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It takes True a few days to come up with locks and keys We schedule an extra practice session in the lane, and we pay Aldo more than the usual rate tonear us

Bay’s shell stays silent I don’t ask Maire any more questions, and she doesn’t try to contact me I’m sure Maire has her own plans, her oork to do, and I’ s, so far

But I feel

True helps me snap the locks into place around my wrists and ankles On the day of the real event, Aldo will check to h that I know they are

"If I think it’s been too long," True says, "I’ht drown you," I say "Pull you under Can you even swihs "Of course I can"

"I’ve never seen you"

"I learned when I was young," he says "But you don’t forget"

He’s right And as I watch True walk down to the other lane, pushing the cart full of eels and fish, I knoon’t forget this--what he’s done for me, and how he did it

When True raises his arm a few minutes later, I know he’s ready, and I duck under the water That’s his sign to begin He’ll put in the fish with the key first and then everything else

Here they come I see the swirl of bubbles around each of them as they make their way for me They are fast, beautiful, precise, and one of the s me

"Unlock," I say, and I feel the locks loosen around my ankles and wrists

It works

I let the fish with the key come to me, so that True won’t know that I don’t even need it at all, that I unlocked everything with a word underwater Once the fish brushes against me, I catch it in my hand, slip the key from under its belly, and tell the locks to fall They do, and I swim

An eel shocks me

Another

Move away fro happens My power is into the I go around and through their darting, s, alth of the lane

My mind is so a body I like the feeling of having fingers to flex and use, a back to stretch, hair to swing in a braid, eyes to see Does my mother have a body so

My body is strong, and et closer to the end of the lane, I can’t resist any s at once

The words come out of my mouth and the water comes in as I tell the metal sea creatures to move away frorowing, changing I can feel it Was it speaking in the tele hen Bay left? Or has it been froo Above?

When I surface at the end of the lane, True studies ’s different He knows that all is not quite as it should be

"What happened?" he asks "In there? In the water?"