“I could take a few of the guys and hop the fence and watch him ourselfs. We—”

“Just hesh up, will you? I think I’m gettin’ it.”

“Yeah?”

She could hear the hope, the excitement in his voice.

She didn’t see any way she or one of her clansmen could sneak into the hospital to hunt down that other eye-shell, but if she could keep an eye on the old guy’s son, the special one who’d been sent to her, maybe she’d find out if he had it.

But she had to get control here.

Control…back in her teens she’d thought her power was limited to only seein’ through a critter’s eyes, but she soon learned that was just part of the story. She found out in her junior year when Suzie Lefferts paid her a visit on the beach.

Semelee had been comin’ down to the ocean almost every day, except for the rainy ones, to put on her eye-shells and fly, soar, and dive with the flocks, or swim and dart through the depths with the schools. She could even get into a crab and crawl along the sandy bottom. These was the only times she felt truly alive…truly free…like she belonged.

The sudden sound of a too-familiar voice behind her jarred her back to the beach.

“So this is where you spend all your time.”

Suzie must have realized that she was no longer getting to Semelee, that her taunts and tiny tortures weren’t having their usual effect. So she’d followed her to see why.

“I thought you might’ve had a new boyfriend or something,” Suzie said, “but all you do is sit here with those stupid shells over your eyes. You were always a loser, Semelee, but now you’ve totally lost it.”

When Semelee didn’t even remove the shells from her eyes or bother to reply, Suzie flew into a rage. She grabbed the shells and put them over her own eyes.

“What is it with these things anyway?”

Oh, no! She’d see! She’d know!

But Suzie mustn’t’ve seen anything. She called them junk and tossed them toward the surf.

Terrified they might wash out to sea, Semelee screamed and ran down to the tide’s edge. She found what she thought was them—they were freshwater clamshells after all—but wasn’t sure. As Suzie walked up the dune laughing, Semelee wanted to choke her, but she couldn’t go after her, not until she made sure she had the right shells…to see if they still worked…

They did. She put them on and there she was, glidin’ high over the beach, watching Suzie strutting toward her car. The bitch!