The Fires Beneath the Sea ebook by Lydia Millet Read Free Book Online Page B

with a trip to the Aquarium, which was in the building next door.
    At the last minute, as they were getting into the car, Max appeared on his skateboard, flipping it up into his hand right before he hit the sandy stretch of their street. He jumped into the backseat next to Jax, his board tucked under his arm.
    It was a new one, Cara noticed—flames and a grinning skull. Really cute.
    “Slide over,” he ordered him. “I got long legs.”
    “You’re coming?” asked Cara.
    “You kidding? Miss the dogfish swimming around in the dirty water? And the quahogs that look so yummy? Forget it.”
    Cara didn’t like to eat quahogs, or anything slimy that came from the sea. When she had to watch people slurping oysters in restaurants, she felt like throwing up.
    Maybe she shouldn’t plan on bussing tables after all.
    “Didn’t expect you back so soon,” said their dad to Max as they pulled away from the house.
    “This scuffle broke out at the park,” said Max mildly.
    He meant the skatepark, near the pier.
    “You were fighting ?” asked their dad.
    “Not me,” said Max. “I had to break it up, sorta.”
    Max was hardly ever on one side or the other. He was the kind of guy who got along with all the groups at school but wasn’t really a part of any of them: the jocks, the geeks, the stoner types. He was kind of a free agent, which was hard to carry off if you also wanted to be popular. But somehow Max did it.
    “What happened?” asked their dad, flicking on his right-turn signal as they reached Route 6.
    “Oh, you know,” said Max, shrugging. “What always happens. Nothing much. Two guys with supersized egos. Name-calling, whatever. It wasn’t too bad, maybe a sprained wrist was all that happened. Anyway, I just wasn’t in the mood after, so I figured I’d cut out. No biggie.”
    Cara glanced back at Jax, who was looking at Max admiringly. Max was a hero of Jax’s but had no idea his little brother worshiped him. In fact, Max thought Jax thought he was stupid. Which made him come down hard on Jax sometimes. Especially lately.
    “That’s cool,” said Jax, trying to sound cool himself.
    Max shrugged again, settled back in his seat and stuck in his buds.
    When they finally got to Woods Hole, Cara was relieved: her dad had taken advantage of the long car ride to deliver a lecture on the Protestant Reformation—mostly to her, since Jax was typing on his smartphoneand Max was listening to London Calling (with the volume cranked up so high that she was practically listening to London Calling too). Her dad tried to spice up the lesson with details about how Martin Luther got married to a nun he smuggled out of her nunnery in a stinky fish barrel, but that part sounded made up and the rest was a bit on the snoozy side.
    They drove through hilly, tree-lined neighborhoods and out into the town, which was arranged around a harborfront, with restaurants and bars built right onto the pilings and a big salt pond set back from the shore in the middle of the ocean institute’s buildings.
    “Let’s do the Aquarium thing first,” said Max when they’d all climbed out of the car and stretched.
    Jax and Cara exchanged looks.
    “There’s no rush on the thumb drive, I guess,” said Jax.
    “How about I’ll go check the office for you, Jax,” said Cara. “I’m better at finding things. You guys can hang with the seals or whatever.”
    Jax nodded. “OK with me.”
    “I’ll let you in, Cara,” said their dad from the driver’s seat. “I’ve got her keys somewhere in here.” And he fiddled with the door to the glove compartment.
    “See you in a few,” said Max, and he and Jax split off toward the Aquarium entrance.
    Cara hadn’t thought it would affect her the way it did, being inside her mother’s office. But as soon as her dad unlocked the door and opened it for her (“Take your time, honey, I’m going to step down the hall and talk to Roger”) she felt overwhelmed. The feeling washed over her that her