Tetrology Of The Sea - Book 1: From The Sea 🪼✔

Two

Ruth woke up and stretched in the bed when she felt something beside her. She jerked her head to her left and saw the little boy from the day before was lying in the bed, his thumb in his mouth as he sucked on it a little. Ruth moved her mouth to the side and decided that she should start right away on getting him identified before she got really attached to him. She grabbed her robe that was on the post from her bed frame and slipped her feet into slippers. She tied the rope off on her robe and headed toward her kitchen.
As Ruth made a pot of coffee, she went to the phone and rang up an old friend of hers that worked in a clinic just up the way from the beach.
"This is Dr. Cutchins." The man answered.
"Hello, Josh, this is Ruth."
"Ah, hello. What can I do for you this fine morning? You're up early."
"I have a bit of a situation that kind of... washed up on my doorstep. Do you think you could help me with it?"
"Depends. Do you have fish in your garage again? If you do, I told you before-"
"No, no, not that... You haven't opened your clinic yet have you?"
"It doesn't open for a couple more hours... Ruth, is everything alright?"
"Everything is fine but I need you to come and pick me up to take me to the clinic. Oh and uh... could you stop by the store and pick up some little boy's underwear and a little outfit? Some shoes?"
"Huh?"
"Just do it. You'll understand when you get here."
"Ruth, you're being very vague."
"Just do it, Joshua!" she hissed and hung up.
The coffee pot gurgled it's last of the brew and she reached up in her cabinets and grabbed a cup. She poured it into the cup and added some milk and sugar, going to her door to get the paper. As she opened the door, she found a little boy holding a little girl's hand.
"Hi, Auntie Ruth!" the little boy said with a wave and a missing toothed grin.
Ruth looked at the boy without expression.
"What do you want, Aylin?"
"Daddy sent us to see if ya need help painting your porch."
Ruth growled a little and let the two come in. Aylin dragged his sister, Shana, inside and they went to the kitchen.
"Do you have any snacks?" Aylin asked, going toward the refrigerator and opening it up.
"It's not nice to go in people's fridges, little boy." Ruth said, shutting the fridge. "Your father left without you knowing again, didn't he?"
Shana crawled onto the chair at the end of the table, sucking her thumb, and watching the encounter of the older woman and her brother with curious green eyes.
"Nuh uh..."
"Uh huh; what do you brats want for breakfast?" she said, even though she loved the two children dearly.
"Eggs." Aylin said, going to the fridge again. "I can get them."
"No. Last time you dropped everyone of them. Go sit with Shana and tell her to stop sucking her thumb."
Aylin went over and yanked Shana's thumb from her mouth. "Don't do it." He said with a nod.
Shana responded with an unhappy grunt and proceeded to stick her thumb back in her mouth.
"Shana, sweetie, you're not allowed to suck your thumb at the table." Ruth said gently as she threw a scoop of butter in the pan. "If you don't, you won't get food."
Shana thought for a moment and took her thumb from her mouth.
Ruth smirked, priding herself in her convincing ways of getting kids to do things. She swished the butter around and thought about what she was going to tell the children's neglectful father whenever she saw that sorry piece of shit again but she had to admit that his loss of their mother had been very hard on him. He tended to forget that he had the children until one of them would call to him or he would see their faces. Ruth remembered how out of touch she was when her fiancé died.
Ruth cracked the eggs in the pan and rummaged them around to make eggs for all of them.
"Can we have bacon too?" Aylin asked, swinging his legs.
"Do I look like a "Waffle House"? I don't have any bacon."
"Toast!" Shana said, laughing.
"I can make toast. You each get one piece though."
"Why? I want two." Aylin said, holding up three fingers and then correcting himself.
"You never eat two. You're already getting your fill of eggs. Besides, you need to be in school, young man. I'll take you and your sister when Joshua comes."
"Is he your boyfriend?" Aylin said with a look at Ruth that let her know he knew her buttons well.
She finished the eggs and moved the pan off the eye as she got plate down from the cabinet. She turned to the boy and jerked her head.
"Get over here you nuisance and set these plates on the table. Careful now..."
Aylin grabbed them and set them on the table and then distributed them to each seat and then looked at the extra one.
"You don't got no more chairs, Auntie Ruth."
"That's alright." She said, scooping out helpings of eggs onto their plates. "the extra person will just pull up a stool."
Aylin sat in his seat and started counting on his fingers, frowning at them and then counting the plates again.
"Toast!" Shana yelled, looking at her plate.
"You'll get it." Ruth grumbled.
"Auntie Ruth, you can't count. Cuz me and you and Shana are three persons. And I learned in class that three plus one is four. You and me and Shana and Josh are only four. See?" he said, holding up his four fingers to her. "You need to go back to school."
"Keep your mouth going and you'll have no breakfast, brat." Ruth said with a glare to the boy.
Aylin pouted but grabbed his fork.
Ruth put the pan back on the stove and grabbed bread from the bag.
"And there are five plates because there is another guest coming-"
"Mommy!? Mommy!?"
Aylin and Shana looked up as the sound of thumping could be heard around the house. Ruth looked up at the upstairs as she put the toast down.
"Mommy?!"
She walked out of the kitchen and went to the stairs just as she saw the little boy from the beach run past. He ran back, seeing her, and stared at her from the top of the stairs.
"What are you doing?" Ruth asked.
"Hungey!" he said, his mouth open and pointing.
"Well come on down and I'll get you something to eat." She said, holding out her hand.
He held out his arms and smiled. "Get."
"I'm not climbing up there to get you."
The little boy jumped up and down. "Geeeet."
Ruth sighed and climbed up the stairs and grabbed hold of him. He smiled at her and hugged her tight.
"Mommy, yes."
"Okay, I get it... Let me get you a jacket or something to wear."
She found one of her sweaters on the pegs beside the door and wrapped him in it. She finally walked in and set the little boy next to Aylin at the end of the small table.
"Who's that?" he asked, pointing with his fork.
"I don't know yet. He doesn't have a name... I found him on the beach last night."
Aylin looked him over and nodded. "I betcha he's a mermaid."
"Mermaids don't exist." Ruth said, already starting to believe it though considering the thing she saw last night.
"Ariel." Shana said, putting a piece of scrambled egg in her mouth with her fingers.
Ruth got up and got a plate for the little boy and got the toast for everyone when the doorbell rung. She sighed and hurried to the door.

Joshua Cutchins stood outside the door of one of his dearest friends. Ruth had been friends with him for a long time; actually her fiancé had been his best friend and they used to hang out together. Though he and Ruth sometimes chatted, there was nothing between them. He wondered what would make her make him buy little boy's clothes when she opened the door.
"Are you still getting dressed?" he asked, walking into her house anyway.
Ruth shook her head. "No, just got up and haven't had time. I got some brats at the door and another one who can hardly speak a word."
"What do you mean?" he asked, pushing his glasses up.
"I found a little boy on the beach last night while I was walking. He's... not right... I was wondering if you could do some tests on him and make sure I'm not crazy."
"Crazy?"
"Joshua, I swear to god that his lower half looked like a seahorse."
Josh looked at her and she nodded. He handed her the bags and took is hat off.
"Alright then... We can take him to the clinic and I'll run some tests."
Ruth nodded and they both went to the kitchen