I didn't imagine that it would be this bad – crammed in a narrow metal tube like sardines in a can, only without the olive oil. There is no room at all, and I was glad that I had an aisle seat and Andrea was in the middle one. I closed my eyes, but the smell of the kerosene never went away, and of course the droning always stayed. Time stood still, and at one point I thought about to kick in one window and just jump out. Under us was the ocean, and at least I wouldn't drown. Then, I tried to concentrate on the little screen in the back of the seat in front. Andrea chose a movie for me; it was "Splash" with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. He seemed to find some fun watching me watching the movie, which I did, since there was nothing else to do. On the other hand, the motion picture story about a mermaid in New York was unintelligible. Daryl Hannah's tail was much too short.

We landed in a big city named Chicago and had to hurry to catch the next plane. At least we hadn't to check in any luggage, neither mermaids nor men needed that much stuff while travelling. Besides, I didn't even own so many clothes to fill a suitcase. Shopping means that I had to be in contact with strangers, shop assistants trying to sell me something that cost a huge amount of money just because it was made by someone named Gucci or Versace. Somewhere in the sea there was a whole shipping container full of dresses, shirts, pants of those brands which fell of a ship coming from China. The container was never lifted, so the clothes in it couldn't be that valuable. That container was the source of the Versace shirt that I was wearing now, and it didn't look like trash at all.

I have been out of the water often enough to withstand the dryness and the itching rash that came with being on land. Still I was relieved when we left the airport in Seattle and I could smell the ocean nearby.

"Isn't 'Sixt' a place where we can rent a car?" I asked, pointing in the direction to the sign.

Andrea nodded; he seemed to be very tired. "Shouldn't we go and find a motel and sleep a bit? Also, I need a shower!" he complained.

But my strange alertness has never left me, I was still eager to get to Bristol cove, so I just walked towards the shop, Andrea in my wake. With the magic of a credit card, they handed us the keys to a car. I took them and we walked to the parking lot. We just got a random car, a Toyota, nothing special. Of course it had GPS, so it was easy to enter the address of Helen Hawkin's Shop and just start driving.

Less than an hour later we arrived at Bristol Cove. Andrea even fell asleep while I was driving, a thing that never had happened before. I parked the car near the curb opposite of the shop and was ready to wake Andrea, when I saw her.

She was smaller than me, but her huge, light blue eyes, her movements gave it away. I automatically let out a hiss. Next to her, a girl with light brown skin was following the alpha into the shop. I wasn't here to confront anyone. I let Andrea sleep and slowly stepped out of the car. The keys I let in the ignition, then I crossed the street.

Carefully and silently I opened the door to the shop and looked inside. The two girls, the mermaid and the human, had their backs to me, but I could see Helen Hawkins behind the counter. She didn't look at me, and they were talking.

"Where's Ben?" Helen asked the dark-eyed girl.

"He is with Xander in the hospital. How about the Sarge?" she answered.

"Oh, he is strong. He was badly hurt and lost a lot of blood, but it was right to bring him to me," Helen said with her eyes on the mermaid.

I took a step towards them.

Helen saw me first. Her face changed with the recognition of what I was, and the small mermaid turned around. I stopped and raised my hands as a gesture of peace. When the small girl saw me, she hissed and launched herself at me. I anticipated that reaction and stabilized my chance, so she crashed into me without that we fell. At the same time, I crossed my hands in front of my collarbone, palms towards her, elbows outwards, raising my head to expose my throat – I hoped that I would still be able to break her neck when she really would bite.

But she didn't, instead she backed off without letting me out of her gaze.

"Hi," I said. "My name is Lele and I'm from the Mediterranean."

The two human women just stared at me, and the mermaid seemed to relax a bit. She was the first to speak to me.

"What do you want?"

"I heard about what happened here. I want... I don't know. You fight."

The small mermaid was still gazing into my eyes. "Yes."

"You sank that ship?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"They were killing us. They wanted to destroy our home."

I could smell the fear of the two humans now. What were they afraid of? I was not hostile, and we were not in the ocean, I wasn't breaching anyone's territory. Unless the cute little alpha had hers stretched out to the land.

"How did you do that?"

"Ben and Maddie help." Her head made the tiniest movement towards the dark-haired girl next to her.

At that moment, the bells from the shop's door chimed.

"Lele, non puoi lasciarmi solo in macchina…" he trailed off, when he got the situation in the shop. He stared at the other mermaid.

"Oh, you are another one," he said.

"A mermaid in Versace!" was the first thing Helen said.