John pushed Ondine back toward her house, knocking on the gate. They waited a few minutes for Vera to emerge, sucking on a fag and holding her dressing gown closed. She pulled open the gate and Ondine rolled herself in.

Vera dipped to give her a kiss on the head, holding her cigarette away before flicking the ashes off toward the side. "Go on inside and rest sweetheart. I'll have dinner ready for you in a few minutes."

Ondine aimed her chair for the door, "See you tomorrow Dad."

"I love you." John leaned over the gate, to place his own kiss on Ondine's dark head, and watched her go into the house. He turned back at Vera clearing her throat. "What?"

"Did you get there in time to talk to him?"

"I did."

Vera stared at him before waving her hands, "And?"

"He said that, for now, she's strong enough for the treatment and we can continue with dialysis without too many problems."

"But there's no transplant available?"

"No, not as yet." John shrugged, "If you want to blame me-"

"Why waste my breath cursing your dearly departed mother for the weak kidneys she cursed my daughter to have?" Vera puffed at her fag before flicking it toward the harbor. "I already make sure I pray she never found her way into heaven when I kneel down at night."

"I doubt that's what you do when you kneel down." John muttered.

"You want to repeat that again?"

"No." John sighed, "I do need to talk to you about Richard."

"What? Want a piece of our action?" Vera leered at him. "He's open to experimentation."

"I need to make sure you're aware that Ondine can hear you at night. Try to keep your nighttime activities to a minimum when she's in the house."

"That's difficult since she sleeps here and so she's always in the house. The chair's a bit restrictive."

"Then let me take her a few nights a week."

"You?" Vera barked her laugh, "Where you going to keep her? On your shite boat?"

"I've got my mother's house."

"I don't want her in that trap."

"Then try to keep your relationship with Richard where Ondine doesn't have to hear it." John held up his hands, "That's all I'm asking."

"Then you're wasting your breath." Vera went back inside, slamming the screen door in its place.

John returned to his truck, driving into the back hills around the harbor toward his mother's house. He parked just in sight of the house and made sure to approach where he could be seen from the door. His knuckles rapped the door and he waited for her to open it.

The hinges creaked a bit and he winced at the sound. Her face peeked through the opening and he waved at her. She pulled it all the way open and he slipped inside so she could shut the door and lock it securely.

"You're late." Her voice was barely a whisper but John caught it and turned to the clock.

"I know. Things didn't go well with my ex-wife."

"Ex-wife?"

"I told you I had a daughter." John went to the stove and fridge, pulling fridge open to see what was available.

"I just thought that meant you had a wife too."

"Had is the operative word in that sentence." John took a gander through the cabinets and finally found a few packages of something. "We're not on speaking terms on the best of days."

"And the worst?"

"I dodge missiles." John filled a pot and turned on the stove. He peeked over his shoulder at her, a blanket wrapped around her. The same blanket from earlier. "What about you, have you got a family?"

"I've got no one." She made a face, "No one that cares about me."

"No one?" John paused, turning away from the stove. "I pull you up in my net and you've got no one?"

She frowned, "That's right, no one."

"You've got me… for as long as you might need someone. I hope."

She shook her head, "I couldn't ask that of anyone."

"Why?" John folded his arms over his chest, "Have you got some dark secret or something that'd make it difficult?"

"We've all got those." She adjusted in the seat. "But what we learn to keep them to ourselves."

"That we do." John started at the sound of the boiling water and dumped a packet of noodles into the water. "Sorry it's simple tonight but I forgot how much I don't have here."

"You don't live here then?"

"No. I've got a flat near the harbor but I'm usually on my boat so it doesn't ten to matter." John stirred the noodles and examined his other ingredients. "Are you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"What you were doing in my net?" John turned the heat down, keeping the noodles on a simmer while he arranged the potential additives for a sauce.

"Drowning." Anna pulled the blanket closer, "I thought that was obvious when you were giving me CPR."

"I meant what you did to get in my net and make so I was giving you CPR." John pulled the noodles off, straining them into the sink before adding the other packets to give it sauce.

"Swimming." She shrugged, "Just not as well as I thought I could."

John found two bowls and some mismatched spoons, putting them on the table before dishing out the contents. "Sorry, it's not the best but it's about as good as I can do for now."

"It's enough." Anna reached for her bowl but the blanket slipped a bit. She grabbed it back, holding it in place.

John slid the bowl forward, managing a weak smile at her. "You're still wearing the blanket."

"My clothes are getting washed." She nudged her shoulder in the direction of the washer. "I don't have anything else."

"My mother left some clothes but I don't know how well they'd fit you."

"I know." She smiled, "I looked for something but for as small as I am I'm still not short enough to fit into her clothes."

"I can get you some, in town, if you need."

"That'd be nice. Thank you." She held her blanket closed with one hand and pulled the spoon to her mouth with the other. "And whatever you made is fine. It's not like I have a great option anyway."

"Thanks very much." John snorted.

For half a moment there was fear on Anna's face before she started laughing with him. "I'm sorry, that's not what I meant."

"It's fine." John waved a hand, "It's not any great feast."

"It's more than enough."

They sat in silence a moment before John spoke again, "What were you doing swimming in those waters?"

"Why does anyone ever swim?"

"In this case I'm only curious as to why you were swimming in water like this." John waved a hand out the window toward the harbor. "People die when they're beaten on those rocks."

"Your waves are relentless." She agreed, pushing her bowl away. "However I'm curious why you care."

"Because I found you in my net and brought you back to life." John shrugged, "My daughter thinks you're a selkie but I don't know many water-based creatures who sound like they're from the North."

"A lot of places have a north."

"I mean like the north of England." John smiled to himself, "I hope you didn't swim from somewhere like Liverpool."

"I'm not from Liverpool." Anna shifted in the blanket. "I'm from Scarborough."

"You didn't swim from there did you?"

"No."

"Then from where?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does to me." John shrugged, "Am I to assume you're a selkie, like my daughter thinks you are?"

"I thought we were keeping this a secret."

"My daughter thinks you're part of a story I told her. She doesn't know you're real." He smiled, "Why else would she think the woman a fisherman pulled up in his net was a selkie? Whatever a selkie is."

"It's a water-bound creature kind of like a mermaid." Anna sighed, "It's said that a selkie looks like a seal until they decide to take human form."

"Is that what you did? Come from the water in my net and turn from a seal into a woman?"

"If I did then I was escaping something." She sighed again, "I think I'd rather like to get some sleep now. If that's alright with you."

"It's fine." John stood up, pointing to a back room, "There's a-"

"A bed, I know." She kept her tight grip on her blanket. "Thank you for dinner John, and for keeping my secret."

"It's no trouble at all." John opened his hands before clapping his hands together. "It's probably the best company I've had lately."

"Then I pity the company you're forced to keep." She barely smiled, "I'm not good company."

"You've been pleasurable company thus far."

"I'll try not to disappoint in future then." Anna nodded at him, "Goodnight John."

"Goodnight."

John waited until he heard the door close and took the dishes off the table. He washed up before leaving the house. His truck rumbled and rattled back to his flat but he found the place too small and dark when he entered.

With a sigh he dropped onto his sofa.

The vibrating of his phone woke him. He cracked his neck, stretching out before glaring at the sofa. Grabbing the phone he swiped it to the side and answered while massaging at the bridge of his nose.

"Hello?"

"She's got an appointment."

"What?" John squinted at the stove clock, "It's six in the bloody morning."

"And they called me at five thirty so stop your whinging." John could hear the distinctive exhale of cigarette smoke on the other end of the line. "They said they forgot something you'll need for her. Something the system got for her."

"Like what?"

"Not new kidneys thanks to you."

John groaned, closing his eyes a moment before responding, "What is it Vera?"

"They've got her a chair."

"She's already got a chair."

"Don't you think I know she's already got a chair. It's taking up space in my fecking house so I know she's got a bloody chair." Another drag on a fag before an exhale. "It's a motorized one. They need you to pick it up for her. If you bring it round before seven thirty she could have it at school."

"You want me to go now?"

"Yes now. Why else would I call?"

"Fine, fine." John stood, "I'll take care of it."

"You're finally taking care of something."

"What's that?"

"You heard me."

"I did and it's a bloody lie. I take her to every appointment, every dialysis treatment, every-"

The line went dead and John threw his phone back onto the sofa. He grunted at it, trying to control his anger, and kicked the edge of his coffee table, sending it skidding over the floor to leave a dent in the wall. After pacing the room a moment he gathered his phone, quickly changed his clothes, and left his flat.

He almost missed her. With the hospital staff insisting on triple checking forms and signing everything in triplicate he barely made it before Ondine caught the transport to school. He lifted the chair from the back of his truck and steered it toward her, giving a short how-to lesson before she drove it into the back of the paratransit bus.

Smiling to himself he waved to her on the bus a moment before he noticed the distinct scent of nicotine. He rounded on Vera, puffing away on her fag. With a sniff he scoffed.

"You on the piss?"

"So what if I am?"

"Remember the last time you were on the piss with her in the house?"

"It's not like that anymore."

"Why, because Dick's there for you?" John pointed at the house, "I don't want that man near my daughter."

"Well it's not up to you now is it?" Vera blew a cloud of smoke in his face. "The judge gave me custody of her, not you."

"And if I called for a reevaluation?"

Vera laughed, "This is Ireland Batesy. No one in their right mind's going to give care of a crippled girl to a father who works on a fishing trawler."

"She's not and they might."

"As if." She dropped the fag and ground it into the asphalt. "You lost her because you were a fool."

"No, I lost her because I stopped being a bad parent." John shook his head, "What is it that about me wanting to be a better father for her? About wanting to clean up my act when we came back from drinking to find her passed out on the floor? When I wanted to stop hopping bars with you so I could care for our little girl laying in a hospital bed with tubes cleaning her blood for her? What was it? Tell me."

Vera blew out her last stream of smoke, "You weren't fun anymore."

"And that's more important than our little girl?" Vera shrugged and John waved a hand at her, "You always were a bitch Vera. I'm just sorry it's Ondine who's paying for me not seeing it sooner."

"It's not my fault she's the way she is Batesy. That's on you and your family." John walked back to his truck, glared out the windshield as Vera slammed her hands on the hood. "She's dying because of you."

John drove away without looking back.