Page 14 of Finding Love at the Magical Curiosity Shop
The sea is calm this morning. I hide on my sandbank. I lie in the water and only peer up occasionally. This sandbank caused his ship to run aground last night. They say all sandbanks were raised from the seabed by mermaids, and what am I, if not a mermaid?
I give Ren a ‘so there’ look, and barely refrain from poking my tongue out at him.
I should not be here. I was going to leave my island until he is not here, but I do not know how he will not be here. He cannot leave my beach. There is no way off without a ship, and there is no trace of his, only some broken wood drifting on the water.
He still hasn’t woken up, but he is restless now, reaching for the surface of consciousness. His body is shaking. Shivering. The sea is my protector – I do not feel the cold from it, but I am not like him. I know where there are blankets. I must get them for him, but I cannot risk being seen. I will go now, before he wakes.
There’s a break in the entry, and then she continues.
He is unlike any human I’ve seen before. He is young, like me. Most of the ones I’ve seen are old. They want to study me. They push me and prod me and sting me with needles. Others, they want to put me in a cage and charge an admission fee so other humans can come and look at me, for I am something not seen in the human world before.
I go nearer than I should. I sit beside him on the beach. I cover him with a thick blanket. I check his wounds under the seaweed compresses. They are worse this morning, the bruising is darkening, but the blood has dried. I think this is a good sign.
I have signalled for help, but help has not come. I will try again later, but my signals are unlikely to be seen. Help will not arrive until summer. I am alone until then. I try to speak to him again, but my voice does not come. I sing a song my mother tried to teach me, a song to bring peace to sailors, but no words come out. My voice is missing, a flawed and worthless part of me, something that sets me aside from both humans and other merkind. All I wish, just once, is for someone to understand me.
Ava puts her hand on her heart like it’s tugging on her heartstrings. ‘Why can’t she speak?’
‘Maybe she’s made a deal with a Sea Witch?’ Ren’s sarcastic suggestion earns him a scathing look from both of us.
‘We need to read more.’ Ava nudges me. ‘I can’t wait to find out what happens when he wakes up!’
‘Before we get any furtherswept awayin this fantasy, why don’t we fact check this?’ Ren puts his hand on the book, preventing me from turning the page, while also looking pleased with himself for the pun. ‘If you’resurethis isn’t some kind of ploy? Something you’ve planted for publicity?’
‘No! I’ve never seen it before! But publicity… This would be amazing to take to the antiques fair at the end of August. If we could find out more about it… find out if she really was a mermaid… This is the kind of thing that could be the difference between making my business or breaking it. Can you imagine being able to go on the local news with real, true-life evidence of a mermaid’s existence?’ My mind is flooded with possibilities. This is what I’ve always dreamed of finding. This iswhyI love old, unwanted things so much, and why I was always so fascinated by the treasures my dad rescued. Every item has a story behind it, and I’ve always thought that, one day, one of those stories would be truly magnificent. And this is it. This is the most special thing I’ve ever found.
I need to do something spectacular for the antiques fair. I need to get people talking about The Mermaid’s Treasure Trove like my dad would’ve done. What better way than being the only person in the universe with genuine evidence found inmyshop? People the world over would hear about it. Customers would travel for miles for a chance of uncovering a rare treasure right here. Maybe some of these items would sell and give me half a chance of paying the bills next year…
I feel like I’ve fallen out of love with my shop lately, and this has instantly reminded me of exactly how much I love this shop and the things I sell. I used to think this place was magical, but all that has faded since my dad died. This is a perfect way to recapture the magic and remind myself of what was always so special about my dad’s magical curiosity shop. ‘We have to find out who she was –whatshe really was.’
‘Yes!’ Ava agrees.
‘This is bonkers. You do know that, right? Utterly bonkers.’ Ren glances between us and clearly sees that we’re both standing firm on this. ‘Well, we have two very clear facts that can easily be verified – a shipwreck and a date. There are logs of these things. At least that would be a starting point of figuring out what this is. The other man on board has died – drowned, or been lost at sea. If it’s real, there would be a record of that. Whoever she is, she has a beach of her own, and help isn’t coming until summer, so she’s somewhere alone for over six months, which is very strange. And she’s been around medical care, so it sounds like she’s met humans before, so presumably, they’ve also met her. You’re trying to tell me that these doctors, and whoever else wanted to charge a fee… that they’ve encountered a mermaid and this isn’t documented anywhere? No one thought to make a record of meeting such a magical creature?’
All right, that is rather a good point, admittedly.Surelywe would know if mermaids were keeping diaries in the previous century. There would certainly be some documentation about it if humans had ever had contact with an actual mermaid, but I don’t see the harm in considering the magic of possibilities that this book could unlock.
‘This is clearly old, genuinely old,’ he continues. ‘But being old doesn’t mean it was written by a mermaid. It hasn’t been under the sea. Ink from an inkwell is not watertight. If this had ever had so much as a sniff of water, the ink would’ve dispersed beyond recognition. I know it doesn’t fit your whimsical fairytale narrative, but this is someone’s flight of fantasy. It’s the beginning of a novel. That’s why it’s hidden – not because it’s a diary but because the writer didn’t want anyone to know she was writing a novel. Times were different then, women weren’t always allowed to have ambitions like they are now.’
‘But that would make it special too. Even if it’s not a mermaid, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the first draft of a forbidden novel from so long ago?’
‘Is there anything you don’t put a positive spin on?’ He looks from me to Ava. ‘And I don’t wantyougetting excited and getting your hopes up that this is something fantastical, because it will only lead to disappointment, so let’s do some digging before we carry on reading it as a work of fiction and nothing more. I’m in if you both are.’
‘I’m definitely in,’ I say happily. ‘Where do we find records of shipwrecks?’
‘The library will have access to archives. If not, a librarian should be able to direct us to the right place. I’ll look into it tomorr?—’
He yelps when Ava stamps on his foot and he looks down at her, seeming to understand what she means without a word being spoken and then looks back to me. ‘If it makes you happy, maybe we could all go… Weshouldall go, seeing as we seem to be in this together.’
‘I’m up for it,’ I say, because despite only meeting them twice, I’m not sure how much I trust Ren to be completely upfront when he so blatantly doesn’twantthis to be anything special, no matter whether it is or not. ‘I can close up for a bit anytime and come meet you. It’ll be fun. I’mpositivethat we’ll find a log of a shipwreck on that exact date.’
‘Positivity only leads to disappointment.’ He sounds downbeat as he goes to slide the book off the counter and take it, but Ava stops him.
‘No! Let Mickey keep it, she’ll look after it. She understands the importance of it.’
‘Iunderstand the importance of it, as a work of fiction,notas the diary of something that doesn’t exist.’
‘Well, with that cynical attitude…’ I mutter, although I’m intrigued too. He might be harsh and abrupt and standoffish, but his words speak of someone who’s been hurt and disappointed and is trying to make sure it never happens again, and the memory of that tingle earlier hasn’t gone away. The thought of getting to see them again, even just for a library visit, sends butterflies swirling through me, and I’m not sure if it’s the idea of proving him wrong or simply the idea of spending more time with him.
I shake my head at myself. It’s nothing to do withhim. We have evidence of arealmermaid writing a diary here, and it should be pretty easy to prove whether the things mentioned in it really happened, andthat’swhat I’m excited about, obviously.
