Free More Bones by Arielle North Olson Page B

give you calm seas. If they don’t like you, expect trouble. But listen. If you find a fishy scale from a mermaid’s tail, she must grant you three wishes.”
    Three wishes? That’s just what John needed. He tiptoed over to the mermaid’s rock and leaped up behind her, plucking one of her golden scales. She screeched and slapped him with her tail. He waved the scale in front of her nose. “Now you owe me three wishes.”
    â€œYou didn’t find it. You took it,” she cried. She tried to grab it back. It was obvious to John that she was furious. Then a crafty look came into her eyes.
    â€œMaybe I could grant your wishes after all,” she said in falsely honeyed tones.
    â€œMy first wish is for Helen to marry me,” he said. “I don’t understand why she said no.
    â€œMy second wish is to catch the biggest fish in the sea,
so I’ll make lots of money and won’t have to go fishing every day.
    â€œMy third wish is not to die by drowning.” He had known too many fishermen whose lives had been lost at sea.
    â€œGranted!” said the mermaid, but this time her voice was harsh. She dove into the waves and swam away, but when she turned to look back at him, he felt a twinge of fear. Her eyes were flashing with anger.
    John remembered what his grandmother had said about the amazing powers of mermaids. He began to wonder if he should have plucked that golden scale. Would the angry mermaid unleash a ferocious storm—or send a devastating wave upon the land? And what if she was so mad she didn’t grant his wishes after all? He decided to test her word.
    John ran up the path to the village and went directly
to Helen’s house. Again he asked Helen, “Will you marry me?” She looked dumbfounded. The thought in her head was “of course not.” But the word that came out of her mouth was “yes.”
    One wish granted, John said to himself, but what he really should have wished for was a happy marriage, because Helen made his life miserable. She didn’t understand why she had said yes, and she never stopped telling John how unhappy she was to be his bride. Even the neighbors could hear her screaming at him. He no longer regretted fishing every day. It was such a relief to get out of the house and away from her nagging.
    One morning, John decided to see if his second wish would come true. He bought a far stronger fish line than usual and a much bigger hook. Then off he sailed. When he reached a likely spot, he baited the hook, flung out the line, and settled down to wait for a bite from the biggest fish in the sea. “Today’s the day,” he shouted, hoping that the mermaid was listening.
    He was dreaming about how much money he would earn, when his fishing pole was almost jerked out of his hands. It was all John could do to hang on while the fish pulled him and his boat far out to sea.
    When the fish leaped out of the water, it looked more like a monster, with gigantic teeth and huge golden scales. Stranger yet, its angry eyes looked very much like those of the mermaid, but magnified one thousand times.
    The fish whipped the line first one way, then the other. It circled the boat, again leaping above the waves, then splashing down, drenching John with seawater. The fish looked at least a hundred years old and very likely would taste vile. Who would want to buy it? thought John. Even if he managed to pull it aboard, it would sink his boat, so he reluctantly cut his fish line.
    But the fish didn’t seem very grateful to be free. It spit out the hook and dove deep under the waves. Then it sped upward, smashing the boat to pieces. John was thrown into the water, and the fish began to circle him. Would it swallow him in one gulp? The mermaid hadn’t made any promises about that. But the fish finally turned and swam away.
    John clutched a plank that had risen to the surface and hugged it to his chest. Hour after hour he floated