Read Online An Ordinary Drowning, Book One of The Mermaid's Pendant by LeAnn Neal Reilly - Free Book Online Page B

from her perch. He held
up an orange in one hand and two peanut butter sandwiches in the other.
    When
Tamarind said nothing, he came over and sat on the sand at her feet. She
watched him slide a sandwich out of its clear baggie and bite into it.
    “Would
you like to try some?” he offered, holding out the other sandwich.
    “Yes!” A
smile transformed her small face, which was tucked into a bed of drying hair
that already showed signs of wildness. John thought he saw bits of seaweed in
it as befitting a water sprite. Just like a sprite, she was small, perhaps only
as tall as his shoulder, and delicately built. She was definitely too young.
Maybe not even in high school.
    Ignoring
the proffered sandwich, she leaned over and bit into John’s. After a few chews,
she started coughing and gagging.
    “What?”
Fear clutched John’s chest. He leaned in and put his hand on her shoulder. “Are
you choking?”
    In
response Tamarind began digging into her mouth. John watched her with mixed
astonishment and fascination. Bits of peanut butter and bread clung to its
corners and flecked her cheeks. She spit without turning her head away, her
tongue pushing the tenacious paste that had been her sandwich out of her mouth.
At last, she wiped the mush away with the back of her hand. She appeared
totally unaware that her actions could be perceived as curious at best,
disgusting at worst. John surprised himself by finding her lack of social
awareness appealing. Clearly she hadn’t been molded yet in the rough world of
adolescence.
    “Mmmnuhh!”
She screwed her face up. “What is that?”
    John’s
own sandwich lay forgotten in his lap. “All that because you’ve never tasted a peanut
butter sandwich before?”
    Tamarind
tossed her head a little and the tangles of her hair fluttered around her face.
He wanted to brush it away, like a big brother taking care of his kid sister.
He’d fixed Cassie’s hair when she was little. “It clung to the inside of my
mouth, like a tongue crab.”
    “Tongue
crab? What’s that?”
    Tamarind’s
brow creased as she thought. “A tiny crab that crawls into a fish’s mouth. It
latches onto the fish’s tongue and drinks its blood. The tongue shrivels up and
falls off.” She caught his expression and laughed. It was a delightful gurgle.
“Don’t worry. The crab becomes the fish’s tongue.”
    “I can
see you’re going to be a bundle of fascinating facts.” John smiled and put his
sandwich away.
    Tamarind
didn’t seem to hear him. She dropped off the rock and waded out into the water.
    “Hey,
I’m sorry. I don’t mind your stories,” he said, standing up.
    She
waved a hand toward him. “I’ll be right back.”
    He sat
and watched as she entered the water and began swimming what looked like the
butterfly but so fluidly and gracefully that she appeared to glide through the
water. She swam out about fifty yards and disappeared. He waited, his chest
tightening and his throat closing, but she popped to the surface before his
head began to pound. This time, when she swam back, she didn’t use her arms,
which she held in front of her as though she were a human torpedo. She managed
to get her feet beneath her and rose in one smooth movement, her hands cupped
together. For no reason, John thought of primordial life emerging from the
oceans. He kept his eyes on her face and avoided looking at her transparent
t-shirt.
    Tamarind
approached him, her liquid blue eyes bringing some of the sea with them. She
held out her hands. John peered at them. At first, he thought that she’d
brought back a jellyfish, but then he realized that it was a mess of
translucent, worm-like creatures with little round white eyes with black
centers—like those wiggly eyes children used in crafts.
    “Your
turn,” she said and held up one of the creatures pinched between forefinger and
thumb.
    “Uh,
what is it?” John asked, stalling. The creatures were squirming.
    “Baby
reef fish,” she said and popped a whole