“At some point during the sleepover the girls decided they would sneak out onto the beach. Pretending to be mermaids. You saw her. Swam to her. Propelled her forward, and she washed onto the shore, unconscious but alive. Her friend had run back home for help, to get her father. She told me she was frozen with fear. That had you not come to her rescue, she would have . . .” He removes his glasses. Discreetly dabs around his eyes.

“I didn’t imagine the whole thing. She’s real.”

Mr. Oklahoma nods. “Thanks to you, she is very much so.”

“Sheesh. Talk about sensory overload. I may need you to hook me back up to the life machine, animate me a few more hours to process all this.”

He laughs.

“And no one else knows about this?”

“No one outside of these walls, no. And now, you.”

“What’s her name? If it’s okay to ask.”

“Amarí Lillian.”

“That’s what I was gonna guess.”

“You may be surprised to learn she has assigned you, her hero, a proper nickname.”

I wag my head in disbelief. “No way! What is it?”

“Poseidon, Quincy. She calls you Poseidon.”

VI.

We pull into my driveway, but Mr. Oklahoma doesn’t turn off the engine.

“If you would like me to go with . . . to speak with your mother, I . . .”

“Nah, I’ll take it from here.” I smile, stepping out of the car. “But I owe you a thank-you.”

“A thank-you?”

“Yeah, your slow-ass driving gave me lots of time to think.”

Squinting in the headlight glare, I tap the hood, dig into my pocket for my house key as I turn for the front door.

Only the door’s already open.

Mom standing in its frame, her hands on either side like she’s holding up the house. Her face like I’m seeing it through a sadness filter. She looks older since I saw her this morning. “Baby,” she says. “I’m so, so . . .”

But I quickly close the gap between us. “No, I’m sorry. Everyone saying I’m selfless, but I should’ve been thinking about you. About leaving you alone. I’m sorry, Mama. I’m so . . . I shoulda . . .”

I bury my head in her neck. “Shhhh,” she whispers. “I’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. Everything will work . . .”

And I know she wants to say: . . . out the way it’s supposed to.

But instead she leaves the ending wide open.

VII.