Later that night, after the grown-ups had gone to sleep, Claire went to her room and opened the last box she had packed. This was where she kept all the treasures of summers past. There were angel wings and creamy oyster shells, tiny starfish and pink rocks. She stitched every one onto the blue dress, so that the fabric shone in the moonlight, sighing as though it had just been fished out of the sea. Claire had decided not to think about the fact that in twenty-four hours she would have to set off for Florida. She wasn’t going to think about what it would be like when there was no one next door to make secret phone calls to late at night, and no one to wave at through the open kitchen windows.

“It’s perfect,” Hailey declared over the phone when Claire held the dress up to the window for her to see. The blue fabric moved in the breeze. “He’ll fall in love with her the minute he sees her.”

Both girls were so sure of this they wouldn’t have been the least surprised to discover that all night long Raymond dreamed of high tides and deep blue seas, and that at the bottom of the Capri’s pool, where the moon jellyfish glittered like stars, Aquamarine braided her long, silvery hair and tried her best to ignore her sisters’ song, which reached up from the ocean to call her home.

4

THEY DECIDED TO TELL Claire’s grandfather. For one thing, he wasn’t like most grown-ups — he actually listened to what they had to say — and for another, the girls needed to stay at the Capri until nine, in order to take Aquamarine home from her date with Raymond. After they had recounted the story of the mermaid in love, Maury didn’t say a word. He didn’t say he’d never heard such nonsense before. He didn’t say, Maloney baloney, which he sometimes shouted out when he didn’t believe some bit of news he heard on the radio. The way he listened made Claire realize how fortunate she was to have him as her grandfather. He even drove them to the beach that morning, telling Hailey’s mom he wanted to chauffeur the girls as a way to say good-bye, since the next day was Saturday, their last day at the club. Although this excuse was true enough, the other reason he drove wasn’t mentioned: The wheelchair fit neatly into the trunk of his car.

“I know you won’t believe this,” Maury said when they got to the beach, “but you’re not the only ones who’ve ever seen a mermaid. I’ve spotted several myself down in Florida, although I admit I’ve never gotten to know one personally. When you think about it, you are two lucky girls.”