July 5, 1975

JULY 5, 1975

“Do they look bigger to you?” I stared into the tank, trying to remember how they’d looked the other day. There were definitely fewer and I assumed the live ones were eating the dead. Maybe the stronger ones were eating the weaker of the living! The thought scared me. I sprinkled some food in and watched with fascination the frenzy that ensued.

“Shit, they are definitely bigger—and definitely meaner.” Matt’s voice was somewhere near awe. “Are those . . . tentacles?”

“I’m pretty sure they are. I thought they were like, claws starting to grow but . . . they’re tentacles, all right.” A tingling sensation started in my gut, quickly turning to teeth gnawing at me from the inside. “Do you know of any shrimp that have tentacles? Or anything besides a squid or octopus?”

“What am I, Jacques Cousteau?” Matt huffed. “There’s like a billion kinds of things that live in the ocean.”

One of the “sea monsters” used its tentacles to lasso another one. Then its mouth opened and it devoured the smaller one with a speed and viciousness I’d only seen once before. I imagined shark-like rows of small, needle-like teeth. That answers my question, I thought.

The year before in science class, Mr. Granger had showed us a film where a full-grown cow was stripped to the bone by a school of barracudas in less than a minute. I put a hand on my stomach as if that would ease the burning knot that lived there.

“I’m going to the beach early, you coming?” Matt asked.

“Yeah,” I said distractedly, pulling my gaze away from the scene in the tank. “Leah and I might walk to town at some point but I’ll go to the beach with you now.”

“Cool. You two okay?” Matt’s question came out slowly, tentatively.

“Great, why?” I thought back to her strange, distant behavior the night before.

He shrugged and started walking out of the room. “Hey, tell me,” I called, before he could escape.

He turned, a pained expression in his eyes. “Some of the kids were talking. They saw you hugging Mary . . . ”

“We’re just friends,” I snapped. “What are they saying?” I stepped closer, angry. Then it hit me. Kids had been talking and Leah had heard.

“Calm down,” he said, holding his hands in front of him placating me. “Just talking, that’s all.”

“Shit,” I breathed, the anger transforming to worry. There was no way I was telling Matt why I’d been hugging Mary. “It’s nothing, really. I’ll talk to Leah today. Everything’s fine between us and I want it to stay that way.”

***

“Do you want to get an ice cream?” I asked, unsure what else to say to break the awkward silence.

Leah shrugged. “I’m not very hungry.”

Wanna go to the arcade? I’ve got a few bucks—”

She stopped and turned to me. We were on our way to town but still walking on the sand carrying our flip-flops.

She knows. I had to make this right, and fast. “Listen, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Do you like her?” Leah’s voice was shaking and her face looked ready to crumble.

I shook my head, reaching for her shoulder. She pulled away with a gasp. Shit. “Mary is my friend. I . . . ” I let out a shaky breath. “I told her about my dad.”

Frown lines crossed Leah’s face. “What about him?”

I was unsure of how this was going to end. “About how he used to beat my mom. And Matt. And me, once.”

Leah’s eyes grew wide but I swear I saw relief there. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I just thought . . . I mean when it was just your mom, I thought maybe your dad was dead or something.”

“I wish he was,” I practically growled, surprised at how intense my hatred for him had become.

She stepped closer and slipped an arm around me, resting her head on my shoulder. “You could have told me, you know.”

“I know, it’s just . . . ” I wasn’t sure how to explain it. “I didn’t want you to think I was a wimp or something. I only told her because you weren’t around and something had just happened. I think he knows where we are.” I knuckled away a tear. “I’m afraid he’s going to come here and ruin everything.”

Leah wrapped her other arm around me and pulled me close. “It’ll be okay,” she said softly.

I should have been embarrassed, humiliated, but I was relieved. I held her tight and let the tears come. When we finally separated, I smiled. “This is what I was afraid would happen if I told you.”

 “You don’t have to hide your feelings from me, you know.”

“Thanks, that means a lot. Some girls might not want a crybaby for a boyfriend.” The “B” word was out, hanging there between us, and I couldn’t take it back. “I mean, I’d like for you to be my girlfriend.”

Leah’s face flushed but her smile was genuine. She put her hands on my cheeks and kissed me. Just a quick kiss—we were on a public beach—but it was enough to remind me of how soft her lips were. “I’ve never had a boyfriend before,” she said, “and I never thought I’d have one like you.”

I kissed her again, then we started walking, our hands slipping together naturally. We spent the entire day in town. Mom snuck us lunch at the back table of the diner, then we went to the arcade and finally did get our ice cream. We talked about everything from school to friends to books and even a little more about my father. I thought she’d trust me enough to tell me about her dad, but she never went near the subject. It bothered me, but at the same time, it didn’t. It was hard enough for me to talk about my dad hitting me, I couldn’t even imagine going through what she did, never mind telling her boyfriend about it. Boyfriend. Girlfriend. I liked those words.

***

Scattered thunderstorms rolled through the area that afternoon and continued into the evening. Mom was home from the diner and the three of us were watching television. A particularly nasty storm was going on at the time, causing the station to go intermittently fuzzy seemingly every time lightning flashed. A blinding arc of blue light exploded across the sky, followed immediately by a deafening peal of thunder that shook the house. The lights went out.

In my rational mind, I knew it was the storm. I’d heard the thunder and seen the lightning. But my first thought was, he’s found us. I leaped to my feet and ran to the window. The entire street was dark. I breathed a shaky sigh of relief, images of my father cutting the lines to the house fading away. Just the storm.

“Well,” Mom said tiredly, getting to her feet, “I guess that’s a wrap.” She shuffled into the kitchen and I heard her rummaging through the drawers, then a minute later a beam of light cut through the room. “Follow me, kids, I’ll bring you to safety.”

We took turns in the downstairs bathroom, then followed Mom up the stairs. I felt my way around the bedroom, finding my desk. I pulled a small penlight out of the top drawer and grabbed a comic book to read in bed. It was too early for sleep. I flipped through the issue, my eyes telling me maybe it wasn’t too early after all. Just as I was dozing off, I heard a splashing sound. Are they ever going to fix that stupid bathroom? I heard it again, and realized it was too close to be coming from the bathroom.

I snapped the penlight back on and shone its weak beam around the room. Was the roof leaking? I got up and used the light to look for any water stains, when the sound came from right next to me. I turned on the light, already knowing what the sound was.

The beam fell on the small plastic tank and I almost dropped the light when I saw the thing staring back at me. Tentacles wavered around its reptilian-looking body, then it darted away from the light. I shone the torch around but it would always try to avoid the beam. I realized with a creeping dread that it was the only one left, and it had grown. A lot. It was the size of a small frog and bore no resemblance to the smiling creatures on the box I’d received. It was a monster.