Page 45 of Finding Love at the Magical Curiosity Shop
I am both sad and frightened. I am frightened of how deeply I feel for him, and even more frightened of losing him. He is everything I have ever wanted, and yet, he is not mine to keep. Is love only ever supposed to be temporary?
I cannot get all my thoughts written down. They are too complicated to show to him. He will think me mad.
He is sitting on the floor in front of the fire and I sit down beside him. Sometimes, when words fail, I put my head on his shoulder and he puts his arms around me and that is all that needs to be said.
Tonight, we kiss. We go further than kissing. I have never gone that far before. I always believed such an act would be painful and immoral. My sister would surely die on the spot should she ever find out.
He says that if he is to die, he will be able to die a happy man.
And I might die a happy woman. I feel like I am soaring. I didn’t know it was possible to feel this good.
I will do anything for this man. I will do whatever it takes to save him – to keep him.
‘What the…?’ Ren’s knuckles turn white as his grip on the steering wheel tightens and he shoots me a frown. ‘Has this just turned into mermaid porn? Ava, don’t you dare read that!’
‘I’m thirteen, Dad. I know what happens when two people love each other.’
‘I’mscarred for life!’
‘I thought you didn’t believe in mermaids…’ I say, because he seems increasingly invested in this book, and increasingly willing to believe there’s something real behind it.
‘I don’t, but I don’t want to think about the logistics of…that! That’s just disturbing!’
‘Oh, stop it. She’s a young merwoman in love. There’s nothing wrong with that. Who knew that even mermaids have fights and make-up sex? These are her innermost thoughts, her most uncompromised feelings, and we have the privilege of reading them, even so many years later. This is something so special.’
Ren looks over at me. ‘You really are part of another world. How can anyone see so much good in something? Is thereanythingyou don’t like?’
I give it some thought before answering. ‘Slogan bathmats. You know those ones that have words like “nice bum” or “get naked” on them? Ihatethem.’
He laughs so hard that the car is in serious danger of crossing into the wrong lane. ‘You are something else, Mickey Teasdale. Something else.’
‘Maybe she’s part mermaid?’
‘It’s beginning to seem like a distinct possibility.’ He glances over at me. ‘She’s definitely something otherworldly.’
‘Unlike you, Dad, you’re just a dinosaur.’
We laugh all the way to Wales. I’ve closed the diary because I’m laughing so much – and just in case things do get any more risqué between the mermaid and her mystery sailor – but mainly because these two make me want to be present in the moment and not lost in words from 1899, and it’s been a while since I felt like that.
For the first time in ages, real life is better than fiction.
* * *
‘Oh my God, there’s a mermaid!’ Within moments of pulling into the car park at the harbour in Arfordir-Môr-Forwyn, Ava has dived out of the car and run to the edge of the promenade.
‘Well, that was quick,’ Ren mutters sarcastically as he folds himself out of the car and stretches. ‘If we’ve found her already, shall we turn back and be home by nightfall?’
‘That’s The Little Mermaid.’ I stand on tiptoes and strain my neck to see the statue on the waterfront that Ava has gone over to. ‘It looks like a replica of the one in Copenhagen to honour Hans Christian Andersen.’
‘So we’re in the right place then?’ Ren looks around as I shut the car door and follow Ava across the tarmac to the statue.
‘Do you think that’s her?’ she asks me.
‘I don’t know, but maybe it means the people around here know something we don’t.’ I lean on the railings and look out at the ocean. There are the silhouettes of small islands in the distance, far out to sea, and when I look down at the water below, I half-expect to see the iridescent scales of a mermaid’s tail disappearing into the depths. Ren’s face shimmers into the reflection as he comes to stand beside me and looks over too.
‘Can we go out to those islands?’ Ava looks around. ‘Do you think one might betheisland?’
From here, the islands off the coast look like craggy, rocky outcrops, but considering how many are on the horizon, surely there’s a distinct possibility that one of them could indeed beourLittle Mermaid’s island?
