Son of a Mermaid (6 page)

Shea swallowed the lump in his throat. “And my mom? You knew her family too?”

Mrs. McFadden shook her head. “Never met the family, really, just your mom and one of her friends. She said her father traveled a lot, for business or some such. I still see her friend in the neighborhood occasionally, when she visits Martha to have tea. But I heard your mother had to go into the family business, so I assume she’s the one traveling now.”

“But Gramma has tea with Mom’s friend? When…”

Just then, the cat yowled loudly. “Young man,” Mrs. McFadden said, putting her hands on her hips. “Can we please focus on getting Gingersnap out of this awful situation?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He pulled himself up all the way onto the low branch, and sat still for a moment, letting the cat get used to his presence before reaching over to gently pet him. The cat started to purr.

“That’s the same way Leslie does it.” Mrs. McFadden nodded approvingly as Shea picked up the animal and held it with both arms against his chest. He jumped down and handed the cat to its owner. The woman snuggled the orange furball against her cheek. The cat closed his eyes and continued to purr. “Now, young man, how did you come to meet Leslie?”

Shea shrugged his shoulders, feeling his cheeks burn a little at the memory of being caught breaking the law. “Lucky and I were on the beach yesterday talking to this girl…”

“Oh! So you met the new owners of the windmill house?” Mrs. McFadden’s grey curls bounced excitedly as she grabbed onto this new topic. “I hear the husband is some Wall Street bigwig! I hope they’re going to renovate that old place. It deserves a second chance.”

Shea opened his mouth to reply, having already decided Kae couldn’t live at the windmill house, but the old woman barreled on. “The moving van was blocking up that end of the street for two days last week. So they have children, you say?”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure this girl doesn’t live in the windmill house,” Shea said firmly. He wanted to hear more about his mother. But the dotty old woman was already turning back up her walkway toward her house.

“Well, thank you for rescuing Gingersnap,” Mrs. McFadden said over her shoulder. “And remind your grandmother we have bridge this afternoon at the Community Center. It’s her turn to drive, since Mr. McFadden is away.”

Shea’s eyes opened wide, remembering that breakfast would be on the table any minute. He could ask Martha these questions directly. “You’re welcome, ma’am. Have a nice day.” He sprinted down the road, Lucky at his heels. His hand was already on the doorknob when a voice from behind stopped him.

“Good job with the cat. I’d give you a B minus.”

Shea tensed, and spun quickly. A girl on a too-big bicycle had stopped on the street in front of the house. Dark hair poked out from beneath her bike helmet in two long woven braids, matching her brown t-shirt that read in block letters, “I do my own stunts.” A liberal dose of freckles covered her nose and cheeks and most of her arms, in stark contrast to the pale skinny legs that poked out from below her blue satin gym shorts.

“Thanks, I think,” he said. “I didn’t know anyone was grading me.”

“My brother and I grade everything.” She smiled. “I’m Hailey. We’re new to the neighborhood. And you are…?”

“Shea MacNamara,” he told her, realizing he still held the doorknob in a death grip. He let his hand fall back to his side. “I’m kind of new around here myself.”

“Cool name, like the old Shea Stadium back home, right? I’m a big Mets fan. Are your parents Mets fans, too? Do you like baseball? I’ll bet you’re a Red Sox fan, here in Massachusetts? Do you even like baseball? Of course you do ‘cuz you’re a boy, right? How old are you?” Hailey flung the questions at him rapid-fire, squinting her chocolate-colored eyes as if trying to read his mind.

Maybe she’ll grade herself on how well she guesses
, he thought. “Fifteen.”

“I knew you were close to my age,” Hailey said, nodding. “I’m actually only thirteen, but my birthday is at the end of June. My brother Chip’s sixteen. Teenage boys are such a pain. Present company excluded, of course. Unless you turn out to be a pain, because then I’ll lump you in with him and all the other rotten teenagers I already know but I’ll give you a pass for the moment. At least until we get a chance to be friends. Or enemies. Do you have brothers or sisters?”

“Shea, is that you?” Martha swung the front door wide open, startling him with the sudden movement. He’d been completely transfixed by the barrage of words coming from the brunette on the lawn. Martha nodded her head toward the girl. “Who’s your friend?”

“Hailey Thompson, ma’am,” she said, flashing a wide smile. She dismounted from her bicycle and wheeled it across the lawn. Dropping the bike to the ground with a thud, she shook the older woman’s hand. “My family moved into the windmill house yesterday. Just moved to the Cape, too. This is all brand new to me, and so far so good.”

“Welcome to the neighborhood, Hailey,” Martha said, smiling back at the chatty girl. “Have you had your breakfast yet this morning?”

“I had half a banana before I got on my bike,” Hailey told her, nodding. “And then I ran into Shea, and…”

“That’s not breakfast!” Martha interrupted, both hands waving dismissively. “You can’t skip the most important meal of the day! Come inside, we’ve got plenty of pancakes and bacon.”

“Thanks!” Hailey unhooked her helmet and tossed it onto the grass next to her bicycle. “I’d love to, ma’am, if it’s okay with Shea.”

He shrugged. “Whatever,” he agreed, and followed Hailey and his grandmother into the house.

***

“So, Hailey, where did you move from?” Martha placed heaping plates of pancakes on the table as Hailey and Shea sat down. She bustled around the kitchen, grabbing juice glasses from the cabinet and silverware from the drawer.

“New York City,” Hailey replied, making a fast grab for the syrup bottle before Shea was even settled in his chair. She slathered her plate with the sticky brown sweetness, talking while she poured. “Mom’s an interior decorator. She had some really important clients back in the City. She didn’t want to move at all. But my dad worked on Wall Street, and with all the ups and downs in the market this last year, he gave himself a heart attack. The doctor told him he needed a quiet environment and less stress. Or else.” She passed the mostly empty bottle across the table to Shea and smiled. “It was kind of like ‘Move or Die.’ So we moved.”

Shea stared at the plastic bottle, at the residue of syrup dripping back down the sides to pool at the bottom. Barely enough left. Not that he’d actually eaten any maple syrup since arriving on Cape Cod, but still. “My father is dead,” he said, his voice low. “That’s why I’m here. He died. I moved.”

His grandmother’s hand flew to her chest. “Shea! Don’t be rude to your guest!”

Hailey’s fork clattered to her plate as her freckled cheeks reddened. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.” The chair legs scraped loudly along the linoleum floor as she pushed away from the table. “I never know when to shut up. That’s always been one of my problems. Everyone says so. Maybe…maybe I should just go.”

He instantly regretted his words. He glanced at his grandmother’s stern expression then looked back at Hailey. “Please stay,” he pleaded, his mouth turned up in a crooked grin. “You’re only the second kid I’ve met since moving to Cape Cod. And I know where you live. It would be good to have someone to hang out with, other than Gramma.”

“Second?” Martha asked, ignoring the slight jab and raising an eyebrow as she poured orange juice into his glass. She gave Hailey a smile and a nod, and the girl settled back into her chair.

“I met one of the summer people on the beach the other morning,” he told Martha, looking away quickly when she frowned. “But I don’t know which house she lives in.”

“It’s kinda spooky how most of the houses are empty,” Hailey said. She stuffed a whole pancake in her mouth, and was blissfully silent for an entire minute while she chewed. Swallowing with a loud gulp, she turned to Martha. “These are the best pancakes I’ve ever had, Mrs. MacNamara! You get an A-plus!”

Martha beamed. “You’ve earned yourself a standing invitation for breakfast, my dear. And you can call me Gramma. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check on the washing.”

There was silence for a few moments as Hailey filled her mouth with more of the sticky sweet pancakes while Shea watched. He poked his fork into the tops of his own golden cakes, making a line of tiny holes across the flat surfaces, but couldn’t bring himself to eat.
Will I ever want to eat pancakes again?

Hailey washed hers down with orange juice and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “You are so lucky, Shea!”

“Why is that?” He narrowed his eyes as he stared back at her. He couldn’t think of much of anything that was lucky in his life at the moment.

“My mom doesn’t cook, you know? I mean, literally, she can’t. Everything burns to a crisp, seriously. We used to order out or go to restaurants every, and I do mean every, night back home, before we moved. I’m not sure how we’re going to survive out here in the boonies without 24/7 takeout! Do you think there’s any food delivery around here? My friends back home told me they don’t have bagels or pizza on Cape Cod. How could there be no bagels? And I already saw two pizzerias on the drive into town so I know that’s not true. I mean, who can live without pizza, right? So where’d you used to live?” Hailey ended her questioning by stuffing another large pancake into her mouth.

He paused for a moment to let her torrent of words recede before answering that last question. “On a farm in Oklahoma,” he said slowly as he pushed the food around his plate with his fork. He wondered how she could eat faster than Lucky and stay so skinny. Passing his bacon strips under the table to the waiting dog, he asked, “What’s New York City like?”

“A lot different from Cape Cod!” Hailey grinned, bites of pancake filling one cheek. She looked like a chipmunk gathering nuts. “It’s so quiet here! No traffic, no sirens, just like nature and stuff. And there’re no people. It’s really strange.”

“Gramma says the neighborhood gets busy in July and August,” he offered. “It’s mostly summer people. Maybe you’ll know some of them from New York.”

She swallowed quickly and laughed out loud. “You are too funny, Shea MacNamara. Like I would know everyone in New York or something. Ha! Have you ever even been to a big city? Do you realize how big a city really is? And especially New York!” She snorted, laughing harder.

“What?”

“It’s just that New York is like the biggest city in the whole entire world,” Hailey said, wiping tears from her eyes. “Look at me, I’m laughing so hard I’m crying, too!” That started her on another gale of giggles and snorts. This time, Shea couldn’t help but grin, and soon laughter filled the kitchen. He wasn’t completely sure what was so funny but it felt good to laugh. Lucky stood up and bumped his back up against the underside of the kitchen table, nosing his head into Shea’s lap and whipping Hailey’s knees with his tail. For some reason, this too struck Shea and Hailey as hysterically funny.

“I love your dog,” she said, wiping her eyes again with the back of her hand. “He’s so big! There was a twenty pound limit on pets in our building.”

“We always had farm dogs,” Shea told her, “but they were working dogs, and they slept in the barn. Gramma lets Lucky sleep in my room with me at night.”

“Really?” Hailey sounded jealous.

He nodded, smiling. “He’s awesome.” He placed his breakfast plate down on the linoleum. Lucky eagerly slurped up the pancakes and syrup.

Hailey smiled, putting her plate on the floor next to Shea’s. “Maybe my mom will let us get one, now that we have a yard and everything. Then Lucky’d have a playmate.”

“Lucky has me,” he said quickly. “But you can hang out with us whenever you want.”

“Really?” Her eyes locked with Shea’s.

“Really.” He decided he liked being around this quirky girl who talked too much and too fast. He hadn’t heard from John in more than a week now, although he was still hoping John would come visit Cape Cod over the summer, like Mrs. Hansen had promised. But it was time Shea started making some new friends, too.