John tucked his hands into the top of his coveralls as the woman tallied up the take. She raised her eyebrows at him, marking something on her sheet, and finally tore the receipt from the pad. When she handed it over John folded it up and tucked it into his pocket.
"Quite a haul you brought in Mr. Bates."
"That it is Mrs. Hughes." John smiled at her. "Best I've had in weeks."
"Got a secret you want to share?"
"Just got a bit of magic with me today I guess." John nodded, "Good to see you Mrs. Hughes."
"And you Mr. Bates. Tell Ondine we miss her helping us weigh the catch on the weekends."
"She's been so busy with all her school work."
"She's not even eleven?" Mrs. Hughes let out a disapproving huff, "What've they got kids doing in school these days that they're so trapped in there they can't get out to actually learn?"
"I know." John agreed, "But I'll see if she wants it again this summer."
"You'd better. We could use some of her cheer in here."
John waved to Mrs. Hughes on his way out of the building and jogged to his truck. With a quick stop at the bank to exchange his check for cash, he checked his watch before driving to the school. The lot still had space at the handicapped parking and he took the tag from the glove box to dangle from his mirror.
As he got out of the truck he heard a voice call to him. John turned, smiling and walking toward an older man with gray hair. "Headmaster Carson, it's a pleasure to see you."
"Then you react better than half my students who all quake in fear of me." Headmaster Carson pursed his lips, bringing his ferocious eyebrows back enough on his face not to join his nose in making him appear more imposing. "Except your Ondine. She's a firecracker herself and I only succeed I making her laugh."
Jon winced, "I hope she's not been to much of a handful. I know she's got a bit of a mouth of her but-"
"No, no," Carson waved a hand, smiling to himself, "She's a joy to have. Bright, driven, and one of our best students in her year."
"You think she'll be ready for secondary school then?"
"More than. Though that depends on where she hopes to go."
"Ondine's always loved reading and I've always hoped she'd want to be a teacher or something but lately she's been on about being a therapist or a doctor so who knows." John turned his head as the school bell rung, "Excuse me Headmaster, I'd best go get her."
"You should." Carson nodded him along and John worked his way closer to the yard.
The deluge of children emptying from the school almost drove him back but he saw Ondine driving her chair through the crowd and splitting the sea. John laughed to himself as she steered it, waving at him. He waved back, putting his hands on his hips when she stopped right next to him
"You're ready to take over the town in that."
"How about I race you home in it?"
John turned his head up, "Wait about five minutes for this lot to clear out so I don't run over them in my effort to beat you."
"I'll wait with you then."
They chatted next to the truck until the lot cleared and John climbed into his truck. Ondine waited for him to turn the truck around, the two of them lined at the exit. John rolled down his window, calling to her over the seats.
"You say when."
"Alright, three, two, go." She started off, not speeding too quickly but fast enough that John kept up a good clip in his truck as he matched speed.
"You like the chair then?"
"It's the best thing I've ever had."
"Are you telling me health services got you a better gift than I ever did?" John exhaled his gasp of surprise, trying to hide his smile at Ondine's cackle of glee. "Better than when I got you Harry Potter? Better than Artemis Fowl?"
"Those don't let me spin circles around people."
"That's true," John conceded, turning a corner to follow Ondine. "But I've got a message for you from Mrs. Hughes."
"Have you?"
"She wants you to come back and work there on the weekends. Says her work's just too dismal without you there to cheer her up."
"Maybe this weekend I can go and read to her while she works."
"What're you reading now then?"
"Books on selkies."
John paused, "Why's that?"
"Because your story yesterday."
"Was it that interesting?"
"You're already a fisherman Da, don't fish for compliments too." Ondine pulled to a stop at a light. "Is there more to it?"
"More to what?"
"The story about your fisherman and the selkie?"
"Now that you mention it," John checked traffic before pulling forward again, "She sings."
"The selkie?"
"Who else?"
"Maybe your fisherman was a girl and you're being progressive."
"Progressive?"
"What if your selkie was a girl and the fisherman was a woman and they fell in love?"
"What if the selkie was a man and the fisherman was a fisherwoman?"
"Male selkies don't leave the water."
"I thought we were being progressive?" John teased, "And who said anything about love?"
"Isn't that how all fairytales end? Like the Little Mermaid or something."
"Maybe I should let the telly rot your brain a little more so you're not so smart." John laughed, "But the fisherman pulled the woman-"
"Selkie."
"Selkie, in his nets and they rode on his boat. He took her home and helped her recover some of her strength but her memory was gone."
"That's what happens when she gives up her seal coat."
"Seal coat?"
"The skin she sheds when she walks on land as a woman." Ondine crossed in front of his truck and over to the other side as they took the little hill down to her neighborhood. "If she buries the seal coat she can stay for seven years."
"Can she now?"
"If she cries her three tears then she stays with the fisherman forever."
"The selkie didn't cry for him yet but she did go out fishing with him."
"And that's when she sang?"
"That's right. A song he'd never heard before but suddenly all of his nets filled with fish and he hauled it all into his boat until it nearly split."
Ondine waited a moment, face scrunched as if thinking hard. John parked the truck, getting out to walk beside her through the warren of houses to her front door. "You know, she'd have to sing."
"Why's that?"
"It's how you communicate underwater. You can't talk down there, see, so you'd have to sing to be heard and the water carries it."
"So she sang the fish into his nets?"
"They'd trust it because she's a creature of the sea like them."
"Who's a creature of the sea?" Both Ondine and John looked up as a wiry man, with a fag hanging from the side of his mouth, came out of the house in a wife-beater and trousers with no shoes.
"Just a story." Ondine responded, "Is Mam home?"
"She's at work. Won't be back until six." The man dragged on his fag, "How're you doing Johnny?"
"Well enough. How about you Richard? You doing well?"
Richard shrugged, "It's been alright."
"How's your newspaper?"
"We're making it all work."
"Huh." John bit the inside of his cheek before turning to Ondine. "Do you want me to stay until your Mum gets back?"
"It's alright. I've got loads of school work to do."
"You sure?" Ondine nodded and John leaned down to kiss her head, "I'll see you later yeah?"
"I'll call you if I get stuck on my maths."
"I'll keep my mobile close." John gave Richard a curt nod, "Richard."
"Johnny."
John went to say something but bit back on his tongue, keeping it to himself. He waved to Ondine before he turned the corner to head back to his truck.
She tapped her fingers against the armrest of her chair before flipping the cover to check the battery. Turning the chair in place she aimed for the exit. It rumbled over the pavement while the whirring of the motor kept its own sounds to undercut the noise from driving it.
Keeping a close watch on the old, paint-chipped truck she followed its weave through town. When it stopped in front of a clothing store she eased forward enough to peek in the window. Her eyebrow went up when her father perused the women's section.
His face folded in confusion as he judged the sizes before pulling a few things down. The choices for underthings sent a streak of red over his cheeks and neck but he snatched a few options, folding them in the other clothes. She laughed to herself when he reached the register and fumbled over his money in a hurry to buy the items.
Whatever embarrassment he felt was such that he did not even see her when he went back to his truck, speeding away. But she tailed him through town, keeping just far enough back so he did not see her but close enough to follow his progress. When he wove into the hills she guessed his final destination, pumping her fist when he pulled down the gully where a small house glowed with evening light.
From her perch on the little hill she watched him exit the truck, carrying the bag of clothes, and knock on the door. The door opened and a short woman came out. He handed over the bag and followed the woman into the house.
"Curiouser and curiouser." She smiled to herself. "Da's got himself a selkie."