The next thing Ezrah noticed when he mounted Deadman’s Boulder for the first time was that the sirens were terrifying. Their sharp teeth were unnaturally pointed. Their impossibly round eyes always seemed to be accusing you of something. Their silver fins were the only thing beautiful about them. Yes, the sirens were terrifying, but the sirens were also silent.
Ros was not looking at Ezrah. In fact, Ros was not moving. Six siren eyes tracked Ezrah without saying a word. It made him uncomfortable and he wanted to tell them to mind their own business, but he didn’t think they would listen. They slapped their fins idly on their end of the rock only six feet away. They almost looked like women, but the curves that would determine that were lost in scales and disfigured by spines. Ezrah remembered stories about the way siren songs would convince sailors that it was alright to jump off the back of their ship and felt naked coming up here without wax to stuff in his ears. But although the sirens’ mouths are open, no sound comes out.
“Why aren’t they singing?” he asks. Ros’s lips squirm around themselves until they land with the bottom one thrust out below the top.
“They’re listening.” And the thing Ezrah had not noticed about the sirens was that their heads were tilted to one side and their chins were bobbing up and down in six individual nods. They did indeed seem to be listening. Ezrah tried not to look at the sirens again.
“Why don’t you come down?” he asked Ros, “we could go to that cave and we could-“
“No,” Ros said. The sirens watched silently. Some had moved their heads back to indicate their disapproval while some had tilted their necks more to see if Ros was still okay. Ezrah was trying not to look at the sirens.
“But Ros there’s some great-“
“No,” she repeated, “I’m never coming down again.”
“Ros,” Ezrah started, “what’s going on?” Ros was trying not to look at anything. “Ros,” Ezrah raised his voice. “Answer me, please.” Her hands wrapped tightly around her shoulders.
“I don’t want to go down.” But Ezrah would not give up on his plans to explore the cave only half a mile down the beach.
“But the cave is so cool. They say it’s got-“ Ros closed her eyes tightly.
“I’m never going in that cave again.” Her hands wrapped tighter around the sleeves of her shirt to keep them from sliding off her shoulders.
