Save the Manatee!

(June 8, 2015)

6: Sunburn and Starshine

Dipper had been back home at the Shack for an hour when Teek drove into the lot in his Focus and Mabel climbed out, went around to the driver's window, and leaned in to kiss him. Dipper, staring out the upstairs window—the one with the window seat, the one that looked something like Bill Cipher—saw the kiss and saw his sister come bopping in as Teek drove off. Dipper went back to his bedroom and sat down on the foot of his bed, opening his latest Journal and pretending to write in it.

He heard Mabel pounding up the stairs, and a moment later the door burst open. "Hiya, Broman!" Mabel said, trotting across the floor to throw herself onto her old bed, making the springs squeak. "Ooo! I had such a great day!"

"You look kind of sunburned," Dipper said, laying his Journal aside, and it was true. Mabel's face was a bright, hot, pink.

"Yeah, I did, a little," she said, pressing her finger against her sunburned calf and watching the skin turn pale from the pressure before the sunburn flooded it pink again.

Dipper said, with a tiny sarcastic edge, "I thought you had sunscreen."

She missed his tone and just shrugged. "Yeah, I did, but you know, what with the excitement of the moment and seeing Teek again, and having him all to myself for six hours, I just forgot."

"Mm-hmm."

Mabel raised herself up on one elbow. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Dipper said. "I just—I worry about you, you know? I mean, you've had so many bad romances—"

Mabel blew a raspberry: "Phbbblt! Come on, Dipper, this is Teek we're talking about! He's a perfect gentleman! What, do you actually believe that when we got way out on the lake, I tried to talk him into stripping so we could skinny-dip? 'Cause he totally wouldn't do that."

"No, I didn't—wait, why did you sound so disappointed at the end there? Did you ask him to—"

"Dipper!" Mabel got off her old bed and crossed to sit beside him on the foot of his. "Get real. Are we really gonna do this? Fight about who I like, I mean? I never ask you details about your love life, do I?"

"No," Dipper admitted. "You just make them up."

Ignoring the last part, Mabel added, "And you like Teek, don't you?"

Dipper shrugged. "Yeah, he's a great guy. His wearing Robbie's old hoodie sort of touched a nerve, I have to admit. And really, I'm kinda surprised you like him so much. I mean, let's be honest, he's frankly a little bit of a dweeb."

She laughed. "Dweeb? That's a Wendy word! Anyways, yeah, I know, he's kinda awkward and dorky, but he's kind and considerate, and we're real fond of each other. Still not sure it's true love, but I like what we got. OK, I'm not gonna do this all summer, but I'll tell you this one time: Teek and me are behaving ourselves."

"Teek and I," Dipper said automatically.

Silence weighed heavy for a few seconds. "Yeah, you probably wouldn't even hold my hand if we were standing in the Zodiac and Bill Cipher was about to kill us all, huh?" Mabel asked, getting a little huffy.

Dipper felt a sudden pang as he remembered the foolish argument between Stan and Ford that had nearly doomed the Earth itself. "Sorry. Uh. I—Mabel, I'm sorry I said that."

He had another flash of memory: Back when he and Mabel were twelve, not long after Stanley's thirty-year effort had finally repaired the Portal and rescued his long-lost twin brother from an insane wilderness of dimensions, Stan and Ford had endlessly and bitterly argued—Stan resentful that Ford didn't even appreciate his dedication and struggle, Ford incensed that Stanley had done something that threatened the very fabric of reality.

Back then, an apprehensive Mabel had asked Dipper, "You don't think we'll turn out like Ford and Stan, do you?" He had assured her that the two of them would never get all stupid.

Now he sadly muttered, "I worry about you, OK? But you and me—we're still best friends."

Mabel smiled. "I see what you did there, Brobro." Then she asked softly, "Gonna see Wendy tonight?"

"Yeah, she's coming over later," Dipper said. "She's gonna catch us up on Gideon and his werewolf problem. And I've got some progress to report in the manatee kidnapping, but not a whole lot."

"Oh! Oh!" Mabel said, bouncing on the bed. "That reminds me! I talked to Mr. Poolcheck before Teek drove us back. I explained that I needed to get into the pool area once a day to check for messages, and we have a standing appointment now for me to be over there at eight-thirty every morning and he'll let me in, 'cause he's tired of collecting the bottles, he says! I start tomorrow!"

"Uh—way to go, I guess," Dipper said. "But be careful. I don't think the guy's too emotionally stable."

"I won't alienate him! Did you know one of his hands is—"

"Bio-mechanical, yes," Dipper said. "Accident with the pool filter a few years back. Did you know Fiddleford made his prosthetic?"

"No! Wow!"

"Yeah, it's one of Fiddleford's patents now. Anyway, I can tell you about what Ford and I are planning, or maybe better, we could wait until Wendy gets here so I'll only have to go through it once."

"I'll wait," Mabel said, squirming. "Ouch! Do you mind—?"

She didn't wait to find out whether he did or didn't, but pulled her blue sweater—the sun reflecting on water—over her head. "Oof! My arms are stinging."

"Sunburned," Dipper said. Both of her arms looked painfully pink. He stared at the point where the pink vanished under the sleeve of her white undershirt.

And she caught him staring. "Oh, for Pete's sake!" She reached over and pulled the sleeve up three inches. The sunburn ended in a crisp line and her pale skin began again. "See? No skinny-dipping!"

"Sorry," Dipper said again.

"Yeah," she said, sounding a little down. "He wouldn't. It's OK, though." She brightened immediately. "We got a whole summer to go!"

"Yeah," Wendy said that afternoon as they sat in the bonfire glade, "So Gideon didn't change when the moon was full last week. He got real edgy, his folks say, and paced around for about two hours, feelin' off and havin', like, stomach pains, but he didn't grow a tail or fangs or anything. Ulva, though—she had to go into the cage. I mean, she turns into a full-body wolf! Can't turn back until the moon's past full again, at least without straining herself.."

"I can't get over Gideon being a werewolf," Mabel said.

"Show her the video," Dipper told Wendy. To Mabel, he explained, "Same set-up as the one we saw the next night, when nothing happened. Grunkle Ford had a camera in Gideon's room, and Wendy got a copy so I could see it. Grunkle Ford couldn't figure out how to attach one to an email."

Wendy pulled out her phone. "This was back in May," she said. It was, what, Dip? The sixth transformation for him?"

"Fifth," Dipper corrected. "If it had been the sixth, it would have been a lot harder to cure him. And if it had gone on for a year, probably no cure would have worked."

"What happened to Gideon last year?" Mabel asked, holding Wendy's phone and gazing at the screen. "He looks so much better!"

"Just wait," Dipper said.

On the phone screen, Gideon, in a large metal dog kennel—though it was inside a room—twitched, blinked, jerked, and changed, ripping off his shirt—or pajama top, it looked like—and then writhing as his ears elongated and sprouted fur, his nose blackened and became a dog-like squashed orb, his teeth transformed into fangs, and he grew hair all over his torso and face. The video ended abruptly.

"See?" Dipper asked. "Not so hot when he's all furry."

"Yeah, that's what you think," Mabel said, handing the phone back to Wendy. "Rrrow! Who's Ulva?"

"I told you about her," Dipper reminded her. "She's a Gravity Falls werewolf. Girl about thirteen or fourteen, but both of her parents are lycans—that means full-transformation werewolf, one that can take wolf shape, not just become a hairy human monster—and her dad's dead and her mother's missing, and she seems to have imprinted on Gideon."

"Like a tattoo?" Mabel asked.

"Nah," Wendy said. "Like—well, remember how you and Waddles got so close so fast? Or like a puppy decidin' the kid in the family is its best friend forever. When her pack threw her out, she didn't have anywhere to belong, so she came lookin' for Gideon. His family's taken her in temporarily, and I'm really kinda worried about her—with her right there in the house and so, so devoted to him, it'd be easy for Gideon to take advantage of her."

"Wendy and I kinda thought that trying to find Ulva's mother would be our first investigation," Dipper said. "But then this Mermando business came along—"

"Don't scratch it, girl," Wendy said, and Mabel stopped scraping her bare arms.

Mabel had not donned another sweater, and grimacing, she rubbed her sunburn. "It hurts now," she said. "And it's itchy."

"I'll drive you back to the house and give you something for that," Wendy told her. "My aunt Sally gave me a recipe years ago. Aloe, tea, witch hazel, some other ingredients. It's a lotion that really helps. Are you drinkin' lots of water?"

"Uh, not more than normal—"

"OK, before we go, you drink at least twelve ounces of water, then twelve ounces every other hour, all day," Wendy said. "Keep hydrated. Tonight, don't take a shower, take a cool bath, no soap or bubble bath. Instead, pour a cup of apple cider vinegar in the tub. Then before you go to bed, rub in some of the aloe lotion I'll give you. And wear sunscreen from now on!"

"Teek got sunburned, too," Mabel said.

"They forgot to put on the sunscreen," Dipper told Wendy.

"I'll give you enough lotion so you guys can share," Wendy said. "Remember, when you're out on the water, you got the reflected sun as well as the normal sun. It's twice as easy to get sunburned. Girl, you are gonna peel like crazy—and Robbie and Tambry's wedding is coming up on Friday!"

"I forgot!" Mabel said. "And my dress is sleeveless!"

"Nobody will be looking at you," Dipper said.

"They better be!" Mabel retorted.

"It's OK," Wendy assured her. "This is Gravity Falls. People have seen worse. I remember when the woodpecker guy got married, his mother-in-law was moulting."

"All right, all right," Dipper said. "Let's do wedding plans later. I'll wrap this up." He had notes, and flipping through them, he quickly filled the two girls in on what he and Ford had discovered about the possible buyer of the illegally-caught manatee. As he finished, he added, "Stan says that he'll go along if we want to use the Stan O'War II. We're not sure, but there's like a fifty-fifty chance that the ship transporting Sirenia hasn't reached port yet. It has a long way to go, and it touches at a bunch of places between Key West—that's where it would have sailed from—and Seattle. Ford's gonna try to track down its shipping records between now and tomorrow noon."

"And I still have my job in the Shack to do," Wendy said. "Man, these first weeks of May are crazy! And it just gets worse up past the Fourth of July. Dip, can you help out tomorrow in the gift shop?"

"Sure," he told her.

"I'll help Teek in the snack bar!" Mabel volunteered.

Wendy stood up. "OK, let's go over to Casa Catastrophe before the sun goes down. Oh, you guys will have to excuse the stink over there. I spent two hours gutting, filleting, and skinning fish!"

Manly Dan, proud of his catch, invited the Pines twins to stay for a fish dinner. Dipper helped Wendy fry the fillets, while Mabel played a video game with the two younger Corduroy boys. Though fish wasn't her favorite food, Mabel had to admit that the rainbow trout fillets were mouth-watering. After the meal, Dan and the boys lounged in front of the TV, while Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy cleaned up.

Wendy mixed the sunburn lotion, poured it into a clean bottle that had once held salad dressing and capped it, made Mabel drink another glass of water, and then drove the twins back over to the Mystery Shack. "Now," she told Mabel, "You go run a tub of cool water, pour in a cup of apple cider vinegar—I know there's an unopened gallon jug in the pantry, bottom shelf, left side—and soak in that for about fifteen minutes. Then pat dry and rub on the lotion wherever you're burned. You need me to do your back?"

"Back's not burned," Mabel said. "Just my neck, face, arms, and legs. Same with Teek."

"Aw, too bad," Wendy said with a grin.

"Don't get her started," Dipper warned.

"Well, use the lotion, wear somethin' soft to sleep in, and you'll start to feel better in a day or two."

"Thanks," Mabel said, going inside.

Night had fallen. Dipper and Wendy walked out to the clearing and sat on the log, alone, as the stars came out. "So," Dipper said, "Dad knows about us."

Wendy sighed. "Yeah, he kinda jumped me back when you were in the hospital with your twisted ankle," Wendy said. "I guess I was off my guard, worried about you and all, and I spilled the beans. But he's OK with it. He told me he's a little younger'n your mom."

"That's something I didn't know," Dipper admitted. "I always thought they were the same age—I mean, they celebrate their birthdays, but they never mention their ages."

"Yeah, well, now you know," she said. "Might be worth rememberin' when you turn eighteen and we tell her about our plans."

He reached to hold her hand. –Are you and I going to keep doing crazy investigations like this later on? he asked her mentally.

He felt her warm affection, touched with fond amusement: I hope so! I get a kick out of it—'specially because I can see how excited you get, Dip.

—Ford warns me that if I make a career out of this, seventy per cent of the population will think I'm a crank or a nutcase.

Screw 'em. I'll never think that, though.

—Thanks, Magic Girl! Hey, my folks shipped my guitar up. I've got about a dozen songs I want to play for you when we get time.

I'd like that, Dip. But tomorrow looks like it's gonna shape up to be a long day. Maybe we should—

—Say goodnight. Dipper sighed.

Wendy chuckled softly. "Not what I was gonna say, dude," she whispered in his ear. Then, through their contact telepathy, she clarified: I was gonna say maybe we should get . . . busy.

When she kissed him, he tasted the peppermint candy she had been holding in her mouth.

Very sweet.