The News

Titan and Athen are creating this whole army against the fishermen. Tyler turns around, knowing that someone will spot them near the dead-end of the beach.

“We have to get back to the main beach, but meet us here again tonight when it gets quiet so no one will know about it,” he says.

“I’ll bring the rocks that will help you breathe so you can return with me again,” Acrilla says.

Tyler, Emma, and Calem go back to Chris and Jill as Acrilla follows Noah to get home to her siblings. It is going to be hard to stop the fishermen because they are just kids fighting against adults who are breaking the law.

Tyler and Calem sit next to each other in the sand. “What if the fishermen are dangerous to us?” Calem asks. “We heard what happened to Titan last night.”

“That’s true, and I wouldn’t want to put Emma in danger,” Tyler says.

“But we have to help them before we leave and go back to school,” Calem says. “I’ve spent years moving from home to home, and it hurts having to start over every time. I can’t let that happen to someone else, watching an animal being taken away from its family for money.”

Tyler nods his head and understands. “I didn’t know,” he says. “You must have been through so much, something that Emma and I will hopefully never go through.” Tyler thinks again about what Calem says. “Okay, I’m still in.” Tyler and Calem high five as Emma sneaks up behind with her bucket and shovel in her hands. She wraps her arms around Tyler and hugs him.

“I’m in too,” she says, high fiving Calem. “This is going to be the best summer we’ve ever had. If only I could tell my friends this story.”

“Probably best to keep it to yourself, Emma,” Tyler says.

The rest of the beach day was normal, with no emergency whistles and warnings. Calem heads home to wash the sand off before getting ready for dinner. Emma and Tyler do the same and are ready for what their dad cooked for dinner. They all wait at the table on the indoor porch when Chris comes out with a plate of the main course, along with corn, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables. The main course is his famous homemade salmon. Tyler and Emma scrunch their mouths in place while looking at it.

“Chris, it looks wonderful,” Jill says. Chris sits down to cut it into pieces to put on everyone’s plates.

He notices Tyler and Emma’s faces. “What’s wrong with you two?” Chris asks. “You love my fish.” Emma and Tyler take a bite of the salmon and try to eat normally. As Jill and Chris enjoy the meal, their kids play with the food while eating it slowly.

“This is good, dad,” Emma says.

“Yeah, and I was thinking maybe we can do barbeque food later this week since it’s almost the end of summer,” Tyler says, eating his mashed potatoes.

“That sounds good,” Jill says. Emma smiles back at Tyler while stuffing her face with the juicy sweet corn.

“This corn is really good though,” she says. “It’ll be perfect to go with different kinds of food besides fish.”

“I get it,” Chris says. “With the beach atmosphere, you’re getting tired of eating seafood. But not to worry because I will make my famous hamburgers tomorrow instead.”

“I’d like that,” Tyler says. He quickly takes a large bite of his corn.

“Not a bad idea,” Emma says. After dinner, Emma and Tyler help in the kitchen with the dishes.

“I feel bad,” Emma says.

She hands a clean dish to Tyler as he dries it. “About what?” Tyler asks. “We won’t know if Acrilla knew that salmon. Plus, we eat it all the time. I felt the same at first when I ate it, but what can we do?” Tyler puts the dry dishes in the cabinets. “As long as we never eat fish that looks like any we’ve talked to, no need to feel guilty,” Tyler says.

Chris and Jill sit on the couch with the local news on, when it switches to an anchorwoman talking about what happened at the beach this afternoon.

“In other local news, at Ponquogue Beach in Hampton Bays, a false alarm went off when lifeguards and beach goers thought they spotted a shark in the water close to shore,” the anchorwoman says.

“Hey, Tyler and Emma, come in here,” Chris says. “This afternoon’s story is on the news.” Tyler was playing a video game in the room next to the living room, and Emma was in her room playing with her toys. They both come in to watch. The television screen switches to a witness’s video that was sent in, taken with his cell phone. It’s of Noah, leaping in and out of the water.

“Lifeguards evacuated the swimmers quickly, along with surfers pushing small children on boogie boards out of the water.” The Josie's watch as they see the public pointing at who Tyler and Emma know is Noah.

“Amazing to see a dolphin swim near us,” Jill says. “That kind of thing doesn’t happen often.” There’s a knock at the door. Tyler walks over to the door to open it, and sees Calem.

“Hey, did you see that on the news?” Calem asks.

“I did, the town is talking about it,” Tyler says. “It didn’t say anything about Acrilla since fortunately she wasn’t spotted.”

“But it was close before they found out it was a shark,” Calem says. “Who knows what could have happened to Noah.”

Emma comes outside to see who it is. “Calem, Noah was on TV,” she says excitedly.

“I saw,” Calem says.

“He’s famous,” Emma says.

“I was hoping we could still go back to the beach again later since my parents are going to this summer board meeting tonight for the town,” Calem says. Emma closes the door behind her so their parents will not hear the conversation.

“Our parents go to those events once a year when we’re here,” Tyler says. “I think they might be going too, and I’m watching Emma for two hours. A perfect amount of time before our parents return.” An hour later, their parents leave to head over for the meeting, thinking their kids will be home all night while Tyler watches Emma. After the cars drive out of the neighborhood, Tyler and Emma take their bikes and meet Calem on his corner to go to the beach. The beach has been closed for an hour by now. Not one person is there. As they head back to the same coast spot, they wait for Acrilla to return.

Emma looks down in the water, with no signs of any movement of anything. “Acrilla said that she was going to meet us back here,” she says.

Tyler looks ahead and sees Acrilla coming. “There she is,” she says. But Acrilla is not alone. And she is not swimming. Emma and Tyler see a boat with Acrilla inside one of their nets. The fishing boat comes near shore, then it circles to go out further.

“The fishermen took her!” Tyler jumps in the water to save her.

“What are you doing?” Calem shouts. Tyler swims to catch up with the boat as Acrilla struggles to free herself from the net. Calem and Emma jump into the ocean to follow Tyler. The fishermen use their binoculars to see who’s coming after them, realizing it is a bunch of kids. Acrilla looks at the kids with fear as the boat starts to pick up speed.

“We can’t catch up to it,” Calem says. Emma stops swimming with Calem holding her back from going out farther. “Tyler, come back.”

“We have to help Acrilla before they take her away,” Tyler says, swimming back to them. All three are exhausted from swimming and trying to stay afloat. None of them could get a good look at any of the fishermen, and realize that they could never swim far or long enough to catch up.

“If we go out there, we might drown,” Calem says. “We have to go home, or something will happen to us. We can’t keep up with a boat.” Tyler looks at Emma who’s having trouble staying afloat any longer.

“Emma, swim home, now,” he says to her.

“No, I’m coming with you,” she says.

“Emma, I’m not letting you almost drown again,” Tyler says. “Calem, take Emma back, and I’ll meet you on the beach.” Calem holds Emma’s hand and gives Tyler his other hand.

“No, you’re not going out there alone, that’s crazy,” Calem says. “Watching your sister almost drown was scary. I will not let that not happen to you.”