When We Believed in Mermaids: A Novel

Kit goes for a swim in the building’s rooftop pool and is surprised to find Javier there. They swim together for a while, then move to the sauna to warm up. The earthquake hits while they are there, so they move into the hallway between the sauna and the pool. As they wait it out, Kit tells Javier about living through the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. They both shower and change, and then go to the shops Kit noted the day before to show Josie’s picture around. They find a woman at a bakery who recognizes the picture but says the woman hasn’t been around in a while. Kit and Javier buy tickets for a harbor tour. They talk about Kit’s father and the restaurant, Eden, Javier’s travels, and surfing. Kit feels an attraction to Javier that scares her because of her reluctance to become involved in a committed relationship.

Mari meets her contractor, Rose, at Sapphire House. Mari makes her way through the house and makes notes on furniture that should be removed and sold, and other changes she wants to make. As she does this, she recalls a conversation she once had with Kit about their parents’ failure to take them to school on Mondays because it was the only day the restaurant was closed, and they liked to sleep in. Dylan eventually made their parents take them to school on Mondays because Kit enjoyed school. In the room Mari chooses to make into Simon’s office, Mari finds diaries Helen kept and decides to search for more in the hopes of discovering clues to the mystery of Veronica Parker’s murder. Mari leaves early to meet Nan for dinner.

Kit and Javier leave the ferry to explore a small village where they find a quaint bookstore. Kit finds a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and it brings back memories of Dylan because it was his favorite book and he read it to her often. Kit and Javier go to lunch where Kit tells him about Dylan, and he speaks briefly about his childhood. Javier invites her to listen to him sing again.

Kit and Javier stop on Rangitoto where they go to the dock and watch young men diving into the water from concrete pilings. Kit sees a boy fall off one of the pilings and jumps into the water to pull him out. Paramedics come and take the boy to the hospital. Javier learns Kit is a doctor and questions why she chose to work in the emergency room. Kit briefly touches on the earthquake that changed her life but doesn’t tell him about Dylan’s death or her father’s death. She asks why Javier came to New Zealand and he reveals that a close friend recently died by suicide, and Miguel invited him to Auckland to help his grieving process. Kit mentions that she is considering leaving medicine for a career working with marine animals. Marine biology was Kit’s first passion as a child, but she gave it up for medicine. As they talk, Javier expresses a desire to kiss her.

Mari goes to meet Nan at the CBD. As she does, she recalls using a dead girl’s identity to get to New Zealand, and then making up the Mari Sanders identity and paying a man to create paperwork for her. Then, she met Nan while surfing. Inspired by Nan’s studies in law school, Mari registered for school, originally studying cookery and hospitality, but changing to landscape design and construction.

Mari and Nan eat at an Italian restaurant in the CBD and discuss Sapphire House. Mari slips and mentions something about her real parents that contradicts her fake story made up when she became Mari. Nan points it out and Mari makes a silent note to herself to be more careful. It also reminds her of the many times she and Kit would dance in their mother’s old dressing gowns in the restaurant and how customers would sometimes comment on Josie/Mari in ways that were inappropriate for a young girl. Fresh from this memory, Mari believes she sees a woman who looks like Kit pass the restaurant. On the way home, Mari remembers visits to Eden by the actor, Billy Zondervan. She also remembers him slipping her sips of his beer. Mari remembers stealing sips of cocktails from other guests’ forgotten glasses as well.

Javier invites Kit to his apartment for dinner. He has a larger apartment in the same building as Kit’s Airbnb. They share wine and tortilla Española, a Latin dish of eggs, onions, and potatoes. They become intimate and spend the night together. Kit has her recurring dream of Dylan surfing again. In the morning, Kit questions Javier about his profession, and he shows her that he is a famous singer in Spain and other Latin countries. They talk about Josie again. She explains how Josie changed in adolescence. She also talks about Dylan and how he raised her and Josie because of their parents’ neglect and how as a teen, he began spending time with other girls because of his handsome good looks. Kit tells Javier that the last time she saw Josie, she let her stay at her apartment, and she appeared to be doing better, but then she disappeared with a large number of Kit’s most valuable possessions. Six months later was the train bombing and Josie’s “death.” Kit decides to go surfing that day and to meet Javier at his music performance that night.

Mari returns home and takes a bath before looking at her mother’s Facebook page. She recalls a Christmas shortly after Kit’s 10th birthday when they woke on Christmas morning to find their parents had destroyed the Christmas decorations. Dylan took them to a diner in Chinatown where they had dim sum and tea. Kit is devastated by losing their presents and stockings, but Dylan presents them each with a gift. Kit receives a Rubik’s cube and Josie a pair of earrings. Dylan tells Josie that her mother agreed that she could get her ears pierced. In the present, Mari continues looking through her mother’s Facebook, thinking of all the ways she let Kit down in the years after Dylan’s death.

Mari and Simon take their children to see Sapphire House. Mari shows Sarah around the house while Leo searches for a bedroom he wants to make his own. Mari and Sarah find a bedroom Sarah likes because she can hear the sea. Something Mari’s mother always said comes to mind: “Bianci women need to be able to hear the ocean when they sleep” (159), and Mari is saddened by the idea that Sarah doesn’t know she’s a Bianci.

Simon calls Mari downstairs and introduces her to a reporter and camera operator from a local television station. Simon wants Mari to cooperate with a story on Sapphire House in order to increase interest in selling portions of Sapphire House’s land that Simon wants to sell through his father’s real estate business. Mari is reluctant, but agrees, giving the reporter a tour of the house. After the reporter leaves, Mari and Sarah search the attic for more of Helen’s journals. They find a few, but none earlier than 1939. Mari returns to Helen’s room to search through boxes filled with old magazines.