Read Online Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn - Free Book Online

Sissy taunted. "Nobody likes tattle-tales."
    "I'll jump again if I want," Emma said, but she made no effort to break away from me. I had a feeling she'd scared herself. The water was deep, and she couldn't do much more than dog-paddle a few feet.
    On the sand, the three of us built castles. Neither Emma nor Sissy said a word to me. They sat close together, their heads almost touching, whispering and giggling.
    "It's rude to whisper," I told Emma.
    Sissy smirked. "So? Nobody invited you to play with us."
    Emma carefully duplicated Sissy's smirk. "Why don't you go home? Sissy can be my babysitter."
    "Two's company, three's a crowd," Sissy added. "Don't you know that yet?"
    "If anyone should go home, you should!" I wanted to slap Sissy's nasty little face, but I knew that would only make things worse.
    "Just ignore Ali," Sissy told Emma. "We don't like her, and we don't care what she says or what she does. She's mean."
    "Meanie," Emma said. "Ali's a big fat meanie."
    "Ali's so mean, Hell wouldn't want her." Sissy's eyes gleamed with malice.
    Emma stared at her new friend, shocked, I think, by the word "Hell." Sissy smiled and bent over her castle, already bigger than the one she'd built yesterday. "It's not bad to say 'Hell,'" she told Emma. "It's in the Bible."
    Emma glanced at me to see what I thought about this. I shook my head, but Sissy pulled Emma close and began whispering in her ear. Emma looked surprised. Then she giggled and whispered something in Sissy's ear that made her laugh.
    I pulled Emma away. "What are you telling her?" I asked Sissy.
    "Nothing." Sissy pressed her hands over her mouth and laughed.
    "Nothing." Emma covered her mouth and laughed, too. She sounded just like Sissy.
    I wanted to get up and leave, but I couldn't abandon Emma. Instead, I moved a few feet away and watched the two of them. Their castles grew bigger and more elaborate. Everything Sissy did to hers, Emma copied. It was pathetic.
    "It's nearly lunchtime," I told Emma. "Why don't we go back to the studio and get your mom?"
    "Do you want to eat lunch with me?" Emma asked Sissy.
    She shook her head. "It's almost time for me to go home."
    "I thought you didn't have any rules," I said. "I thought you could do whatever you want."
    Sissy gave me a long cold look. "Maybe I
want
to go home."
    "But you don't have to go," Emma persisted. "My mommy's very nice. She fixes good peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."
    Sissy made a face. "I hate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."
    "I hate them, too," Emma put in quickly. "Mommy can fix something else for us. Tuna salad, maybe."
    I happened to know Emma despised tuna salad, but I didn't say anything. What was the use? She probably thought it sounded more grown up than peanut butter and jelly.
    "I don't want to eat at your house." Sissy looked at me. "Not with Ali there."
    "Maybe we could have a picnic, just you and me," Emma said. "Outside on the deck."
    "Some other time." Sissy stood up and looked down at the castles. "They're pretty enough for a mermaid to live in," she said. "Do you like mermaids, Em?"
    "I saw
The Little Mermaid
ten, twelve, a dozen times. It's my favorite movie."
    Sissy tossed her head to get her hair out of her eyes. "Twelve is the same as a dozen, dummy."
    "I'm not a dummy," Emma said. "I just—"
    With a sudden jerk of her foot, Sissy kicked Emma's castle down.
    "You ruined my castle," Emma wailed. "Now a mermaid can't live in it."
    "Hey!" With a couple of kicks, I leveled Sissy's castle. "There! How do you like that?"
    "I don't care." Sissy laughed. "I can build another one, better than that, and so can Emma. We have all summer to build castles for mermaids."
    She laughed louder. After a moment's hesitation, Emma joined in. Shouting with laughter, they held hands and spun round and round in circles until they staggered and sprawled on the sand, still laughing.
    I stared at them, slightly worried, maybe even scared of their behavior. "What's so funny?"
    "Everything," Sissy giggled.