Katie didn't see Granny Carne come into the church, but when she looked up, there was the old, wild lady.
Katie looked at the wise woman and smiled. Some people said Granny Carne was a witch; others said she was a fortune-teller. It made no difference to Katie. She was a funny old woman dressed in a red-brown dress at a funeral service. No, Katie had to correct herself… a memorial service.
The smile disappeared from Katie's face as she remembered the reason she was here. Her friend Sapphire's father had gone missing. He went out to sea in the Peggy Gordon and never came back home. Some people thought he was killed. Others thought there was a freak storm. Still others thought it was suicide.
Katie scowled as she remembered the argument that had occurred between Sapphire and Josie at school a few days earlier.
"Everyone thinks your dad drowned, and but my mum says he's gone off with another woman, maybe even a mermaid, like the old Matthew." Josie smirked.
"Shut up, Josie!" Katie said.
Sapphire didn't know what to do, so, in desperation and anger, she slammed Josie against the playground. Josie squealed as she fell to the ground, crying.
"My hand," Josie sobbed, "She's hurt me bad!"
Mrs Tehidy saw Sapphire push Josie, but she hadn't heard what Josie had said. She walked over briskly, pulled Josie up of the ground and frowned at Sapphire.
"I'll see you later, Sapphire," she said.
"You've just got to tell her what Josie said!" Katie exclaimed. Sapphire shook her head.
Later, in the girls' toilets, Katie heard Josie telling her friends how Sapphire had pushed her over. "Hey, Josie, did you remember to say that you deserved it?" Katie asked Josie.
"Puh-lease! Sad old Sapphy-"
Sapphire pushed the door open and walked into the bathrooms. "Josie, if you say stuff like that about my dad again…"
Josie looked scared. Esther scowled and said, "Stop bulling!"
"Josie's the only bully around here," Katie retorted angrily.
Later, Sapphire thanked Katie.
"It's okay, it wasn't much," Katie grinned. "After all, who believes in mermaids? And the story of the other Matthew?"
Katie remembered when Sapphire had first told her the story of the mermaid of Zennor.
"This is how my dad tells it, anyway," Sapphire had grinned. "The Zennor mermaid, named Morveren, was in love with a human. She couldn't live in the Air because it would kill her, but all she thought about was him. She thought about him all day and all night and she just wanted to be with him. The man she fell in love with was called Matthew Trewhella, and I know that's my dad's name, but it's just a coincidence. This Matthew, the old Matthew Trewhella, used to sing in the church choir. One day, the mermaid, Morveren, swam upstream so she could hear her love sing. He couldn't let her go, so he swam away with her and was never seen again. They say he became a Mer. He left behind his friends, family, and Annie, a young woman who loved him. She was pregnant with his child, but he left with the mermaid before it was born. People say that we have the old Matthew's blood in us through this child. Poor Annie. I think she was the one who slashed the carving of the mermaid of Zennor inside the church."
And the conversation changed, and Sapphire and Katie had laughed. But no more laughing now. Sapphire's dad was gone.
Sapphire, her mum and her brother Conor sat in the front row. Katie heard Conor whisper into Sapphire's ear. He said not to worry. He said that they would find their dad. And then Sapphire said, "Yes. I know we'll find him away in Ingo."
The words were burned into Katie's memory, and she could recall them until the day she died. Away in Ingo. Ingo, where ever that was. Ingo.