A Song Below Water

At home, the show Lexi on a Leash is on. Lexi, a siren, willingly wears a dampening collar designed by law enforcement. Though Tavia is disgusted by the show, her father Rodney likes it. Rodney asks about the girls’ time at the Renaissance Faire, teasing Effie like she’s his daughter. Tavia thinks, “What I wouldn’t give for dry skin and a pit­i­ful past that makes fa­thers reach out in­stead of hold­ing me at arm’s length” (42). Effie and Rodney talk and laugh easily.

Feeling jealous, Tavia hurries upstairs and reaches for her grandmother. She cries, wishing aloud that she had a normal voice. A blue, underwater feeling surrounds her. Tavia doesn’t want to be estranged from her father, or for him to love Effie more. She considers wearing a dampening collar like Lexi, if this will make people like her father love and trust her.

Tavia goes for a walk, recalling fond times with her ex-boyfriend Priam. Sometimes, she wanted to use the siren song Appeal on him:

If Com­pel bends some­one to a si­ren’s will, Ap­peal bends the si­ren to some­one else’s. [...] It’s the call a si­ren uses to en­dear some­one to her. [...] Basical­ly, it makes the si­ren at­trac­tive to the sub­ject, what­ev­er that means in the mo­ment.