Chapter 6 - WHAT HAPPENED TO CALEBCaleb did not sleep.
At three in the morning he sat alone beside Lila’s bassinet, reading his medical records under the light of a small lamp.
Day one.
Stable.
Day two.
Tail present.
Day three.
First saltwater exposure.
Day four.
Scale recession.
Day five.
Bilateral limb formation.
Day six.
Tail division.
Day seven.
Normal lower extremities.
The clinical language made the transformation sound routine.
It wasn’t.
Nothing about this was routine.
A tiny sound came from the bassinet.
Caleb looked over.
Lila was awake.
Her dark eyes moved slowly.
He smiled despite himself.
“Hey.”
The tail shifted beneath the blanket.
Caleb had expected the sight to frighten him each time.
Instead, after only two days, it was becoming simply Lila.
His daughter had a tail.
Impossible.
But hers.
Elena appeared in the doorway.
“You’re still reading?”
“I’m trying to find something useful.”
She sat beside him.
“Any pain notes?”
“No.”
“Any complications?”
“No.”
“Then why was Vivian so afraid?”
Caleb looked toward the window.
“I think the tail isn’t what scared her.”
“What is?”
“Being discovered.”
Elena was quiet.
Then she asked:
“Do you remember anything?”
“From being seven days old?”
“No.”
She gave him a tired smile.
“I know it sounds ridiculous.”
Caleb looked down at his legs.
“I used to have dreams.”
Elena turned.
“What kind?”
“When I was a kid.”
He had not thought about them in years.
“I was underwater. But I wasn’t drowning.”
“Were you swimming?”
“No.”
Caleb frowned.
“I was just… there.”
“What else?”
“A woman singing.”
Elena’s expression changed.
“What song?”
“I don’t remember words.”
He hummed three notes.
Elena went pale.
“What?”
She stood and walked toward a drawer.
From inside she removed her phone.
“I recorded this the night before Lila was born.”
She pressed play.
At first there was only static.
Then Elena’s sleeping voice.
Soft humming.
Three notes.
The same melody.
Caleb stopped breathing.
“You were asleep?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve never heard that song?”
“Never.”
They stared at each other.
Then Lila made a tiny sound.
Not crying.
Almost cooing.
The same three-note pattern.
Elena covered her mouth.
Caleb stood.
“No.”
“Caleb…”
“We need Weller.”
The old doctor had not answered since their first call.
Caleb had tried twelve times.
This time, someone picked up.
No greeting.
Only breathing.
“Dr. Weller?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“I found the room.”
Silence.
“I found my photographs.”
Another pause.
“I’m sorry.”
“What happened to me?”
“You changed.”
“I can read that.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
Weller sighed.
“You were healthy.”
“That’s important?”
“Very.”
“Why?”
“Because your father insisted something was wrong with you.”
Caleb closed his eyes.
“What did you think?”
“I thought you were unusual.”
“That’s diplomatic.”
“I thought you represented something medicine had never documented honestly.”
“Honestly?”
“There were earlier cases.”
“Miriam?”
Weller became silent.
Caleb’s pulse quickened.
“You know her.”
“I knew of her.”
“What happened?”
“Your family said she died.”
“But you don’t believe that.”
“No.”
Caleb looked at Elena.
“What was the treatment?”
“Controlled exposure to water from a specific tidal cavern.”
“Why did it work?”
“We never knew.”
“Did it hurt me?”
“No. You actually calmed when placed in the water.”
That surprised him.
“You cried when removed.”
Caleb looked at Lila.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did my tail disappear because of the water?”
“The transformation began before the first exposure.”
“So Vivian lied.”
“Your mother has spent her life simplifying complicated truths.”
“What happens if we do nothing?”
Weller hesitated.
“No one knows.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Were there children who weren’t treated?”
A long silence.
“Yes.”
Caleb stood straighter.
“What happened to them?”
“I was never allowed access to them.”
“Alive?”
“I believe so.”
“Where?”
“Caleb.”
“Where?”
“If you want the truth, stop looking in hospitals.”
“Then where?”
“The coast.”
Weller lowered his voice.
“Your family’s oldest records are not at the estate.”
“Where are they?”
“Below it.”
Caleb glanced toward the window.
“The cave?”
“Yes.”
“Vivian wants us to take Lila there.”
“Then do not let Vivian choose the terms.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the water may change your daughter.”
Caleb waited.
Weller’s next sentence chilled him.
“But no one in your family ever asked whether those children were supposed to be changed at all.”
The call ended.
Caleb stared at Lila.
May you like
For the first time, the question was no longer how to make his daughter like everyone else.
It was whether generations of Marlowes had been trying to erase something that had never been wrong.
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