Part 6 (2/2)

My mouth was open, my tongue pus.h.i.+ng around against a stream of water pouring in, but not reaching my lungs. My cheeks were expanding and contracting, creating the flow. I could feel the water pa.s.sing into my throat, then pouring out of me in currents, causing movement on the sides of my neck. Fluttering, like the light waving of fingers. I felt there, felt the wounds....

That weren't wounds at all. They were- Gills.

Yep, new systems online, the new technician reported proudly. He turned and started shaking hands with everyone in the room. Thanks for your patience. Thanks for your patience.

There were a million questions, all starting with, How. How. I had no answers, and yet I didn't feel worried. And even stranger, just like last night in the shower, or even yesterday on the beach, this didn't seem surprising at all. It was almost like this was how things were I had no answers, and yet I didn't feel worried. And even stranger, just like last night in the shower, or even yesterday on the beach, this didn't seem surprising at all. It was almost like this was how things were supposed supposed to be, like my body had some plan that it was taking care of, without bothering to tell me. But it felt right, and so I followed a new urge: to be, like my body had some plan that it was taking care of, without bothering to tell me. But it felt right, and so I followed a new urge: Swim.

I kicked, moving away from sh.o.r.e. When I reached the dock, I dove under, slipping into the cooler, deeper layer. I checked for pain in my side, from the weak wall, but there was no tension there, no cramp. Without the strain of breathing, of holding air in my lungs, my whole middle was calm, working like... maybe like it was always meant to. That was how it felt. But what did that mean? All I knew was that this seemed right.

Under the lane lines now, I was picking up speed. Waving my arms laterally, kicking up and down, I rolled, looking up at the s.h.i.+mmer of the projected moon. Spinning back, I plunged into the icy depths. Felt pain in my ears, the hollow cavities there, strange human things. I couldn't see very well-my eyes were still the same normal, made-for-air kind-so I arced back up into the warmer layer. It took effort. There was no more giant held-breath balloon pulling me toward the surface. I was a weak creature of air no longer.

I curled back toward the docks. Swimming was so easy easy like this, easier than running, than walking. Nothing had ever felt this obvious. I had a growing feeling like like this, easier than running, than walking. Nothing had ever felt this obvious. I had a growing feeling like this this was my world, my domain. was my world, my domain. Interlopers beware, or I will drag you under. Interlopers beware, or I will drag you under.

I don't know how much time pa.s.sed, me looping and darting about in the dark depths, learning how to press against the fluid reality around me. I found faster ways to kick and spin, the best angles to knife up and down, learned water pressures like breezes, thermal layers like rooms in a new home....

Until sharp cracks of sound echoed from above. Groups of concussions. Footsteps on the dock. Then a crash. Something sliced into the water to my right, a trail of bubbles streaming behind it. I saw a long, male body, stabbing deep then sliding up toward the surface. More cracks, and a second breach of my subsurface world. Another male, in a cannonball tuck. Now a third diver, a girl. And another. Each pale body thrust into the depths, but didn't bob up to the surface like some air-breather. They arced and spiraled, then shot off away from the dock, disappearing in the gloom. The last girl took the longest, doing extra somersaults in the underwater free gravity, like she was enjoying it as much as I did, before kicking away.

I watched until they were swallowed by the black, then slipped after them. They were swimming beneath the surface, so I stayed deeper, just below the weak reach of the MoonGlow. As I followed them, I wondered, were they like me? Could they be? How was that possible?

A round, bloated form came into view up on the surface. The bottom of the big trampoline raft. The bodies arced up to it and dragged themselves out. Skin whined against rubber.

I darted away and slowly ascended, peeking out, only my eyes and ears above the surface, gills working safely underwater. I could see the back and shoulders of one of the girls, lounging at the edge of the giant doughnut-shaped balloon. White straps crisscrossed her back. Her hair was long and silver-edged in the moonlight. I couldn't see the second girl.

The two boys were bounding high into the air off the mesh membrane that stretched across the raft's center. One was Evan, obvious by the hourgla.s.s top of his shoulders. ”Marco! You first!” he said.

The other boy, Marco, launched high, curling into a double somersault before diving into the water.

”Nice,” said the girl.

”I got this,” said Evan. He bounced and sprang even higher, twisting into a pike, then straightening and grabbing his knee just before he hit the water, bombing Marco's vicinity with a huge splash that mushroomed upward. The waves sloshed against the raft and calmed, but there was no sign of the two boys. Then, they burst from the water, shooting straight up into the air and landing feet-first on the raft.

”So much nicer without the minions around,” said Evan, gazing over at the silent dock and empty beach.

I smiled to myself. If only they knew I was here. And I even wondered: maybe I could scare them or- Something locked around my ankle and yanked me under.

What? I thrashed as the MoonGlow faded away and I was pulled into the frigid dark. The grip was powerful- I thrashed as the MoonGlow faded away and I was pulled into the frigid dark. The grip was powerful- Then gone. I looked around wildly. A form appeared right in front of me.

'Boo!'

Tentacles waved, eyes flashed, and I thought of that siren from when I drowned the first time, but then I saw what it was that had attacked me.

'Hey, Owen!' It was Lilly, hovering in the water before me, smiling.

'Hey!' I said back.

'Check it out.' Her fingers wrapped around my wrist and she guided my hand to her neck, above the thin strap of her teal bathing suit top, past the smooth tension of her neck muscles, to where I felt the fluttering.

She had gills, too.

And we were talking underwater. 'How are you doing that?' I asked.

'What?' Her mouth barely moved as she spoke. But I heard it. Or sensed it.

'Talking to me.'

Lilly smiled again. 'Just am. Same way you are.'

As she said it, I noticed that I was hearing something, like clicks or chirps. It was hard to tell in the water. But also, it was almost like I was smelling the words, too, or something.

'Looks like you had those urges,' she said with a smile. Now I noticed that maybe her skin was changing as she spoke too, the color flickering slightly. That was part of it, this fish communication, or whatever we were doing. And like breathing with gills, it was something we just knew how to do without thinking.

All part of the new systems, said the new technician.

'Yeah,' I agreed. So, this this was what she'd meant by ”urges.” 'But was what she'd meant by ”urges.” 'But-'

'Ssshh.' Lilly reached out and touched my lips with her finger.

'Okay,' I said.

'Come on.' She turned to swim off. 'They're going to wonder where I went.' She thrust toward the raft.

'I can't-'

'Of course you can.'

For the first time since I'd entered the water, I felt like my old self, surface Owen, the air breather, the Turtle. I couldn't hang out on a raft with the CITs. But Lilly was leaving....

Just go with it, she'd said this afternoon. I kicked after her.

She reached the raft, and before she broke the surface, she turned back to me. 'When you pull out of the water, push up with your stomach. There's a little air left in your lungs. It will open your epiglottis, and you'll breathe fine.'

'But before, on the beach, I couldn't-'

'Come on. Trust me.' Before I could protest further, she lunged, grabbed the yellow ropes that crisscrossed the side of the blue-and-white raft, and hauled herself up.

I followed. As soon as my head and shoulders were above water, I felt the tightening need for air, my gills fluttering uselessly. I did as Lilly said, pus.h.i.+ng inward and up, flexing muscles I barely knew I had. A small gasp of air leaped free, and my lungs kicked back to life, inflating in a huge suck. I felt a wave of nausea, but then it pa.s.sed.

I checked my neck. My gills were gone. No, not gone, they were still there, but they felt like slits in the skin, and they were getting tighter, smaller, the openings puckering closed. Hidden. Only a slight itching remained. I ran my fingers over the indentations: no more blood.

”NoRad lotion makes the lines invisible,” said Lilly, kneeling above me. ”Need a hand?”

”Nah,” I said, ”I got it.” I yanked on the side ropes, kicking my feet in the water and struggling to get up onto the smooth rubber, feeling too much like a turtle climbing onto a log. Seconds felt like hours 'cause I couldn't be this pathetic in front of them all... but finally I dragged myself up onto my stomach and hopped to my feet.

”Look what I found,” Lilly announced.

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