Chapter Eighteen
Eighteen
With tens of their workers gone, it was all hands on deck.
Angie returned from maintenance duty toward the end of the next day with Eva and another of their colleagues, and approached Bàba at his office.
“Everything okay, Beibei?” He slid his reading glasses down his nose, peering at her.
“I was just thinking. Why don’t we shut the docks down to focus on the mer so the employees would stop getting burnt out and more importantly, stay alive?”
He sat back, crossing his arms. “What brought this on?”
“Because everyone’s exhausted and scared for their lives. Including me.”
He appeared to think on it for a moment, before shaking his head, to Angie’s disappointment. “No. I don’t think that’s wise.”
Angie’s face pinched. Why wasn’t he listening?
This was the only solution that made sense.
Pull back and regroup. He was the one who taught her it was the best way to boost morale.
She thought again about Elise, Abigail, and Luke.
With the docks shut down, even temporarily, they could stay safe from the mer and discuss strategies that didn’t involve blindly killing them.
And it could keep Kaden safe from human attacks.
“But you could still shut it down and strike at them, right? Then nobody else will be at risk.” Angie tried again.
Bàba shook his head, his expression mournful.
“The docks are our best point to strike. We don’t know where they’re coming from.
Beau and Emily are trying everything they can to keep us running.
To abandon that post would be like letting them win, and we still don’t have what we need—business and fish.
If that wasn’t bad enough, more workers quit. ”
Angie didn’t blame them. She was tempted to do the same, if her boss wasn’t her literal family and if she didn’t need her work hours and money for school.
The door swung open behind her, and Angie whirled around to look. Nick strolled in, hands behind his back.
Tiān, this man was everywhere. Like a cockroach.
“I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation when I was coming in.” Nick clasped his chin and put one finger on his lips.
“You just happened to hear, or you were standing outside, listening?” Angie widened her stance and tapped a foot on the ground.
“Does it matter? I have good news that I came from across the docks and paused my duties for.” Nick’s tone became sharp, but once he turned his attention to Bàba, his voice became boisterous, and he leaned in to talk to him. “Dad, I think you’ll like this.”
Ass kisser.
Bàba beckoned to Nick. “Go on.”
“We haven’t lost anyone this week, thanks to our workers who volunteered to watch the coast. Finally, police patrols arrived at the beach this morning.
We’re well armed, so the mer haven’t come near us.
No new traps. We even have divers down searching for their base, so we can end this once and for all, and they’ve come back alive.
” He put his hands on his hips and widened his stance, taking up more space than he needed to.
Angie didn’t move, even as his elbow brushed her arm, and she took a step toward him, forcing him to shift another inch.
“See, Dad. I told you it was a good idea to get the cops involved. Good thing I had Beau and Emily’s backing. ”
Angie thought he was gloating, but for Nick, it was nothing new. She couldn’t imagine how many cops their tiny police department actually spared to help them fight merfolk.
“They gave us three cops. Not nearly enough,” Bàba said, sotto voce. “We’ve had to get some of our own to help hold the shore. Which, thank you, Nick, for finding people willing to patrol.”
Angie glanced back to Nick again, whose shit-eating grin widened. It made her biceps and fingers twitch.
Bàba continued, two fingers on his chin.
“We must remain on guard. I wish I knew what they were thinking. It might not be a bad idea to capture some and question them as you suggested before, Beibei. If they can even survive above ground.” He muttered the last sentence, before walking away and leaving Angie and Nick alone.
Not wanting to speak to him, Angie left at Bàba’s heels, her neck flushed and her intestines corkscrewing over each other from simply being in his presence. Somehow, she had a sinking feeling that if they did catch mer, they wouldn’t be merciful to them.
Angie had the next day off, and she spent it at home.
She sat at her desk, a pre-downloaded e-textbook open about the diversity of fishes in the ocean.
The lighting was perfect, her room overflowing with an abundance of warm sunshine, and through her cracked window, a slight breeze came in lifting a lock of hair as it brushed her neck.
Angie forced herself to concentrate. The book’s contents were exciting and lively, with colorful pictures and flowing, easy-to-read text on a topic that interested her.
Yet, she couldn’t keep her mind focused; a pounding sensation emerged behind her eyes and tightness constricted the inside her skull as she fought off an oncoming migraine.
Angie reached for her tumbler full of black coffee beside her laptop, the second pouring of that morning alone. The bitterness coated her mouth with the first sip. She should drink water, but she also wanted to stay awake and get some reading in.
The shrill landline downstairs blasted through the house, and Angie jumped out of her seat.
She dashed for the phone and picked it up before it cut off on the last ring. “Hello?”
“Hey.” Mia’s voice filtered through the phone, broken by static. “Can I ask you a favor and pick up Rosie after camp?”
Angie struggled with her answer. She wanted to see her niece, but at the same time, she coveted her full days off.
“I—” she started, but Mia interrupted her.
“I’m sorry to ask, I know you’re tired, and it’s your day off. But I got a last-minute client.”
Well, when Mia put it that way. As a patient flow consultant for Creston General Hospital, she was able to work remotely most days, but Angie knew that on the days she was in the office, she often stayed late.
“No worries. I’m happy to get her. Camp’s done at four, right?”
“Yes, thanks so much. I owe you. See you later, okay? Love you sis.” Mia hung up, and Angie checked the clock. It read eleven in the morning, and she had to be at Rosie’s day camp by four. If she left by two thirty, she would get there in time.
The headache persisted, and she rifled through the medicine cabinet beside the kitchen for painkillers. A sweeping gaze through the shelves revealed none to be seen.
The closest pharmacy was downtown, more than two hours by ferry and bus. In the opposite direction of Rosie’s camp.
Where were the damn painkillers? She swore they still had a bottle when she looked into their cabinet last.
There was one other place they could be. She passed a sleeping, purring Lulu on the living room couch as she headed into Bàba’s immaculately kept room with its abundance of natural light.
The small bottle that would be Angie’s savior was on his nightstand, between a framed photo of him and Māma on their wedding day, and one of Mia and Angie when Angie was a year old.
So his daughters and late wife would always be close to him.
He still slept on the left side of his king-sized bed, because the right side was always for Māma.
She marveled how there was not a speckle of dust to be found.
How all his shirts and pants atop his dresser were perfectly pressed, resting in neat stacks underneath two rectangular canvases with Chinese calligraphy.
One with the words Xīn jìng, for tranquility of mind or calmness of heart, and the second with Yǒngqì, for courage.
Angie swiped the painkillers and took her leave, stopping when two new medication bottles caught her eye.
Lisinopril: Take 1 tablet once a day for high blood pressure. Prescriber: Imani Thompson, MD.
Right beside a bottle of Ambien. When did Bàba get blood pressure medication and sleeping pills? To her knowledge, his pressure was always under control.
With an arched eyebrow, she left the room and made a mental note to ask him later.
Almost three hours later, she sat at the docks with Rosie chattering nonstop at her side. After downing two pain pills, she gave herself a face mask and took an hour-long nap after having a tall glass of water.
For now, she was the epitome of bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed.
Nick was nowhere to be found, and she was content to wait patiently until he showed. Angie took Rosie to a quieter spot, far enough from the shore so the mer couldn’t reach them if they came by, but close enough so she could still see it in her peripheral vision. “How was camp?”
She was supposed to meet Kaden, and she wanted to stay within his line of sight if he swam by. Angie especially wanted to see him today, find some explanation to why the mer had been so quiet, and if she should worry.
“I drew this,” Rosie announced, rifling through her bookbag and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper.
“See? This is me. And Mommy and Daddy. That—” She pointed to a smaller stick figure next to Mia, with large eyes covering half her face and long dark hair down to the floor.
Eyes that were much bigger and hair longer than her true features, but Angie smiled, appreciating the effort.
“Is you, Angie āyí. That guy,” she moved one finger over to the taller stick figure next to her, with hastily drawn on spiky hair and thick rimmed glasses.
Angie’s smile grew even wider at stick-figure Bàba. “Is Gōnggong.”
“I love it.” Angie put her arms around Rosie, giving her an affectionate squeeze.
A splash in the distance caught her attention. Kaden stuck his head above water, but as soon as he saw Rosie, he ducked underwater again. Rosie followed her gaze, leaning forward with eager, curious eyes. “What happened, Angie āyí?”
“Sorry, Rosie. Thought I saw something, but it’s nothing. Don’t worry.”
Breathless pants and heavy footfalls approached, and Rosie perked up. She jumped to her feet and rushed to greet her father. “Papa!”
“Hey kiddo.” Nick knelt, ruffling Rosie’s hair and then pinching her cheeks. His jovial smile vanished when he faced Angie, and he rose to his feet. “Angela, why would you leave my daughter by the shore? People died here!” He hissed out the word died through a clenched jaw.
Angie poked a tongue to the inside of her cheek and breathed deep. “She’s fine. We were nowhere close to the water.”
Rosie looked from her to Nick, and then back to her again, her bright eyes wide with befuddlement.
“Still. Don’t endanger my kid. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand since you don’t have any.” Nick shook his head, a condescending frown stuck to his face.
She knew he was needling her, and she refused to take the bait. “Please. You know I see her as my own.” Her voice remained steady. “She was safe.”
“Okay, whatever.” He took Rosie’s hand. “I got it from here. Come on, Rosie. Let’s go home.”
He turned abruptly as Rosie said goodbye to Angie. Angie glared after him, hands on her hips. Not even a thank you, huh, Nick?
She wasn’t sure why that still surprised her.