. But he didn’t properly regain consciousness, due to the wound. Isla could see now that it was very deep and he had lost a lot of blood.

“Isla…I think he might-“ Kent began softly.

“No,” Isla said, the wire bursting out of her sharply. She curled protectively around Quinn and started crying. She didn’t need to poke herself in the eye this time. Isla hadn’t cried very much in her life but shimmering silver tears spilled over her cheeks at the idea of losing Quinn. They dropped onto his face as gray clouds rolled in and it started to rain. There was no tea to drip the tears into but she caught them in her cupped palms and then splashed them onto the wound in his stomach. She didn’t know if it would really work, but it was the only thing she could think of to try.

“He can’t die,” she said, looking up at Kent. The old man looked very tired and sad.

“I won’t let him die,” she added, gathering more tears to drip onto the injury. “If you have to, you can cut out my heart and give it to him.”

“He would never allow that and he’d never forgive me. I’m not going to kill you, Isla.”

“But mermaid hearts are magical,” Isla said. “If we give him mine, then he’ll be okay.”

“It kind of seems to me like you already did give him your heart,” Kent said, smiling a little even though he still looked sad. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

Isla paused, looking down at Quinn and willing him to wake up. It was true that men who managed to win a mermaid’s love had always been better off for it. Quinn had only mentioned a flutter to know you were in love, but right now she felt a knot of pain in her chest. It wasn’t a good feeling but she knew it meant the same thing as the flutter.

“Yes,” she sniffed. “Yes, I love him.”

A few more tears dripped down her cheeks and onto Quinn’s face. Isla and Kent were quiet for a moment, and then Kent gasped faintly.

“Is the wound healing itself?” he asked in amazement. Isla leaned over to look more closely, holding her breath. It was a little hard to be certain with all the blood, but it did seem that Quinn’s breathing was less shallow and some color was returning to his face.

“I think the tears are working,” she said quietly. Kent came and stood above them, the both of them watching Quinn anxiously.

“Listen, Isla. I’m sorry, about what happened,” Kent said. He stared at his feet, not meeting her eye. “I never meant for you or Quinn to get hurt.”

“I know,” Isla said. “You tried to help me. And you mean so much to Quinn. So I’m going to do what I can to help you. I’ll bottle my tears and you can drink them and they’ll make you better.”

“That will really work?” Kent asked, seeming a little skeptical but also hopeful.

“I think so.”

A few more minutes went by and then they both gasped as Quinn stirred and cracked his eyes open. He still seemed a little groggy and disoriented as he looked up at her.

“Isla?” he croaked. A smile broke across her face even though she started crying again. She gently touched his face.

“I’m here,” she said. “Kent and I are going to take you home now. I lost my dress, so I’ll have to swim home, but I’ll be back. I promise.”

Isla swam as fast as she could to the beach by Quinn’s house, crawling up onto the sand and running to the house for a change of clothes. She opted for the original blue dress Quinn had bought her and then ran down to the docks where Kent was steering the boat back in. They got a woozy Quinn back home, laying him in bed where he lost consciousness again. At least this time it seemed he was just asleep and not on the brink of death. Isla had no problem filling a small bottle with tears for Kent, because she couldn’t seem to stop crying now.

“I really can never repay you,” Kent said. “You were almost killed because of me and you’re still helping me.”

“You didn’t know Oscar was going to attack me,” Isla said. “I don’t blame you for what happened.”

“I can see why Quinn is so taken with you.”

Kent left after that, saying Isla and Quinn would probably want some peace and quiet after all this. Isla curled up on the bed next to Quinn and didn’t move until he fully woke up the next morning.

“I had a really weird dream,” he mumbled. Then he grunted in surprise as Isla choked and threw her arms around him, starting to cry again.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” he asked as he tried to gently pry her off.

“It wasn’t a dream,” Isla said. “Oscar almost killed you. He stabbed you and you fell off the boat and I thought you were going to die but my tears saved you. They really worked.”

“I thought I told you to swim far away,” he pointed out.

“I’m never going far away from anywhere you are. Clearly you need me around.”

Quinn laughed hoarsely. “Yeah, that’s probably true. And I’d miss you if you were gone. I’m still not sure why you want to hang around this boring little town with me though.”

“It’s not boring with you. It’s cozy and happy. I find pearls and great shells here. And I’d never be happy anywhere without you.”

He sat up, touching the spot where he’d been stabbed and seeming amazed that it was all healed up. Then he glanced at her.

“I wouldn’t be happy without you either,” he said quietly.

“Do I give you a flutter?” she asked hopefully and he cracked a smile.

“Isla, you’ve had me fluttering like crazy since you got here.”

“Does that mean that you love me?”

He blushed a little. “Yeah. I do. I love you.”

Isla broke into a radiant smile and almost pounced on top of him to give him a kiss.

“I love you too,” she said.

People in town still thought Isla was a little strange, but they seemed to get used to her since it was clear that she was never leaving. She had collected more pearls and made occasional swims out to her grotto to gather her assorted treasures. After a couple of months Quinn’s house was filled with shells and jewels from shipwrecks. Some things they had sold and the money let Quinn stop being a fisherman. Instead he worked with Isla at a little shop in town where she made pretty things out of things she found underwater. The tears had cured Kent, and Isla gave him some pearls too so he could retire and spend more time with his daughter.

Isla continued to be careful about her regular swims, not eager to let anyone else know she was a mermaid. Sometimes she felt like some people wondered anyway, because of her strangeness and her knack for making pretty things out of shells and bits of shipwreck. But no one bothered her. She was just Isla, the weird girl who had come from out of the blue and now lived with Quinn in his little cliff house.

She was sitting beside the window one afternoon, admiring the photo of Quinn’s family while he worked in the kitchen. He brought her a plate of bacon and she flashed him a smile.

“We should take a picture someday,” she said. “I still don’t really understand them, but I like them.”

“We’ll put the workings of cameras on the list for the next trip to the library,” Quinn promised. “And we can take all the pictures you want.”

“Maybe just one, to put next to this one,” Isla said. “I prefer looking at the real you to this little flat you. But we can keep your family company.”

Quinn smiled, leaning over to kiss her and she snuggled closer to him.

“I think that’s a good idea,” he said.