Second Nature

Chapter 30

30 

Cade had never run so fast in his life. He'd run track in high school, and he'd jogged miles with his SEALs team with full field gear and a rifle. But that was easygoing compared to how he pushed his body now, arms and legs pumping, lungs burning. He couldn't let her leave. He had to make her understand how much he cared. 

He knew where she was heading. Gen was a mermaid, or a sea-goddess, or whatever you're supposed to call a magical being who arises from the sea. He'd seen her dolphin-self turn into a woman; it had been no hallucination.  

His mind was now a thousand times more open than it had been a couple days ago. His life no longer fit into the box he had built for it, and that was fine by him. The air inside the old box had been getting stale anyway. His life now included mermaids eating pancakes, and former amputees re-equipped with muscular legs, turning handsprings on the lawn. 

Life included Gen. Wonderful and amazing. But now she was going back to sea. Maybe she needed to return to the ocean for awhile; maybe mermaids have to switch back and forth between their human and dolphin forms every few days. He didn't know anything about it. But if she was running away because he'd asked too many questions, he damn sure wanted to apologize. He had so much to thank her for. 

At least let me get there in time to thank her. Please. 

He forced his sprinting legs into higher gear. 

* * * 

Gen stepped down onto a runner off the main dock and hopped onto the deck of Cade's boat. Before swimming out into the bay to search for her dolphin pod, she needed to say good-bye to her human family. She opened a storage compartment under the middle seat where she'd seen Cade stow a white plastic slate and grease pen with his scuba gear.  

Now she sat down and tried to shape her feelings into words. The pen hovered over the slate and her nose ran with hot tears. All the languages she knew could not express the simple principle of how much she cared for the people she must leave, how painful it was to go.  

She had been born and grown up in an isolation lab, not even allowed to breathe the same air as ordinary people. She was radically different, not just 'unique,' as Haven had said, but bereft of kin; and the wounds her loneliness caused her every single day, even the mitobots could not heal. She had never dared to hope that she might someday have friends that she could live among-and touch.  

Then came Toshi's sacrifice; giving his life to free her from prison. Next came Little Squirt and the dolphins, accepting her into their pod as an equal partner and soulmate-"Share this pod; share this heart."-as they say in their whistle language. And then came the hospitality of Haven and Lana and Jimi and Cade. 

All of them were her true family. They had welcomed her, and she owed them more than they could know. 

Tears of gratitude wet her cheeks, when at last, she wrote down her feelings as a simple formula: 

Lana, you are my mother.  

Haven, you are my sister.  

Jimi, you are my brother.  

Cade, 

She hesitated, unable to name what Cade was to her. If she said "lover," it would be a fantasy; but other words for Cade would be a disguise. The dolphins had taught her an ancient melody about the sea's longing for the moon; if she could, she would leave that song as her message to him. 

She gazed out over the bay. The tide was flowing out and a foam cup floated among clumps of seaweed and tangled debris. She would swim out about five miles and begin 

calling her pod. Sound travels very efficiently underwater, they would hear and come. Little Squirt would dance over the waves with joy. She smiled, though the sky and sea shimmered wetly through her tears.  

Time to go. She kicked off her sandals. 

Gen knew that in the Tok Pisin language of Melanesia, people said, "Wansalawata" as greeting and farewell. "Wansalawata" meant "one saltwater," and acknowledged the truth that all life comes from and belongs to the same mother ocean. 

She picked up the grease pen and jotted next to Cade's name: You are I are one saltwater. A fat teardrop splashed on the slate, as if to punctuate the emotion. 

Beneath that line, she wrote, Thank you all for being my friends.  

But she couldn't force her hand to write Good-bye. 

* * * 

Cade reached the dock and raced onward, footsteps thundering along the planks. Then he saw her at the bow of his boat. She quickly stripped nude and swept back her arms to dive into the water.  

"Gen!" He flung himself ahead. "No! Don't leave!" 

But already she was in mid-air, sailing over the gunwale. He heard the splash and his heart sank to the bottom of the bay. 

"Gen! Wait!" he cried. "Please!" 

He leaped down to the wooden runner and raced along its length. "Gen! Don't go!" When he reached the end of the runner, he saw her in the water, gazing up at him with amethyst eyes.  

He dove in and swam to her.  

He grabbed a steel cross strut between two pilings and held on while he pulled her to him in a tight embrace. Her breasts mashed against his broad chest through the wet cotton of his T-shirt. Tendrils of her wavy hair spread out around her in the water, intertwining with the dark snakes of his dreadlocks. The low sun bathed them in rosy light and the water surface gleamed gold and crimson, reflecting the sky. 

"Don't go," he said. "Please. We want you...I want you to stay." 

She closed her eyes and tilted up her face to him. He bent and kissed her strange, wide mouth and he kissed her homely nose and he wanted her to stay more than he had ever wanted anything in his life. 

Abruptly, she broke off from his kisses and turned her head away. Iridescent flashes glowed on the water. Seconds later, she turned back to face him.  

Cade drew back with a loud gasp. 

Gen's face was stunning in its symmetry and beauty. He had never seen a woman so lovely. He stared, mesmerized, not completely sure she was the same person he'd been kissing. 

"Gen?" 

She smiled. "It's me."  

Cade felt dizzy. Everything had become so magical, he halfway expected white-bearded Poseidon to poke his head out of the bay and shout, "Hey, you! What are your intentions with my daughter?" 

Gen looked at his mouth and her lips parted slightly. His mouth met hers and he drank in her sweet breath. The fragrant warmth of her soft lips and the emotion that swelled his heart merged into pure sensation. He lost himself in a kiss that was all and everything for one time-lost moment. 

Finally, he pulled back and stared at Gen wonderingly. "But how...?" 

"I...it's because I'm next to you," she said. "This is my natural form." Her violet eyes searched his. "You see? You make me feel..." She blushed. "You changed me." 

He didn't really see, but it sounded great. "You're amazing, that's all I know." He blew out a shaky breath. "Come on, let's get back to the others. Everyone wants you home. Lana said she was going to kick my butt if I didn't bring you back." 

Gen smiled and fresh tears sparkled in her eyes. "For awhile. I'll go back with you for awhile." Sadness thickened her voice. "Today. Tomorrow...we'll see." She swallowed past the lump in her throat. "But I won't be able to stay." 

His heart turned into a big lead sinker. "Why not?" 

She sighed and her violet eyes clouded. "Oh, Cade, I really want to tell you, to explain everything." 

"So tell me. You can trust me." He squeezed her shoulders. "You can trust all of us. If you're in trouble, we'll help." 

"I know that." She bit her lip to hold back tears and gazed down at the water for a long moment. Finally, she looked up. "All right. Let's go back to the inn," she said. "I'll tell all of you who I am. Then you'll understand why I have to leave."