Page 42 of Leviathan's Song
“Let’s go check on your dad,” I sighed. His answering grin was dreamy and warm as he led me to a sandy path weaving gently along the side of the bluff. Grass swayed knee-high among rocks on the hill and waves lapped gently at the sand below. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Anything,” he replied.
“Why did you change your name?” He’d mentioned during our meeting with Muriel that his birth name was different than the name he currently went by. Up ahead I could see clusters of small wooden houses, weathered and worn. Tiny bungalows with warped wood, paint long ago chipped and faded, peeked out from where they were nestled above the rocks.
“My first name is the same. Levi is just less of a mouthful than Leviathan. In merfolk culture the mother passes her name to her children, not the father. Chansoneau was my mother’s surname. I didn’t want her name though. She didn’t raise me; my father did.”
I glanced at his face as we walked, but found it devoid of emotion. My heart hurt for the little boy who had felt rejected by his mother.
“This is us.” Levi directed me onto the porch of a shanty with bowed treads on the front porch and thorny white-apple blossoms climbing up into the eaves. Garlands of broken seashells hung from the rafters and swayed with the breeze. I wasn’t sure what color the walls had originally been, but now they stood muted in browns and grays.
I followed hesitantly behind Levi as he unlocked the front door and pushed his way in. He called out in his native tongue, and there was no reply. “Dad?” he tried in English. I started to take my shoes off at the door, but thought better of it when I spied some broken bottles on the floor. Levi had already disappeared through a door in the back of the room, and I noticed he didn’t flip on any lights as he moved through the house.
I heard him curse and begin speaking rapidly, but he was back to his native language again, so I couldn’t understand him. I felt a spark of panic and hurried to catch up with him, stopping to flip on a light when I had trouble making out their shapes in the dark. I guess it would make sense that mer people wouldn’t be bothered by low lighting. Light wasn’t easy to come by underwater.
Levi was bent over his dad, who lay shirtless, sprawled on the wood floor in the hallway. The air smelled musty and rank, and Levi’s face held more frustration than fear as he felt for a pulse under the larger man’s jaw. His father appeared to have a similar amount of mer bloodlines as Levi, which told me Levi’s mother probably wasn’t entirely full-blooded either. He shared Levi’s light-colored hair and swimmer’s build, but his face was blockier and less sculpted than his son’s. His nose appeared to have been broken in several places and healed incorrectly.
“Is he breathing?” I asked, and Levi nodded. I noticed his father had a large welt above his eye and bruising on his jaw and shoulder. “Did he get into a fight?” His knuckles looked pretty swollen, something I only knew to look for thanks to my friendship with Sidney.
“Probably,” Levi grumbled, as he tried to turn his dad’s torso to check for more injuries. “He may have just smacked his head when he passed out from drinking too much again. He’s been in a bad place mentally for as long as I can remember.”
“Should we send for a medic?” That’s what I would do if I found one of my parents in this state.
But Levi shook his head. “He just needs to sleep it off. I’m gonna move him off the floor. I want you to stay back, because sometimes he wakes up swinging.”
“Okay. I feel like I should probably give him some privacy if you don’t need my help. Do you want me to wait out front?” I wanted to clean up some of that glass before we left.
“Sure.” He was already trying to figure out how to get the prone man off the floor, so I made my way into the kitchen and eventually found a broom tucked into a storage closet.
I had managed to pile most of the larger pieces of broken glass into a small trash can when I heard raised voices at the back of the house. Trying to decide whether or not I should intervene, I realized I was gripping the neck of a broken bottle like a weapon and quickly dropped it in with the rest.I might be getting a little too big for my britches.I touched my wasps just to reassure myself they were still with me.
It was over as soon as it started though, and when I didn’t hear anything else concerning, I warily bent to finish the task of sweeping up the remaining glass.
Levi returned before I was finished and retrieved the broom from me. He shooed me off, speaking in low tones, saying he didn’t want me to cut myself on his dad’s mess. I stood aside and watched him carefully sweep up the remainder of the glass, noting his countenance and posture.
His shoulders were hunched and his jaw clenched, and I was startled to notice a scuff on his jawline. There was another red mark on his bicep, and my ire flared.
“Levi—”
“Let me finish this up and grab some bills and we’ll go.”
His enchantments were roiled—as if he didn’t know whether to push or pull—and I bit my tongue as he dumped the dustpan and stepped outside to sort through some envelopes in the mailbox. He kept two and replaced the rest before locking the front door and turning to meet my gaze with hesitant eyes.
“I’m sorry. He’s not been in the best state, but he hasn’t done that in a while. It wasn’t the best idea to bring you today.”
I couldn’t control my scowl. “He hurt you.” I couldn’t fathom my father ever leaving a mark on my body. The reddened skin on his arm was starting to fade, but the angry mark on his lower cheek looked like it was going to get worse. The longer I stared at it, the more incensed I felt.
In the back of my mind, I felt like maybe it was none of my business. Levi was a grown man, and his relationship with his parent wasn’t my place to interfere. But in a larger, not entirely rational, and currently infuriated part of my mind, it was absolutely my business. Because Levi wasmine. I didn’t stop to wonder when that notion had settled in. I’d blown right past it and was trying to wrestle with confusing feelings of Mama Bear meets Righteous Anger.
He gave me a confused smile as he bent the envelopes in half and stuffed them in his back pocket. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“What happened to your face? And your arm? Why were you two yelling?”
Levi touched his cheek. “Did he get me?” He flinched. “Yeah, I guess he did.” He gave me a wry grin. “Shall I go tell him our Empress disapproves of his drunken flailing?” he teased. He bent to kiss my forehead and ushered me off the porch.
“This isn’t funny, Levi. Why do you help him at all if he’s going to treat you like that?”
He flashed me a sad smile. “He doesn’t know I’m trying to help him. He doesn’t even know who he is right now.” His voice was soft but melancholy. “If I didn’t help him, he’d be sleeping on the street somewhere. I don’t want to enable his behavior, but I don’t want to abandon him either. He took care of me when I was little and I needed it. I can’t afford much, but I can at least keep him off the street.”
