Mermaids in the Backyard by Catherine Hapka

Prologue
    “What should we do today?” Coral asked her sister, Sealily.
    It was a peaceful morning under the sea. The sisters were floating out of their family’s cave with their pet sea horse, Finneus. Bright sunlight shone all the way to the seafloor from far overhead. The light made the water sparkle. It brought out coppery glints in Coral’s hair and silvery ones in Sealily’s.
    “Let’s go look for sea stars in the shallows,” Sealily said with a swish of her tail. Her lavender and green scales glittered like jewels.
    Coral shook her head. “You know we’re not allowed to go to the shallows. Besides,Pelagos says there’s going to be a storm soon. Let’s find some dolphins instead.”
    Sealily floated in place and thought about that. She loved grabbing a ride on a friendly dolphin.
    But they had gone dolphin riding three days ago. Sealily wanted to do something different. She loved swimming when fierce storms raged overhead in the Drylands. Most of all, she loved surfing the wind-whipped water along the surface.
    She knew she’d get in big trouble if her parents ever found out. Merpeople weren’t supposed to go above the surface. Never, ever. It was the strictest rule under the sea.
    But Sealily couldn’t resist, no matter how much Coral scolded. Coral was much more careful than Sealily. Yet she never tattled on her. Never, ever. Sealily was happythat Coral was her big sister.
    “Okay,” she said. “We can go dolphin riding today.”
    “Good.” Coral looked relieved.
    Sealily smiled. “But tomorrow we’re going to the shallows,” she added. “Whether grumpy old Pelagos likes it or not.”
    “We’ll see.” Coral shot upward. A school of minnows parted to let her pass, bubbling busily. Finneus squeaked and darted after her.
    Yes, Coral could be way too careful. But she was crazy about anything to do with Drylanders. Sealily knew they would be heading toward the shore tomorrow, no matter what worries Coral might have about breaking the rules.
    “Race you to the kelp forest,” Sealily cried. Flicking her tail, she zipped after her sister.



“No way,” Lindy Michaels said, staring through the car window. “We’re going to live
here
?”
    “Isn’t it adorable?” her mom said.
    Lindy didn’t know what to say. The house looked like a giant bug. It was tall and narrow and stood on stilts. She could see right underneath it to the ocean. There were three floors above the stilts. The first two floors each had a white slatted porch sticking out at a different angle. Windows of every shape and size stared in all directions. Grayish-blueshingles covered everything in between.
    Even the yard was weird. It was June, but there was no normal green grass in sight—just tall yellowish grass that waved in the sea breeze and looked as if it would cut Lindy’s hand if she touched it. And lots of rocks and sand and scrubby-looking palms.
    Behind the crazy stilt-bug house, the ground sloped down to the water’s edge. A huge tree with wide, spreading branches stood at the front corner of the house. It looked as if the tree was trying to push the whole house down the hill into the sea.
    Lindy’s father steered the car into the driveway. At least Lindy guessed it was a driveway. It wasn’t anything like their driveway in Chicago. That one was paved and smooth, with tidy shrubs lining both sides.
    This one was made of bumpy gravel andbroken seashells. It curved sharply to go around a big clump of boulders. Finally Mr. Michaels stopped the car.
    “Come on, dear,” Lindy’s mom said. “We’ll show you your room.”
    Lindy climbed out of the car as slowly as she could. Whatever room they were about to show her, it wasn’t
her
room.
Her
room was back home in Chicago. The only room she’d known for her entire nine years of life.
    Her parents had always talked about leaving the city and their office jobs someday. They wanted to live on the beach and run a nice little tourist business. They’d planned to