His Siren in the Storm

East One

Noma, you were right

She is life. . . for me. . .

Rain falling down on me, I woke in the dark, choking, with Styx—‘Grandpa’—absentmindedly patting my chest as if seawater wasn’t spewing from my mouth.

“Easy, Maddox. You’ll breathe right again soon.” He laughed as I shoved at his old face, forcing him away from me. He is not who I wanted to see.

What happened? I was just in the water with her!

Trying to get my bearings, I looked around, still coughing up water from my recent tumble into the ocean.

I managed to roll onto my stomach, weakly resting on my elbows, and thinking to myself, You are fucking kidding me.

What I saw made me feel trapped, repeating like in the movie Groundhog Day.

Unbelievable. I was back on the wide, deep strip of land behind Dad’s clubhouse.

Right where I had already been tonight, grabbing bike keys and riding away from the man I had just shoved.

Coughing and spluttering, spit and water dripping from my gasping mouth, I army crawled a few seconds to the seawall, then peered over.

Lightning flashed and rumbled over the churning surface while, ten feet below, a few waves splashed against the man-made structure.

There was nothing else except dark water.

The moon gave just enough light to show she wasn’t there.

But she had been. I knew that now. It was all fucking real: the sparkling water, the call to the sea, the bike plunging into the ocean. And then her, there, saving me. Again. Just like she had that fateful day when I plunged into the Atlantic at age ten.

Over my right shoulder, I glared at Styx—the fucker I was tempted to kill because he was a major player in this fuckery called ‘my life’.

If I weren’t close to death at the moment, I probably would have.

One thing stopped me. He was the only man I knew who had any of the answers I desperately needed.

The only person who could solve the mysteries in my head. And I hated him for it.

Sitting on his ass again in the rain-soaked grass, his arms resting on his bent knees, he dared a fucking shrug. “As I was saying, do you want the truth or not?”

My throat was raw from hacking up fluid, but I rasped out angrily, “Why am I not in the water with her?”

Her taking hold of my hand was a dream come true. A little boy’s dreams and fears becoming a miracle…

Flippantly, Styx rolled his eyes. “You think I’m the one at fault?”

Don’t murder Grandpa. Don’t murder Grandpa… “Then. Where. Is. She?”

A bit of his smartass demeanor faded as he stared off into the ocean. “Not sure, but I suspect she’s regenerating at the bottom.”

The heart in my chest practically exploded with worry. “Regenerating? What? Why? Is she hurt?” Not taking the breath required, I attempted a roar, “What the fuck happened?” It sounded as if a sharp-clawed demon were climbing up my vocal cords.

Styx was back to his natural self, feigning casual annoyance. “When did you become such a pain in the ass?”

“Maybe when my life became a shithole!” Of their own accord, my elbows started dragging me toward him. Grandpa is coming to an end. Now.

Laughing again, Styx held up his hands. “Okay, calm down! For real. I’ll explain.”

For real. My rage got stuck in my demon esophagus. Noma.

Noma had told me my dad used to say the same thing, like me. That’s why my tirade stopped. Now I knew where he, where we both, got the phrase from.

Styx nodded, seeming to appreciate that I was calming slightly. “Saleeni doesn’t have a vocabulary yet, so—” Noticing my expression of disbelief, half his upper lip curled. “What now?”

In an instant, my heart recovered from its angry outburst and was now melting with sentimental emotion. My voice cracked for more reasons than recently drowning. “That’s her name?”

Styx had pronounced it, Sah-lean-ee, and I had never heard a more beautiful sequence of letters.

Grandpa’s shoulders caved in a manner full of empathy. “Shit. Sorry, kid.” He wiped rain from his gray goatee. “Yeah. The name I know of.”

Absolutely enamored, I collapsed and rolled onto my back again.

Deep inhale… In a dreamlike surrender, I spread my arms wide, inviting the storm above and embracing the gratitude in my heart.

“Sa-leen-i.” It felt so good to have an answer.

Such relief to know I hadn’t been crazy this whole time, believing in a magical childhood friend.

For so many agonizing years, through upheavals and relocations from the East Coast to the West, to California, through heart-wrenching losses, I had held on to a glimpse of hope that she was out there, remembering me as I did her. So painful. But now, somehow, it was worth it.

Thoughts of bliss faded to black as I remembered what Styx had just said. Becoming the guardian I had developed into over the years, I felt my body jolt back to my stomach. Too depleted to rise from the ground, my voice lowered. “Wait. Where the fuck is she again?”

Styx sat there, jutting out his chin in disbelief. “For real, do you have Tourette’s or something?”

For real? Tourette’s? I was back to army crawling—

“Okay! Damn.” He quickly gestured past my head. “Saleeni kept pointing at your foot…”

As fast as I could move, I got into a sitting position to examine my laced boots.

One shoelace was shredded. “Oh shit—” And just like that, a nightmare I had had in the back of Noma’s car years ago, when she was racing me from danger, merged with the memory of what happened under the water moments ago, and together, they told me everything, the revelation clicking it all into place.

Under the water, below the bridge I had just crashed from, Saleeni and I were staring at each other, so entranced, until the sinking motorcycle’s handle got caught on my tied shoelace. The weight of the bike was suddenly dragging me downward to the bottom of the ocean.

Affectionately, Saleeni held my hand, staring at me with nothing but questions in her eyes. She didn’t understand what was happening.

As I kicked my foot, desperate to be freed of the handlebar, she kept tapping her mouth, trying to tell me something. I wasn’t of a sound enough mind to comprehend anything other than panic. My lungs burned to inhale. I was running out of oxygen.

Seeming to realize the danger and possibility of my drowning, Saleeni’s tail swooshed hard, trying to stop my descent, but the motorcycle was demanding and insisted I follow.

Refusing to let go of my hand, Saleeni was forced upside down by the weight, placing her right above me.

As everything started happening too fast, our eyes locked.

It was bewildering. The connection—the invisible thread—between us was electrifying.

It was so impeccably soul-to-soul that we practically became one in a matter of seconds.

That’s why I begged my mouth not to open, knowing I would only inhale water, but nature is powerful. Even though I had finally found Saleeni, and felt found myself, and never wanted it to end, I lost control of my body and my reactions.

Sinking deeper, I began to inhale… water.

As I started to convulse—the beginning stages of dying—Saleeni screamed.

Just as it had happened in the nightmare, when Noma drove us to the East Coast, in that nightmare, whatever had been tied to me while underwater, dragging me downward, suddenly evaporated only to reappear around Saleeni’s fin.

In the nightmare, my magical friend was now the one sinking.

She reached out to me and screamed, but there was no sound, only bubbles coming from her mouth…

In real life… It was as if she knew my dying was her death. Us being parted from each other, once more, would end her existence. I felt her fate tethered to mine, resonating inside me, which was insanely intense while drowning.

Grabbing my chest, rain pouring down on the clubhouse’s backyard, I said, “That’s why she screamed in the nightmare.”

“What?” asked Styx, but my mind returned to the memory from moments ago.

Her precious lips opened in horror as she screamed.

Bubbles, along with a high-pitched sound, exited her mouth.

Then, in a manic rush, Saleeni released my hand, diving past me and the bike.

The water’s temperature fluctuated, informing me she was already gone, but I swear time slowed down to a crawl.

It felt surreal to resee, to relive what had just happened, and be able to adjust the speed.

Since I was most likely going to die, I chose to examine every part of her as she passed me again.

That’s when I realized how magnificent she truly was.

How real she was. Her wavy hair was long, covering some of her naked upper body, but I could still see some of her pale skin that lightly sparkled.

A bare breast I was so sad never to be able to kiss.

A midsection of skin that marvelously blended with another type of skin.

Where legs should’ve been, her skin was darker, inlaid with multiple colors.

They matched her hair, which consisted of mystical blues and greens —no scales, as I had seen in so many cartoons and movies.

Then, as her tail tapered in, I was finally able to see her one impressive fin.

It was at least five feet wide, and almost completely transparent.

Only some very thin bones held its form.

My body weakening from lack of oxygen, the water around me grew darker.

Heavier. My consciousness was fading, but I still had just enough strength to decide to see her face one more time.

Letting my head fall to the side to peer beneath and behind me, I witnessed a woman—a supernatural being—with so much heart I knew why I had loved her all this time.

Saleeni was under the rear of the bike, resting the back tire on her shoulder. Her eyes then glowed a magnificent green when her jaw locked and her whole tail started to propel us upward…