Emily Windsnap and the Pirate Prince

Question. You’re offered a choice: cross the ocean in a magical golden chariot accom-panied by dolphins and whales with your dad and your best friend, or take a luxury five-star cruise with your mom and your boyfriend. Which doyou go for?
   To be fair, I suppose that most people don’t get offered these options.
   But I’m not most people. And this actually was a decision I had to make.
   We’d all been on vacation together. It was supposed to be a relaxing week in the sun. It turned out to involve a near-death experience in the world’s biggest waterfall, a brush with a five-hundred-year-old giant, and an earthquake that nearly caused a world-threatening tsunami.
   Just your average week.
   Just my average week anyway! It certainly seemed like it lately.
   The one good thing to come out of it was that we’d managed to help prevent a catastrophe from destroying the nearby islands. As a mark of gratitude, the people from the resort where we’d been staying had booked us cabins on a luxury cruise to take us home. As well as all the usual stuff that grown-ups love, like ballrooms and chandeliers and all that, the ship had a whole deck for kids, with its own theme park! We’d heard there were waterslides, climbing walls, about a hundred different clubs, and all-you-can-eat buffets.
   Neptune was grateful too. We’d stopped a tsu­nami that could have threatened entire continents. Not that it was his fault, but he probably would have gotten the blame. Even Neptune doesn’t
want something like that on his conscience. And since he never likes to be outdone, he matched the luxury cruise by offering his best chariot, his finest dolphins, and even a whale to escort us home.
   Which was why I had the dilemma.
   My best friend, Shona, is a mermaid. So am I, but only when I go in water. Shona’s a mermaid all the time, so she took Neptune up on his offer. His chariot can ride on the water, but it mostly dives down and powers through the sea. My dad is a merman, so he’d be going with Shona.
   Mom and her best friend, Millie, were already getting excited about the luxury cruise. Well,
Millie was. Mom was half excited and half sad.
   “I just wish your dad and I could share one of these wonderful things with each other,” she said to me as we walked along the soft golden beach one last time. Mom’s human, so she didn’t have
the magical chariot option. “It’s never as much fun on your own.”
   “You won’t be on your own, Mom,” I reas­sured her.
She took my hand as we walked. “I know. Millie will be there, but it’s not the same.” She
sighed heavily, and I knew what I had to do.
   “Mom, would you feel better about it if I was there too?”
   Mom squeezed my hand. “Really?” she asked, her eyes sparkling with hope. “You’d do that
for me?”
   “Of course I would, Mom. I don’t want you feeling sad.”
   She pulled me into a hug. “Oh, thank you, dar­ling. I feel better about it already. We’ll have a nice time together.”
   I laughed as Mom squeezed me so hard I could hardly breathe. “We will,” I agreed, once she’d let me go.
   And I meant it. For one thing, the ship did sound amazing. And for another, Aaron had already told me he was choosing the cruise over the chariot.
   Aaron’s my boyfriend, and he’s a semi-mer like I am. He’d had an even more life-changing week than the rest of us. Turned out the giant was a dis­tant relative of his, and Aaron had promised to come back to live at Forgotten Island with his mom.
   Which meant that this would be one of the last chances we’d get to spend time together.
Aaron had chosen the ship as soon as he’d heard about the theme park. He’d grown up with­out anything like that in his life. The closest thing he’d seen to one was the fairground at the end of Brightport pier. This one sounded about ten times better than that — and it was on a ship!
   “A luxury cruise,” Mom murmured as she kicked at the soft sand. “Sounds good, doesn’t it?”
   “Yeah,” I said. I had to admit, it did.
 
“You’re sure you’ve got everything?” Mom asked Dad as he and Shona swam alongside the jetty to see us off. We were heading to a small boat that was going to take us out to the ship. The hotel people had already sent our luggage ahead of us. Millie was pacing ahead while Aaron and I walked beside Mom. Dad and Shona were staying for another day before Neptune’s chariot arrived for them.
   Dad laughed. “What do we need, exactly?” he asked. “We’ve got ourselves; Neptune and his team are on their way. We’re all set!”
   Mom stopped walking. “Just — be careful. Look after yourself, and look after Shona,” she said. Her voice wobbled as she spoke.
   Dad stretched his arms out of the water. One of his hands was closed around something. “Come here,” he said.
   “I can’t — I’ll get my dress wet.”
   “Who cares?” Dad laughed. “Come on. I’ve
got a present for you.”
   “A present? What for?”
   Dad shrugged. “Because I love you,” he said simply. “And so you will know I’m always with you, even when I’m not.”
   Mom pulled off her shoes and crouched down on the jetty. She hitched her dress above her knees and dangled her legs over the side.
   Aaron and I sat on the edge of the jetty with her as Shona swam up to join us. The three of us watched as Dad opened his hand. He held his palm out to Mom; I leaned over to look at it.
   He was holding out a fine gold chain. It had a pendant on it: two interlocked hearts — one made of tiny diamonds, the other of gold. A mermaid’s tail was looped around the hearts. The diamonds glinted in the sunlight.
   Mom clapped a hand over her mouth. “Jake,” she whispered. “It’s beautiful.”
   “Like you,” he replied.
   The three of us stared. Mom was right. The necklace was the most delicate, sparkling thing I’d ever seen.
   “Mr. Windsnap, that necklace is swishy!” Shona breathed.
   Dad grinned. “I know!”
   “Where on earth did you get it?” Mom asked.
   “From Neptune!”
   “Neptune?” I burst out. Neptune was the king of all the seas, and Dad’s boss. He wasn’t known
for his generosity or for giving out gifts for no reason. “Why did Neptune give you a necklace?”
   “He told me he’d been planning to give me something anyway, in recognition of my hard work since I joined his team. And then everything happened last week and he said he wanted to show his gratitude to our family in a manner that was fitting for the occasion.”
   I could just imagine Neptune saying some­thing like that. “It’s gorgeous,” I said.
   “Apparently, it’s a rare item from one of his most treasured collections,” Dad added proudly.
Mom was still staring. “Come here,” Dad said. “Let me put it on you.”
   Mom tipped her head forward and Dad swished his tail so he could reach up to fasten it
around her neck.
   Mom threw her arms around Dad. “I love it,” she said. “And I love you.”