And I’m relieved. Drop showed up right when I needed them to, to remind me of where I’m supposed to be. I’m so grateful that I want to show them. I tilt my head up and plant my lips against theirs, not only to say thanks but to prove to myself that the tingles I’ll get from them will be so much better than anything I’ve felt with Sean.

But the electric jellyfish tingles don’t come.

I press harder. I can re-create that feeling I had with Sean, I know I can. I even let my tongue brush against Drop’s lips.

They instantly snap their head back and laugh. “Blue below! These bodies are weird, right? Faces are not meant to have this much contact. I can’t wait to get my fin back.”

Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s why everything feels so off right now. I’m in the wrong body and won’t feel right again until I get my tail back to the Blue. And now Drop and I will get to go back together, something I never saw coming.

“Wait,” I say, the realization that Drop is actually right in front of me finally sinking in. “How are you here? How did you find me?”

The Elders told us time and time again that we’re supposed to go on this Journey alone. We’re not supposed to have any outside influences as we help a human. This is the true test to see if we have what it takes to be selfless.

“I followed your signs,” Drop says. “You’re flicking brilliant.”

I have no idea what they’re talking about. “Signs?”

“Come on! It’s all over social media.” They grab a phone from their pocket, then pull up the video of me flopping like a fish on Hollywood Boulevard. “After I saw this, it wasn’t that hard to find you. I’ve been following the #Fishing tag, and a bunch of people posted selfies with you here not too long ago. So I bought a bus ticket from Seaside, Oregon, down to Los Angeles and”—they wave their hands over their head—“here we are.”

They say it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, like we haven’t spent our whole lives underwater and until a moon cycle ago, if someone talked about #Fishing and social media, we would have looked at them like they’d bumped their head too hard on a coral reef.

“But what about the Journey? How are you going to get back if you haven’t helped a human?”

Drop holds up their right hand. A small blue wave sits at the inside of their wrist.

“How?” I ask. “Who did you help?”