Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [31]
“You want a Brightport Times, hon?” the woman behind the counter asked.
I nodded.
“Going like hot cakes today, these are,” she said. “Not often you get something like this on the front page.”
I tried to reply. I opened my mouth; I even moved it a bit, opened and closed it a couple more times, but nothing came out. Eventually I just nodded.
The woman gave me a sympathetic look and handed me a paper with my bread. “Two fifty-three,” she said loudly, as though I were a bit slow or stupid. I handed her some money, grabbed my things, and bolted.
I couldn’t go straight home. Not yet. I had to read the whole story; I had to prepare myself; I had to be alone.
I sat down on a bench and opened up the paper. The front page had a big banner headline running across it that made me feel sick.
MERMAID HUNT!
Under the headline, a few paragraphs filled in the story.
In the last twenty-four hours, the Brightport Times office has been inundated with phone calls from local residents claiming to have seen mermaids!
The claims reveal a remarkable consistency about the sightings, suggesting that they are indeed genuine.
Oddly, many of the sightings are reported as having taken place weeks and even months ago. The sighters seem to have forgotten about the incidents until just recently. Why that is the case remains a mystery.
Daniel Sykes is one of those who called our office. “I don’t know why I’ve just remembered,” he told the Brightport Times. “But I’m telling you, I can see her now, as clear as day. A mermaid in the sea, with a shiny blue tail.”
Mr. Sykes is just one of more than twenty people to have called our office so far. In every case, the caller only recalled the sighting since around lunchtime yesterday.
Join our mermaid hunt! Get in touch now and tell us your mermaid story! Rewards paid for all mermaid stories and pictures. Catch a mermaid and be a local hero! Turn to page 2 for more information.
I sat back on the bench, staring out across the bay. I really thought I was going to be sick this time. Catch a mermaid and be a local hero? I thought straight back to Allpoints Island — and me in a net while Mr. Rushton bragged to Mandy and her mom about how they would make a fortune displaying me to the world.
This was it. My nightmare was finally coming true.
My fingers curled up so hard I felt my fingernails dig into my palms. Mandy! She’d pretended to be my friend so she could play her cruelest trick yet!
But it didn’t make sense! How could she get all those people to phone in? She might have a nasty streak, but surely she wasn’t that powerful — was she?
I looked back at the paper, turning the page as though in a trance.
And that was when I saw it.
A photograph. It was very blurred and hazy. You could only really see an outline, but it was obvious what the outline was.
A mermaid.
I looked closer, and my heart sank so low I could have sworn I heard it hit the floor. The photograph — yes, it was blurred; yes, it was hazy; yes, it probably looked like little more than a silhouette to most people. But I could see clearly what it was. The tail. The hair, even the expression on the face. To me it was so obvious they might as well have printed the name above it in capital letters.
It was a photograph of me.
I stumbled away from the bench, stuffing the newspaper in my pocket, out of sight.
What was I going to do? Where could I go? I couldn’t stay in Brightport. Sooner or later, someone would recognize me from the photo and reel me in to claim their reward. My worst nightmare really was going to come true.
I walked along in a daze, convinced that every person I passed was staring at me. Had they bought their morning paper yet? How long would it be before I was caught and dragged up in a net to be displayed for the whole town’s entertainment?
There was only one answer to my questions: I had to get away. I had to go to the sea.
I turned toward the beach.