Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Eleven years later

“You rat,” Zoe Lawinsky-Hayden thought with a sleepy grin. 

He knew the sun crested right over the hedge out the front of their apartment and straight into her room. He knew she hated being woken up by anything before 8am. Just like he knew that she hated him using her coffee mug, or leaving his underwear on the bathroom floor or putting shark ornaments in her tropical fish aquarium in the living room because it scared the fish. He wouldn’t’t know that but she could hear their little voices squealing as they swam around the opposite side of the tank. He couldn’t hear it but she could. 

Zoe rolled out of bed, ticked the day off on the calendar and blew a kiss to the framed photo of herself and Daniel Hayden, her fiancée that stood on the beside table. “Only six more weeks you rat and we will be married.”

He merely grinned out of the photo frame his brown curls tumbling in his dazzling green eyes. He was a general surgeon, gentle and caring, hoping to get into treating children’s cancer later on. She loved him, madly even from the first moment she met him. She had gone clubbing with her girlfriends and he had gone clubbing with his work friends. The two groups ran into one another at a bar in Brisbane’s centre and the pair had clicked right there and then. 

Her mother loved him and his Dad thought he was ’a good sort’. And he was. They had dated for six months before he moved into the flat she owned. At New Years last year he had proposed. 

Zoe stepped into the bathroom, running water into huge two person bath tub. After she had saved for the deposit for her own home she went house hunting. All the houses and apartments she came across were too old, too big, too small or just wrong. And then she found this one, saw the two person bath and bought it. Ok, so she never actually shared the bath with Daniel for obvious reasons. Zoe rifled through the clutter of towels and pulled out a bag of rock salt and scattered it into the water. 

Looking up in the mirror she told herself that she hadn’t told him her secret for his own good. He didn’t need to know. Thankfully he wasn’t the ‘save water, shower with a friend’ type anyway, despite the drought. Zoe unclipped her hair and let it fall well past her waist. Since her time on the island she had never cut her hair, or dyed it for that matter. She couldn’t’t do it, it felt wrong and dye seemed to stop sticking to her hair. Even permanent dyes washed straight out like her hair was waterproof or at least dye proof. 

Stepping into the bath she felt the pins and needles course through her veins as the maroon scales rippled along her legs. With a deep sigh she slipped under water and let her tail hang over the edge of the bath tub, gladly breathing in the salty water. She could breath tap water but it felt odd, perhaps due to the chlorine and fluoride they pumped into the water. So she added salt, lots of salt. She hadn’t soaked in a couple of days because she had been so busy with wedding plans and work, so as usual it felt wonderful just to let her skin soak up the fluid. Sort of like moisturiser for mermaids. She had tried that, moisturising instead of soaking but her skin reacted in large red rashes. Daniel said he saw it often in new babies, their skin which was used to being in a fluid environment didn’t adjust well to moisturizer. Zoe said nothing, glad he didn’t’t follow that thought any further. 

In the weeks and months that followed the crash, Zoe learned more about the doomed flight and the more she learnt the more she wondered if one day someone would seriously say ‘you shouldn’t be alive.’ So far a lot of people had said that, mostly in jest or awe but every time they did, Zoe couldn’t help but flinch. 

A leaky fuel valve had caused a small fire in the electrical system just after take off. The fire caused a short circuit in the Auto-pilot causing the plane to descend unnoticeably slow as they flew past Fiji. When the Captain returned from his lengthy toilet break the Co-pilot, who was unaware of the descent, informed him of turbulent weather ahead, moments before he flicked the auto off. This caused a massive short circuit through the entire electrical system, crashing the plane’s computers. The Co pilot panicked and tried to pull the nose up, but the fire had weakened the wires and with the jerky action snapped them completely taking out the rudder hydraulic link as well. The plane’s computer crash killed the engines and without any form of steering the plane was useless. Less than a minute later, Flight Q399 slammed into the pacific ocean with the nose pointing down causing it to sever from the fuselage. The inertia caused the rest of the plane to cartwheel over the nose section and slam, back first into the ocean. All but one, of the 486 passengers on the Boeing 747-400ER were killed instantly. 

All but one.

Zoe folded her hands on her stomach and took a deep breath of salty water. In the months that followed Zoe lived through nightmares of the crash as well a touch of depression. She heard the screams of passengers in her sleep. But even though she got it off her chest and told her shrink everything, there was one things she could never tell her about. Josiah.

Instead, she locked the memories of him away. With time she forgot all about him and slowly the nights were no longer filled with screams. She began to rebuild her life. Her father offered her the chance to go back to the college in Detroit but Zoe turned it down. Flying terrified her now and she realized that was no longer what she wanted. So instead she went to a local college and studied interior design. 

After an hour and a half soaking, Zoe rolled out onto the bath mat and rubbed her fins dry. Once they had changed back to legs she got up and found some clothes before ambling downstairs. Flicking the light on, she glanced over and rolled her eyes. No matter how many times she told him that her tropical fish didn’t like shark figurines in the tank he still did it to annoy her. Dipping her arm in, she fished it out and watched as they cautiously swam back over to that side of the tank. “All gone guys,” she said, deciding to chuck the shark out before Daniel got home. 

“Thank you, thank you,” their voices chorused in her head. 

“He’s a meanie,” piped up one of her Trigger fish. 

“He just doesn’t know any better,” Zoe tried to explain. 

“He’s a big smelly meanie,” retorted another. Trigger fish, trigger happy. Always going off at the mouth. 

Zoe ignored them, as they continued to natter on in the back ground, their high squeaky voices dimmed out by the coffee machine. She got used to that, Daniel of course wouldn’t know but the fish in her tank never shut up. Or the dolphins at Sea-World. That was a touch unpleasant, Daniel by their third date had ascertained that she had an affinity with the sea so he took her to Sea-World and booked a private dolphin feeding session.

The dolphins saw her coming and not for the first time Zoe wanted to know how sea-creatures knew that she was a mermaid. They went nuts, as captive bred dolphins they had heard about but never seen a mermaid. The four dolphins dived and splashed begging her to join them in the water. The trainers were stunned, they had never seen the dolphins take to anyone like her but of course they wouldn’t know why. It took every inch of will power not to dive in with them. She had of course completely forgot about Daniel who stood back and watched this all. She apologized for ignoring him but he hugged her, kissed the top of her head and old her that this was the happiest he had ever seen her. 

After coffee and toast, Zoe hopped into her Nissan Micra and headed off to her latest assignment. Two days ago, Zarifa Gorman, the new wife of Australia’s highest selling Author swept into her office with her wavy mass of black hair that fell to her waist and her deep ocean blue eyes. Zoe remembered a chill running down her spine as she gripped her manicured hand but she couldn’t explain why. Zarifa was stunningly beautiful, sweet and lovely. But as Zoe drove to the rundown mansion she wanted her to redecorate, she couldn’t help but feel there was something more. 

Zoe loved her job. She was aware very few people could truly say that they loved their job, but she did. She was arguably the best in Brisbane despite being only 28. She had already won a swag of awards for her firm for her cool, relaxing interiors and modern but practical designs. And living in the city there were few places that made people feel calm. 

Her current project was known as Marlin House, intended for a former prime minister but hardly ever, if ever got used. So it was sold to a mining magnate who also hardly lived in it. From there it had a handful of owners, none who knew the meaning of upkeep or maintenance let alone re-vamp. Then Zarifa’s husband bought it and his new wife set to work with Zoe. 

Zarifa stood on the front steps, her black hair held loosely in pony tail and her eyes rimmed in black eye liner. Zoe still couldn’t shake that feeling but smiled as Zarifa hopped down the steps bubbling with enthusiasm. She was tall and lean, wearing tight red skinny jeans and a floaty white top. 

“I like it. Its big but not over the top,” Zoe commented as she stepped from her car. 

“You have to see the inside,” Zarifa said taking her arm and toeing her to the front door. Zoe barely had time to reach over her shoulder and remotely lock the Micra.

Inside the paint was peeling and cracked. The tiles needed replacing and an air of general decay hung in the rooms as Zoe followed Zarifa about. The only room that didn’t need much work was the kitchen, even though the tiles like in the entry/foyer area were cracked and chipped. And yet Zoe could see what Zarifa could. Potential and loads of it. 

The two women sat at the bench with the stacks of magazines, portfolios and files that Zoe had brought, drinking coffee and laughing about possible asbestos in the wall lining. Zoe knew the house was about ten years to young to worry about that but that didn’t stop the dust bunnies from floating about. 

“Oh that’s amazing!” Zarifa oozed suddenly. 

Zoe leaned over and smiled at the sample picture of the black marble studded with fossils of trilobites. “I know isn’t it.”

“I wonder if I could convince Russ into making a kitchen bench at least from it,” she grinned before taking a deep swig of water from the bottle that she had carried all through the house. 

“I saw a bathroom done with it once, amazing stuff. Cost a small fortune mind you,” Zoe added. 

Zarifa flicked through a few more things before looking at Zoe closely. “So what plans do you have?”

“This is your house not mine,” Zoe pointed out. 

“Oh yes I know, but you’re a pro. I saw that house you did in Bondi. Loved it darling, loved it,” she grinned. 

That house had been a pest but Zoe took the beach and brought it inside but in a non-tacky way. It felt like a beach house when in fact it was the family’s 24/7 house. She had loved that house by the time she finished with it even if she had hated its boxy shape when she first saw it. Zoe nodded. 

“I have a few ideas but I will get back to you within a week about the prelim plans ok?” 

Zarifa put her water bottle down after another swig. “Of course. Take all the time you need.”

Half an hour later, Zoe pulled away from the mansion, her mind spinning with ideas and possibilities. That house had so much potential and Zarifa had given her virtual free-rein. That entrance particularly. She could do so much with that. 

A sudden trilling made Zoe look down. Her phone had been quiet this morning, taking one hand off the steering wheel she found her ear-piece and answered. 

“Hi,” drawled Madelyn her assistant. She was a nasally, bottle blonde who was just a bit too good at her job to sack. Besides Zoe was virtually never in the office anyway. 

“What’s up?” Zoe asked, merging into the next lane. ‘Ooh look there’s a McDonalds ahead. I could do with food,’ she thought. 

“There’s a guy waiting for you in your office, says its urgent,” she said. 

“Who is he? Wedding related? Work related? Friend? Foe?” Zoe asked. Madelyn could be very vague at times like this. 

“He wont say. Says he’s a friend. He’s a real spunk too,” Madelyn dropped her voice slyly. 

Zoe rolled her eyes. Madelyn dated tossers, so if she thought he was a spunk he was probably a sleazy, greasy gambling addict or something. “Ok tell him I’ll be there shortly.”

‘More work‘, she thought hanging up. ‘Like I don’t need more. I still haven’t sorted out a caterer for the wedding. And the flowers. And the bridesmaid dresses. Hell lets hang the bridesmaids. Not literally, just in the no more bridesmaids sense. One was Daniel‘s sister who nominated herself for the job and wouldn’t go away and the other was Jess, her half cousin who she also didn’t like that much.‘

The drive from the mansion back to the office only took an hour and soon enough she was striding through the glass doors, nodding at work colleagues, eyeing of the food cart and thinking about coffee. Madelyn handed her a stack of portfolios she had requested as she strode towards her office. She had completely forgotten about the visitor by the time she stepped into her air conditioned office. 

But the second the high backed chair swung around, Zoe felt her heart stop. There, staring at her, with his pink lips turned up in the corners, his grey blue eyes shining and his tufty blonde hair was Josiah. With legs. Dressed in stonewash jeans and a navy singlet. Very un-naked but it was him alright.

“Hello Zoe,” he grinned. 

With a gasp Zoe collapsed, blacking out as Josiah dived and caught her.  

Author's Note

Feel free to tell me what you think....does it jump too abruptly forward? Is it still intresting? Comments please :D