Aria, page 5
Boldly, he reaches toward me again, but I slap his hand away before he can touch. Determined, he tries again.
“Let me touch it, Lena,” he whines and giggles at the same time.
Irritated, I smack his hand away harder.
“Stop it!” I admonish moving farther away.
“Let me touch it just once more,” he continues.
Unable to argue any more, I allow him to touch the sensitive skin that helps me swim faster in the water. However, on land, it does absolutely nothing. It simply hangs there, mocking me.
“It feels like frog skin,” my brother reveals with one more poke.
“Dad!” I shout. “Tell Ando to stop bothering me!”
Suddenly, Dad pulls over to the side of the road and gets out to pace, stopping long enough to say, “Ando… for heaven’s sake… Dios Mio!… leave your sister alone!”
His pacing starts again.
“We were doing so well,” he talks to himself. “So well.”
“David, let’s go to the hotel,” my mother urges, appearing nervous and who could blame her. After all, her teen daughter currently looks like an alien.
Reluctantly, he stops, but continues to stare into the back seat… at me!
“Is there anything we can do to make it go away?” I ask, feeling the tears welling.
“I have no clue,” Mom sulks, throwing her arms above her head.
Finally, my father orders: “Call the aunts.”
Mom’s eyes widen in shock.
“What?” she questions with a confused glare.
“I said call Ligeia and Leukosia,” Dad repeats.
“I haven’t heard from them since we got to Ischia,” Mom reminds.
There is silence.
“Can’t you contact them from anywhere with your telepathy?” he asks, taking a soothing breath.
“Apparently, they can block me,” Mom grumbles below her breath.
David throws his arms over his head and begins a minute long rant in Spanish that makes everyone in the vehicle blush. When he stops, he seems less agitated. No one speaks.
“Combine your strength with the children and use that Sireny-fishy-mythical telepathy-thing and call them.”
Mom silently debates.
“I’ll try,” she gets out of the SUV and stands motioning for Ando and me to join her. “Ok, clasp hands… good… now concentrate. We’re going to amplify our thoughts… just think about the aunts… how they look… how they act… ”
We stand holding hands at the side of the road for almost thirty minutes without any luck. I can only imagine what passersby are thinking. Crazy tourists. That is what I would be thinking if I were in their shoes.
“Maybe, we have a bad connection,” I say like we are on cell phones.
“Take a break,” Mom sighs. “We’ll try again in a few minutes when we are at the hotel.”
Needless to say, it does not work. Ligeia and Leukosia refuse to answer. Finally, my parents send us to bed and retire themselves. What a disaster.
Why do these things always happen to me?
🦉
A few minutes past midnight, I begin to drift off to sleep. In my dream, I am swimming along the rocky shoreline of Capri. All around are brightly colored fish darting in and out of the branches of coral, their forms shimmering as moonlight breaks through the water like hundreds of spotlights landing on their scales.
Below the surface, everything is intensified… colors are brighter… scents are stronger… emotions are more extreme. Happily, I chase a medium-sized grouper through patches of seaweed. Unfortunately, he gives me the slip by dashing inside of a small cleft in the seabed.
It is at that moment when a school of Bluefin Tuna appear, glowing as moonlight illuminates them from above. Tickled pink, I swim as fast as I can toward them, causing them to scatter in different directions, but to my delight they almost immediately reform their tight grouping. I do this several more times until I get bored.
Then I hear them.
“Come with me… into the sea… in the ocean’s waves we’ll play.”
Almost instantly, I catch sight of them, Ligeia’s crimson locks that shimmer like flames appear first, followed by Leukosia’s long, golden mane, then I see their infamous hypnotic aquamarine eyes. My heart melts when I see their faces. But that happiness does not last very long.
“What is going on?” Leukosia scolds without even a hug.
“I’m broken,” I click then clack my condition.
“I see,” she sympathizes in Siren.
“What am I doing wrong?”
Before she can respond, I hear Ligeia’s no-nonsense voice in my head admonishing.
‘You are trying to be human and you are not,’ she states flatly.
Like a toddler needing its mother, I rush toward her with my arms out to hug her, but she quickly darts out of the way.
“Where are you, Selena?” Ligeia interrogates as if it is a question on a test.
I grin.
“I’m in bed at the hotel,” I purr, thoroughly enjoying this ethereal, yet vivid dream.
“Are you sure?” Leukosia joins, her voice like an angel’s.
Confidently, I nod.
“I’m in bed enjoying a lovely dream.”
“Is that right?” both retort with narrowed eyes.
“Yup!” I answer with a giggle. “I’ve missed you both so much.”
Finally, they let me hug them. They feel so real.
“Selena—”
“Wait,” I interrupt. “Let’s just enjoy the water. It’s so warm tonight. So calm, so perfect.”
“Selena—” Ligeia begins, but I halt her with a raised palm.
“Let’s go to the Blue Grotto and sing… sing until morning… or until Mom wakes me up.”
‘Selena?’ I unexpectedly hear my mother’s voice in my head. ‘Where the hell are you young lady?’
Suddenly, I am confused.
“I’m in bed,” I remind, wondering why she just does not walk over to the adjoining room and talk to me.
‘Don’t lie to me!’ she practically growls. ‘Your father and I are worried sick!’
There is a long pause before she speaks again.
‘David is pacing and cursing in Spanish!’ she warns. ‘You’re going to make him have a stroke!’
What? That makes no sense.
‘Where… are… you?’ she snarls inside of my head.
“I’m in bed sleeping… wait… ”
Speedily, I swim toward a nearby spiny branched coral and run my finger over it. Immediately, it begins to bleed.
What the hell?
Slowly, I raise the same finger to my lips and lick the tip. I taste copper.
Oh, my gracious!
“Where am I?” I ask, turning to Ligeia.
She rolls her eyes then finally replies.
“You are in the harbor.”
Stunned by the news, my eyes widen and my mouth gapes open.
“No, I can’t be,” I reply, shaking my head in disbelief.
“Sing,” Leukosia orders.
In shock, I respond.
“I can’t do that!” I huff. “I’ll cause a disturbance in the bed and breakfast!”
“I said… sing,” she repeats with an irritated tone.
“Fine… you want pandemonium… I’ll sing,” I state petulantly and with as much haughtiness as I can muster.
Determined to set the record straight, I open my mouth and nothing comes out. Not even a peep. I try again, but this time with more passion and manage to create a stream of bubbles.
Still no sound.
At last, it dawns on me.
I really am in the harbor!
Holy crap!
🦉
This cannot be happening! How in the world did I end up in the harbor surrounded by boats and fishing traps?
The last thing I remember is climbing into bed. Ando was already asleep on his double bed and I had been eating a late-night snack of canned sardines and saltine crackers that Mom bought from a small grocery store near the main square. I had just brushed my teeth, settled into bed, and began watching an old episode of Green Acres with English subtitles on the hotel’s satellite television system.
(Don’t judge me!)
‘I don’t know what’s going on with me, Aunt Leukosia,’ I release the words in a rushed jumble that is a mixture of English, Italian, and Siren then realize that I used my telepathy.
Curiously, she studies me, yet remains silent allowing me to rant.
“Something is wrong, but my mother doesn’t know how to fix it,” I continue in Siren.
Still, she continues staring at me.
“Please help me,” I plead, not knowing what to do next.
“Of course there is something wrong,” Ligeia agrees rigidly with a stream of annoyed clickity-clacks as she braids her hair to keep it out of her face.
“Are you hungry all of the time?” Leukosia grills.
My stomach acids begin to churn as it growls very loudly, making, both aunts gawk at me.
“Starving is a better word,” I confess, placing both hands over my abdomen.
“Here,” Leukosia says handing me a still squirming baby tuna. “This should help.”
Registering her command to eat it, I gag.
“No way!” I reply with a shake of my head. “No way! No how!”
“Eat it!” Ligeia shouts a clack.
“I can’t… I won’t!” I loudly clack back, feeling my innards rolling.
I feel the acid churning my stomach as it growls even louder than before.
“I’ll get sick!” I bluster with disgust. “Can’t we cook it or something?”
My stomach answers with another tumultuous growl.
“No,” they answer in unison. “Trust us.”
“It’s disgusting!” I bellow, wanting to swim to freedom. “It’s alive!”
“We are Sirens,” they both say together.
I huff, yanking on my soaking wet pajamas.
“I know what we are!” I snap rather loudly, earning me a fierce clack.
“No!” they shout in my mind. “You do not!”
Stubbornly, I state, “I don’t even like sushi!”
“Eat it,” they request much calmer.
Wanting them to stop ganging up on me, I take the small fish from Leukosia’s webbed hand. I pray that the thing will stay down, but something tells me that it will. Horrified, I close my eyes and take a small nibble.
“Just eat it… pop it into your mouth and swallow!” they both snap as they make a chewing motion like they are feeding a baby.
Completely disgusted, I do as they command and take the entire fish into my mouth. Then I wait. We all wait.
“How was it?” Ligeia asks with a raised brow, and I think for a few seconds before answering:
“May I have another?”
🦉
I have learned the hard way that there is no debating with the aunts. After my ‘snack’ they convince me to go on a ‘road trip’ with them to see something that they deem as important. Try as I might to dissuade them, they still insist that the trip is necessary. It has come to my attention that arguing with the aunts, especially when they are together, is a battle I will lose every time. From my observations, they have a demigod-like stubbornness that has no weaknesses. Whoever is against them will always give up. It is just easier to do so.
“Where are we going?” I query as we swim toward the windward side of the island.
“There is something you need to know about your heritage,” Ligeia informs as she swims beside me; her red braid trailing behind her like an incredibly long, thick rope.
‘Your mother has forgotten her history lessons,’ again the two voices merge inside of my head.
“What does that have to do with anything?” I probe, feeling my blood pressure rising.
“You need to understand your past, so you can figure out your future,” they clack then click.
Overwhelmed by the conversation, I stay perfectly quiet, wishing I could blend into the background.
“Come with us,” they command as they swim ahead, leaving me alone staring after them.
“Wait!” I call. “You didn’t tell me why my body keeps doing these strange things.”
“That dilemma will be answered soon,” they insist. “Come on, young one… follow us.”
Gasping for breath, I race to catch up to the sisters, who speed through the water like torpedoes that have been launched. Leukosia’s blonde mane reminds me of a sail fluttering in a hurricane.
“How much farther?” I click loudly, knowing that they can hear me even though they are so far ahead. Apparently, our clicks and clacks can travel an extremely far distance underwater. It is kind of like how dolphins and whales communicate with their pods across the open sea.
“It is just up ahead,” Leukosia informs with a regal wave of her hand.
As she proclaims this, both Sirens abruptly stop. Finally reaching them, I halt also, wondering what is so important. As we float weightlessly under the sea, I begin to feel strange. My mind becomes calm, clear and focused as my instincts suddenly kick-in. I think the water is too murky in this area and my eyes instantly switch to Siren-mode. Everything around me is crystal clear and I can see for miles away.
‘What’s happening?’ I whisper with my mind and am shocked when The Sisters hear me. ‘I have telepathy? Holy cow! I have freaking telepathy!’
Completely amused, my aunts muster smiles.
Wanting to try communicating with someone farther away, I say to myself, ‘Ando… Ando… can you hear me?’
‘Lena,’ my brother’s small sleepy voice comes through loud and clear. ‘I’m trying to sleep. Get outta my head.’
‘Sorry,’ I respond with an ecstatic giggle. ‘Go back to sleep.’
Next, I try something different. I command the webbing between my fingers to go away, but the ones on my toes to stay. Without hesitation, it happens. Then I switch them, several times I do this enjoying the control that I have over my body. Then I imagine activating my scales, but change my mind remembering how itchy they are.
‘Call to the animals in the sea,’ my aunts encourage with gigantic smiles.
With my telepathy, I call out to the closest pod of dolphins, specifically the alpha of the group. Within a few minutes, I see a smooth, gray male swimming toward me at top speed. He comes within touching distance and allows me to stroke his skin. He even opens his mouth and lets me touch his tongue. I laugh. It feels very tongue-like. Thanking him with a few clickity-clacks, he turns and swims away.
‘Control the sea,’ Ligeia orders with a boisterous belly-laugh.
Unsure if I can successfully do the task, I take a deep breath, say a prayer, and concentrate as I race to the surface with the sisters right on my heels. Up above, the water is barely moving. As I break through the surface, I activate my lungs and without hesitation my gills retract and my lungs begin to breathe the fresh night air.
‘Control the waves, Selena,’ again they speak as one.
They make it sound so easy.
Not wanting to disappoint them, I close my eyes, focusing on making the water roll and it does. Larger waves begin to come in from the deep; large angry waves that resemble a giant wall.
Whoops! I don’t want those kinds of waves! Immediately, I ask them to be more gentle… more manageable. And they become much smaller. Then I request that the water be still and once more, the surface transforms to glass.
“Oh my!” I yell-clack as I swim around The Sirens, then dive below the surface to reemerge in a spray of mist as I leap out of the water like a Great White Shark catching a seal as it shoots out of the water. The speed is exhilarating.
“How is this possible?” I ask my aunts breathlessly in Siren.
They laugh before answering.
“Look down.”
I do, but do not understand what I should be looking for.
“I don’t see anything,” I reply anxiously.
“Look harder,” they encourage, their excitement evident. “The answer you seek is there.”
This time, I really look, I look with my soul. I see it or rather I feel it. Feel the pull of something extraordinary… something powerful… something that cannot be explained in conventional terms.
“Wait,” I mumble, plunging to the bottom. “I think I see something.”
More determined than ever to find the cause of my newly found control, I dive down and grab a handful of sand. Among the tiny grains is a small piece of black glass, which I then race back with to where Ligeia and Leukosia are waiting. Surprisingly, where the glass touches my skin I can feel a slight static electrical charge as if I have just walked across carpet and touched a metal doorknob in the dead of winter. It does not hurt, it just tingles slightly.
“What is this?” I enquire as I inspect the smooth, two-inch fragment.
They smile.
‘It is the source of your power,’ they inform from inside of my head at a mere whisper and in my spirit, I know that it is true.
🦉
Unable to take my eyes off of the innocuous fragment of glass, I turn it over in my palms several times inspecting it, studying it; searching for flaws in its smooth surface, but finding none.
It is just glass!
“I don’t understand,” I say to my aunts as we swim back to the Ischia harbor at a leisurely pace. “How can this be the source of my power?”
They pause for a moment, pondering the question. Abruptly, they stop moving, only their long hair seems to be affected by the movement of the sea. A large compass jellyfish, also known as a Chrysaora hysoscella, passes between them and they do not even notice when it touches their skin. From my studies, I know that this type of jellyfish has an extremely painful sting level and just the slightest touch can cause itching and burning and can also scar the skin for up to three weeks. Any normal person would have instantly felt its painful sting, but not these two characters.
At last, they speak.
“A better explanation is it helps channel our abilities and makes them keener, more precise.”
My science knowledge springs forward.
“Like an antenna will boost the signal on the television set?” I state quizzically.
