Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

TOBIAS

A fter dropping our catch off at the processing plant and collecting our payment, I drove home with Helli. She was much better, but didn't want to unbundle herself to drive her own car. I figured she also wanted to take a bit more time to brace herself up for a scolding from our parents since I was doing the same. They'd come down on her for being reckless and on me for not watching out for her. Hopefully, the biggest paycheck we'd collected all year would distract them.

I still couldn't believe we'd brought in nearly four tons of cod. It had been nearly two years since we'd had such a catch. There were a few ways to get Atlantic cod, and we'd always been trawlers. The nets were meant to skim along the seafloor behind us, but as we were drawn back closer and closer to shore by the changing laws, we'd stopped moving.

Given that the otter-like alien had said he hoped the fish helped, I had to assume he'd somehow herded all of those cod into our net, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he'd done it.

"Maybe he thinks you're cute," Helli said with a giggle.

"Me? You're the one he had to rescue. "

"Literally all the mates I've heard about are men. The Norlons are so gay."

I groaned as I turned onto the drive down to the house. "They're not all gay, Helli."

"Maybe not, but there are plenty who are, and this one wants you." She waggled her eyebrows at me when I glanced at her.

It wasn't an unwelcome thought exactly. Odd, but not bad. I liked a tall, hairy man and could definitely entertain the idea of leaving Earth for the adventures of living on another planet. I supposed it might take some learning to understand Norlon culture, but from what I'd seen and read, they seemed like regular people under all the fur or scales. I shrugged to myself because it could be fun to have such a foreign lover for a while.

Helli took a deep breath as I parked. Mamma was at the kitchen window and looked up, frowning, before she rushed off. "Here we go," Helli muttered.

We got out and went to the door, Helli's bag of damp clothes rustling between us. The second we reached the stoop, our father was there to rip open the door.

"Why in hell are you back so early?"

"Pabbi, there was?—"

"Boy, if you've come back to try and convince me to let you stop?—"

"Ugh! Pabbi, just listen!"

"I've listened plenty and?—"

Helli dropped her bag and held up the check in right front of his face. He jerked back, no doubt having trouble seeing it without his glasses since he bobbed back and forth for a moment. A second later, he grabbed the check out of Helli's fingers and dashed into the other room.

"The two of you," Helli grouched with a shake of her head.

"That's not my fault. I was trying to tell him."

Mamma had her hands on her hips as she surveyed Helli. "What are you wearing?" she asked suspiciously .

Before we had to explain about Helli falling in, Pabbi made a loud whoop and dashed back into the room with his glasses perched on his nose. He bypassed Helli and me and shoved the check at Mamma.

"Look what's happened!" he hollered.

She had to grab his arm and snatch the check to see it for herself. "Oh, my…" she whispered with a hand to her chest. "How is this possible?"

Pabbi would never admit it, but his own wife was also of the opinion that we should quit fishing and turn to the the aquaculture farms other families had set up. Sure, some of them were still waiting on market-ready stock since it took two to three years for the right size cod, but many were also growing plants. I knew one family growing regular vegetables, like lettuce and tomatoes, while another was growing seaweeds and algae because plants grew faster and that meant going to market sooner.

Last year, I'd secretly gone in as a partner with two of my friends whose families had started an aquaculture farm together just before the laws changed. We were growing Atlantic cod and two kinds of seaweed. Since they'd gotten started early, the cod would be market-ready at four to five kilos each early next year.

And that, when we could show him the success of it, was when I'd tell Pabbi everything. Until that day, though, I'd keep working at him to see the benefits himself while pretending to fish from that damn boat.

I refocused on Mamma as I answered her question about how we'd managed to catch so many fish. She, I knew, would hear me.

"We were just floating there?—"

"How many times do I have to tell you to keep trawling even in the harbor?"

I ignored Pabbi and kept talking. "When all of a sudden the boat tipped hard to port. I thought maybe the net had snagged something big. I went to check things out and—" I mentally stopped short because I needed to include the alien, but how without tossing Helli into things?

"I fell overboard," she said with her chin up. "It was stupid and I'll never do anything so reckless again."

That paused things, of course, as Mamma fussed and Pabbi scolded Helli even as he patted her. Helli got out of too much of that by saying she needed to call Svein, our cousin and my best friend, to help her figure out how to dry out and care for her guitar. I got a grin and thumbs-up from her as she escaped.

"That guitar," Pabbi muttered before catching sight of me again. "Well, if you weren't moving and she fell in, how'd you catch all those fish?"

I cleared my throat uneasily. "A Norlon herded them into the net."

Mamma gasped as Pabbi hollered, " What?"

"He helped Helli get back to the boat," I hastily added and watched Pabbi's mouth snap shut. "Rescued her guitar, too. I don't know why he sent the fish into the net, but he said he hoped it helped. It didn't happen because of anything we did," I said while staring at Mamma.

"Well, thank goodness for him." Mamma waved the check but also looked down the hall the way Helli had gone.

Pabbi pointed a finger at me. "That's the last time you mention the aliens. You were trawling the harbor. Period."

"Pabbi…"

"No! We don't know if what he did was legal, so he wasn't there."

"Two other boats might've seen everything."

"Nobody can see what happens on the seafloor. Not even in the harbor. If anyone mentions a thing about the alien, he was there to save Helli. That's the end of it."

He stomped out of the room. I heaved a sigh and let him go. I didn't have the energy to follow after him .

"What kind of alien was he?" Mamma asked as she came back in and got a sweater on.

"Oh, um, he looked like a big otter."

She smiled and laughed a little. "That sounds adorable."

I could feel my cheeks heating.

"I'm going to deposit this check at the bank, and then pick up some things for dinner." She rolled her eyes. "You know he'll invite some folks over."

Yeah, I'd known he would.

"Oh, by the way," she said from halfway out the door. "The college called. I told them you wouldn't return until late, but now you can call them back. They have a full class of people wanting to learn to speak Icelandic."

Relief washed through me. "Thank fuck."

"Tobias, language."

"Sorry, Mamma."

I watched her go out and get in the car before sighing. I taught a few language classes at the local college whenever they had enough people. Those who wanted to learn Icelandic tended to be people moving here from other countries and wanting to fit in better. I also taught English to kids who were struggling to learn it with their peers in school. Sometimes I even did one-on-one sessions with adult English learners who wanted more practice in a less stressful setting.

That there were some fifteen or more people ready to learn Icelandic made me wonder why. The cities saw that kind of an influx of foreigners, not tiny Kleifar. We used to get people moving here to fish back when our zoning stretched farther south than any other nation. Not now, though.

Who would move to Kleifar now?

The Norlons.

Oh shit! I could absolutely see my entire classroom being filled with Norlons. They seemed like the sort to want to absorb everything they could. To improve, to advise, they'd learn all that was available, right? It made sense to me based on what I knew about them.

Would the one I'd met today be there?

I quickly got my phone and searched for the number of the language department at the college. I needed to know who would be in my class ahead of when I showed up. Before I could find the number, my phone showed an incoming call from Svein.

I answered and, before I could say a word, he asked, "A sea otter in a Speedo?"

I chuckled. "Helli told you everything, huh?"

"She did. Before we talk about that, though, I suggest tying her to a mast in the future. That's the… What? Fifth time she's fallen overboard? No one falls in that many times."

"She's only fallen in the once this year." I tried to defend her, but yeah, she was kind of a klutz when it came to staying out of the sea. It wasn't really a laughing matter, but we still joked that we only had life preservers for her.

"Uh-huh. Whatever. Was he hot?"

"Oh, um…" My face heated.

"He was. I can hear you blushing."

I laughed and covered my eyes even as my face got hotter. "Yes, fine, he was incredible. That Speedo was…full."

Svein hummed happily. "That's one thing I love about Norlons. I mean, there's a lot to love about them, but I'm determined to find out if the rumor about the size of their cocks is true."

"Oh, I don't think it's a rumor anymore." Flames were going to erupt from my pores if I didn't change the subject soon. I'd never been chill about discussing sex.

"Ha! Wonderful. Want to come out with me tonight and see if we can do some actual field research?"

Ordinarily, I might've said yes just to get out of the house and be with people who didn't think about fish all day long. But with the catch, I had a feeling I should stick around home tonight. And there was also something wiggling at the back of my brain that had me wanting to search out my otter more than some random— Okay, hold on, he wasn't mine . That was ridiculous.

"Um, I think I need to stick around here," I told him. "Another time, though."

We said our goodbyes, and I went back to trying to find the number for the language department at the college. But while doing that, I couldn't help feeling like maybe something bigger than a catch had happened while we were out on the water today. Something very important.