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. Now not only do I have to watch my ass, all the Undersea Folk in the areahave to be careful, too! And guess who s going to get the blame for this? Goddamn it! She kicked alawn chair into the pool. Stop your whining for two seconds and try to remember that everything isn t aboutyou.The personwho ll get blamed for this is me, which is fine, because I m the one who s got it coming.Now quit withthe temper tantrum, force a smile onto your stupid craggy gargoyle head, and make nice with mygirlfriend and your boss! Jonas forced the entire diatribe out in one hissed breath, then his face brokeinto a beatific smile, and he turned and spread his arms. Honey pie! Sweetie! Oh my God, you havenoidea what a surprise your little visit is! Really? Dr.Barb chirruped, dropping her hope chest uh, luggage and rushing into Jonas sembrace. Really, you re not mad? I just got so lonely, and the NEA can take care of itself for a fewdays, and I thought it d be fun to fly down and surprise you. Dr.Barb looked at Fred with anxious darkeyes. I know your family reunion is private; Jonas and I will of course stay out of your way. Fam uh, right, right.Yep.My family is& well, they re just insane about their privacy.Almostpathological.You probably won t see any of them the whole time you re here. God willing. And howlongare you here? Only  til the end of the week. Come on, I ll show you my hut.I ll help you unpack.Could take hours, he added over his shoulder,imparting a final  behave! glare to Fred before they left.Fred jumped into the pool to retrieve the lawn chair, then gave in to her tantrum and crumpled it up intoa rough ball.She watched it sink into the deep end and only wished Jonas s mangled body was sinkingbeside it.Thirty-one Artur, Artur! She realized what she was doing,cursed her stupidity, waded in, ducked her head under,and called,Artur!She listened hard, and heard nothing.Artur! Hello? It s an emergency! Artur!Still nothing.Well, shit.She wondered what her range was.King Mekkam s appeared to be limitless;obviously run-of-the-mill Undersea Folk had to be content with the equivalent of shouting in an emptyroom.Or maybe that was a hybrid thing.MaybeGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html ttle Rika.What? Artur? Are you coming?Yes, Little Rika.And she could feel him getting closer, coming into her range.Damn.She was almostgetting the hang of this mermaid thing.What ails you? Have you hurt yourself?No such luck.My boss is here!Your& from the aquarium on land? The woman Jonas has taken to mate?Yes!She saw him and realized she d floated out over her head; he was swimming toward her withpowerful strokes, strokes that gobbled the distance between them and made it look easy.She flew out tosurprise Jonas! So you ve got to tell your dad, so he can warn everybody.Jonas will do his best to holeup with her in his hut, but she s got to eat, and I imagine she ll want to swim and sunbathe and, I don tknow, work on my annual review.As you wish, Little Rika.He reached for her and she let him, actually submitted to a hug, to being held.Why are you so distressed, dear one? My people are well used to hiding; your Dr.Barb will not knowwe are there, even if we swim right beside her.This is nothing new.It s just& this is private.The Pelagic is private.I made them accept Jonas, and your honor made youaccept Thomas.Now Dr.Barb s here.It s turning into a mess, and it s all because of me.My Rika, you are too strict with yourself, surely.It s just hard enough to get people to talk to me after what my dad did; now everybody s going to knowthere s another biped at the Pelagic.Good old Fred: totally dependable for traitorous behavior.Fredrika, that is not so.He hugged her again and stroked her back.You are tired, I think.And you re condescending.But youaretired, he teased.Only exhaustion would lead you to own problems that are not of your ownmaking.You fret over things you cannot control, or change.I ve got a lot to fret over!So you do.And now you must rest; tomorrow you have much to do.He clasped her hand and startedswimming for shore.Come.I will take you back.Be careful of your tail!He actually rolled his eyes at her.Fine, next time another stupid biped shows up atyour super secret meeting, I m not saying a damnedthing!Oh, Little Rika.Do not tease.One disadvantage swimming in fins had: she couldn t kick him with her tail.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlThirty-twoShe d actually fallen asleep.The last few days with nosleep followed by the stress of the Pelagic, notto mention Artur s proposal, then the arrival of Dr.Barb, and her fight with Jonas had fixed it so shewas snoring by 9:30 p.m.Which made it all the more annoying when someone started pounding on her door. G way, she moaned into the pillow.Whoever it was took that as an invitation, because her door opened and she remembered& Why did I give you a key to my room? Because you ve been in love with me since the third grade, Jonas promptly answered. What? Youwere asleep? It s not even ten o clock! Shut up.Go away. Her air conditioner was clanking and wheezing in the corner, and she finally tookpity on it and got up to shut it off. Never mind; make yourself useful and open the windows. Sheyanked one open herself. What are you doing in here, anyway? Shouldn t you be having sex? Oh, please, I did it twice already.And may I add, each time with me is more fantastic than the last. I actually threw up a little bit in my mouth just now, Fred informed him. You don t fool me.You re just mad because you never got to try a slice of Jonas. There it goes again! At what point does  throwing up in your mouth become just  throwing up ? Shecrossed the room and spat in the bathroom sink. Anyway, Jonas sighed. Barb s wiped from the trip, among other things. He wiggled his eyebrows. She s taking a nap; we probably won t see her again until breakfast.Fred realized:  Hey! I m not speaking to you.We re in a fight, remember? Sure, I remember, but the good news is, I ve forgiven you. You ve ! I thought I d dig you up and we d go grab a few drinks at the bar.But you re being your usualantisocial self, I see. Mumph. Man, that Tennian gal blue hair? Blue eyes? She is akey -uutie!Fred rubbed her eyes.Tennian.Right.Between Artur asking her to live with him in the Black Sea, andDr.Barb showing up, she d forgotten all about the blue-haired troublemaker. Don t remind me. She and Thomas swam out of the surf a while ago and walked down the beach looking like somethingGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlout of a travel poster, except she was naked. Shut up. And where d you disappear to before supper, anyway? You mean before my boss showed up at a secret mermaid meeting? Artur took me out. Literally. Oh ho! So you ve finally picked! I haven t picked anything.He took me out and Thomas likes anything with a tail.Jonas flopped onto the end of her bed. Me-ow! If you re jealous  I m not jealous! Just disgusted.I could be anybody, you know.Anybody at all [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]