Whispers Under Water, page 2
Caitriona’s mind pulsed. A single word blocked her thoughts like a cork in a bottle. Abilities.
“Mom,” Caitriona’s mouth felt so dry it was difficult to get the words out, “what did she mean?”
“Hmm?” Fianna lowered onto the couch. Her spine was ramrod straight and she stared at the spot Viera had stood moments before.
“What abilities?”
“Abilities?” Fianna frowned and her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Caitriona turned wide eyes on her mother. “What do I mean?” She got to her feet. The tension inside her snapped like a rubber band and she felt a wave of emotions crash through her. “What do you mean what do I mean?”
“You…but…” Fianna fumbled for the words. “I assumed it was obvious.”
Caitriona’s mouth fell open.
“Don’t you remember his stories?”
Caitriona threw up her arms and started pacing. “Of course I remember the stories. But you never said anything about me being…having…ugh.” The cork shot out, causing a rush of questions that tumbled over each other, one pushing another aside to force its way to the forefront.
The bookshelves in their living room sagged under the weight of her father’s publications. Novels, short stories, collections of poetry. Each stamped with one award or another. But one thing missing from the displays were the stories he’d told Caitriona every night before bed. Thrilling tales about a girl living on a magical island. They’d been her very own fairy tales. Right up to her thirteenth birthday, when Fianna explained that not only did that magical place exist, but she would also live there one day. Her mother never said that the magic of the people was real too. And she’d never felt anything magical in herself.
“I just thought you knew,” Fianna watched her daughter pace with concern.
“How much of it all is true?” She repeated the question she’d asked her mom a million times. But it had always been about the place. Now it was about so much more.
“You know I don’t know, Catriona. I’m sorry, I wish I had those answers for you. I’ve told you everything I can.”
Caitriona took a deep breath and slumped onto an ottoman. How had her brain just entirely skipped the part about her being able to do magic?
“Wait,” she sat up straight, “Dad didn’t have abilities.” And what had Viera said? He hadn’t made some kind of discovery. Had she meant he’d never had them, or never managed to, what? Produce them, develop them?
Fianna flicked something invisible off her pant leg and didn’t meet Caitriona’s gaze.
Caitriona perched on the edge of the ottoman. “Could Dad do magic?”
Splotches of red bloomed on Fianna’s neck. “No, not technically.”
Caitriona waited. When no further explanation came, she crossed her arms.
“He never found out what his were.” Fianna fiddled with the corner of the throw blanket, twisting a tassel round and round her finger. “He left school before he knew.”
Caitriona felt her world tilt as she took in this new information. He’d left school.
But why did he leave? When did he leave? Why didn’t he go back? If he had magic going into school, why did it go away? Frustration built up in her chest and she balled her hands into fists on her knees. How did her mother not know these things? Caitriona had asked her hundreds of questions through the years, but she never had any answers. How had Fianna not cared to ask her father when he’d been alive?
Something felt wrong about it all. There were too many gaps. Too many shadows surrounding what she knew. And these new revelations hadn’t cleared any away. They only added more.
She stood. “I think I’m going to go to Georgia’s if that’s okay.” She said this more as a statement than a question.
Fianna picked the envelope off the table. “Of course. Take this. Maybe it will help.”
Caitriona took it without pausing as she crossed the room. In the doorway, she stopped but didn’t turn around. “You always said that Dad wanted this for me. But then,” Caitriona closed her eyes, “why did he leave?”
But there was no answer.
chapter two
The air cooled with the fading light and the robin’s egg-blue sky deteriorated into the steel gray of dusk. Caitriona’s feet carried her along the sidewalk while her mind churned and her teeth tugged at a thread on the cuff of her sweatshirt.
When they’d gotten a letter in the mail, explaining someone from ELA would be coming by, she’d been looking forward to it with the expectation of gaining answers to her questions. But Viera’s visit had only blown it all wide open. Her stomach felt like a pancake that had been flipped over and landed on the edge of the pan, oozing batter down the sides.
Okay, so she couldn’t blame Fianna for not clarifying something that, now she could see clearly, was obvious. Maybe she’d been hiding from the fact that her father’s magical world came with powers too. The school had always seemed like a prodigious college, set in a wondrous land. The few times she’d allowed her imagination to picture it, she saw herself attending normal classes with a fairyland backdrop. Not learning magic.
The thought sent a shiver down her spine. In theory, learning to do magic was thrilling and fantastical. In reality, it was terrifying. What kind of magic was it? What happened if you did it wrong? And how had Fianna never told her that her father left? Left before he even knew what his abilities were. How long had he been there? Why had he left?
Caitriona had stopped walking. She stood, frowning at the sidewalk, the envelope still in her hand. The streetlamp above her flickered on.
She pushed open the front door to Georgia’s house. Knocking had long ago become a hassle. So often the three of them came and went from each other’s homes that they all had keys.
“In here!” Georgia called from an adjacent room.
Buddy, the Davis’s golden retriever, bounded over for his designated greeting. Caitriona knelt and scratched behind his silky ears. He licked her cheek twice in approval and then bounced away, leading her into the living room. Georgia and Wyatt sat on the couch with a massive bowl of popcorn between them, a rerun of Doctor Who on the TV. Mrs. Davis, dressed in her pink fuzzy robe, stood behind the couch, swirling a spoon in a mug of tea. Their enduring house phone held between her ear and shoulder. She waved and then walked into the kitchen, trailing the cord behind her like a comically long tail.
Caitriona plopped onto the couch next to Wyatt. He held the bowl out and she grabbed a handful of popcorn.
Georgia leaned across him. “So what happened?” She spoke quietly to prevent her mom from overhearing. “Was it about, you know what?”
Caitriona held up the envelope. “We should go talk in your room.”
Georgia’s eyes went wide. She peeked over the back of the couch into the kitchen. “I think she’s going to bed soon.”
Caitriona tucked the envelope under the couch cushion and they passed the popcorn around while staring at the TV. The Doctor and Donna Noble ran around a library with a group of people in space suits. She’d seen the episode before and the scenes filtered across her eyes without dipping into her consciousness.
“There! See?” Georgia pointed to the TV.
“No, what? I didn’t see it.” Wyatt said.
Georgia grabbed the remote and rewound. “Look, there’s two shadows there…” She kept the remote at the ready. The camera angle shifted and she punched the pause. “Look at the floor, now there’s only one.”
“Oh yeah. But that’s a pretty tight frame. They probably didn’t want to waste the time and energy on the effect.”
Georgia hit play. “That’s true. But still, it counts.”
“Alright kids,” Mrs. Davis emerged, telephone free. “I’m off to bed. Try not to stay up too late. Lovely party, Caitriona.” She kissed the top of each of their heads.
“Thanks, Mama Sue. Goodnight,” Caitriona said.
They waited after she left, listening to her footsteps on the stairs until her bedroom door closed.
“Alright, spill,” Georgia said. She set the empty bowl on the table and pointed to the hidden envelope. “What’s that?”
Caitriona pulled the packet out. “Well, it’s my orientation information. That woman, Viera, came to give it to me and introduce herself. She asked if I had any questions, and somehow managed to leave me with more.” And she told them everything that happened since they’d left her backyard.
Georgia’s mouth hung open. “What? You get magic powers?”
Caitriona felt a little vindicated. If Georgia hadn’t realized, maybe it hadn’t been that obvious.
“I thought we already knew you were going to learn magic there?” Wyatt said. Caitriona frowned and Georgia stared at him. “What?”
Georgia shook her head. “We definitely did not know that.”
“Doesn’t really change anything though, does it?” Wyatt shrugged. “I mean, it’s not like you just learned magic is supposedly real. You already knew that.”
“There’s a big difference between knowing magic exists and being able to do it,” Georgia said. “And don’t get me started on your supposedly bullshit.” Georgia squinted her eyes, challenging him.
Ignoring the bait, Wyatt said “But I’m more interested in why your dad left. Wasn’t it, sort of, his dying wish that you should go there?”
“Yeah,” Caitriona said. She slipped her father’s medallion from her pocket and squeezed it in her palm.
“And you have no idea why he left?”
“Well, I think I have a theory.”
Georgia and Wyatt waited.
“I think he might have left to be with my mom.”
“Aw,” Georgia said. “That’s so romantic.”
Wyatt frowned. “They couldn’t be together after he finished school?”
Caitriona raised her hands, palms up. “I don’t know. It was just a thought I had.”
“Well, what do you do at the school? Or after school? Do you stay there? Do you come back here?”
“I don’t know.”
Wyatt stared at her.
“This is what’s so frustrating!” Caitriona dropped her head into her hands. The medallion pressed against her cheek. If only it would speak to her like she’d imagined when she was little. “I’m supposed to just go off to this place and a life I know nothing about.”
When she was younger, she used to dream of going to her father’s fairyland. But as she grew, she’d focused on not thinking about it too much, not wanting the moment to come when she’d have to say goodbye. And she’d never really thought about her life afterward. What if she wasn’t allowed to return home? Doubts and fear rushed through her.
“You don’t know nothing,” Georgia said. “You have all those fairy tales he told you.”
Caitriona snorted. “In the stories, I fought dragons and other giant monsters. If that’s what the school is actually for, then I’m out.”
“But did you have magic in the stories?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember.” Caitriona rubbed her thumb across the medallion. She hadn’t heard any of the stories since she was a little girl. The specifics had trickled through a decade of time sieves.
Wyatt picked up the envelope. “What’s in here?”
Caitriona waved him on to open it. He undid the clasp and tipped its contents onto the coffee table. All three of them sat forward on the couch.
“Oh nice. A map.” Wyatt picked up a thick sheet of paper with a rough texture. It looked like the homemade paper they made in their freshmen science class. The map drawn onto it plotted different buildings and areas of the campus.
Caitriona picked up a pamphlet made of similar paper. Printed on the cover were six symbols. The two middle ones resembled an E and an A, but their origin was unfamiliar to her. They were rigid with hard, sharp corners. The other four were entirely foreign. Below these was the name of the school.
Elementanum Athenaei
“Look at the dorms.” Wyatt pointed to a spot on the map that looked like a five-slice pie. Each wedge had a building with a label. The freshmen dorm sat at the top with air, water, earth, and fire following clockwise. “They’re the elements.”
Caitriona turned the pamphlet for Wyatt to see. “And look at the name.”
“I thought you said the school was called Ella?” Georgia said.
“That’s just what my mom always called it.” And Viera had referred to it during her visit.
“It’s an abbreviation. See?” Wyatt pointed to the name. “I bet it’s E.L.A. The E and L for the Elementanum and A for Athenaei.”
“Is that Latin?” Caitriona asked. His mom was an anthropologist and Wyatt had grown up with more knowledge of dead languages and ancient texts than most adults knew about.
He frowned. “That, or Greek. Or at least with similar roots.”
“What’s it mean?” Georgia asked.
“Well, element, obviously.” Wyatt adjusted his glasses. “The Latin Athenaeum refers to libraries or schools, especially for the arts. And Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, amongst other things. The Panathenaea was an ancient - ”
“Yes, thank you, Professor Robinson.” Georgia cut him off. “Spark Notes version, please.”
“Element University? Elemental University? School for the Elements? Something like that.”
“What are these? Greek?” Georgia pointed to a pair of symbols at the top of the campus map. They were the same as the two on the cover of the pamphlet, and seemed to be printed somewhere on every piece of paper.
“They must be the letters for the school. But they aren’t Greek. I don’t recognize them from anything I’ve seen.”
Caitriona’s rising panic deepened. Was she going to have to learn a new, secret language on top of everything else?
Georgia picked up a smaller envelope from the pile and pulled out a ticket and two luggage tags. The ticket was for a ferry, the S.S. Spartan. The departure date and time were listed for September 18th at noon from Ludington, Michigan. “Ever heard of it?”
“No,” Caitriona said.
“Do you think you take the ferry to the school?”
“Alright,” Wyatt dropped the paper he’d been reading onto the table, “research time.” He slid Georgia’s laptop from underneath the couch and punched in the password.
Georgia rolled her eyes. “I’m going to have to start changing it every day, aren’t I?”
“If you think that would work.” Wyatt didn’t look up from the screen and it lit up his smirk.
They scoured the Internet for over an hour. And found nothing. No official school website, or any mention of the school’s name anywhere. The origin of the symbols remained a mystery. The ferry listed on the ticket sat unused in a marina. It functioned as spare parts for its sister ship, the S.S. Badger, which ran between Ludington in Michigan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. But there wasn’t an island along that route or anywhere on Lake Michigan.
Wyatt snapped the laptop shut and pushed his glasses up, rubbing his eyes with his fingers. “Well…” His irritation at the Internet’s lack of information was palpable.
Caitriona relaxed into the couch cushions. Despite their failed research, she had learned some things. The school name and division of dorms implied her abilities would be confined to an element. That felt manageable. She liked the idea of having one avenue of focus, rather than an open world of unknown magic.
She knew she had to get to Michigan to get on a ferry that seemed like a Platform 9 ¾ situation, considering it was a ferry that didn’t work. But Michigan was ٢,٠٠٠ miles away. And unless the ferry left Lake Michigan, which seemed unlikely, she wouldn’t be taking any weekend trips home.
The unfamiliar language worried her. She’d always wanted to learn a new language. But after spending a semester each on Spanish, French, and German in school, she’d discovered it wasn’t her strong suit. She even struggled with Pig Latin.
“So what are you going to do?” Wyatt removed his glasses and cleaned the lenses. The diminishing effect of his eyes made him look even more tired.
“What do you mean?” Georgia said.
“Well,” Wyatt looked pointedly at Caitriona, “are you still going?”
Georgia scoffed. “Of course she is. Don’t be stupid.”
They both stared at Caitriona. She sucked on the gnarled sore inside her cheek. When she’d woken up that morning, the answer had been a given. Same as every other the past five years. One afternoon pulled that certainty out from under her like a riptide.
Her father had abandoned the very place he supposedly wanted her to go. Had he chosen a family over a life of magic? Did he later think he’d made a mistake and not want her to do the same? Did he regret his decision? Had her and Fianna not been enough?
Her heart ached to think that was true. Could the love she remembered be false? She’d only been a child when her father died. But his love for her mom, for herself, seemed so palpable. And would her memories of him be so happy if he hadn’t truly loved her and her mom?
Those memories were precious to her. Every holiday and birthday, every moment spent with her father glowed brightly. They warmed her from the inside out and pulled her mouth into a smile without effort. These were the stars in the dark shroud of space. Pins of light through the shadows of Fianna telling her that Daddy wasn’t going to come home. Ever again. Standing in a black dress, fretting over itchy tights, and clinging to Fianna’s skirt as hushed voices made Mommy cry. A darkness that made her stomach recoil, pricked tears in her eyes and wrapped steel bands around her heart.
