Read Cry of the Sea for Free Online

The rest of me, however, was still a teenage girl with
a few basic needs. One necessity was being given some kind of
warning that I was going to be filmed, so I would not be completely
hideous looking. Who knew where my dad might choose to send this
footage? I didn’t even have a free hand at the moment to tuck my
stray hairs back up under my cap.
    Dad put up a ‘shush’ finger in front of his
mouth and then started narrating into the microphone: “We’ve found
an amazing discovery at Grayland Beach in Washington today. What
you are seeing are three sea creatures that appear to have human
features such as arms, a torso, and a head. Based on these features
being matched with fish tails, one might stipulate that these are
the mermaids of legend. They have found their way to this beach
because of leaking oil from an Affron Oil vessel. The mermaids have
mere moments to live unless we can get them to a tank of water and
get the oil cleared away from their gills.” He leaned close to me
to get a good shot of the gills on the mermaids’ necks.
    “Dad,” I said urgently. “Stop taping. We
don’t have time. They’re dying.”
    As he focused tightly on the face and neck of
the mermaid in my arms, guess who else got a close-up on
camera?
    “Dad!” I shouted for two reasons. Do-gooder
and teenage girl unite in protest!
    My dad snapped up. “You’re right,” he said,
backing up and turning off the camera. “I got carried away.” He
tucked the camera inside the bag on his shoulder and helped me lift
the first mermaid.
    Her skin had a spongy quality similar to the
skin of a dolphin or seal, and yet it wasn’t as thick as a sea
mammal and not nearly as heavy. Some of the scales bent backwards
and cut at my hands. I guessed the scales protected her like armor.
As we carried her to the truck, I saw the mermaid’s skin color
darken. Her eyes fluttered, and her gills worked frantically. She
had to get back into water—fast.
    We put her down softly in the bed of the
truck and covered her with some blankets. As quickly as I could, I
ran back to the other two mermaids. What I saw when I got to them
caused me to crumble to my knees and start to cry. I know I’m not
supposed to cry; it makes my dad crazy when I do it. I just
couldn’t help it right then. When I looked at the mermaids in that
early morning sun, the sadness took over so fast that the tears and
sobs came out before I could control myself. Their gills had closed
to slits and their strange fingers no longer clawed at their necks.
The bodies lay completely still.
    My dad caught up with me. “What’s the
matter?” he asked.
    I opened my arms and gestured to them. “Can’t
you see?” I said. “They’re dead. We weren’t fast enough. Look at
them.”
    “Come on, girl,” Dad said. He wrapped his
arms around me and helped me stand up. “I know it’s terrible. It
is, really. Just hold it together a little while longer. We still
need to get them off this beach.”
    My first impulse was to wriggle away from
him, shocked by his words. I could feel my forehead creasing with
the distrust filling my brain. Did my dad, always the warrior of
creatures that had no voice, just tell me that these mermaid bodies
needed to be taken somewhere?
    “Why?” I seethed at him. “What are you going
to do with them?”
    “Calm down, June,” he said. “Don’t you know
me better than that? I don’t mean the bodies any harm. But I do need to keep them away from Affron. What do you think
they would they do if they knew there were creatures like this in
our waters?”
    I felt stupid. Of course my dad wasn’t
thinking of diabolical plots to chop up the mermaids and study them
for science. He’d never do that. He wouldn’t even chop up already
dead meat from the grocery store to eat for dinner. On the other
hand, Affron scientists would have no qualms about exploiting the
poor creatures if they knew about them. They’d hunt them down. Find
their homes. Capture every last one