Archive of Our Own

Beach City was never known for temperate waters, but the sun was trying its best to compensate, and Stephen didn’t seem dissuaded. Connie watched as he let out a whoop and fell into the first massive wave, the tangled black curls barely visible in the foam as he went under. He had ditched his shirt and run ahead, as she had expected, with a pair of Mr. Universe’s shorts darkening with saltwater. Connie stepped into the first gentle wave and shuddered as the fresh coldness touched her toes. When she glanced back, she could feel the gaze of her mother under the umbrella, as well as the sturdy smirk of Rosa next to her.

Rosa was taller than most women Connie knew, but next to Dr. Maheswaran, the difference was palpable. Priyanka Maheswaran was solidly tall, swam and jogged, and took every nutritional advantage she could, almost to a fault, and Rosa was still more intimidating. There was something almost animalistic about the selkies, and Connie knew it well, the way that they could silently present themselves as something more than human; Rosa knew it, too.

The selkie woman sitting in the Maheswaran’s foldable beach chair was sprawled in what Connie was tempted to call decadence . A gossamer pink shawl draped around her shoulders, translucent from wear, covering the black bikini top that perhaps had once had a bottom. Instead, the white jean shorts stretched over Rosa’s hips had, at one point many years ago, been blue, and completed the outfit as best they could. On the other side, Connie’s mother and her sensible capris were covering up just what they needed to, thank you very much. Dr. Maheswaran was not easily cowed, but Connie could see that rigid politeness in her spine, holding her just a little too upright.

“Conniiiiiiiie!”

She didn’t have time to think. The slightly fuzzy image that was Stephen in the surf called to her, and she had to answer the call—no, she chose to answer. She forced herself to pause, to breathe, and to smile before she ran into the waves and gave a little whoop of her own right before the world turned bluish-green once more.

Ever since the notion of a siren’s call had worked itself into Connie’s head, she had been actively making sure that she was passing all of her decisions past herself when Stephen came to mind. That had, in turn, led her down a rabbithole of philosophy and arguments about whether that form of reasoning even worked, but it was the thought that counted. After all, this was magic, literal magic, and she really didn’t have a choice but to go along with it as it entranced her. She hadn’t done anything too dangerous, and she hadn’t felt overwhelmed, so everything was, as far as she could tell, good on that front.

Getting Rosa and her mother to meet had been a different story. Triangulating between the selkies, the boy, Mr. Universe, and her parents had been difficult enough even after she had convinced Rosa to get a gas station burner phone that they could keep in a plastic bag in transit. Still, in the time since that call, when she had seen Mr. Universe and Stephen in the back of the van, she had done her best to be a go-between, and here they were today. The school year was almost over and summer was around the corner. The strangeness of her spring would be in the past.

Connie gasped as she broke water again. Some day, she was going to have to ask for prescription goggles, or maybe even laser surgery for her eyes so she wouldn’t have to worry about glasses. For now, she just rubbed them and spit out water as she felt Stephen drift up. Even waist-deep, she could feel the waves pushing her around, but he was as solid as a rock, even without his skin. Stephen could have swam for ages, kicking his powerful legs along the surf, but it was his skin and tail and pinniped form that had taught him the water in the first place. He stood in the sand, grinning with every tooth on display.

“How far do you want to be swimming?” he smirked.

“Oh, boy— thpthbt —”

Connie spat the salt water from her mouth and began to wade out, with Stephen eagerly trailing her. There was no way they were going to be in any danger, not with both Stephen and Rosa watching, not with Stephen here. And he didn’t need any saving from her, that was certain.

“I think that we shouldn’t go out as far as the last time,” she said, “but we can go out far enough to go underwater a bit. Hm, or maybe…we should stay close? So my mom won’t worry when we go under.”

She could tell that he was looking at her a little oddly. The girl turned and cleared her throat, brushing her wet hair back behind her shoulders.

“Because I’m not supposed to be underwater for too long? Because it looks like I might be drowning?”

Stephen looked a little disappointed, but he shrugged begrudgingly. Even kneeling in the waist-deep water was enough, and the gentle slope of Beach City’s geography meant that they wouldn’t be too close to the shore either. Nobody could hear Stephen sing underwater or see him kick and twist with open eyes, but Connie still felt the tug of secrecy, as if anyone observing him would be dangerous. That was more or less the truth, though.

At this point it hardly mattered. They were on a public beach, their guardians were watching them without one knowing the secret of the other, and—it was an actual playdate! Connie hadn’t had anything like this since what felt like kindergarten, and it amazed her how wonderful it was to just be a normal kid. Remembering all the baggage brought her down to earth a little bit, but then, it was all the more heightened by the thrill of magic, the thrill that never quite went away, not as long as the danger was there. Connie let the warm ocean work its own magic over her as she sunk down to the surface of the water and let her collarbone feel its chill.

Stephen swam over, crouched in the same way and curious. “How long can you be staying under the water?” he mused with a cocked brow.

“Like holding my breath? Um, probably thirty seconds if I really pushed, maybe a little longer, I dunno. I’ve never actually timed myself! What about you?”

“A little longer.”

Connie had done her research enough to know that seals could hold their breath for over an hour; based on Stephen’s grin, he knew enough to confirm something like that without her having to time him. Even in his human form, she could imagine how long his magic held out. It was one of those things, an assumption and an unanswerable question, as to how much magic transferred over. But Steven was a magical boy through and through, so of course it was inside him the whole time. The girl smiled back and pushed against the current, floating backwards in the surf. There was nothing quite like being in the ocean, in the arms of a magical entity itself. Stephen had convinced her somewhat of the ocean’s mystical properties, its personification, but not enough that she wasn’t still in awe, or that she no longer feared it; it was a healthy fear, in part because she only had thirty seconds of air in her lungs at a time.

“A little longer, ” she snorted. “I bet you’ve been all the way down to the bottom of the sea, with all the weird fish and stuff.”

“The bottom is here! If you are standing.”

“No, silly! Like the very bottom, the cracks and trenches! The spooky places!”

Stephen raised another eyebrow at her as they both sunk and floated in the water. She pretended to turn her nose up at his willful ignorance, giving a little harrumph and drifting down the beach as he giggled after her. Internally, she made a mental note never to show Stephen a nature documentary about the depths of the ocean, with anglerfish and vampire squids. Either he would be terrified of his own home, or he’d beg his guardians to take him down there and be disappointed. Connie knew it was impossible to truly gauge Stephen’s knowledge about the natural world because he was so inundated with the expanse. 

He was right in his own way, though, and Connie was grateful for the ability to hit the bottom and feel the craggly sand of Beach City’s shoreline underneath her. It was in between tides according to the charts and as warm as the oceans were going to get right now. She turned and saw the blur of her mother, and she knew that her mother was aware of the visual limitation. They would call if the kids needed to come in. Chances were that she’d leave them alone, though, which was a little odd to Connie, but then again, everything was a little odd.

Too much communication with Stephen meant that Dr. Maheswaran wanted answers, and too little meant that something was wrong, and so Connie had had to come up with a balance for how much she told her mother about the goings-on of this strange little community. As far as she could tell, her parents and Mr. Universe thought that Stephen and his family were either homeless (technically true by human standards) or in some religious cult (which was also technically true if one were to count Stephen’s ocean spiritualism in there). She didn’t keep notes, but she kept mental tabs, and she had the feeling her mother was losing more sleep than necessary over all that was happening. The show in the hospital had been too much, it seemed. Or maybe, Connie had realized one day, it was the latent siren’s call, something that Stephen did inadvertently, where he had put the good doctor under a spell and had forced her to spend just a little more time on him than she would have otherwise. But that didn’t seem right. He hadn’t sung to her or called to her, just touched her professionally. It didn’t seem fair at times that Stephen always had that hypnotic effect that made everyone seem to drop everything and care about him; at the same time, Connie knew that these were extraordinary circumstances, even magical. She couldn’t fault her mother or Mr. Universe for their feelings, although she held her tongue at times to point out that between the two of them Mr. Universe was the one with the most free time to worry.

All logic, all the time, and it hardly mattered. Connie raised her foot as she slumped into the gentle saltwater, pushing on Stephen’s shoulder with her toes like she was admonishing him for a terrible joke. The Atlantic wasn’t enough to keep her completely above the water, and she took a breath before her backwards motion sent her under the surface once more. She kept her eyes closed and let her body sink down, down to the ocean floor. There was the bottom, just like Stephen had said, and the sand was soft enough for her to just relax before the ocean started to move her back and forth in the surf. She pushed upright again to the surface, gasping and blinking, to see that Stephen was no longer there.

The dark shape under the water popped up a few feet deeper, where Stephen had to tread to stay upright. He grinned with all his sharp teeth, arms circling instinctively to keep him afloat. Connie wondered how much of his swimming prowess came from natural-born power and how much came from having to be taught to swim. Did it work like how it worked with seals in the wild? He was certainly capable of learning new things, but he seemed to take a lot for granted. Connie did too, the more she thought about it. The ability to swim here with only the residual twinge of pain in her ribcage was enough to be thankful for. All of this was worth being thankful for.

“Really, Stephen, I can’t go out that far!” Connie said, drifting on her tiptoes. “Mom would freak out if I swim away. She’s worried that I’ll hurt myself.”

Stephen’s smile faltered, and he pushed his way over closer to Connie. He turned over on his back, looking at the girl upside-down, with his arms out and his belly breaking the surface, smooth and shiny in the sun.

“Are you…healing well?” he asked.

“No, yeah, I feel a lot better. It still hurts and it’s probably still broken but it’s not like you can put a cast on it.”

“Cast? Cast! The wrapping. What is it feeling like to break the bone?”

“Honestly this is the first one I’ve broken.” Connie snorted. “Well, I mean, it was kinda broken for me, but that’s besides the point.”

Stephen tilted his head. Maybe that language was a little too abstract for him. And even then, Connie didn’t want to think about Pearl’s attack any more than the last time. She reached down and curled her fingers underneath Stephen’s shoulder blades instead. He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t resist, and the goofy smile returned as Connie began to walk backwards and pull Stephen like a tugboat.

“I can still drag you around, though,” she said with a giggle. He was, as usual, remarkably warm. “How can you float like that? We’re not in the Dead Sea or anything. Is that a special power?”

“No sea is dead,” Stephen snorted, and he reached up to pat his belly. “I am powered with food, and I am floating when I want to. Very alive.”

“Oh, I guess body fat plays a role. Hm. But! There’s this real place, and it’s kinda like a huge lake, and it’s so salty that everything floats and nothing can live there, not even fish!”

The look that Stephen gave her could have broken the cruelest of hearts. He immediately turned over and stood with wide, pained eyes, staring at Connie in stunned silence. A sea without fish was like a world without a sun, or like a beach without water, and she held up a hand as she snorted involuntarily at his stunned expression. Stephen narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose as he mentally investigated her bluff. The girl shook her head sadly.

“That’s just how that geography is, sorry!” she said. “But it’s nowhere near here, and there’s lots of fish around, I promise. It would never happen to this part of the ocean.”

“How can there be…”

But he dropped it, shaking his head and clicking his tongue. Some things were just not meant to be fully explored yet. The easy parts of the world to explain to Stephen were the ones that were close, tangible, things that she could explain through magic if not exact science. Cell phones were the worst offender, but he understood the basics of what a machine was. The love-hate relationship with boats was interesting, certainly; as long as nobody bothered each other, it was perfectly fine. When Connie had mentioned that people enjoyed seeing seals by the seashore, Stephen had been delighted, but both of them knew well that the selkies couldn’t just pop up for amusement. They were more than animals, more real at the very least.

“If you went out right now, without your skin, could you go catch a fish?” she asked.

“Catching is… Maybe. Never tried.”

“I bet you could. I know I couldn’t, I can barely see there.”

“Fish are not wanting to be caught,” Stephen said with a shrug. “Definitely not wanting to be eaten.”

“I don’t think anything really wants to be eaten, to be fair.”

“To be fair!”

That was one turn of phrase that brought a smile to his face, and Connie almost understood it. After all, fairness was a good thing, equality, the quid pro quo of friendship passed back between each other until only balance remained. The imbalances were so great that they weren’t worth thinking about, especially in moments like these. Stephen bounced backwards and smirked, ducking fully underwater for a moment before jumping back with a gasp and a shake of his head, like he was a fish needing that temporary return to the ocean. He opened his eyes and looked down towards the deeper blue before turning to Connie with a coy little glint in his eye.

“Watch.”

She couldn’t, exactly, but before she could say that Stephen was already gone underwater, and she could see his paleness pushing down the sandbar. It was amazing, how deep the ocean got in mere feet, how much it sloped and dropped down into nothing but sand and rocks and seaweed. There weren’t any horrors lurking down below, but Connie only thought about the concept when Stephen wasn’t there with her. She turned back to look at the adults on the beach. Rosa appeared to be flipping through a magazine, but her eyes were definitely turned towards the ocean. Her own mother had brought a few books, including crossword puzzles, and appeared to be filling one out now. Maybe they would engage in conversation, and maybe not. Connie honestly didn’t know.

They really had absolutely nothing in common, which made Connie’s stomach churn a little. The dispositions were already tense, all things considered, but if Rosa thought that anything was up or that Dr. Maheswaran would pay them a visit with the police, then it was all over for sure. She had begged her mother not to push before this visit, and things appeared tense but not hostile. That was about the most she could ask for, wasn’t it. The girl sighed and hoped that everything would be okay up on the sand.

She almost jumped when Stephen reappeared just before her with his hands held under the water. Connie opened her mouth to ask what he was up to when he pulled up the most furious crab that she had ever seen. It was about eight inches across the shell, and its claws were wide and extended in Connie’s direction. Wide-eyed, she almost reached out to touch it until it twitched, flitting its back legs in malcontent, and she remembered that it would probably not be as happy as Stephen to be stroked.

“That’s a blue crab, right?” she said, staring at the spikes protruding from the side of its shell. “I’ve never seen one that big even in a restaurant.”

“The fish, they know the water, but the crabs?” Stephen said with a flash of his sharp teeth. “They want to be fighting. The more angry they are, the better they are tasting.”

“...Stephen, I don’t think you should eat the crab right now.”

He opened his mouth to protest in a faux argument until he glanced up back onto the beach. Dr. Maheswaran wasn’t even pretending not to stare down at the kids and their catch. Rosa just looked over the edge of her magazine with a bemused smile, or at least it seemed that way from this distance, Connie couldn’t tell. Stephen grunted and wiggled the crab back and forth a little in thought. It flailed in protest and raised its claws as high as they could go, while literally foaming at the mouth. If it had lungs, Connie was pretty sure it would have been swearing.

“I know,” he sighed. “It is just for the catching. Food later. But it is a wonderful thing. Very angry, and sharp, and it wants to fight against the bigger things.”

Stephen trailed off, and looked up to Connie with the hint of a smile. If she had to pick a metaphor for the crab, it would have been like when she had first stood up to Garnet or even Pearl, when she had first tried to get a word in edgewise against the adults that had kept Stephen confined when he wanted to just explore with someone who cared. As dangerous as their first meeting had been, and as long as it had taken for Connie to admit that it had been dangerous after the fact, the bravery that Stephen had shown and the audacity she had displayed herself were so much more than what either thought they had been capable of. Didn’t that mean something? The crab was still in its display of frustration, splayed out to make itself as large as possible, even though Stephen was ready and able to tear its shell off and eat the tender raw meat inside. It was a brave little thing. Connie sidled up next to Stephen through the waves and reached to run her nail down the back of the crab’s shell. Its eyes popped down, then up, but it didn’t twitch any more than usual. It must have been so scared. She could relate.

“I don’t think I could fight a crab, Stephen. I don’t think I could eat it like this, either.”

“Psh. Fresh and tender right from the shell.”

“I’ve tried sushi once or twice, but, uh, this is a little different. Can’t itadakimasu myself into trying this.”

Stephen opened his mouth, paused, glanced at Connie, then did a double take. She snorted and covered her mouth in embarrassment; there were only so many phrases she should be introducing to him at once, and Japanese phrases probably weren’t too helpful. Stephen might be more acclimated to sushi than pizza, but there was something about cheese that had a different allure. She wanted to see him try a little wasabi and immediately gulp water down. She could imagine him practicing with chopsticks and picking up tiny grains of rice one by one. Everything could happen in time, if they wanted it. For now, they just had to contend with a crab as it foamed at the mouth.

“Do you wanna let it go?” she giggled.

“We should. Have you seen the swimming?”

That’s right, blue crabs had those little flippers. Connie shook her head, and Stephen smiled as he turned his body to the open sea. His eyebrows raised and his head lowered, and Connie followed him with a breath. The wind over the sea died down as everything bubbled up around them, and just like she had practiced, Connie opened her eyes to the sting of salt water.

The crab was already struggling in Stephen’s hands by the time she could focus. It must have tasted freedom, or perhaps the ocean just gave it that much more fight. Either way, as soon as the selkie let it go, the blue crab shoved itself off into the surf and flapped its fins wildly, practically flying into the deeper waters of the bay. Its blurry body became green in the particulate filter, then blue, then gray, then nothing as it swam off. There were more predators than Stephen out in the ocean, but there was nothing around here for now. Connie knew that no matter what the crab faced that it would show the rows of teeth the same kind of ferocious resistance. It was admirable, if not inevitable. Warmth raised the tiny hairs of Connie’s arms in the water, and she turned to Stephen, who smiled and drifted backwards away from her, perpendicular to the shoreline. For as long as her burning lungs and eyes could handle it, she would follow.

❖

Priyanka Maheswaran was not a naturally trustworthy woman, and the people she trusted the most knew that well. The medical industry had led her to seeing the best and worst of people, and even before then, for reasons she would never remember and didn’t care to, the requirements to prove one’s self to her were higher than most. And she was proud of that, to some degree. People like Rosa and their indifference to her standards were, by extension, absolutely terrifying.

The woman next to Priyanka had watched the children playing for the better part of an hour. That by itself wasn’t too strange, but it was the only thing that Rosa had done, with the even stranger exception of the comments she made about passing phenomena. When they had sat down, Rosa had picked up an orange seashell and smiled like she had found an old friend before tucking it in her cleavage. Some time later, she gestured to a tugboat making its way around the bay. “It’s never met these waters,” she had said, noting the characters on the hull. A seagull had landed near the shoreline and picked at the body of a dead crab, and Rosa had sighed almost wistfully. “They don’t know what’s good for them,” she had murmured.

All the while, Priyanka had been chipping away at her novel and crossword puzzles, and the whole situation was making her grip each page with a stinging tension, like the kind she would use to hold thread up to the eye of a needle. This was not about this woman. This was about Stephen. Wasn’t it? This wasn’t about anything. This was about Connie and her first playdate with someone since Connie was much too young to form real friendships. Priyanka had to work her way up to small talk, but every time she cleared her throat, Rosa would turn her head just enough to make the sun glint off her eyes. It withered any words, lost for the moment in what Priyanka could have sworn were pink streaks in the dark brown.

By all accounts Rosa was a beautiful woman. She had curves, natural muscle definition and body fat that she carried with silent confidence. It almost seemed as though she had picked out her outfit unintentionally, obligated only to cover up the bare necessities without a care as to how she looked to the outside world. Stephen had his wild hair, and Rosa did as well, and both of them let the wild waves tumble in a way that made Priyanka wonder when their last haircuts were. Rosa didn’t wear any makeup whatsoever. Well, there were different expressions of beauty; Priyanka had, professionally, seen them all.

Out in the ocean, Stephen was teaching Connie how to float. Every time she got on her back, he would guide her without understanding the need for distance between them, as Priyanka had felt. She bristled inside at the notion of a boy putting his hands on Connie no matter how gentle. Stephen didn’t seem to care or understand. On occasion, he would let go and flop into the waves, effortlessly drifting on the foam with his stomach exposed to the sun. Then he just got back and talked to Connie in excited tones that they couldn’t hear from the shoreline. He seemed so happy here. He seemed so ignorant.

The questions that remained were eating at Priyanka’s brain. She wanted to ask about their family structure and safety. Most importantly, she wanted to know how long ago Stephen’s parents had passed away. The instance still seemed to haunt him to this day, but he had spoken in a way as if it was both before he could make memories and so recently that it could have happened yesterday. The cryptic timeline made no sense to Priyanka. Stephen couldn’t have seen it. He had seen everything. It was impossible.

Greg Universe had been no help. Well, no, that wasn’t entirely true, but Connie’s messages triangulating with him hadn’t gotten her any closer to any answers, and it had been a number of weeks since then. Rosa wouldn’t have cooperated. She probably wouldn’t consent to a doctor’s visit, and it didn’t matter whether or not she was Stephen’s legal guardian. Nothing mattered when they were off the grid, out of line, away from everything to the point that they didn’t even know each other’s last names.

“Did you know you’re staring?”

Rosa’s voice jerked Priyanka out of the blue. She looked up suddenly, adjusting her sunglasses at the smiling woman. Fair, she wasn’t the best at keeping a poker face, but the sudden address was still uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry?”

“You were staring at Stephen,” Rosa murmured. “I don’t think you were looking, but, yes, you were absolutely staring.”

Poetic. Priyanka cleared her throat as she folded the crossword puzzle and shifted in the beach chair. At least the shadows of the sun-bleached umbrella somewhat hid her expression. The conversation wasn’t unwelcome, but it felt like they were plunging into the topic on everyone’s mind—on Rosa’s terms. That wasn’t part of the plan.

“Well, it’s nice to finally meet one of Connie’s friends in person. Apologies, I’m not used to talking with other parents outside of work.”

“Finally meet for the second time. Stephen mentioned taking Connie to the hospital.”

“Yes, well, besides that,” Priyanka said.

“I suppose it’s different,” Rosa sighed, letting the hot sand roll off her bare feet. “Freer, and warmer, and fewer crowds. It would be nice for everyone to enjoy their time, but…”

“Stephen mentioned it was his first time in a hospital.”

There was a curious glint in Rosa’s eyes as she turned her head towards Priyanka, as if that wasn’t unusual, as if that statement was almost not worth mentioning. Then, the woman smiled, and Priyanka felt as if her lungs were going to ice over from the sudden chill. Rosa’s smile was as surprisingly welcoming as it had been since they shook hands, but her eyes were instantly iced over with a distrust that bordered on hatred. Nothing else about her expression changed an iota as she turned back to the water. Stephen was patting a pattern on his stomach as he floated, and Priyanka could hear the tiny peals of Connie’s laughter over the crash of the waves.

“It’s the first circumstance he’s had access to one,” Rosa said simply.

“I…see. The, well, he—”

“I understand you might have medical questions, but I’m afraid this isn’t the place to be giving his confidential information.”

Priyanka felt her lips tighten. So there went all the information about vaccinations, checkups, birthplace, learning disabilities, and everything else that was burning on her tongue. Rosa knew the exact right response to stymie the list of questions, but she also must have known that not answering was as much an answer as any. Stephen must have been born at home and raised in whatever environment those… What was the word Connie used? ‘Allmothers?’ It still, to Priyanka, sounded cultish.

“We’re just concerned about Stephen, that’s all.”

“And for what are you concerned?”

“There’s—well, just some… aspects that make me worried about how he’s developing, like the…illiteracy. Is he homeschooled?”

Rosa mulled the word over for a moment, as if it was a new concept to her entirely, rolling it around her mouth like a fine wine before she smiled.

“I suppose that’s one way of putting it,” she said.

“You understand that that’s not exactly comforting to hear.”

“You understand that my goal isn’t exactly to comfort you.”

There was an edge of danger in the amusement, but as for who was the one in danger, Priyanka couldn’t tell. All the avoidance told her nothing, nothing more than confirmation that Stephen was the one most in danger whether Rosa was willing to acknowledge that or not. This wasn’t right, none of this was. Stephen deserved a home and a family, and perhaps he had those, but he needed academic support, a system to raise him in society, human interaction and understanding, career aspirations, some kind of plan for the future. The secrecy of it all wasn’t the problem so much as the results were. Stephen might be happy, but he was scared, and he didn’t seem to recognize so much of the world around him, as if he was an alien who had crash-landed on Earth in the lap of conspirators. Priyanka hadn’t noticed any aspects of zealotry or bigotry, nothing said in overt devotion or conviction, and that was almost worse. The reason for the hiding might make the hiding at least somewhat understandable. All the weirdest parental techniques she had encountered over her medical career were at least based in belief, or trauma, or experience, or even paranoia. The lack of reasoning—that was what bothered her the most.

“I find it unreasonable that Connie’s the one who has to teach him how to read and write,” Priyanka said after a tense moment. “Even if she doesn’t see it, it’s putting a burden on her to help Stephen in these ways.”

“What ways would that be, exactly?”

“In his education! In his—basic human skills! Rosa, please, I understand if there are developmental setbacks but it’s impossible to tell—”

“If I could help him, then I would.”

For the first time, there was something genuine in the other woman’s voice. Priyanka hadn’t expected to be so stunned at that prospect, and yet here they were, and she still didn’t quite understand what Rosa was saying. Rosa was staring and studying the children in equal measure, but her intense gaze was softened by her presence, or so it felt. Stephen was pushing saltwater out his mouth from between bloated cheeks, while Connie was gently pleading for him not to swallow. All the possible contaminants in the water had been explained to her prior, and Priyanka couldn’t help but feel somewhat proud that she was passing on those lessons. And yet, worry.

“I think you know by now that I’m aware of what you’re trying to do,” Rosa murmured softly. “I’m not versed in the legal system, and I don’t intend to study it. But trust me when I say that it doesn’t apply to us in the same way. I know that this is unhelpful but I know that you’ll push more, and more, because you do care. As do I.”

“Us. You, and Stephen, and his…other guardians?”

“We live outside the jurisdiction in every sense. And because of that, I can’t allow you to follow, and I can’t ask Connie to follow, either. Would you let her into that world?”

“No, I…I could never,” said Priyanka. “The system we have is deeply flawed, but rules, systems, they make life manageable. A moral system still counts, you know.”

“If only every living thing understood that. You know the people who refuse. They consume, wanting, mindless, thinking they’re the sharks, but the shark only wants to fill her belly, no more. I want to protect Stephen from that, and so much more.”

Even if they were off the grid, they were still within zoning laws or state regulations, and this little group of Rosa and Stephen’s couldn’t well take over the government or set fire to city hall on a whim. This counter-cultural nonsense that Rosa was spouting didn’t exactly put Priyanka’s mind at ease, no matter how much the woman’s voice was soothing. Priyanka shifted in her chair and let out a tiny, tired sigh. The biological metaphors only went so far. This wasn’t about words so much as it was about the real dangers of Stephen’s growth. Rosa had all but confirmed that he needed specific help, something outside her control, but what was it? What could it be? More importantly, did it matter? Perhaps it didn’t. Stephen might simply be a lost boy in a hippie commune, living with the land, oblivious to anything but the clothes on his back and the girl he had met at the beach.

He was just so harmless. Ultimately, Priyanka knew she could only feel strangely disconnected from him, and to the same degree from Rosa, and as much as she wanted to help there was only so far she would be able to go for him. The thought pained her more than she had expected. Whatever Stephen needed, he couldn’t get much from her, not now. Still, she could make an offer.

“Stephen knows that the hospital is open to him. I’d like to extend some of that to you and your…family as well,” Priyanka said. “There are resources I’m connected to that allow for uninsured patients to have their care completely covered.”

“I’m sure he appreciates the safe haven, even if we don’t come around that often.”

“Well, not just that. If you’d like we can get him vaccinated, we can do his physical, and—if you don’t want educational outreach, I can connect you all to resources that might help acclimate him to, well, the world.”

“What a world it is.”

Did Rosa truly believe in the metaphysical oddities that came out of her mouth? Priyanka couldn’t help but let a touch of frustration take hold, but that was just what it was like. There were things she had to accept. Stephen might not need a physical, but if there were any issues that Priyanka could take care of, at least they had some medical care. His proficiency in the ocean might be more than Connie’s, but that wouldn’t save him from hitting a rock just like she had. The doctor inhaled the salty air, filling her lungs as she watched the children play.

“It’s a world with Stephen, and with Connie. I’m sure the two of them appreciate having each other in some capacity.”

When Rosa laughed this time, Priyanka could sense that the woman was laughing with her and not at her, and that was nothing if not a welcome change. She smiled, but deep down, the secrets would always be there to worry her. Stephen deserved to have more friends, and perhaps he did, but he didn’t talk about them to Connie at all, and based on what Priyanka knew the boy only was aware of the Maheswarans, Greg Universe, and his own commune. Outside of that there didn’t seem to be anyone else in his world. He swam, he learned, and it all still seemed so small. Granted, Priyanka knew that Greg would love to take Stephen on some statewide tour of all the musical amenities this place had to offer, but that was going off of Connie’s relay. It struck her that that was about all she knew.

“And Greg, as well. Greg Universe? Have you met him yet? I know Stephen has.”

“I’ll meet him when it’s time. For now, Stephen seems to enjoy his moments alone with this… Mr. Universe.”

“They had a bit of a heart-to-heart last time I saw them. Of sorts,” Priyanka said. “I know Stephen has a long road to go with his…experiences, but does he have any ‘allfathers’ as well?”

Rosa opened her mouth, grimaced, then sucked in air through her teeth as if measuring her own thoughts before saying anything regretful.”

“Perry is kind, but not always soft. He carries himself with a different tenderness. And Jasper isn’t around as much but he’s certainly too young and too brash to be what Stephen needs. There is love, but not… Well, you see Stephen’s disposition.”

“That I do.”

So there were at least two men in this place, wherever it was, and as much as Priyanka wanted to stop worrying she couldn’t help but wonder: how many people were living together, if indeed they were in the same location? And where on earth was it? All those questions and more were simply gone. She felt as uncomfortable as she ever had, but at least Rosa was talking to her, and at least Stephen wasn’t getting dragged into the unknown. Connie would never have forgiven her for accidentally pushing Stephen and his family away, and frankly, Priyanka would have understood if Greg felt the same way.

Thinking back, the strangest thing about Greg’s demeanor in the hospital was how natural it was. Whenever a parent thrust a child or two into his arms for transport or babysitting, there had been this oafish lovability that came with him, this gentleness that had come across with Stephen, yes, but in an almost nervous way. Priyanka subtly bit the inside of her lip. She didn’t want to bring Greg up right now. There was something about Stephen that had made Greg be himself in a genuine way, and it was wrong, somehow. If Rosa picked up on it, she wasn’t going to start, and Priyanka wasn’t about to initiate.

“Stephen lives in a changing world.” Priyanka turned her head as Rosa looked down at the sand, blinking slowly in thought before speaking again. “He’s growing up, and I want to keep him safe, but I need to let him go so he can realize what it means to be himself. Away from us. You understand.”

“I do. Very, very much so. Rosa, I… Do you have any children of your own?”

Priyanka swore she could see the plastic under Rosa’s fingers buckle as she gripped the arm of the beach chair, but her face was as peaceful and serene as ever. She raised her eyes to the horizon, and then to the boy in the water shaking salt from his unkempt hair.

“Just him,” she said. “But no, no blood. Perhaps in the future. But one is enough.”

“I know what you mean. I’m just glad Connie has a good head on her shoulders.”

It was a good head that had led her to meeting this friend, to establishing connections and boundaries, to healing and hurting and getting Stephen the help he needed. Watching Connie jump into a crashing wave, Priyanka forced herself to be at ease. Connie was going to be alright, and Stephen was too, at least for this part of their lives. The changing world was chaotic, but once in a while Priyanka could feel the moment. Moments made memories. Moments taught lessons. Peace could be found in the moment, before everything else fell just like the ocean against the same, again and again.

At the same time, she had to resist looking at Rosa. That woman was unpredictable, and no matter how much Priyanka could respect the love which she clearly had for Stephen, the secrecy would never sit right. They deserved to feel as if they could be out in the open, to live their lives in peace, unless the hideous truth was that their little colony harbored unknown and immoral beliefs, like a slasher cult out of the 80’s. That was paranoia. It had to be. Priyanka hated unknowns, and this was the biggest unknown she had faced as an adult, as a parent, and as a doctor. In the water, Stephen reached out both arms, and Connie pulled him forward, and their voices were quenched just for a second as they fell under the surface of the water.

Priyanka didn’t breathe again until they resurfaced with spluttering laughter, muted by the ocean wind carrying the noise away.

❖

When he was all wrapped up in a towel like that, Connie couldn’t help but think that Stephen looked like a puppy. They had removed themselves from the water as the wind began to pick up and the surface cooled down to temperatures that Connie just couldn’t handle. Besides, it had been time to eat. Stephen had chewed thoughtfully on the sandwich that Connie had brought for him. The girl had offered to make a little picnic, and everyone but Rosa ate. As the two children sat at the boardwalk’s picnic table, salty and untreated wood threatening splinters on their backsides, Connie tried not to think about how much they were being watched.

Rosa had borrowed a magazine, but Connie knew that she was only pretending to read. The table was big enough for both adults to sit and ignore each other in awkward silence as Stephen and Connie played chess. It was a considerably less awkward silence than it had been at the beginning, thankfully. Still, it permeated the dwindling afternoon, this energy between women. Dr. Maheswaran was older than other moms of Connie’s peers, but not that much older. How old was Rosa? Did selkies have birthdays? Connie hadn’t asked.

It was easier to think about the small things. Stephen’s eyes were delightfully fluid as he darted around the board, narrowing his eyes as he recalled all the bits and pieces of Connie’s instruction. The first twenty minutes had gone over the objectives, as well as vocabulary lessons for pieces like bishops and pawns. Connie had suspected that Stephen would pick up on gameplay fairly easily considering his playful nature. The contemplative side of him worked as hard as he played. Once more, Stephen brought up a captured pawn to his mouth to chew on, and the scratch of plastic summoned Rosa’s hand to again lower it from his mouth. Connie glanced at her mother, who was looking over the edge of her crossword puzzle, eyeing the unsightly grooves in the plastic where Stephen’s teeth had gouged in concentration.

“The nightly piece…goes in the… He is going one-two, one, in any…” the boy muttered.

“Yep, and it can jump over your own pieces, but not over mine.”

“Like the–” Stephen glanced up, suspicious and sarcastic as he let the offensive word loll out. “–the horse can.”

Why couldn’t he just believe that horses were real? It would have been a lot funnier had Connie’s mom not been right there. Maybe there were no horse-drawn carriages around town, sure, but there were seahorses literally in the ocean that Stephen was aware of. Still, even a video of horses wasn’t enough to convince Stephen that they weren’t some horrific mythological beast. A disembodied horse head on a plastic base was, admittedly, a bit of a macabre take when compared to the abstract roundnesses of the other soldiers.

“I am taking the pawn from here,” Stephen finally said, moving the knight carefully over the board until it tapped the plastic.

“Grr, another one down,” Connie giggled.

They had been over the setup and the motions. With the focus on the game and all the pieces before him, there was nothing actually stopping him from just plowing through a game, all gung-ho and strategic. He grinned as he plucked the pawn from the board and raised it almost to his lips before thinking better of it. Stephen set it down and eyed Connie with a grin that she would have thought was predatory had it not been for that jocular smirk. The beach towel, draped like a shroud, tucked around his body not unlike his skin. A woven cartoon sun with sunglasses bulged at his shoulder, faded blues covering his scalp as the messy bangs covered his forehead. Everything was soft about his presence, as comforting as he was comfortable, save for the sharp teeth under his grin. Somehow Connie found comfort in his teeth as well, even if she couldn’t quite explain.

“Alright. I’m gonna use this opportunity to slide my bishop out alllll the way over.”

Connie plucked the piece and moved it diagonally, with Stephen’s eyes following it to the edge of the board incredulously. There, an edge, an advantage–he had been so aggressive in his eating of pawns that he had neglected to form a defense. Connie returned the smirk even as it fell from Stephen’s own face, replaced by an indignant and determined curl of the lip.

A little puff of laughter came from Connie’s left. She turned to see her mother staring at the game as well, at Stephen, even, smiling almost unconsciously. That little moment was amusing, yes, but was this really Dr. Maheswaran in a state of bemusement? Obviously Stephen was (though Connie was loathe to say it) cute, in the way that adults thought all kids were somewhat cute, even if he didn’t know it himself. He had a wide-eyed innocence in all this discovery–as Connie had thought earlier, just like a puppy. 

But the girl hadn’t thought that her mother was paying attention to the game at all, anxious as she was about meeting. All the preliminary interrogative questions she had talked to Connie about had vanished upon actually joining the pair. Rosa’s relaxation came from devil-may-care determination, but the doctor was not so easy to let her guard down.

Dr. Maheswaran met Connie’s baffled gaze after a second, then waved her hand in embarrassment. “Oh, I-I’m sorry, don’t pay any attention to me. Go on, finish your game.”

“Are you playing the game, Dr. Maheswaran?”

Every time Stephen pronounced Connie’s last name, he did so with a touch of marvel, like it was some enchantment, a fantasy word. To the best of her knowledge it was just a common-ish Hindi name, or Tamil, although she couldn’t recall the exact translation beyond its relationship to Shiva. Introducing Stephen to religious etymology would have been a little much if the name alone was a marvel.

Dr. Maheswaran looked at Stephen and pursed her lips for a moment as she tried to parse the exact nature of his question. Connie almost jumped in when the boy sucked in air, looked at the sky as he counted, and cleared his throat as he tried again.

“Do you be… Do you like to play chess?” he offered again tentatively.

“Oh! Well, yes, on occasion,” she said slowly, “although I admit I’ve never been good at it. I’d say I’m a beginner, though I can certainly put Connie through her paces.”

“A likely story! I think our record shows a clear advantage for team Connie,” the girl retorted.

“Team Mom says that you can put your money where your mouth is at home, and that your father gets to be my teammate.”

“No fair! He did chess club for like six years!”

“You can have Stephen as your teammate if you choose. I think you two can work out a perfectly elegant strategy. Two heads and all.”

As the Maheswarans talked, Stephen was glancing back and forth, and Connie just knew he was absorbing all the little bits and pieces of the metagame that was the English language. She turned back to him with a solid grin, and he locked eyes with her as he took a deep, silent breath, pupils almost dilated. 

Stephen learned like a sponge. It was incredible, genuinely, the things that he picked up on through conversation. His speech was still his own, and the quirks made him sound like a strangely-written fantasy character from one of Connie’s dictionary-sized books, but he was working on that, putting in phrases, edging his way towards understandable English. It mystified Connie how his words had evolved when he had been surrounded by the other selkies who appeared to speak just fine. Only recently had she understood that bits and pieces of human song and passing beachgoers were most of what he had to go off, connecting the words to the tune of the selkies, and that he had taught himself most of how to speak. The songs were constant, infinitives in aural form, wordless words. Connie could barely comprehend it. She probably never would.

“Two heads can find something to do about that. Maybe we can have a sleepover sometime once school is out, and a little game night?” Connie offered.

“Oh, I…I’ll have to talk to your father about that.”

Stephen bit his lip and squirmed in his seat. “Sleepover.”

The cheekiness with which he repeated the word was only natural, but Connie could see both her own mother and Rosa tense up at the thought. Connie hadn’t had any girls over for a party since they had lived briefly on the west coast, and having any boy over might not sit well. There was nothing inherently wrong with the two of them, but the principle was different, and she could feel a twinge of righteous anger. It hardly mattered to her–a sleepover was a sleepover. Still, Dr. Maheswaran’s lips faltered as they attempted a polite smile, and Rosa didn’t hide her concern at all.

“We should talk about expectations before any…” Rosa started, clearing her throat. “Before we can make plans.”

“Can we…have pizza?”

“I mean, half the fun of sleepovers is having junk food. I think,” Connie said. “Popcorn, and those licorice twisty things, and–”

“Connie, we’ll talk about this at home,” Dr. Maheswaran said quietly.

This was patently unfair, and Connie could see confusion turn to bitter acceptance on Stephen’s face. Later on, if Connie got her bike and came over, they could talk about the reasons why their guardians were being apprehensive, and bicker with their imaginary counterparts. Stephen might like her father, and Mr. Maheswaran might even like him back, in an awkward dad way. Then they could talk about sleeping beside each other, Stephen splayed out and warm like a blanket. It was simply nice, and Connie knew she couldn’t extend her want to anything beyond a tiny morsel of more . He deserved to know what it meant to be a normal kid in a normal friendship, and frankly, so did she. Nobody from school wanted to come over, that much was certain.

But she couldn’t be that angry. Everyone was trying their best. Connie looked up at Rosa, and as much as she still didn’t trust the woman, she could feel that pain in Rosa’s eyes. It would be easy to take Stephen to another coast and vanish forever, move the colony, find a new home. It would be devastating for the young selkie.

“Yes, ma’am,” Connie whispered.

Stephen took his unmoved pawn, near the far side of the board, considering a move. He understood how to move it two spaces, but only on the first go. His eyes met Connie almost in apology, even though neither of them could concentrate on the board fully. A head full of pizza thoughts and quiet acceptance was hard to work with.

Finally, he settled on his rook, moving the castle one space to the right and nodding with satisfaction as his hand left the board. Stephen raised his eyebrows and tried to send a smile over like a question. How could she resist, really? Connie shared it back, reaching under the table with her foot to gently poke Stephen in the knee. It was like a button that instantly pushed his smile up and rounded his cheeks under those silver eyes.

To the adults, it might look like they recovered, and Connie hoped that the relaxation she felt next to her was her mother dropping her guard a little. Gauging Dr. Maheswaran’s moods wasn’t easy, but it was necessary if she wanted to keep the privileges she had. One of them was sitting across from her, after all, sliding his shoulders left and right as he watched Connie touch the tops of her pieces.

“Let’s get you out there,” she said, moving a pawn one square forward.

Stephen could see it, of course. The path to let her queen out was open, and the bishop was ready with the defense. All it took was a ten-steps-ahead thought process to beat her, and frankly, Connie hoped that Stephen wouldn’t see how blindly she was flying. He narrowed his eyes in that predatory smarminess, the kind that made her want to growl right back at him. Maybe she would, but not in front of her mother. It was just play, not even a game, not like this.

“I’m smelling your plans,” Stephen said, his voice rumbling like pebbles in the surf. “I am planning to unplan your plans!”

“I’d like to see you try, Mister… Uh… Mom, who was that one professional chess player?”

“Calderson?”

“I was thinking of the other one, um–I guess that’ll do. Mister Calderson!”

Stephen looked between the two Maheswarans as if they were casting a spell on him. Connie giggled, shaking her head apologetically. “Sorry, sorry, it’s something we were watching a news story on. He plays chess for a career and travels around the world and could definitely beat us.”

“A…career?”

Had they explained the concept of a career to Stephen? A job might be something more his speed, an understanding that someone could hold a position, like an allmother or a hunter, but for human society. One look at Rosa told Connie that she shouldn’t push the subject. The woman softened her gaze as she reached over and ran a hand over Stephen’s head under the towel, pushing it off as the sun began to break through a white cloud above them. The remaining saltwater glistened as she calmly stroked his locks.

“ We’ll talk about that at home,” Rosa said.

“Yes’m!”

He leaned into her touch just a little, and thankfully, Connie felt her heart warm. She and Stephen didn’t touch like that often, but a hug and a tilt came from time to time, and she knew that she could have felt jealousy. That would have meant more than she could have dealt with, knowing what she knew. They all knew it to some degree.

But as she looked up, Connie could see her mother’s face, kind and cautious, perhaps thankful that there was some normalcy on the other side of the table, parent-child intimacy in a certain light. Rosa must have felt some solace in Stephen’s response, as he felt with hers. All four of them were in place, as if synchronized in relief somehow, all sighing without showing the other. Stephen leaned away, straightened up, and stared at the board.

Once more, he took the knight piece, and confidently moved it over a pawn, out of the range of Connie’s bishop. He was ready for her next move, and she could see the pieces lying in ambush. He released his hand, pulling it back in anticipation, as if the piece would spring to life. When he winked at Connie, there was magic in his eyes.

❖

By the time the hatchback had pulled up to the car wash, the sun was dipping low enough on the horizon that the air had turned into a quiet gold. Connie glanced around the storefront, but besides the watermarks of recent washes on the blacktop, there was no sign that the building was inhabited. It had been foolish to think that Stephen might have come here. He might have wanted to see Mr. Universe, but Rosa had made it clear that they were going home after a quick walk down the beach to talk about the summer. It was as good an excuse as any. Connie had stayed her mother’s hand with excuses of her own, maybe a little too enthusiastically, but it had got the job done. She unbuckled her seatbelt.

“Five minutes to say hello and check in, alright?” Dr. Maheswaran murmured, turning the engine off. “Ask him about Stephen, too, if you can.”

“Mom, I know, I–”

“Just to be sure.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll be right back.”

The van was in its usual parking spot in the back, even though Connie recalled that it was usually more in the sun by this point in the season, a little spot of warmth for the day to keep the cabin heated at night. That was a trick that Mr. Universe had mentioned which had stuck in her mind for some reason. The hill blocked out a good amount of light, and there couldn’t be much reaching the van now. The girl’s sandals made little thwip noises as she padded over the road.

She had so many questions. She could only imagine Mr. Universe’s smiling face as he opened the door to the boy whenever he showed up, with his messy beard and well-brushed hair all majestic like a sea captain. The selkie must have loved to see him. They were regular, as far as Connie could tell, even if she couldn’t get too many details out of her friend on what happened specifically. The guys were just bonding, it seemed, eating and talking and playing music and apparently learning about sunscreen, which, come to think of it, could have been why Stephen had blurted it out almost immediately when they met up at the beach earlier today. She hadn’t paid it any mind when he said it.

Stephen must have had a welcome entrance, but Connie felt that the lot was strangely silent as she passed the corner. The breeze was warm, the cinder blocks were uninviting but durable, the brickwork was moss-worn and sunbleached–nothing seemed out of place physically. She saw the van, parked at an awkward angle, its hatch facing the coast and the waning sun, askew like roadkill.

“Mister Universe?” she called cautiously.

Coming around, she saw the doors were open, and part of the van was in shadow. The man slumped against the wall inside jerked his head up suddenly as her head passed in front of the sunbeam, and Connie jumped and gasped in sync with Greg Universe’s own little exclamation.

“Oh, jeez, Connie!”

“Hi, um–”

“Sorry, sorry, I–Connie, is Stephen here? You two on a little playdate?”

“No, um, we were, at the beach, but I… Mom’s in the car but it’s just me. Stephen went home.”

Mr. Universe nodded, or seemed to, and Connie felt bad for a moment for letting him down. But that was just because of the immeasurable disappointment in his silence, nothing that she had done. They hadn’t said they were coming, and Stephen certainly hadn’t mentioned anything, so there was no reason for him to be upset with her. Was he? The girl took a tentative step forward as the man sighed.

“Ugh. I’m sorry, kiddo, I haven’t been my best,” he muttered, scratching his head. “Haven’t been getting much sleep lately.”

“Ah, um, I’m sorry to hear that. Is your mattress comfortable?”

“Oh yeah! This thing’s been serving me good since ‘98 or so. I’m used to it. This thing’s got a me-shaped crater at this point.”

He chuckled a little at the non-joke, some familiar humor, but both of them knew it wasn’t that funny. His laughter dried out as Connie stared at his outline. Mr. Universe didn’t have the biggest wardrobe, but the stains on his jean shorts and the musty wrinkles of the undershirt made it seem like he hadn’t changed his clothes for a week. Chances were, he hadn’t slept well for longer than that. There was this unease about the man that made Connie more worried for him than she had ever been. Obviously living out of a van by the car wash meant he was going to be on the fringes, but he had always taken care of himself.

“Mr. Universe, are you okay?”

He paused, scooting to the edge of the van before he lowered his head, legs dangling to the pavement. He was quiet for a long moment before he sighed and rolled his shoulders in discomfort.

“I’m just worried,” he muttered.

“About Stephen.”

“Yeah. About Stephen.”

It made sense, even if it hurt Connie a bit inside. Mr. Universe had been a de facto safe haven for every kid, and most of the locals had apparently remained friends and came by from time to time. They were all independent, though, mostly older teens from what Connie heard, and all with families of some sort. Stephen was unique, and the urge to help must have been overwhelming. It took all of Connie’s willpower in the moment to put her foot down in her head and not make this her problem. Her mother and father had been adamant about not worrying over Mr. Universe when she had all her own worries she needed to take care of. She couldn’t help everyone, and she was still a kid. She was more than that, obviously, she was almost a teenager, but whatever. Not until now had it occurred to her that there might be wisdom in that. Mr. Universe didn’t seem well. At all.

“He’s still doing good,” Connie said gently. “Eating and playing and swimming and stuff.”

“That’s good! That’s good. Last time I saw him I think you two were setting this up, but nothing had been confirmed. Glad to hear it went well.”

“Mhm. Rosa, one of his…guardians was there, too. She talked to my mom.”

“Everyone get along well?”

“Yep! We played chess and ate sandwiches.”

Mr. Universe forced out a little laugh. Above them, a generator began to cough and thrum to life as the neon elephant lit up with a buzz near the front of the building. Connie couldn’t even see the dim glow in this light; the automatic timer must have been set for the winter. He hadn’t fixed it, it seemed.

“Sorry to just come around without calling, but I want to… You know mom’s still weird about him, and, um, you two talked at the doctor’s about this stuff,” Connie said, tucking a strand of hair behind her glasses. “And I-I just wanted to make sure if–”

“Connie, would you tell me the truth?”

The girl’s blood froze even as the sun began to burn her neck. She could hear something in Mr. Universe’s voice. It was a desperate tone, almost threatening, no matter how calm and cool he tried to ask, no matter how much he tried to keep himself on that musical level. It was so sudden that she almost stepped backwards. Had Stephen told him? Did he know about selkies? Connie was the only one, and that was a fluke in itself, and if the man knew, then he would have known that she knew. No, he couldn’t be aware, not of that. It made the edge in his voice all the more worrisome. She recognized the tone that adults put on when they were either very tired or very angry.

She hated it.

“The truth about…what?”

“If Stephen was keeping a secret from us, from me, and your mother, would you tell us?”

Connie forced herself not to swallow. Rosa’s eyes were locked on her from across time and space. He knew. He couldn’t know. Stephen wouldn’t have told him. Stephen knew better. Connie straightened up and furrowed her brow, feigning concern. Lying was easy when she was so suddenly terrified.

“I’m not sure what you mean, but if I could help Stephen somehow, of course I’d say something,” she said. “I was kind of hoping you’d know something, actually. He seems close to you, right? He’d tell you things.”

Greg didn’t move for a full second before he nodded slowly, looking up at Connie with a slight smile. He opened his mouth, perhaps to thank her, then stopped when he saw her face.

She couldn’t help it. There was no doubt in her mind, but she couldn’t ask Stephen about it, not right now. She couldn’t tell him. He must have seen, or he could have been aware, or he must have been taught–

“Connie?”

“I…I’m sorry, Mr. Universe, I have to go, my mom’s waiting.”

He didn’t call after her or make a move to stop her as she walked away from the van as fast as she could. As soon as she was out of sight, she covered her mouth with one hand, taking a sickly breath before putting on her best face and walking to the car. Her mother had turned around, ready to go. Connie felt her heart throbbing with fear in her chest, that familiar fear, the fear of being unable to take action when someone was in danger, the fear of paralysis, the fear of being so small in a massive world.

The image froze in her mind. She wiped her face with one hand under her glasses, but Mr. Universe’s gaze stuck like a limpet in her brain. She recognized that face from when she had first seen him years ago, the unchanging face, the kind and bearded face. Connie knew his eyes the best of all. In all that time, they had been a solid mahogany brown. But in the sunlight, when Greg Universe looked at her, she could see the cracks of unnatural blue breaking through his irises like a glacier about to calve.