Shipwrecked with Mermaids

By Dorothy J. Best

“Shipwrecked” in the small village of Rincon, Oregon, Amanda Cumberland and her brother Sam, find themselves surrounded by a different breed of mermaid. These mermaids roam freely between land and sea. By day, local youngsters learn about mermaid history in school while the mermaid adults tend their shops and eateries, keeping watch on mermaid matters by night.

Then the Siren Queen launches her nefarious plans involving shifting tectonic plates and kidnapping in her efforts to obliterate the “two-leggeds”. Suddenly, Amanda finds herself training with battle-ready mermaids and discussing history with curious water sprites working as scientists and scribes. After accepting her own mermaid physiology, Amanda will discover her inevitable connection to an infant and the rescue of the mermen who have been missing for over 200 years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781663202635

Dorothy J. Best

Dorothy J. Best has pursued writing in many genres including feature and column writing, folklore studies and screenwriting. She and her husband live in northern New Mexico where she searches for water sprites while hiking along mountain streams.

Book preview

SHIPWRECKED

WITH

Mermaids

DOROTHY J. BEST

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SHIPWRECKED WITH MERMAIDS

Copyright © 2020 Dorothy Best.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0264-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0263-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020911154

iUniverse rev. date: 10/08/2020

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 A Prophecy Comes to Town

Chapter 2 The Harmonic of Protection

Chapter 3 I See by Your Outfit that You are a Fisherman

Chapter 4 Destiny Provides a Place to Stay

Chapter 5 Mermaid Mementos

Chapter 6 Talk of a Battle

Chapter 7 Water Sprites Abroad

Chapter 8 Shipwrecked by a Flat Tire

Chapter 9 The Daily Squall

Chapter 10 A Windy Lesson

Chapter 11 Taffy Dancing

Chapter 12 If Mermaids Wore Gloves

Chapter 13 The Value of a Cup of Tea

Chapter 14 The Helmsman

Chapter 15 A Breath of Water

Chapter 16 The Prodigal Daughter

Chapter 17 Report to the Captain

Chapter 18 Stories from the Tomes

Chapter 19 A Ride to San Francisco

Chapter 20 The Lost Merman

Chapter 21 The Archives

Chapter 22 Sounds Strange

Chapter 23 Chartreuse Wings

Chapter 24 Speculations

Chapter 25 The Fissure

Chapter 26 An Exchange: Gossip for Magic

Chapter 27 The Ritual of Gifts

Chapter 28 Greed in the Siren Queen’s Lair

Chapter 29 Now You See Sam, Now You Don’t

Chapter 30 The Detour

Chapter 30 Being Bait

Chapter 32 Battle Practice in the Dunes

Chapter 33 The Captain’s Inspection

Chapter 34 The Tsu Stone

Chapter 35 Potion Research

Chapter 36 The Rescue

Chapter 37 Amanda Meets the Shadowy Collector

Chapter 38 Amanda Meets a Siren

Chapter 39 Dash, Thwarted by Love

Chapter 40 A Boat for a Cradle

Chapter 41 The Prophecy and the Name

Chapter 42 A Storm to Worry About

Chapter 43 Water Sprites on Alert

Chapter 44 The Water Spout

Chapter 45 The Siren Queen’s Demise

Chapter 46 As the Tsunami Churns

Chapter 47 A Watery Homecoming

Chapter 48 Celebration

Chapter 49 A Siren Sings Her Last Song

About the Author

For my family,

who endured and

encouraged these mermaid meanderings.

Also, to the coastal communities of

Morro Bay, California, and Yachats, Oregon.

Your rocky shores have provided inspiration and respite.

Prologue

Young Harry Meets a Merwoman

Ten-year-old Harry Trudeaux carried a bucket, a net, and a snorkel mask as he jumped off the front porch and headed for Rincon Bay for a day of poking at sea cucumbers, finger fighting with fiddler crabs and hoping to sight the whale shark reported over the radio the last three days.

Be back by sunset, Harry, his mother called from the kitchen.

Okay, Mom, he hollered back swinging his tools of exploration to the beat of his steps.

Harry sloshed his bucket into a tidal pool and peered into it to count how many creatures he captured. Tiny darting fingerlings, two or three crabs, some indiscernible flotsam. Normal finds, but still fascinating. He poured the water back into the pool and watched the fingerlings crowd up with their school that was flashing to and fro waiting for the wave that would take them back out to sea and greater dangers than a curious ten-year-old boy.

He pulled on his snorkel and balanced on the edge of a deeper pool so he could duck his head in and look around. He spied a sea cucumber beneath the ridge and reached down to touch it.

Is that singing? Harry wondered lifting his head and listening.

A splash came from the other side of some sea boulders. His mother always warned him to stay on the beach side of that outcropping. The singing started again.

"It can’t hurt just to look, from behind a rock," he reasoned.

Harry crept up to the largest boulder, leaned against it and inched around its perimeter to take a peek. He saw the fish tail first. He wondered if he was looking at a beached porpoise. No, the tail was golden, like the foil wrapper on a chocolate coin. Then it shimmered and flipped like the girls on the playground pumping their legs to make the swings go higher. Harry bent his neck like a hanger to his shoulder, and stretched as far as he dare in order not to fall.

A woman, larger than any woman he had ever seen before, sat on a boulder that was so close to the water a wave swelled up and splashed against the crown of it drenching the woman completely. The woman laughed and sang what sounded like a sea chanty as another wave reached her, this time pushing her long golden hair to the side and revealing her back. Long, strong back muscles ran under a large tattoo depicting three broken, sinking ships. Harry froze and crouched farther behind his rock.

The merwoman began to sing. This time the waves lapped at the end of her tail and seemed to calm her.

I know my treasure will come to me. I know my treasure is yet to be. My name is secret and it I will belay. I know my treasure will come and never stray. Ikato...

As if remembering something important, the merwoman ceased her song, laid down her comb, and dove into the water. Young Harry peeked over the boulder then decided to move toward the rock where she had been sitting.

Harry thought the comb would be proof of the mermaid’s existence then the teasing about his belief in mermaids and the stories told about them would cease. As he reached for it, she resurfaced, without warning.

Harry crouched again, but this time the rock protecting him was smaller than the first; as well as much closer to the shore boulder where the woman of the sea had enthroned herself.

She did not notice him as she unrolled a stiff, sallow map. Harry hazarded a look over his sheltering stone. He could see a part of the map, which read: ‘rincon tésoro’ in one corner and ‘Trudeaux’ in the opposite corner. A shipwreck, resembling one of the merwoman’s tattoos, X’s and other sketches came into focus.

My grandpa’s map, Harry said aloud, then, realizing what he had accidentally done, he clamped his hand over his mouth and ducked behind his rock.

Who’s that there? The woman’s tone was sinister.

Harry hunkered farther.

Show yourself, or be cursed, she hissed. However, she added, suddenly softening her voice, if you come out willingly, I will not hurt you.

Harry kept his position behind the rock as he asked in defeat, Are you sure? His voice trembled on the last word.

Come, my dear. Doesn’t every child want to see a real mermaid? Her tone was taunting.

Uh, yeah? Harry confessed, but stayed hidden. Is that what you are?

He peeked over his cover and blurted, You have my grandpa’s map!

Your grandpa? The fish woman pronounced grandpa strangely as if the word was not in her vocabulary.

My father’s grandfather, times ten, I think, Harry offered in explanation.

The woman smiled, acknowledging the connection.

No, much older than that, she corrected. It is very old. But, he gave it to me.

He did not! Grandpa says you stole it! Harry now stood akimbo glaring at the fish woman who was becoming visibly annoyed.

Leveling her gaze on Harry, she said, He gave it to me as payment.

Payment?

Payment for trespassing, much like you’re doing.

Young Harry’s expression settled somewhere between belligerent and confused.

This is a public beach, he proclaimed.

The merwoman laughed wickedly. The two-legged plague thinks everything belongs to them. Worse than a merman’s pride.

Do you know where the treasure is now? Harry felt bewildered by his own question.

Of course I do. And, if you can keep up, you can see all of it. And with that, the mermaid slid into the waves.

Young Harry grabbed his snorkel mask and tossed off his shoes. He plunged into the brink and began swimming hard to keep up with the mermaid as she turned just at the edge of the jetty. She looked over her shoulder as she angled below a bridge of rocks.

Harry’s heartbeat pounded in his ears as he held his breath longer and longer, following the mermaid through a maze of underwater coral bridges and into a shaft.

Young Harry broke the surface of a cavern pool surrounded by a small, pocked chamber. He breathed in hard and treaded water. The red and yellow refractions that bounced against the glowing walls reminded him of the topaz ring his grandmother wore.

Young Harry climbed out of the pool and turned within the chamber, gape-mouthed at the scene around him. The mermaid was nowhere in sight.

Chests, crates, barrels, and gunnysacks filled with rubies, gold, emeralds, other precious stones and filigreed jewelry lined the grotto.

Young Harry clenched rubies, sapphires, and gold medallions in his fist, then, frustrated, realized he had no place to stash them.

The water in the chamber began to rise. Despite his panic, Young Harry stowed a platinum ring banded with diamonds in the tiny pocket of his swim trunks.

Mermaid, mermaid, show me the way out. Mermaid, mermaid, please. His voice was shrill with panic.

The mermaid surfaced, laughing.

I am not a mermaid, I am a siren. You shall call me Queen, the siren demanded. Before we go, I need something from you.

What? What? Harry begged as the water reached his chest.

A promise, the Siren Queen used her demanding tone again.

Okay, Harry said with uncertainty.

To never speak of me, or this treasure.

Okay... his voice was even less certain than before.

The Siren Queen eyed him suspiciously.

I don’t believe you. So, I will strike you dumb. Your only way back to speech is to give me your first child, or have her mother call my name.

Young Harry was incredulous. You mean like Rumpel what’s his name? But I promise...

Hush, and be cursed anyway.

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Chapter 1

A Prophecy Comes to Town

A ll around was razor clam blue - the rocks, the waves, the morning light - as a sleek fat seal flapped out of the ocean waters crashing upon the rocky shoreline that formed the southern-most tip of a jetty. The seal belly-waddled its way up a beach and aimed for a tiny shop-lined embarcadero marking the boundary between the sea and a village of tidy Cape Cod-style houses riding the wave of a steep mountain.

The slap of flippers echoed along the boardwalk and bounced off the darkened shop windows as the seal made its way to a shop door. A sign hung from a shingle above the shop window. Florid, looping bright white letters proclaimed Transfixed Tattoos and Readings across a cosmic blue background.

The seal barked, small beeps sounded and the door opened automatically. After the seal waddled inside, the door shut behind it.

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Farther up the shoreline, Amanda Cumberland and her brother Sam shook their heads at the flat on the rear passenger side of their older model Oldsmobile. As dawn brightened, Sam opened the trunk and discovered a pile of stacked suitcases draped