The Stranger

Part 5

Galen sets down his seaweed net long enough to pull on the swimming trunks he’d hidden under a rock behind Rachel’s new house. She’d bought him several pairs, but he likes the way these fit better than the rest. And if he was honest, he likes the bright red color, too. He grabs the net full of human treasures and walks on shore. A warm glow of light coming from the windows illuminates his way to the beach. The savory smell of broiled fish dances in his nose, making his stomach protest in hunger.

Galen smiles to himself. An entire season has passed since the humans threw Rachel away. She says the humans have a saying: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. When she told him that, she was referring to some cans she intended to recycle. Whatever that meant. But Galen has always applied that saying to Rachel herself. What the humans threw away turned out to be a priceless treasure to him.

She’ll be pleased with my haul, he thinks to himself as he ambles up the steps to her back porch, the human relics tinkling against each other in the net slung over his shoulder.  Especially when she sees the chest full of gold coins I had to leave in the shallow water. He’ll make a second trip back to the beach once he’s dropped off his net full of goods.

He finds Rachel in the kitchen, as usual, tapping around in her high heels. The heads and backbones of two large red snappers lay on the counter beside the refrigerator. The cooked flesh sits in a pan on the stove, and Rachel sprinkles little leafy green things into the pan—for decoration, she says—then squeezes the juice from half a mangled lemon on it.

“You expecting Toraf?” Galen says, setting the net on the floor. Red snapper is his Toraf’s favorite, and he’s taken a liking to the way Rachel prepares it.

She rinses her lemony fingers in the sink. “I am. He brought these by this morning. Ooh, whatcha got for me?”

Galen grins. “A lot of things.”

“Including this?” Toraf calls from the back door. He grunts as he tries to maneuver the chest of coins without running into any furniture. Some coins—and salt water—spill onto the kitchen floor. Rachel’s eyes go round. Which is usually a very good sign.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” she squeals. “Where did you find that? Good grief, it feels like my birthday!”

Humans have this weird habit of keeping track of the day of their birth, and every single season, they actually celebrate getting older. It’s the most ridiculous thing Galen’s ever heard of. But he doesn’t want to dampen Rachel’s enthusiasm. “I think it’s the Spanish fleet you were telling me about. I traced the whole course we talked about, and came across a wreck that could possibly be it. There are plenty of other things there too, but I wanted to see if this could bring anything first.”

Rachel puts her hand over her heart. “This could be big. Huge. I’m telling you. This is a big deal, whether it’s that Spanish fleet or not. You’re seriously going to be the richest non-human on the planet.”

Galen takes a chair at the kitchen table. Toraf joins him. “Didn’t you say you had a surprise for Galen?” Toraf says.

Galen hasn’t forgotten about his surprise, but he doesn’t want to seem overeager for it. He’s been anticipating what it could possibly be, but has tried not to get his hopes up—or Rachel’s. He hasn’t mastered the art of fixing his facial expressions yet, to arrange them into some form of happy, and he can’t stand the thought of disappointing her with his reaction. It’s just that…Sometimes Rachel has misgivings about what makes a good gift. Once she bought him what she called “top of the line cologne”. She sprayed it all over him before he could get away. Not even the salt water could wash it away completely. He smelled of it for days and days. Even Rayna wouldn’t come near him. Galen can’t imagine why human males would do that to themselves.