Monstrous Beauty Read Online Free PDF Page A

he?—“the natural world. I want to record what I see so that I might remember it forever.”
    “You will not live forever.”
    He laughed again, twice in nine months, and all in the last minute. “That’s right. But if I become good at my research, I might publish it so others may read it. Then it will be on earth for a long time—though not forever.”
    She said quietly, “I will live forever.”
    He could not imagine it to be possible.
    “In truth I can be killed. Many of us have been killed. But left alone, I will not die.”
    Many of us, he repeated in his head. She was not the only one.
    She was silent. The darkness had swallowed the outcropping so completely he could no longer see the ghost of her form. After a long minute he began to worry that she had slipped away. But then he heard the soft splish of her tail.
    “There is no satisfaction in eternity,” she said. “There is only loss.”
    He knew that the tide was rising and his time with her had to end.
    “My name is Ezra,” he said.
    “I am Syrenka.”
    “Will you meet me here again, Syrenka?” He tried to sound calm; he mustn’t rush her. “There is so much I want to know.”
    “I will meet you as often as you like, until you are no longer interested.”
    He smiled to himself in the darkness and thought, As if I were not in danger of losing interest in everything else.

Chapter 5
    T HE AFTERNOON OF P ETER’S GRADUATION , with the windows rolled down and the music turned up in his truck, Hester felt it was truly the beginning of summer, and perhaps the end of an era. Peter and Sam wore suits and loosened ties, and Hester had on a filmy dress with a camisole slip. The weather was perfect: not too warm, not too cool. The rocks were in sharp focus along the shore and outlined by a crisp blue sky. Sam was wedged between her and Peter, singing along to the music, his voice a crackly blend of high and low despite his new six-foot frame.
    “Letting the days go byyy; let the water hold me down!”
    Hester’s eyes were drawn to the ocean. It was speckled with gleaming reflections of sunlight, winking at her like thousands of stars. Thoughts of the shore, sand, riprap, and the cave looped through her mind without her willing them. When the truck approached the picnic area along Water Street, she shook away the trance. “Guys,” she said impulsively, “let’s walk on the beach.”
    “No way,” Sam said as Peter pulled into a parking spot. “That’s for old people. I’m getting fried clams with my droogs at Squant’s Treasure.”
    “Peter?” Hester asked, getting out of the car, her heart already on its way.
    “I can’t stay long, I have to go to a reception for an exhibit of old toys at Pilgrim Hall. My dad is letting them use my great-great-great-great-”—he counted on his fingers—“aunt Adeline’s doll.”
    “A half hour,” Hester promised. “And you’re already dressed for the reception.”
    “All right,” Peter agreed. “There won’t be much beach right now, but I’m with you.”
    “See you at home,” Sam called, jogging toward the wharf.
    Peter got out of the truck, tossing his suit jacket inside. He rolled up his shirtsleeves as he strolled across the grass. It was a relaxed, summery pace—the pace you might expect if aimless walking were the goal, if there weren’t a pressing need to get to the beach. Hester tried to restrain herself but wound up a step ahead of him anyway.
    “Hey, Hester? About the party,” he said, mostly to her back. “I’m really sorry I said that stuff.”
    “You don’t have to apologize,” she said over her shoulder. Hurry, she thought.
    “You’re doing fine without my telling you how to run your life.”
    “I’m pretty sure I’m a mess.”
    “Then you pretend well.” They were almost at the stone steps. She skipped ahead and looked down toward the beach.
    “Oh,” she said, disappointed. The rocks near the shore were completely submerged but for their slick green tips. The