The Tail of Audrey and Aryella

Audrey

I walked out of my guitar lesson for the last time before we move into our new home at the coast. You see we've moved around the country like a ping-pong ball, one time we moved from New York to California to Virginia (a waste of gas and valuable money if you ask me), but Dad always seemed to be avoiding the Georgia area (we once moved to Alabama's border on Georgia, never on the actual coast). Yesterday when he told me that we were not only move to the coast (a place called Seastar Bay apparently) but are also going to live on a boat for a few years I had to hold my bottom jaw to stop it from hitting the table, causing it (my jaw, not the table) to crack, making me eat nothing than mush for a couple of months.

I passed the town pool; I got a lump in my throat when I saw all the kids at school hanging out with their friends. It's not the friends part that bothers me, I have so many friends I couldn't count them with all my fingers and toes combined, it's the water, you see I've never ever, ever gone into any water, EVER (well I take showers and baths I've just never been completely under water)! I'm writing this on the new boat, me and Dad just finished a hard conversation, which in my"family" (if you can call it a family since it's just me and Dad) is rare, actually any conversation is rare since Dad's the silent type (weird because I hear from Grandma, who's like a mother to me, that he used to be a motor-mouth, in other words he talked a lot until mom left him.), he only talks when he has important news, or he's, really , really, (and I mean really)curious, this conversation was the curious type.

I was minding my own business, looking out the window (the passenger seat window is like a friend to me) when he asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing." I hate it when he knows I have a busy mind.

"It's something,"

"How can you tell?"

"Your right foot is tapping."

I groaned, he laughed, I smiled, I never get to hear that sound anymore.

"Dad, why aren't I allowed to go swimming?"

His face darkened and he didn't answer, this always happens when we're on the subject, I should have known this was going to happen.

"Dad, I know that this isn't your fear of water, if it was that then it wouldn't affect me,"

Silence.

"Dad, is this about Mom?"

He gripped the wheel tighter and whispered, "It's not just about Marin- your mom,"

I didn't have time to think on it because I had spotted our new home, like most of our homes it was small but cozy, we couldn't afford any big homes because we're always running around. It's around 11:20 pm now, so I'm going to have to go straight to bed after I bring my stuff onto the boat (it's a rule, but I rarely follow it). I got out and put my stuff away and turned my iPod on, I popped my headphones in, slipped my iPod in my pocket, and I stared out to sea and I saw the weirdest thing, Dad sitting on the beach crying on the sand a couple feet away from the water, and a girl watching him with wide eyes, but just as quickly as she appeared she dove back into the sea, my mind was filled with questions.

Who was she? Where did she come from?

Why was she staring at my Dad? Why did she go in the water? Why was my Dad so close to the water? Why was he crying? Is this about our conversation in the car? Does being by the water make him sad? Why does it make him sad? Did Mom love water?

I'd only seen the girl for a second but I saw her face and I can't explain it but I didn't see a stranger in the water... I saw.... I saw... I saw me! Which led to the most troubling question of all...?

Who am I?

-Audrey