“Nothing,” they said together, the way best friends often do. Of course, what they really meant was that they weren’t quite sure. What they meant was that for the first time in a very long while, they couldn’t wait for morning to come.

2

THE NEXT DAY, as soon as they got out of Hailey’s mother’s car in the parking lot, Hailey was the one who took charge. After all, she’d been the one to see the mermaid at the bottom of the pool, huddled in a murky corner, her long hair streaming. Claire wouldn’t have ventured into the water for any reason, not even to see such a wondrous being.

As they went through the entranceway to the Capri, Hailey handed her friend a jar she’d stored in her backpack. Claire held the jar up to the light and tried her best to figure out what the slippery-looking things were inside.

“Herring,” Hailey told her when Claire couldn’t venture a guess. “It’s a kind of marinated fish. I found it in the back of the pantry. Mermaids must get hungry. All we need to do is hide behind the diving board, and when she comes to the surface to eat, we can study her.”

“Good plan,” Claire said. At any other time, Claire would have been the one to come up with the plans, but lately she’d been up half the night, thinking about how her sweaters and boots would be pointless in Florida, and how the leaves wouldn’t change in the fall, and how it would be summer all year long.

Hailey, herself, was somewhat surprised to find that she’d actually been the one with the ideas. “You really think it’s a good plan?” she asked uncertainly.

“Excellent,” Claire said, although she, too, was surprised at how quickly everything was changing already, even though it was still the same.

After they’d sprinkled the herring in the pool, the girls waited behind the diving board. Jellyfish floated on the surface of the water, and a few bubbles arose up from the deep, but there was no sign of the mermaid. Hours passed and the girls didn’t move. Time was so slow, and the air was so hot, they almost fell asleep.

When they didn’t show up at the snack bar for lunch, Raymond came looking for them.

“What happened to my only customers?” he asked. “I was worried. I thought the seagulls had carried you away.”

Raymond sat on the edge of a lounge chair and gazed into the pool. He was so handsome that for a few minutes the girls forgot there was a mermaid nearby.