(open)

[seas_open]

The envelope arrives on her doorstep through registered mail as April is on her way out and she signs for the thick envelope with a frown. She can't imagine who would be mailing anything to her, not when she's kept herself so distanced from nearly everyone she has ever met. Her name is on the front, however, and her address in Siren Cove is neatly printed on a white sticker, though under that she can see there are at least three other stickers. Her guess is that each sticker has a previous address written on it and she has to wonder who has been keeping such close tabs on her that they've been able to track her through her last three locations.

She's wanted on charges in at least two states and she makes herself difficult to find for that reason alone. The charges are minor, she doubts she'll ever be interesting enough for any police to follow her across state lines or really pursue her, but she's still done her best to make sure she stays out of jail for that little bit of money she's convinced people to give her. It's not stealing, she thinks, if the person in question wants her to have the cash.

But if the police haven't bothered to find her, she's not sure who has and it isn't until she reaches the boardwalk that she opens the envelope. The return address is a law office in Canada and she wonders if it has something to do with the foster homes as she slips her nail under the flap and opens it.

The contents don't make sense at first. Several legal documents mention Melanie Ross, a name she doesn't recognize, and there's a copy of the woman's will folded carefully around a letter. Whoever she is, she's clearly dead, and April imagines she must be some distant relative, someone she's never even heard of until she opens the letter and sees her name written across the top in a slanting, delicate scrawl.

The letter is from her mother.

Her dead mother.

April scans the will quickly, catches sight of her name, and she feels her stomach turn. There's nothing in the world she wants from this woman with her addictions and her inability to care for her children. The letter makes no mention of the sister April knows she has, the woman somewhere out there in the world who is only a year older than she is, the only decent memory she has of the very brief time she spent in her mother's care. There are other names, though. The names of other women, other places her father had visited.

It reads like some kind of tell-all and the more April reads, the more disgusted she feels until she reaches a familiar name and she feels like her heart stops in her chest. Flynn. Another woman in the long line of women her father had been with, another woman her own mother had apparently kept track of and April shakes her head, torn between fascination at this revelation and disgust at her mother's obsession with the things her philandering father had done.

If this is true, it means part of the family she's told herself she's not looking for is right here in Siren Cove.

April stands up abruptly from the bench and walks down the beach until she's at the guest house on Corrine's property. She doesn't know what she's doing, if she wants to see Corrine or Les and she stands there on the beach for a moment, indecisive in a way she usually isn't. Then she turns abruptly, yanking her sundress over her head as she walks straight into the ocean. She needs to swim. She needs to really be herself for a little while.

[The swimming part is mostly for Les to catch April in her siren form, so everyone else can catch her on the boardwalk with the envelope she doesn't know what to make of. :D]

Comments

[seas_open]

April isn't one for drinking most of the time, if only because she doesn't like the lack of control that comes with it. She isn't afraid of slipping up and becoming a little too loose with her powers, but she's had to consider the persona she's been presenting in the past. In every town she goes through -- even this one, to some extent -- she's been a different person. Drinking makes that person slip a little and so she doesn't.

But right now, she thinks she could use a drink.

"It's alright," she says with a shake of her head. "It's less her death and more... she wrote me a letter. Tracking my father's whereabouts for the past twenty years and all the children he's already had. All the half-siblings I have. It's unsettling."

[gemmadorsey]

"Oh wow," says Gemma. "Unsettling is kind of an understatement, am I right?" She can't even imagine the way she'd feel if a letter like that turned up in her life. The surprises she's already gotten are plenty thank you very much. "At the very least I could've been carrying more than half a chocolate bar. Do you want to go somewhere? I could treat you to a coffee or whatever. I promise I am a nice person and not a perv or a weirdo or something."

[seas_open]

"You don't know that I'm not a perv or a weirdo," April points out with a small smile and an arched brow, but she stands up from the bench, tucking the envelope under her arm. In another town she wouldn't have had to think of it at all. She could have ignored all the names, but seeing Corrine's name has made it impossible. She wouldn't call them friends, but Corrine is certainly very close with Les and April is... well, whatever she is with Les, it's hard to ignore.

"I'm April," she says, offering her hand. "Thanks."

[gemmadorsey]

"Oh, see, I don't care if you're a perv or a weirdo," says Gemma. "Some of my best friends are pervs and weirdos." She tucks her earbuds away entirely and shakes her hand. "I'm Gemma. So are we on? There's a place not far from here, I think. You might know better than I would."

[seas_open]

"Yeah, we're on," April says. "Why not?" The distraction will be nice and the truth is that she's not sure she wants to talk to one of the few people she's actually come to know well in Siren Cove. For the most part, she's kept people away, all the while appearing as though she's been making friends, but a few have gotten past that barrier. She wouldn't want to see them now.

"I'm not from here either," she admits when Gemma says she might know better. "I've only been in town for a few months."

[gemmadorsey]

"Still longer than me," says Gemma. "I'm starting to get to know my way around, though. Particularly when it comes to places a person can eat or drink, preferably at the same time. It's this street, right? With that little café on it, the one with all the pastries?"

[seas_open]

April glances up at the street sign before she nods. Most of the streets around the boardwalk are familiar to her, given how much time she spends in the water, and she does know there's a cafe down this one, though she can't remember the name of it for the life of her.

"How long have you been here?" she asks as they walk, the envelope feeling oddly heavy under her arm.

[gemmadorsey]

"Two months?" says Gemma, spending about two seconds doing the math before abandoning it as just not that important. "More or less. Maybe a little less. Yes, yes, this is the one!" She points at a shop in the middle of the street. "The one with the muffin out front. I'm a fan."

[seas_open]

"Only a month more than I've been here," April says, smiling a bit when Gemma recognizes the shop she likes. She's been here once or twice herself, but she can't seem to muster much enthusiasm for anything right now.

She's not one to ask for advice, but suddenly she wants to. Gemma is a near stranger and maybe she'll have some good suggestion of what to do about Les.

She needs to be sitting down for that first and so she pulls open the door of the cafe for Gemma to go in ahead of her.

[gemmadorsey]

"Whatever you want," says Gemma, turning half backwards as she goes through and heads for the nearest table so she can keep facing her, an old habit of hers. "Because it definitely sounds like you're having the kind of day where you need to spoil yourself a little."