As soon as Alastor left for work, Beth and Charlie went down to the beach for a long awaited afternoon of swimming together carelessly. Unfortunately this would lead to them not being very cautious about what or rather who was nearby. Mr. Pentious of all people was out fishing, method he often used to ease his nerves after a long day of dealing with Valentino. Today was especially awful because Valentino had berated and barked at him for failing to find another creature to put in his circus.
"Stupid Val." He groaned. "Why doesn't he just go find a new act by himself?"
He cast out the line of his fishing pole and then patiently waited for a bite. After five minutes had passed he felt a pull. A very strong pull. He firmly gripped the fishing pull and reeled in the line as fast as possible. But what was caught on the other end of the quickly pulled back, trying to escape.
"Whoa! This one must be huge!" Mr. Pentious said excitedly.
He put up a good fight but in the end his prey proved to be the superior one in strength. Mr. Pentious was suddenly jerked out of the boat and smack into the sea which caused him to see the most remarkable creature imaginable.
Caught on his fishing hook was the fin of Charlie, the real live mermaid. Not a fish. Not a dolphin. Not a sea turtle. A being with the upper half body of a woman and the lower half body of a fish. He couldn't believe his eyes. Now he knew mermaids were real but he never thought one would actually come this close to human civilization.
He reached to grab her but her unexpected exposure to him caused her to panic, she moved quick and smacked him with her tail, swimming away from him faster than any sea creature he had ever encountered. Now lucky thing Mr. Pentious was a good swimmer and had not been knocked out by the hit for if he had become in danger of drowning, Charlie would have gone back to save him and that would have given him the perfect opportunity to capture her. However that didn't mean such an opportunity wouldn't arise in the future.
"A mermaid!" He declared when he came up to the surface to breathe. "There's a mermaid here! Ha! Valentino is going to owe me big time for this!"
He turned on the motor of his boat and began searching for her, but Charlie wasn't in the water anymore. As soon as she swam far enough from the man, she pulled herself on to a rock by the shore and Beth quickly covered her with the beach towel she brought.
"Did he get a good look at you?" Beth asked her.
"I don't know if he look at me long enough to remember what I look like but he looked long enough to recognize what I am." Charlie said cover her head with the towel.
"Let's not panic. Panicking has never solved anything."
"What if he looks for me?"
"We'll make sure he doesn't find you?"
"How?"
"Easy. We'll stay out of the ocean for awhile."
"Stay out of the ocean? For how long? I can't stay out too long. My skin and my scales are so used to salt water. If I stay out too long it'll become dreadfully sore and blistered."
"I don't mean to sound insensitive but you may have to deal with that. If you're caught by whoever saw you out there, you may never see the ocean again. Now I know you're trying to prove that human beings are good and they are but some of them are very bad like your parents believe. You're going to have to be very careful for a few days."
"But what if he looks for me on land?"
"Why would he look for you on land? He saw you in the ocean and he doesn't know you can grow legs. If he looks for you he'll look in the ocean and only in the ocean. That's why you're safer staying on land."
"I suppose that makes sense." Charlie agreed reluctantly. "Alright, if you truly believe that's safer method then I'll stay out of the ocean. But I really hope this doesn't last very long. My people say that if mermaid with legs is without the moisture of seawater very long, it will cause every footstep she takes to feel as though she's walking on broken glass."
Charlie and Beth stayed hidden until sundown. By then Mr. Pentious was long gone and the girls could retreat to the house without being seen or followed. They locked all the doors and windows just as Alastor had requested, fixed themselves a few sandwiches for dinner, and decided to watch a quick movie before bed. The movie was Free Willy, one of Beth's personal favorites. Charlie found the movie particularly sweet and moving.
They went to sleep afterward, Beth in her bed and Charlie on the couch. The night was mostly peaceful and there was no unexpected visit from the strange white-haired man Alastor had spoken of. But a little around eleven, Charlie woke to the familiar itch of wanting to immerse herself in sea water. She tried to ignore it but the urge just refused to let her have any peace unless she satisfied it. She may not be able to go into the ocean right now but there were ways to substitute.
She quietly grabbed a salt shaker from the kitchen and went into the bathroom. She had seen Beth take a bath and memorized how the functions of the tub worked. She turned on the faucets, put down the stopper, and mixed in a few handfuls of salt with the water. Soon a nice, hot bath of saltwater had been drawn for her. She eagerly disregarded her new nightgown and settled herself into the tub. Just like with this afternoon, her legs were immediately changed back into a fish tail once she made contact with the water and she began to carefully comb her long hair with a brush she grabbed from the sink counter-top.
Soaking in hot water was unlike anything she had ever felt. It was so soothing, relieving the tension in her muscles and easing a lot of pain she had in her body. Most notably the nasty cut she received on her fin from that awful hook and while salt would further induce agony on the open wound of human, it caused no feeling at all to Charlie's kind. And in that moment Charlie felt so relaxed that she started to become sleepy again. She probably would have ended up falling asleep in the bath but something would soon interrupt her late night soak.
That something was Alastor coming home from work. He quietly unlocked the front door and re-locked it, quietly entered the house, and quietly crept over to Beth's room. He gave the door a small creak just to check on her and he was pleased to find her sound asleep in bed. He smiled and carefully closed the bedroom door.
Next he went to his own bedroom and proceeded to undress for the remainder of the night. He had just slipped on his grey sweat pants when he heard the sound of water splashing at the end of the hall. He slowly and discreetly walked down that hall and when he reached the end he discovered that the couch in the living room was empty and that the bathroom light was on. Was that Charlie in there? He knocked on the door.
"Charlie?" He called.
Charlie sat up in startled.
"Alastor?!" She replied.
"Yes. What are you doing sweetheart?"
"Taking a bath."
"This late? A little odd, don't you think?"
"Well I've never been much for orthodox methods." Her tone sounded nervous.
"Oh well if you insist on being unorthodox why don't you let me come in and join you?"
He meant it as a joke but Charlie didn't understand and became frantic.
"No!" She cried desperately and forced herself out of the tub, landing hard the floor which made a loud noise. A loud noise that unsettled Alastor.
"What was that?" He asked concerned. "Charlie are you alright?"
"Everything's fine!" She grabbed the nearest towel and rapidly rubbed it all over herself. However moving at such haste caused her to aggravate her cut and she let a sound signifying pain slip from her mouth "Ow!"
"What is it?" Alastor asked.
"Nothing!"
"You said ow."
"No I didn't!"
"Yes you did! Are you sure you're alright? Are you hurt?"
He tried to open the door but it was locked.
"No Alastor I'm not hurt."
"Well when you're decent would you mind letting me in, just to make sure?"
"That's not necessary. You just go on to bed and I'll see you in the morning."
"Enough is enough Charlie, something is wrong. I can hear it in your voice and I'm not leaving from this spot until I know what's going on in there."
"I told you nothing! Leave!"
The towels weren't working quick enough. She needed something else. Something like that hair dryer she saw Beth use. She grabbed it from the counter-top so fast that she knocked over the glass soap bottle and it shattered on the floor. The sound of glass breaking only furthered Alastor's worry.
"Alright Charlie this is getting scary! You either open up this door or I'm gonna break it down!" Alastor demanded.
She plugged in the hair dryer, turned it on high, and ran it up and down over her tail.
"No Alastor please!" She pleaded.
"Alright that's it!"
"Alastor no!"
"Forgive me if I see something private but you've convinced me that this is a life or death matter!"
Alastor stepped back and started to run up to the door, banging his shoulder against it. Three times he failed but come the fourth try he managed to get the door open. There he found Charlie lying on the floor, wrapped in a towel. His eyes scanned the room for any sign of something that indicated an emergency but nothing seemed serious save for the broken glass and spilled soap on the floor.
"Are you okay?" He asked Charlie.
"Yeah, I told you I was fine." She smiled nervously and sat up, her legs now evident underneath the towel.
"Well why didn't you let me in?"
"I...I...When I accidentally broke your...Your...Your bottle thingy."
"You mean the soap dispenser?"
"Yes! The soap dispenser! I was afraid you would get so angry and shout and wake up Beth and I...I just thought this would be better handled in the morning. I am so sorry I broke it. I'll do anything to make up for it."
"Darling forget the soap dispenser, if you had just told me that I would have just gone to bed. I wouldn't have been angry. But what you pulled back there really scared me. I thought you were seriously hurt."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry."
She stood up but gasped upon feeling the pain of her reopened wound.
"What's wrong now?" Alastor inquired.
"Again nothing."
But he saw the blood on her toes.
"What happened here?"
"I guess I may have stepped on the glass a little."
"That looks pretty bad. We better get you fixed up."
"That's not-"
But he had already scooped her up into his arms and was carrying her into the living room where he would see to her injury. The whole time she thoughtlessly enjoyed the touch of his bare, sinewy arms on her skin.