Alaina's Ticket Home

Lyla opened her eyes. Her head pounded as she tried to focus on the shadowy figure above her. “Where am I? Is this a dream?”

“No,” Alaina said with an almost musical cadence. “You are in my house, in my bedroom.”

Lyla tried to sit up but was too dizzy. She fell back into the softness of the mattress. “What happened?”

“Angus hit you…” Alaina murmured. “To prevent you from helping me. I am sorry. I should not have stopped you. You are only a child.”

“I’m not a child first of all, and secondly…Angus hit me?”

“I am afraid so,” Alaina said. “Let me see your head.” She helped Lyla sit up and placed a pillow behind her back. “Does it hurt terribly? You were calling for your mother...”

“No, I think I’m okay,” she said. “And my mother is dead.”

Alaina’s bedroom was decorated in shades of turquoise and brown. Through one door she could see a bathroom with a white sunken tub below a mural of fish frolicking in their underwater world. The other door was closed. “Are we locked in here?”

Alaina sighed. “Yes, we are. I have already been imprisoned here for days, but it seems like months...”

“Have you tried to break out?” Lyla asked, even though Alaina looked as fragile as a butterfly.

“I have. The window is useless. Even if I could break it, no one would hear me call. If I jumped, it would take mere seconds for him to bring my broken body back inside.”

“Why is he doing this?”

“Because he does not want me to leave.” Alaina filled a glass of water at the bathroom faucet and brought it back to Lyla.

“Why do you want to leave? Does he hit you? Do you love someone else?” Lyla wouldn’t be surprised. She never understood what she could possibly see in the older man anyway.

“Oh no! He is not a bad man,” Alaina said. “I mean aside from this,” she added after seeing Lyla’s expression of disbelief.

“So, what’s the problem?”

“I am not meant to be here in this land. My heart mourns for home.”

Lyla’s heart bounced in her chest as she heard heavy footsteps ascending the stairs.

“Alaina, dear,” Angus called through the closed door. “Is Lyla okay?”

“As well as can be expected considering what you did,” Alaina said.

“I’m sorry, Lyla. I didn’t want anyone else involved in this. I need some time to think.”

After he left, Lyla tested the door. It was definitely locked.

Hours passed. Angus brought up a tray of food for them. He made them stand back by the window, and then he opened up the door only enough to slide the food into the room.

“I heard you and Angus fighting before,” Lyla said, picking at a sandwich. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop…he said that you were never going to find something?”

Alaina looked almost ghostly curled up in an overstuffed chair in the corner of the dimly-lit room. “My ticket home,” she said. “Without it, I will be forever trapped in this alien place.”

“What?”

Alaina rose from the chair but lost her footing. She grabbed the bureau to keep from falling. Lyla rushed to her side.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, leading Alaina to the bed. “You’re sick, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Alaina murmured, burying her head into her pillow. “I have been dying a little more every day.” Her breathing soon became deep and even. Lyla watched the mysterious woman sleep, until her own exhausted eyes closed as well.

Things went on this way for days. Angus slipped food through the door, although he no longer said much to them. She was afraid, a lot more than she was willing to admit. How long could he keep them here?

They played cards, read, and talked. Or rather Lyla talked. She didn’t think she ever met anyone more secretive about herself than Alaina, and that said a lot since Lyla didn’t exactly enjoy opening up either. But it was better than silence, and Alaina made an attentive listener.

Even though Alaina was still weak and much too young to be mother to a teenager, she brought Lyla comfort with a calm nurturance well beyond her years.

During one conversation rife with emotion, Alaina tried to make her see that she was not responsible for her mother’s death. “You cannot change another person,” she said. “A person only changes when they want to. I wish I could get that through to Angus.”

One evening, Lyla retried getting Alaina to open up.

“You wouldn’t believe me,” she said, smoothing the comforter covering her legs. “And Angus told me never to tell anyone our truth.”

“Lately it seems like I’ve been hearing a lot of unbelievable things. Anyway, a good story will help pass time.”

“It all boils down to curiosity. I was young and bored. When I saw Angus, I was captivated by his world, his charm, his novelty. He told me that he was also attracted to my uniqueness, but also by my beauty, and later by my wealth. I seduced him with my sexuality and he tempted me with the chance of a new life, a different world. But it did not take me very long to realize my mistake. You have heard the old expression about the grass being greener on the other side? I found out firsthand that is not always the case.”

“Is your family rich?”

“In a matter of speaking. We have treasure.”

“Treasure? Don’t say at the end of a rainbow!”

“No…shipwrecks. Angus did everything in his power to satisfy me. He treated me like a queen, but all his love wasn’t enough. I missed my family, friends, and home. A little piece of me has disappeared each day. I no longer have the will to go on.” She turned her head into the pillow.

“Does he think he owns you or something?” Allowing time for Alaina to get her emotions back under control, Lyla ruminated over her new friend’s situation.

“So, he stole your ticket home? Isn’t that what you said before? He stole your ticket and locked you up?”

Alaina turned to look at Lyla. “No, I was using a metaphor. It is not really a ticket. It is a garment, without which I can no longer access my world.”

“Garment?”

“A magical garment, I suppose you could say. A seal-skin cloak. You see, I am not human.”

“What are you?”

Alaina looked deeply in Lyla’s eyes, before deciding to trust her with her truth. “I am a Merrow. My home is The Land beneath the Waves. Angus saw me one day at low-tide. I was sitting on a large rock, singing and daydreaming about the earthly world that I saw in the distant fog. You see, we are warned about humans and told to steer clear of them and their deceitful ways. However, when Angus and I met, our gazes locked as if our eyes were magnets drawing us together.” Alaina’s eyes narrowed. “Then he stole my cloak. Without it, I have no power. In essence I have become slave to his all-consuming love. But I never gave up my quest to find the cloak and return to my beloved land, even when it began to turn Angus into a bitter man that could not understand, could not see that I was dying inside, and was desperate to break away. Then, when I found where he hid it, it was too late…”

Lyla sat unmoving, as fascinated as a child listening to a bedtime story. Not that she believed it, she told herself. Her grandmother’s words echoed through her mind, “You won’t see it until you believe it. There’s magic and beauty everywhere.”

“You found the cloak?”

“Yes, something drew me, almost called me, to the hiding place. Wrapped in an ordinary brown-papered box, it was hidden under straw at the top of the barn. But in my weakened state, I was too slow. Before I could open the box, he found me.”

“He can’t keep us here forever,” Lyla said.

Just as she began to nod off that night, an escape plan hatched in her mind. Two days later, it went into effect. When Angus slipped the breakfast tray into the door, Lyla quickly brought it to the far corner of the room where Alaina was waiting. Lyla took the steaming carafe of water from the tray and placed it on the nightstand. Then she threw the tray holding glasses and china. On cue with the sound of breaking glass, Alaina shrieked.

“My God!” Lyla yelled. “Angus! It’s Alaina! She’s bleeding!”

Immediately she heard the panicked pounding of his footsteps, then the jingle-jangle of keys unlocking the door.

Alaina huddled on the floor with her back to the door, moaning as if seriously hurt. The door swung open and Angus ran directly to his wife’s side. Relieved, Lyla noticed he left the keys in the lock as planned.

“Alaina, my sweet,” he cried, bending down to view her injury. Then confusion entered his voice. “Why…there’s nothing…”

The next seconds whizzed by in a blurred battle of action. Angus looked at Lyla, above him, puzzlement changed to disbelief as the carafe of scalding water was splashed in his face. Fueled with adrenaline, Lyla knocked him from his squatting position to a prone position, sprawling in agony. She grabbed Alaina’s wrist and pulled her up and toward the door.

“I’m sorry, Angus,” Alaina wailed. “You left me no choice…”

“Hurry,” Lyla ordered, dragging Alaina through the doorway. She didn’t look back at Angus. She simply slammed the door and locked it. Taking a moment for a celebratory breath, she looked through the keys and found the truck key. She made a quick decision. “Now where exactly is the cloak?”

Alaina, leaning heavily on Lyla as they descended the stairs, answered breathlessly, “Up the ladder…left side…beneath straw.”

“Okay,” Lyla said, positioning Alaina in the truck’s passenger seat, “Let’s hope he didn’t move it. Wait here.”

She acted fast, not allowing fear to take hold. Everything rested on this; she just had to believe she would find it. And she did. She tore the mysterious package open and ran her fingers over the smooth, leathery garment.

When she returned, Alaina was slumped down in the truck’s seat looking like a broken doll. Lyla handed her the cloak. “I’ll need directions.”

“You believed in me…”

They drove to the cliffs where waves beat relentlessly upon the shore. Then Alaina pointed out a smaller road leading to a deserted inlet. Even though it was late morning, the mist hadn’t burned away. Lyla knew it was low tide though. She could already smell the mixture of salty-marsh and fish.

“This is it,” Alaina said. “My way back to the sea.”

Lyla helped her down a winding dirt path with gulls screeching overhead. At the water’s edge, she helped Alaina put on the cloak. The sun chose that exact moment to grace them with its warmth, shooting its rays from behind a cloud. Alaina, too, looked like she was shining. Gone was the drained woman of only a moment before. She was lit from within, a fire of strength burning beneath her skin.

“Goodbye,” Alaina said, grabbing Lyla’s hand. “Your mother would be proud to know that you became so strong.”

Lyla, uncomfortable with the compliment, looked at a buoy bouncing in the water. “I don’t…”

Alaina put her index finger over Lyla’s mouth. “Without your friendship I would have probably died in that room, alone and afraid. You are amazing! Try to keep your heart open.” Alaina looked out toward the sea, sadness erased from her eyes.

When Alaina was waist-deep in the water, she turned once more and waved to Lyla. Then she dove under, leaving Lyla with a glimpse of the swish of a turquoise tail. She waited alone until the ripples had calmed, and the inlet was once again still and desolate.