Chapter 6: Gossip and Gains

Inside the cavern, the foamy surf splashed high over the rock, sending a spectacular spray of water into the air and over the two men bringing their narrow motorboat to dock. Dressed in a thick parka against the surprising chill on that part of the island, Royce squinted his eyes against the fine briny shower.

The islander, on the other hand, didn't even flinch.

"You come here a lot, don't you?" Royce noted, his deep voice bouncing in soft echoes off the weathered rock and ceiling of the cave.

"Huh?" Gems briefly looked up as he jumped out of the boat, landing in a splash in the shallow sea water that covered eighty percent of the cave's floor. "Oh. Yea." Then he frowned. "How'd you know?"

Royce gave the scruffy man a smooth smile. "Lucky guess."

Gems frowned, but then he shrugged as they both took the boat and hauled it onto the sandy ground.

Although he was born and raised in Manhattan, New York, and pretty much a city boy, he's always been an outdoorsy type of man. He enjoyed outdoor sports including scuba diving and caving, so he could appreciate the majestic beauty of this weathered sea cavern very much although it chilled him to the bone.

He was in awe as he stood inside the cavern, looking around and up at the rugged rock walls carved out by millions of years of natural weathering. The place looked as if no one had been there in, well, forever, but Germaine "Gems" Jones' familiarity with the place told him that he came there quite a bit.

After mooring the boat, he followed a less cautious Gems all the way through and to the other side of the cavern that opened to a more hostile side of the shore. The place definitely beheld something magical, something surreal. It wasn't hard for him to imagine unseen mystical creatures passing through here ... mythical creatures such as the legendary mermaid.

"That there's the spot," Gems said above the loud surf rushing against the rocks beyond the mouth of the cavern, pointing to a black rock about twenty yards from where they stood. "She was sittin' there, beautiful mermaid's tail swaying while combing her hair with her hands."

Royce came to stand by the younger man and squinted his eyes before he took the binoculars hanging around his neck and peered through them as Gems pointed to the rock where he claimed he'd seen Charly over a decade ago, in her mermaid form.

"Are you sure that's that one?"

"Yep. As sure as I am that you're standin' here with me," Gems said, nodding with big eyes.

"That looks like a really dangerous spot." Royce shook his head as he lowered the binoculars. "I don't see how a rowboat can make it to that rock without being swept by the hard surf and ultimately crashing against those rocks around it." He looked doubtfully at Gems. "You wouldn't be telling me tall tales, now, would you, Mr. Jones?"

"No, honest!" Gems shook his head with big eyes in his scruffy face. "I knows what I'd seen. She was sittin' right there on top of that there big rock, combin' out her long black hair, calm as can be. I swears it."

Royce finally nodded. It was still early, and there'd be more than enough time to pose questions in order to find out if Germaine Jones was more fact or more fiction. Either way, the time with Mr. Jones would surely educate him about Charly since he appears to be the only one willing to talk about her—his obsession with her aside. From what he heard so far, Charly Meeren filled Jones' every waking hour—and add to that, he didn't recall her exactly denying that Gems had "seen her in her real form".

"I still can't get it over how she got up on that there rock." Gems shook his head. "I guess she just swam out there cuz she didn't have no legs. She was in her real form with only a rainbow colored fish part where her legs were supposed to be."

Royce knew that Gems called Charly's mermaid form her "real form", but that—and the possibility that she was a mythical sea siren to begin with—were debatable. On the other hand, he couldn't help but notice that, a couple of days ago at the lighthouse and although her hair was drenched, it was a hell of a lot longer. A weave? He frowned. Charly didn't strike him as a woman who'd have a weave done.

"That fish part was much longer than her human legs," Gems continued, oblivious to the mainlander's thoughts, but drawing his attention back to him. "It were nearly twice the size of her top part. She had these big, huuuge," Gems opened arms wide, "pointy flaps of fins at the end and she was a-fannin' and a-swayin' that big rainbow fish tail as calm as could be. She wasn't the least bit scared sittin' out there on that rock in the middle of dangerous surf." He shrugged. "I guess, bein' what she is, she ain't got nuthin' to worry about, least of all drownin'."

"I don't understand," Royce said with a thoughtful frown as he directed his attention back on the giant rock where Gems swore he'd seen Charly as a mermaid. "What was she doing out there in the bright sunlight, where she could be seen by anyone?"

Gems shrugged. "Maybe she thought this whole area is so abandoned and so far away from where the islanders dare to go that she was safe." Then he looked over his shoulder and Royce frowned before he followed the younger man's gaze and Gems pointed to a spot in the watery cavern. "My pa and I, we'd come up through there. It was hard boatin', but we had no choice since the tide washed us into the cave. We thought we wouldn't make it outta here in one piece when that happened, but the cave made the waters calm."

"Your father?" Royce asked.

"Yea."

"Did he see Charly in her mermaid form, too?"

"Yea," Gems nodded as he looked down and away. "But he swears, even to this very day, that he didn't see nuthin'." Then he looked up at the tall handsome mainlander. "But I knows he'd seen her, too. I knows it."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Cuz he stood right where you're standin' now, and he had his jaw dropped wide open like this," and he dropped his jaw wide for a brief moment. "He was starin' at her just before she spied us and dropped back into the sea."

"Does your father back up your story?"

"Nah." Gems frowned as if in pain as he dropped his gaze. Then he shook his head before he raised it and looked at the mainlander with big eyes. "But everybody knows, Mr. Masterson. Everybody on the island knows she's a sea siren." He nodded vigorously. "I ain't supposed to tell no one cuz it's the island's secret and you gave me your promise. It still holds true, don't it?"

"Yes," Royce said with a nod.

"Okay." Gems nodded. "Okay. Anyways, the other islanders think Charly's some kind of lucky charm that keeps the island safe and our fishermen nets full. She's a very important islander. It's cuz she's got magical powers."

Royce arched an eyebrow as he looked into the man's searching blue eyes. "Magical powers?"

"Yea. All sea sirens have 'em."

Royce smiled with a doubtful frown. He recalled that Charly had warned him that Gems embellishes his tales and he felt that the man was doing that now. Oh, he believed Gems saw what he claims to have seen, but he doubted Charly had magical powers, too.

"You know, Germaine," Royce said, "talk like that makes people think you're one can short of a six pack."

"Yea, I knows they're always talkin' about me behind my back." He looked disgruntled. "And they're always sayin' that I'm crazy cuz I'd seen Charly in her real form, but I knows they're just jealous on account they'd never seen her or her ma—"

"—Her ma?"

"Yea," Gems said with a nod. "But I'd never seen her ma in her real form, either. I'd only seen Charly in that way."

"Are you saying that her mother was a ... mermaid, too?"

"I ain't got no proof, but I knows she's gotta be since Charly's one and her pa ain't no mermaid."

"Merman."

"Huh?"

Royce smiled indulgently. "Male mermaids are called mermen."

"Oh. Yea." Gems nodded in understanding. "And her pa ain't one. Born and bred right here on the Isle of Enchantment. Only child. Parents died a few years back. Anyways," he continued, "everybody knows Charly's a mermaid. They all know, Mr. Masterson, even if they never say it out loud for fear of losing their lives."

Royce arched an eyebrow.

"It's true. I read it in Cap'n Steven's log that there was once a village in Scotland where the residents had told strangers about the singing mermaid. Then everybody started to die and all the people in the whole village were dead in less than a week!"

Okay. So here's where Gems is embellishing. But he didn't stop the man from indulging since he was learning a great deal more information than he bargained for. Charly's mother could be a mermaid, too? That was something he never thought about, but it stood to reason.

Then Gems leaned his head closer, as if he was afraid that someone might overhear them. "They'd never say it out loud to no mainlander such as yourself and your friends, but all the islanders know Charly is the daughter of a pure mermaid. Charly herself is only half—"

"—Because her father is human."

"Yea. But the islanders don't know if she's as dangerous as her Ma. It's why nobody ever sits next to her, like at Mac's diner. I'm sure you'd noticed?" When the mainlander gave him a single nod of confirmation he continued, "They're afraid that if they come too close, she'll do something that'll make 'em die."

Royce arched a curious eyebrow.

"Yea," Gems said. "Don't you think it's unusual that she never wears clothes that show any part of her body?"

Royce couldn't very well tell Gems the intimate details he shared that night with Charly. But he knew her very, very well and that there was nothing wrong with her anatomy. So he merely nodded and listened and allowed the younger man to embellish in order to make his tale more interesting.

"Anyways," Gems continued undeterred, "it's cuz of her skin."

"Her skin?"

"Yea." He nodded. "It's deadly to us humans. It ain't like your skin or mine. Even in her human camouflage, her skin is covered in razor-sharp scales that, if she wanted, could jab into people unnoticed and infect them with scurvy. Yep. And they can die in less than forty eight hours," he finished, nodding, as he drew his head back.

Royce took that tale for what it was—an exaggeration. IF Charly Meeren were a mermaid—and he wasn't one hundred percent sure, although he was intrigued—she didn't have "razor-sharp skin scales' like a shark nor did she exhibit any of those dangerous or deadly characteristics that Gems was talking about. In fact, since he was ninety nine point nine percent certain that Charly was the girl he made mad passionate love to that night, five years ago, he was pretty confident that that was just another one of Gems' embellishments.

"But I don't know about those twins of hers."

Royce caught the last part of Gems' remark and he quickly looked at him. "Twins?"

"Yea." Gems nodded before he frowned as he looked up into the mainlander's confused eyes. "You don't know she has kids?"

"I heard she had children but I've never seen them and I didn't know they were twins."

"Yea. Ava and Arthur. She never told you about them?"

"How old are they?" Royce asked, very interested now.

Gems shrugged. "I think they're about three. Maybe four. Haven't seen them ever since her Pa took off on his boat with them. I think he was takin' them back to the sea to give 'em back, you know?"

"Give them back?" Royce felt something cold grip his heart. "To the sea?"

"Nah. To the Merfolk. It's cuz they're like their mama—they're merfolk, too."

"Do you know who the father is?" Royce asked.

Gems pursed lips and he frowned in thought. Then he shook his head. "Nah. I don't think anybody knows. They were just there one day to the next. No one ever knew she was pregnant with 'em, you know?" Then he smiled in warm thought. "They were these little-bitty babies with hair as black as their mama's. She used to cart them all around town in a double baby carriage. She doted on those little'ns. Loved them. But her pa took 'em out to sea one day and he's never come back."

"When did he take them?"

"I dunno," Gems shrugged. Then he looked out of the mouth of the cavern at the stone where he saw Charly as a mermaid so many years ago. "And I sure do wish I'd seen how she was able to get to that there rock in all that rough water without getting' hurt."

"Germaine?"

"Huh?" He looked up at the tall mainlander.

"How long ago did Charly's father take the twins out to sea?"

"I dunno."

"Think hard, Germaine," Royce said, seeing the man's scruffy face frown curiously up at him.

"Why does it matter? Her pa did the right thing. He took them back where they belong. It's not as if they wouldn't get goin' eventually, just like May had gone and never came back. I knows she's gone back where she belongs."

"May is Charly's mother's name?"

"Yea."

"But I thought her mother had passed away."

"Oh, that's what everybody even Charly thinks, but I knows May just went back to her folk."

"Why do you think that?"

"I don't think it. I knows it."

"Why are you convinced she went back to her merfolk?"

"Cuz my pa told me so. Said he talked to Charly—Charly's pa—and he told 'im one night that he misses May and that he should'a never let her out of his sight. She snuck out one night when he was asleep and disappeared."

"Do you believe your father's version of the story?"

"Yea. My pa might be a lot of things, but he ain't no liar. Anyways, May's never been happy around here, so I guess when she saw her chance, she dived into the sea and never looked back. I guess she's back with her people and I'm thinkin' Charly's pa brought the twins back to be with their grandma. They're better off." Then he looked up at him. "Have I been answerin' your questions right? Have I been tellin' you what you wanted to hear?"

Royce smiled as he nodded once. "You've been very helpful, Mr. Jones."

Gems looked up into the mainlander's handsome face. "So you're not gonna try and buy the lighthouse from the Meerens anymore now? Cuz I knows it's been botherin' her that you people keep at her about it. So now I've told you what you wanted to hear ... you're not gonna try and push her to sell?"

"No, Mr. Jones, we're not going to push her to sell," he said, and watched as the younger man's scruffy face broke into a smile.

"She'll be happy about that," he said. "She might even be happy enough to not be so mean to me." He sighed but then he looked at the incoming tide and up at the mainlander. "We best get back. The tide's comin' in and we don't wanna be here when it does." And with that, he turned and headed back to the boat as Royce's smile faded as his sharp blue eyes followed for a few moments before he turned and brought up the rear.

Charly's body was temporarily incapacitated—another word for broken—and the first thing she became aware of as she stirred awake was that she was hurting all over. Rainbow scales lay scattered here and there on the damp sand, ripped off by the sharp rocks when she came crashing down on them. She had bled, as well, because there were traces of smudged blood by the corners of her lips but there were no noticeable wounds. Good thing mermaids healed quickly!