Mermaids in the Backyard Read Free Page A

get anywhere.

    Just then she heard another cry for help. This time it wasn’t coming from the girl in the tide pool.
    Glancing at the old-man rocks, Lindy saw another girl peering over one of them. She had coppery-blond hair and aqua eyes.
    “Please help my sister!” she cried, clinging to the wet boulder with both arms. “She thought she could surf the storm. Now she’s stuck!”
    The second girl seemed to be around Lindy’s age, and the first maybe a year younger. Why were they allowed to surf in such a terrible storm? And why was theyounger sister stuck? Lindy had seen Matthew wading in that tide pool yesterday. Even with the extra water from the storm, it couldn’t be more than two feet deep. Was the girl hurt?
    The waves rolled out. Some of the water drew back out of the pool, swirling around the boulders. Lindy’s eyes widened as she got a better look at the blond girl.
    Instead of legs, she had a long tail covered in shiny green scales tinted with lavender. A pair of lavender tail fins flapped helplessly in the air.
    The girl in the tide pool was a mermaid!

“No way!” Lindy blurted out. “There’s no such thing as mermaids!”
    “Please!” The girl in the tide pool sounded terrified. “I have to get back to the sea!”
    “Can you help us?” the older girl asked, still clinging to the rock.
    When Lindy looked at her, she could see the tip of a tail swing up as the waves rolled in again. The older girl was a mermaid, too!
    Lindy’s mind swirled with questions. But one thing was clear. These girls—thesemermaids—were in trouble. She had to help them.
    “What’s the matter?” Lindy asked the younger sister. “Can’t you get back to the ocean?”
    “I’ve been trying and trying!” the mermaid answered, the words pouring out of her. “The waves swept over those rocks and trapped me here in the shallows!”
    Lindy looked around and saw what she meant. The water came at least halfway up the old-man rocks on the ocean side. On this side, though, the boulders rose as high as her head. The mermaid would have to go all the way up the hill to get around them.
    “I told you we shouldn’t come so close, Sealily,” the older mermaid said.
    Lindy blinked away the rain running into her eyes. “Sealily?” She looked at the youngerof the two girls. “Is that your name?”
    Sealily nodded. “Yes. That’s my sister, Coral.”
    Lindy glanced at the other mermaid, who smiled uncertainly. Just then the wind shifted and the rain lightened. In that moment, Lindy was able to look clearly into Coral’s face. Suddenly she had the strangest feelingthat, somehow, she already knew her. That the two of them were meant to be friends. Maybe
best
friends. It was the strangest—and nicest—feeling Lindy had ever had outside of a dream.

    “Nice to meet you,” she said, feeling shy as she smiled back. “I’m Lindy.”
    “Lindy—that’s a funny name.” Sealily’s voice sounded faint. A second later she fell facedown into the water of the tide pool.
    That made Lindy forget all about strange feelings and everything else. “Oh no! Did she faint?”
    “No, she’s okay,” Coral said. “Merpeople can’t breathe for long without water. That’s why Sealily can’t stay there in the shallows. Or Finneus, either.” Worry crept back into her voice.
    “Finneus?” Lindy said.
    Sealily sat up just in time to hear her. “Come say hi to Lindy, Finny,” she called in a singsong voice. “She’s the Drylander who’s going to save us!”
    For a second nothing happened. Then a small yellow creature popped into view beside Sealily. It had a knobby head that looked like it belonged to a cute little dragon.
    “Oh! A sea horse!” Lindy exclaimed.
    The sea horse let out a squeak of alarm and ducked beneath the surface again. “That’s Finneus,” Sealily told Lindy. “He’s shy with strangers.”
    “He’s our pet,” Coral added. “He follows us everywhere.”
    Part of Lindy’s brain was still struggling