Chapter 4
The hardest part of keeping such an exciting secret is getting past the window of time where the excitement is still in full effect. When all the sights and sounds are still fresh and before the mind starts tampering with the memories. By the time his mother came home Royden was in the part where the secret was still all he could think about. It took great effort to not suddenly shout about his great day and all the strange things he did as soon he heard his mother unlocking the door that afternoon.
He kept his mouth tightly shut while his mother went on about some mean lady who kept stealing her customers at work.
“Is it so hard to see that I was helping her?” Mrs. Doble said scathingly to no one in particular and yet making sure Royden was paying attention. “Apparently it is because June came right up WHILE I WAS TALKING TO HER and took her away to her register. I mean usually I wouldn’t care but—of course I care, we get paid by how many people we sell to.”
Royden nodded and stared unblinkingly at the wall wondering why the sky in that other dimension was orange and why he never bothered to ask what the place was called. He couldn’t just go back after he promised not to. That would be rude or maybe even punishable by death there—he didn’t know.
“And then she comes up to me later,” his mother continued unabashed, “and try’s to tell me that I should send over anyone who asks about the new summer stock. Well I wanted to say ‘how about you take a tumble down the escalator while I steal away your customers’ but of course I couldn’t do that.”
“You should have.” Royden mumbled while thinking about the green clouds.
He was becoming a master at pretending to listen. A skill he hoped would one day see him become some sort of successful business tycoon or world leader, or anybody who makes a lot of money and then retires before their fifty.
Mr. Doble came home late and spent the first ten minutes sitting on the couch complaining about his boss. Thankfully he had Mrs. Doble to talk to and Royden could go to his room and stare mindlessly out the window hoping to see more UFO’s or something stranger. He came out of his room to say goodnight to his parents when it sounded like things had settled down.
“Did you go to the pool room at all today?” His father asked.
“No.” Royden said quickly, afraid he would get in trouble if he said he had.
“Some painters were in there last night painting the walls and they vanished.” Mr. Doble said. “All their paint brushes and things are still there but they aren’t. The guard told me on my way up a little while ago. He thinks something bad happened.”
“Oh, no I didn’t go down there.”
“Alright.”
Royden lay under his covers a while later trying to remember if he did in fact go down there. He thought he checked it briefly for Goren and Farn but he didn’t see anybody there or any paintbrushes. If they really did vanish then it sounded like the work of one of the neighbors. But who would kidnap painters? A troll? It sounded like a good place to check for excitement in the morning.
Royden woke early. Mrs. Doble was already up and getting ready to go back to the department store.
“Have an exciting day planned?” She asked in the process of waking up to a large cup of coffee.
“I don’t know yet, maybe.” Royden made toast and ate it quickly. “I’m going to wander around the building again.”
“Aren’t you tired of that? You’ve probably seen every inch of the place.”
“There’s not much else to do.”
She shrugged. “I suppose you’re right. Why don’t you find a friend to run around with? I’m sure there’s someone around here your age.”
“I doubt it.”
The basement was empty that morning. Royden went into the T.V. room and looked through the window into the pool room. Sure enough there were paintbrushes, buckets, and tarps scattered about. The area wasn’t blocked off, nobody seemed to care about the missing painters.
The room smelled strongly of fresh paint and chlorine. The pool was small and went from three feet to five feet deep. A hot tub sat in the corner. He sat down on one of the long lounge chairs and looked the place over. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. Old boards on the wall told future swimmers to be careful because there wasn’t a life guard. Not that Royden ever saw anybody in there swimming.
A bunch of tiny bubbles popped at the surface of the pool. Royden leaned forward suspiciously. More bubbles followed and then a quiet noise that sounded suspiciously like giggling hit his ears. For a second he was worried that someone was on the bottom of the pool. He got up and looked in the water. It was empty.
Ripples formed at the surface. Royden got down on his knees and looked closely at the water. Something was definitely not right about that pool. He noticed a fast blur across the bottom followed by more giggling.
“I can hear you.” Said Royden bravely.
“Can you?” A high pitched voice responded.
Royden jumped in shock. He didn’t think he was really going to get a response.
“Show yourself.” He said, trying to sound brave again. He ended up sounding angry.
He leaned in close again to the water. A face suddenly appeared just under the water. Royden fell back and pushed himself from the edge.
The face rose out of the water and stared at him. It was a woman with long golden hair. She was really beautiful. She smiled mysteriously. “What do you want?” She said in a high voice.
“I want to know what happened to the painters, and also what are you?”
She sank back into the water and swam toward the center of the pool, flicking a blue fish-like tail into the water. “And what are you supposed to be?” She asked.
“I’m Royden. And if you’re wondering, yes, I’m a normal human.”
“Normal humans are boring.” The mermaid said.
“Well so are mermaids.”
She gave him a dirty look. “I don’t know what has become of the painters.”
Two more heads popped out of the water. One had long blue hair and the other had long white hair.
“What’s going on, Rema, get rid of him already.” The one with the white hair said.
“I can’t do that.” The mermaid named Rema said. “He wants to know of the painters.”
The mermaid with blue hair laughed. It sounded more like a screech. “Why does he want to know about them?”
“I don’t know, Gilda, maybe he knows them.” Rema said.
“I don’t know them.” Royden chimed in. “I just want to know what happened.”
The mermaids swam slowly in a wide circle around the pool.
“They were normal like him.” Gilda, the one with the blue hair, said. “I think he knew them.”
“Please Gilda.” Rema gurgled. “I think he said he didn’t.”
“Well who trusts him? I don’t.” The still unnamed one with white hair said.
“I say we ask him why he wants to know.” One of them said, Royden was losing track of which one was speaking.
They stopped and stared at him. “Norm, why do you want to know?” Rema asked. She seemed to be the leader.
“They went missing and it would be nice if they weren’t missing anymore.” Royden explained.
Rema smiled in that mysterious way again. “I think I like where they are.” She sank under the water and disappeared. The other two followed.
“Wait, where are they?” Royden yelled into the seemingly empty water.
There was silence for a minute, and then. “You can never trust a mermaid.” A sinister voice said from the corner of the room.
Royden looked and saw something sitting on the edge of the hot tub. It had long stringy black hair and looked to be covered in barnacles. It turned to face him. It had the tail of a mermaid. She didn’t look quite like the other mermaids. There was something not quite right about her face. It was sharp and evil.
“Are you with them?” Royden pointed to the pool.
She grimaced. “No, and please don’t associate me with those horrid creatures.”
“Then what are you.” Right after he asked Royden remembered reading a children’s version of the Odyssey. “You’re a siren aren’t you?”
“You’re pretty smart kid.” The siren said. Her voice was much deeper than the high pitched trill of the mermaids.
“Do you know where the painters are?”
“Of course.”
“Then where are they?”
The siren smiled sweetly. Her face changed instantly. For the brief time she was smiling she looked far more beautiful than the mermaids. “I don’t know if you really want to know.”
“I do.”
The smile faded and so too did the beauty. “Do you know of Pooly?”
“What?”
“Pooly.”
She made a horrible shriek and instantly the pool water shivered and small waves lapped up over the edge. Royden ran to the wall as far away as he could get from the water.
Something large and brown rose out of the water. It had large golden eyes and a long snout. Its body was scaly and it had long arms ending with clawed hands. It rose up the ceiling and still it wasn’t half out of the water. Royden didn’t know where the rest of it could be hidden because it was only in the four foot deep part of the pool. The creature stared at Royen calmly, awaiting instruction.
“This is Pooly.” The siren said. “It’s the building’s resident pool monster.”
Royden tried to speak but couldn’t find any words brave enough to enter the room while Pooly stared at him.
“He took your painters.” The siren continued, looking and sounding very nonchalant about the whole thing.
“A-a-a.” Royden tried to speak but couldn’t get anything more than sounds to come out.
“Alright, Pooly, get a little smaller would ya, the poor kid can’t even talk.”
The pool monster glanced at the siren and then started to shrink. A few seconds later it was only around six feet tall. It swam contentedly around the pool.
“Yeah, so um, this thing.” Royden said cautiously, finally finding his voice.
“This thing.” The siren agreed.
“It took the painters you say?”
“Sure did.”
“Can you tell me why?”
The siren shrugged casually. “They tried to sneak a swim yesterday. No one swims in Pooly’s pool unless he knows them really well.”
“Can you tell him to let them go?” Asked Royden tensely.
“I could.”
“But?”
“But I think I won’t.”
“Come on, please. I’m starting to really like living here and I don’t want the police snooping around looking for them.”
“If it means that much to you then maybe we can make a deal.” The siren suggested offhandedly.
“A deal with a siren? That doesn’t sound very safe.”
“It’s the mermaids who aren’t trustworthy. Sirens are the most trustworthy, provided you give them what they want.”
“And what do you want?” Royden asked, getting nervous.
“A couple of days ago some very important objects were stolen from me. I want them back.”
“Who stole them?”
“The tiny people.”
“The who?”
“There is a colony of very tiny people living in this building somewhere. They stole my necklace with my most prized pendant and my comb. I want them back. I will tell Pooly to let go of your painters as soon as I get my things back. The pendant and comb are most important. Get those, and we have a deal.”
“How am I supposed to get those things back?”
“I don’t care, just do it. Now let’s make things a little more interesting.” The siren flashed a smile but it this one was clearly evil. “If I don’t get my stuff back by tonight I’ll have Pooly eat your painters.”
“What? You can’t do that.” Royden cried out.
“Sure I can. I want my stuff back more than I want live painters. Now go and get on the case, when the sun goes down Pooly eats dinner. It’s up to you to make sure he only eats fish.”
Royden ran from the wall to the door. He slipped on the wet floor and collided with a lounge chair. He got up and ran out of the room. Tiny people could live anywhere in the building, he had no idea where to start.