Salt Water: Siren Tales, #1

By Debbie Mumford

Maris, a fifteen-year-old girl from Wichita, Kansas has never seen the ocean. Intentionally. Her parents have an unreasonable fear of the sea. When Dad allows Maris to accompany her best friend on a family vacation to Portland, Oregon, he has no idea that their ultimate destination will be Cannon Beach … and the wild waters of the Pacific Ocean. Maris is about to learn the truth behind the family taboo against salt water.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WDM Publishing
• Release date: Jan 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393007746

Debbie Mumford

Debbie Mumford specializes in speculative fiction—fantasy, paranormal romance, and science fiction. Author of the popular Sorcha’s Children series, Debbie loves the unknown, whether it’s the lure of space or earthbound mythology. Her work has been published in multiple volumes of Fiction River, as well as in Heart’s Kiss Magazine, Spinetingler Magazine, and other popular markets. She writes about dragon-shifters, time-traveling lovers, and ghostly detectives for adults as Debbie Mumford and contemporary fantasy for tweens and young adults as Deb Logan.

Book preview

Salt Water

Salt Water

Siren Tales 1

Deb Logan

WDM Publishing

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Epilogue

Also by Deb Logan

Siren Surf sample

About Deb Logan

Chapter 1

Families. They’re all weird in their own special ways. Take mine for example: very small — just me and Dad; with one major phobia — salt water. But I was about to break free of the family taboo. I couldn’t wait!

I settled my backpack on my shoulders, slipped into the crowded, narrow aisle of the economy section of the 737 airplane, and followed Emma toward the exit. The air was stale, heavy with competing perfumes and the smell of tightly packed people. My stomach jumped and rumbled, partly with excitement, but mainly from hunger. My bacon and egg breakfast had been hours ago and the meager cup of apple juice on the flight had only made me hungrier.

People ahead of me jostled around in the tight space retrieving carry-on bags and cases from white plastic overhead bins. I watched in amazement as rolling carts were jerked from the compartments and lowered to the aisle, often missing other passengers’ heads by inches. Slowly the line ahead of me settled and shuffled forward.

I’d never flown before. I’d heard friends talk about the crowded conditions on flights, but I’d never imagined this. Total cattle car!

Still, I couldn’t believe my luck. When my best friend in the whole world, Emma Walker, had invited me to come with her family to Portland, Oregon, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! Then reality rushed in and killed the happy glow. Dad would never allow it.

I’d spent my whole life in Wichita, Kansas, as far from salt water as Mom and Dad could manage and still live in the continental United States. I knew all about wheat farming and cattle ranching, but I’d only seen the ocean in television shows and movies.

Mom’s phobia of salt water was over the top. I never knew why; she wouldn’t talk about it. I supposed Dad knew,