Ariel's Daughter

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It had been three weeks, and my father still hadn't returned from his fishing. There hadn't been any more signs of strong storms. The wide open sea was beyond, leaving no sight of a boat that was familiar to anyone to be my father's. He is gone, I thought deeply, and I feel a frown carve into my features. No signals from the docks, the people around me here are worried, I can tell, but I'm scared. I don't want to have to miss him, I don't want to have to live alone, without him. I can't do it.

I catch myself wondering if that's how Avery feels. Alone, even if he has a great sister and a father, he is still alone in his little world. He doesn't speak, and that must be hard. I admire him for somethings, but I just wished he'd speak up and let us know he was in our world, where we are waiting for him.

I knew Madilyn thought he'd never speak again, she'd lost faith, but I hadn't. Of course I'd only known them for three weeks, but Madilyn had lived with it for a full two years. They had apparently lived with a relative while in Montana after making a case to send them to Jack and file all the paperwork. I felt bad for them, and I was glad to have finally met other people around my age. I had been lonely without a friend. All the neighbors were older people with no kids, except my father. He was young and sweet.

I sat down at the edge of the wooden dock and let my legs carry my feet into the warm refreshing water below. I felt the heat of the sun crushing down on my body, and making my previous goosebumps leave my skin. I sighed, relieved. I felt the morning breeze push past my face, sending shivers down my spine at the odd sort of feeling I'd personally come to love.

I felt the water slip against my ankles and I let myself relax. I heard metal hammering down on another small piece of metal. I knew what they were doing around me; putting up flyers of my missing father, a picture anyone in the capital, docks and city, would know if they see him. I sighed. I just wanted him back.

Footsteps that matched the weight and speed of my newest friend, Madilyn. Another pair was soon behind her, and I smiled gratefully that the familiar steps against the docks atop the watery shore meant Avery was following her. "Hey Madilyn, Avery." I greeted.

"You would think I would get used to your superpowers, but no." Madilyn's voice rang out, bouncing out across the water towards the mountains across the beautiful lake.

We all sat together until the quietly harsh steps of their father came clomping towards us in his huge boots. They smelt like fish but I was fully used to it. I guessed or only hoped that Madilyn and Avery were used to it now that this was their new home,or they would be disgusted by the smell in the air and almost every place you walked here down in the docks at Auke Lake.

During the day, while I still had the faith that my father would someday return, I spent it mostly with Avery and Madilyn, and even their father, jack.

We sometimes went to get ice cream when jack had finished work early, but today would be different. Madilyn had been trying and practically pleading for almost a week and a half for me to go shopping for clothes with her. I'd of course, when avoiding the topic, but couldn't put up with her constant rumble about it so I had to say yes. Today, was going to be the day she stuffed my full closet with even more clothes I didn't need. She apparently wanted me to bring about a good fashion, which she said I sort of had, but need help with and so she'd promised to find the best fashion for me. I wasn't as excited as her, but of course it was ironic because she was so ecstatic that early this morning I had been sleeping when she burst into my cabin and forced food down my throat and we made it to the docks where we we're now waiting for her father to drive us, since today he had the day off from fishing all day. Jack insisted we'd all have to stick together and find clothes for Avery too, because he needed them when he would start at a new school in the fall. He would be attending the same school as Madilyn and I. The school was a middle school and high school combo, and I was glad. I'd get to spend more time with Avery,and I think Madilyn was happy about it because it meant she could keep an eye on her little brother and to keep him from harm if anything happened. I told her she was just paranoid, but as I started to remember last year when a kid had been bullied, the school had been sued, until the bullies had finally apologized and they all actually became quite good friends. It was crazy how Juneau schools worked. We didn't really have popular kids versus unpopular kids at the school, we just tried to get along. Juneau was a small community so it was more than likely you would know almost everyone attending the same school as you. I loved that because of how small it was, it meant you would have smaller classes and the teachers could relate to you much better than in a huge school that had thousands of kids could.