Siren Bay

XI

December 22nd | Nine days until NYE

My phone vibrated in my back pocket and my heart stopped beating. My palms began to sweat as I slowly reached back and checked my notifications, letting out a sigh of relief when I saw it was just another message from my parents.

I'd kept up the daily updates to them from when I first stayed at Benji's. Even though it had only been nine days since I arrived, it felt like months had passed since. With everything that had happened; finding Henry, meeting Winnie and the others, Leah and Benji being looped in on the secret of Siren Bay, and seeing Carrie for the first time since my birthday party...I was tired.

Yet, I was still going.

I'd gone through one crazy Year 12 year; if you'd told me at the beginning of the year that I'd be spending December chasing mermaids I would have laughed in your face.

But here I was, in the scorching summer heat of December, walking back to Siren Bay to chase a mermaid's secret.

I should have been spending time with my family leading up to Christmas, every other sane person was, but I was walking across the cooling sand of Whale Beach, the grains tickling the sides of my toes since I hadn't bothered removing my sandals before stepping on the sand, adamant on seeing Henry.

He'd made a promise. I'd told him yesterday about the downfall of my eighteenth, how terrified I was and how anxious the sight of Carrie made me. I'd confronted my memories while sitting before him in the shallows, the water licking my ankles as I gently tipped that battered box of secrets in my soul over – Henry promised to return the favour next time I visited.

Reaching the empty ocean pool at the south side, I walked around it and began making my way to the second trench I'd nicknamed in my youth. My hand kept my balance against the cliff, careful to not slip on the still-wet boulders lining the cliff's edge.

I'd been thinking all day about Henry's promise. He vowed he'd tell me an equally harrowing story, an event or person that changed him as Carrie and Max had changed me, but I had to do something first.

Message Carrie; reach out to the former friend that pushed me, literally, to the edge and reconcile, clear the air or at least find a way to forgive myself.

As I rounded the corner to Siren Bay, glistening in the blue hour of a sunless dusk and the approaching night, I checked my phone again. My apps were empty, no notifications at all, but I still clicked on Carrie's profile to see if maybe she'd replied but it hadn't come through yet.

I sighed seeing her picture. I still had her number from when we were both friends before my birthday's traumatic events. The picture made me swallow but the lump in my throat wouldn't budge. Her hair was tied into a ponytail and she was winking at the camera, sticking her tongue out – she'd been certain I couldn't capture the picture but I was fast on my phone.

There'd been no messages between us, so the only one blinking up at me was the one I sent her a few hours ago, under watchful eye of Leah and Benji encouraging me and telling me the right wording.

Hey Carrie, it's Sylvia, I was wondering if you wanted to catch up over coffee? I spotted you in the markets and hoped we could talk – hope you've been well, S x

I winced at how desperate I sounded, and how I'd signed my name when I'd already introduced myself – was I always so whingy? – I shoved my phone in my pocket just so I could stop looking at the text.

Looking up to see Siren Bay's shallows ahead, I jumped onto the sand of the narrow beach and sighed. Leah and Benji were spending the evening wrapping up the last of their Christmas presents, Maureen was beginning a re-run of the old Baywatch show, so I took the opportunity to see Henry again before I went back home for Christmas.