Here is a sneak-peak of my story Capturing Alexandra Click the button above to read the rest of the book!
---oOo---
Ten years ago:
"Mommy, can I swim to the surface?"
"Why would you even want to dear? This world is perfect! You have the big green kelp forests, the beautiful reefs, the colorful fish---"
"And you have us!" My father said, holding his hands up in the water like a performer.
"Right," my mother agreed. She swam over to me and placed a hand on my cheek. "But the people up there, they aren't like us."
"But I thought you said never to see the differences in people; That they're just a person waiting to be my friend."
"No honey. These people are bad. You mustn't ever go near to them or speak to them, or even be seen by one. All they do is destroy and kill."
"But---"
"No buts!" My father said angrily. "You will stay down here, because this is where you belong!"
---oOo---
October 10, 2013:
When I awoke, the first thing I did was sit up and stretch. Once I opened my eyes all I saw was pure blue water. It was crystal clear, with an odd scent to it that I didn't recognize. I looked downwards and saw that I was sitting on a sandy floor. That's odd, I thought to myself. When I first fell asleep, I was laying on a rock that was covered by a few inches of water.
Shrugging, I began to swim around. Once I swam into a pale blue wall, I remembered everything that had happened...
I was swimming in the river, after I had taken a nap on a nearby rock. Then the net and the boat--- But the boat read Marine Animal Rescue--- But I was 'too valuable' he said. That I couldn't be released.
I sat in shock as the memory ended. Realizing that I wasn't in my native waters, and in some artificial body of water, I panicked. My tail seemed to have a mind of its own as it propelled me from one blue wall to another, trying to find a way out of the flooded prison.
Once I was so exhausted I couldn't swim another inch, I sank to the bottom of the pool, and landed softly on the fine sand ground. I looked up towards the surface of the water as light from the bright sun overhead shone on my face. I felt a tear escape from my eye and dissolve in the freshwater. I wept, for I had been snatched from my home and forced into a watery box.
The long strands of seaweed resembling a kelp forest swayed around me, as if there were a current in the water, but they were only moving from the waves my tail had created. I gently touched one and realized that the plant was fake. It was made of cloth.
Even the plants aren't real, I thought to myself. Nothing is real here.
The stress I had just endured caused me to begin to drift into a doze. I began to fall into the peaceful abyss of sleep when a sharp pounding sound woke me. Repeatedly, the annoying bang resonated throughout the water. I audibly groaned and sat up to investigate.
I used my sense of hearing to follow the annoying yet strange sound until I hit a wall. Realizing I could see beings on the other side, I peered through. They looked exactly like Merfolk, except they had two fair-colored appendages replacing their tail. I recognized them as humans, the destroyers of nearly all seas and terrains on Earth. They cared only for themselves, and would do anything for what they called money.
I placed a hand on the transparent wall and felt for any weak spots. The material felt thinner than the blue stone, which meant it might be able to be broken easily if I hit it hard enough. I thrust a fist at the wall and repeatedly beat it in an effort to make my escape. To my surprise, after the fourteenth or fifteenth hit, a small crack appeared in the wall. Something that would only happen to porcelain or glass...
Glass... I was in an aquarium.
From just the thought of being trapped in such a horrid place, I began to beat the glass as hard as I possibly could until the small crack widened. It was now circular and about eight inches long in diameter. I bit my lip and continued mauling the wall.
I only stopped to take a break when I saw blue blood trickling out of my knuckles and dissolving into the water. Remembering the fabric seaweed in the pool, I swam around and gathered up a few large leaves from the tall stalks, then carefully wrapped them around my injured hand creating a makeshift bandage.
When I returned to the glass to finish my escape, I discovered a human dressed in a black and white outfit shooing the crowd away from the window. I smiled a bit, now that I could work in silence, then began to hit the glass with my opposite fist. Unfortunately by the time my only good hand was bleeding, the fracture in the wall hadn't grown. I cried out in frustration and left the side of the pool to gather more seaweed leaves to make a bandage. After wrapping my hand, I decided to surface in order to get a good look at my surroundings.
The sound of a few voices greeted me as I raised my head above the water. As I looked around, I saw that the surface of my pool was about a foot below an elevated cement walkway. A three foot tall iron fence separated the walkway from the water, where humans stood and watched me. Turning around, I saw that I was swimming in the east side of the pool, which was circular and about one-hundred feet in diameter with the elevated viewing platform bordering the entire pool.
Diving back down underwater, I saw that there were three glass windows total. One on the east side of the pool I was swimming in, one on the west side, and one on the north side, each large enough for a small crowd of humans to stand at. The viewing areas were located about twenty feet underwater, and sat a few feet above the sandy ground of the thirty-foot-deep pool.
I turned around and looked at the large crack I had made in the east window. Somehow, the nearly-shattered glass reminded me of a poem my parents used to recite to me before I went to bed.
Be at peace, tempest-tossed seas of soul.
Give me rest, from doubt and fear.
Sun find my face,
Light, find my heart,
Song, find my story.
Be at peace.
For life is finite, and these storms have raged too long.
Even winter must surrender to spring.
Somehow, reciting that poem made me feel like a heavy weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I relaxed. Looking back at the the window, I gently placed a hand on the ruptured glass. Guilt filled my body. It's not their fault, I thought to myself as I watched humans walking by my pool. It's mine. They're only trying to make a living for their families.
Out of boredom, I surfaced and rested against the side of the pool as the humans walked near the elevated platform, but never on it. Why aren't they coming over? I thought to myself. When I first woke up here, there were crowds of people around the tank. After pacing for a few moments, I had an idea as to why this area of the aquarium was deserted.
In order to test my theory, I swam underwater to the nearly-broken east viewing window and peered through the glass. A line of yellow tape hung a few feet away from the side of the pool between two posts. The aquarium staff had closed my exhibit. "So that's why it's so deserted," I said to myself.
Since there was nothing else to do, I sunk to the bottom of the pool and plucked many leaves from nearby strands of kelp. Weaving them together in a messy fashion I was able to make a small mat to sleep on. Since my previous nap was interrupted by small humans, I laid the mat down on the sand and rested my body atop it. Not bad, Alex. This is actually pretty comfortable. I thought to myself as I pulled my tail to my chest. The peaceful abyss of sleep welcomed me soon after I closed my eyes.
---oOo---
I was awoken by a loud announcement over what I assumed were speakers throughout the entire aquarium. "Do you love the ocean? Support ocean conservation by purchasing a separate ticket to visit Mermaid Lagoon, where you can view a live mermaid! The exhibit is now open, so stop down and say hi!"
But I thought the exhibit was closed because of what I did to the east window? I thought to myself. Quickly rising and swimming over to the viewing area, I went to see if the crack was still there. Once I arrived, my heart sunk. No longer was there a large fracture in the glass. The staff had repaired it while I was asleep. My one chance at escape was gone.
Humans now flocked in a large crowd at the window, probably four or five people deep. Flashes that looked as if they were lightning blinded me as I hovered in the water near the glass. I shielded my face with a hand and swam in the opposite direction. Swimming near the north window, I was curious to see if there were humans standing at the glass, since there was silence in the pool. But as typical humans do, the humans created more shouting sounds and flashing as soon as I came into view.
I lowered the fins behind my ears and bared my fangs to show the humans that I was mad and swam away. For some reason, I already knew the west window was crowded with people and I didn't bother to check it. I guess my exhibit is open, I thought to myself.
I heard a splash resonate throughout the water, then shouting and commotion above it. Whipping around, I was surprised to see that a human had fallen into the pool. I knew that humans couldn't breathe underwater, so I swam quickly over to the young female. Before her body hit the sandy ground, I grabbed her by both shoulders and breathed into her mouth, hoping to provide her with some oxygen in order to sustain the poor girl until I got her to the surface.
I held her close to my chest as I quickly swam towards the surface. Once my head emerged above the water, I saw a woman standing behind the iron fence holding a chair with wheels. Looking down at the girl, I saw that she was missing one of her two appendages. Putting two and two together, I swam swiftly to the side of the pool and handed the shaking girl to her parent. She breathed a sigh of relief and helped her to sit down in the odd chair. The woman turned towards me after caring for her daughter. "Thank you," she said. "You saved her life."
I smiled a bit in response, and slowly dove underwater, my pale red, white and gold tail breaking the surface for a moment before silently disappearing below it. Sitting down on the sandy bottom of the thirty-foot-deep pool, I waited impatiently for the silence that once shrouded it to reappear.
The commotion continued its chaotic sound above the water even after the ten minutes I remaind underwater. Normally that would've been enough to deter the humans away from the exhibit, but these ones were stubborn. I surfaced out of curiosity to see what was going on.
When my head broke the glassy water, I saw that a grouo of children were at the barrier of my pool. They looked normal, until I realized that each one of them was sitting in one of the same odd chairs as the girl with the missing leg had. I recognized one of the children was the same child who had fallen into the pool just minutes earlier since her hair was still slightly wet. For some reason, I felt a pain in my heart for her. Poor girl, I thought. She must've gone through so much.
I began to swim over to the group of children when I remmebered the ancient law that protected Merfolk. We were forbidden to have contact with humans. I shook my head slightly, as if trying to remove the thought from my mind. That's gonna have to wait, I thought to myself. If I want to get out of here, then I need to do whatever I can to raise my chances.
When I reached the wall of the pool, I dove underwater and did a front flip. I remained under the surface afterwards and looked up through the slightly wavy water at the girl. She turned towards her mother. "Look at her tail mommy!" I saw the mother nod. "She's so pretty. I wish I could be a mermaid like her."
I placed my webbed fingers at the bridge of my nose and sighed slowly, a few bubbles escaping my lips. It was these same kinds of people, the ones who loved us so much, that put our race in danger of extinction. I opened my eyes and looked up when I felt a slight vibration in the water. I saw that the young girl had reached her hand through the iron fence and placed it above the water, as if she were waiting for me to do the same.
Intrigued, I reached my hand through the surface of the water and placed mine on hers. I heard the girl laugh slightly, then pull her hand back through the barrier. As if it were a signal for me to introduce myself, I surfaced and looked at the girl, whose mother was standing behind her.
"Hi. I'm Evelyn, what's your name?" I couldn't stop the expression of shock spread across my face as I didn't know how to respond. The children around her eagerly waited, impatient for me to reply.
"Evelyn honey, I don't think she is going to talk," Evelyn's mother said sympathetically. "Who knows, she might not even speak like us," her mother said sympathetically. For some reason I felt guilty. Of course I spoke English, I just didn't want to, but something inside of me kept pushing for me to reply.
"Alexandra," I said tentatively. The children around the girl smiled and clapped their hands in excitement. The fins behind my ears lowered shyly as I sunk down into the water. I wasn't used to this much attention.
"Wait! Don't go!" Evelyn said once she noticed me trying to leave. I raised my head out of the water and looked up at her. "I like your tail," she told me, pointing to the large fin on the lower half of my body. "Red is my favorite color."
I nodded as if to say it was mine too. "Where did you come from?" Evelyn asked slowly. "Did you swim into the fish tank?" There was a mental battle between the truth I wanted to hide and the lies I wanted to tell. After a few moments, I decided to tell her the truth in an effort to get out of the horrid place.
"I used to live in the ocean. I fell asleep on a rock near the shore. It was early morning, so I thought that I would be safe from the eyes of humans, as no one was awake yet, but I slept for too long. I awoke to the feeling of a net being thrown over me. I panicked and tried to escape, but it was no use.
The humans hauled me into the back of a truck and held me down as they drove me here. I flailed around, trying to get the people off of me, but I couldn't. They threw me into this tank and I've been here for a few hours now," I said, finishing the tale of horror I was forced to re-live.
"Why did they do that to you?" Evelyn asked.
I shook my head slowly. "Truthfully, I don't know. Maybe it was money, or maybe it was love... I...I don't know," I said slowly, as tears began to escape my eyes.
"Hey, hey... It's okay," Evelyn's mother said gently, reaching her hand through the iron fence to hold mine. "We'll get you home. I promise."
"You'd really do that for me miss?" I asked, sniffling slightly.
Evelyn's mother nodded. "I would. I've always been against these aquariums. At least now I can make one small difference, and please, call me Jackie," she replied. I let go of her hand and nodded, smiling a bit.
"No one has ever been so nice to me since you two, even back home. You're great people," I said to the mother and daughter. Jackie smiled and nodded as Evelyn leaned forwards and reached her hand through the bars of the fence.
"Can I touch your tail?" She asked as she leaned forwards in her wheel chair. I nodded and raised my large fin from the water. She cautiously reached down and felt my fluke before she withdrew her hand and set it back on the armrest of the chair.
"Look, you can pet the mermaid!" I felt my stomach drop as the children near Evelyn realized that she got to touch my tail. One of them, a little boy noticed me talking to my new friends, and pointed at me, yelling like I had suddenly become a mindless creature at a petting zoo.
I looked over panicked at Jackie and she frowned. I looked back at the group of children to see that even people standing at the glass windows of my pool were now swiftly making their way up to the top of the pool where I was now.
As people began to grab my tail I dove underwater and sulked at the bottom of the tank. The commotion above resumed as people took pictures of me through the water. The usual crowd of people formed at the glass windows as they realized I was now underwater. A sharp pounding sound echoed throughout the pool and I looked up.
At the east window, Jackie and Evelyn stood amid the large crowd. I swam over panicked and mouthed the words 'help me'. Jackie nodded, then helped Evelyn leave the crowd. I could only watch as my last bit of hope walked away from me and out the exit for the park.
---oOo---
---oOo---
Ten years ago:
"Mommy, can I swim to the surface?"
"Why would you even want to dear? This world is perfect! You have the big green kelp forests, the beautiful reefs, the colorful fish---"
"And you have us!" My father said, holding his hands up in the water like a performer.
"Right," my mother agreed. She swam over to me and placed a hand on my cheek. "But the people up there, they aren't like us."
"But I thought you said never to see the differences in people; That they're just a person waiting to be my friend."
"No honey. These people are bad. You mustn't ever go near to them or speak to them, or even be seen by one. All they do is destroy and kill."
"But---"
"No buts!" My father said angrily. "You will stay down here, because this is where you belong!"
---oOo---
October 10, 2013:
When I awoke, the first thing I did was sit up and stretch. Once I opened my eyes all I saw was pure blue water. It was crystal clear, with an odd scent to it that I didn't recognize. I looked downwards and saw that I was sitting on a sandy floor. That's odd, I thought to myself. When I first fell asleep, I was laying on a rock that was covered by a few inches of water.
Shrugging, I began to swim around. Once I swam into a pale blue wall, I remembered everything that had happened...
I was swimming in the river, after I had taken a nap on a nearby rock. Then the net and the boat--- But the boat read Marine Animal Rescue--- But I was 'too valuable' he said. That I couldn't be released.
I sat in shock as the memory ended. Realizing that I wasn't in my native waters, and in some artificial body of water, I panicked. My tail seemed to have a mind of its own as it propelled me from one blue wall to another, trying to find a way out of the flooded prison.
Once I was so exhausted I couldn't swim another inch, I sank to the bottom of the pool, and landed softly on the fine sand ground. I looked up towards the surface of the water as light from the bright sun overhead shone on my face. I felt a tear escape from my eye and dissolve in the freshwater. I wept, for I had been snatched from my home and forced into a watery box.
The long strands of seaweed resembling a kelp forest swayed around me, as if there were a current in the water, but they were only moving from the waves my tail had created. I gently touched one and realized that the plant was fake. It was made of cloth.
Even the plants aren't real, I thought to myself. Nothing is real here.
The stress I had just endured caused me to begin to drift into a doze. I began to fall into the peaceful abyss of sleep when a sharp pounding sound woke me. Repeatedly, the annoying bang resonated throughout the water. I audibly groaned and sat up to investigate.
I used my sense of hearing to follow the annoying yet strange sound until I hit a wall. Realizing I could see beings on the other side, I peered through. They looked exactly like Merfolk, except they had two fair-colored appendages replacing their tail. I recognized them as humans, the destroyers of nearly all seas and terrains on Earth. They cared only for themselves, and would do anything for what they called money.
I placed a hand on the transparent wall and felt for any weak spots. The material felt thinner than the blue stone, which meant it might be able to be broken easily if I hit it hard enough. I thrust a fist at the wall and repeatedly beat it in an effort to make my escape. To my surprise, after the fourteenth or fifteenth hit, a small crack appeared in the wall. Something that would only happen to porcelain or glass...
Glass... I was in an aquarium.
From just the thought of being trapped in such a horrid place, I began to beat the glass as hard as I possibly could until the small crack widened. It was now circular and about eight inches long in diameter. I bit my lip and continued mauling the wall.
I only stopped to take a break when I saw blue blood trickling out of my knuckles and dissolving into the water. Remembering the fabric seaweed in the pool, I swam around and gathered up a few large leaves from the tall stalks, then carefully wrapped them around my injured hand creating a makeshift bandage.
When I returned to the glass to finish my escape, I discovered a human dressed in a black and white outfit shooing the crowd away from the window. I smiled a bit, now that I could work in silence, then began to hit the glass with my opposite fist. Unfortunately by the time my only good hand was bleeding, the fracture in the wall hadn't grown. I cried out in frustration and left the side of the pool to gather more seaweed leaves to make a bandage. After wrapping my hand, I decided to surface in order to get a good look at my surroundings.
The sound of a few voices greeted me as I raised my head above the water. As I looked around, I saw that the surface of my pool was about a foot below an elevated cement walkway. A three foot tall iron fence separated the walkway from the water, where humans stood and watched me. Turning around, I saw that I was swimming in the east side of the pool, which was circular and about one-hundred feet in diameter with the elevated viewing platform bordering the entire pool.
Diving back down underwater, I saw that there were three glass windows total. One on the east side of the pool I was swimming in, one on the west side, and one on the north side, each large enough for a small crowd of humans to stand at. The viewing areas were located about twenty feet underwater, and sat a few feet above the sandy ground of the thirty-foot-deep pool.
I turned around and looked at the large crack I had made in the east window. Somehow, the nearly-shattered glass reminded me of a poem my parents used to recite to me before I went to bed.
Be at peace, tempest-tossed seas of soul.
Give me rest, from doubt and fear.
Sun find my face,
Light, find my heart,
Song, find my story.
Be at peace.
For life is finite, and these storms have raged too long.
Even winter must surrender to spring.
Somehow, reciting that poem made me feel like a heavy weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I relaxed. Looking back at the the window, I gently placed a hand on the ruptured glass. Guilt filled my body. It's not their fault, I thought to myself as I watched humans walking by my pool. It's mine. They're only trying to make a living for their families.
Out of boredom, I surfaced and rested against the side of the pool as the humans walked near the elevated platform, but never on it. Why aren't they coming over? I thought to myself. When I first woke up here, there were crowds of people around the tank. After pacing for a few moments, I had an idea as to why this area of the aquarium was deserted.
In order to test my theory, I swam underwater to the nearly-broken east viewing window and peered through the glass. A line of yellow tape hung a few feet away from the side of the pool between two posts. The aquarium staff had closed my exhibit. "So that's why it's so deserted," I said to myself.
Since there was nothing else to do, I sunk to the bottom of the pool and plucked many leaves from nearby strands of kelp. Weaving them together in a messy fashion I was able to make a small mat to sleep on. Since my previous nap was interrupted by small humans, I laid the mat down on the sand and rested my body atop it. Not bad, Alex. This is actually pretty comfortable. I thought to myself as I pulled my tail to my chest. The peaceful abyss of sleep welcomed me soon after I closed my eyes.
---oOo---
I was awoken by a loud announcement over what I assumed were speakers throughout the entire aquarium. "Do you love the ocean? Support ocean conservation by purchasing a separate ticket to visit Mermaid Lagoon, where you can view a live mermaid! The exhibit is now open, so stop down and say hi!"
But I thought the exhibit was closed because of what I did to the east window? I thought to myself. Quickly rising and swimming over to the viewing area, I went to see if the crack was still there. Once I arrived, my heart sunk. No longer was there a large fracture in the glass. The staff had repaired it while I was asleep. My one chance at escape was gone.
Humans now flocked in a large crowd at the window, probably four or five people deep. Flashes that looked as if they were lightning blinded me as I hovered in the water near the glass. I shielded my face with a hand and swam in the opposite direction. Swimming near the north window, I was curious to see if there were humans standing at the glass, since there was silence in the pool. But as typical humans do, the humans created more shouting sounds and flashing as soon as I came into view.
I lowered the fins behind my ears and bared my fangs to show the humans that I was mad and swam away. For some reason, I already knew the west window was crowded with people and I didn't bother to check it. I guess my exhibit is open, I thought to myself.
I heard a splash resonate throughout the water, then shouting and commotion above it. Whipping around, I was surprised to see that a human had fallen into the pool. I knew that humans couldn't breathe underwater, so I swam quickly over to the young female. Before her body hit the sandy ground, I grabbed her by both shoulders and breathed into her mouth, hoping to provide her with some oxygen in order to sustain the poor girl until I got her to the surface.
I held her close to my chest as I quickly swam towards the surface. Once my head emerged above the water, I saw a woman standing behind the iron fence holding a chair with wheels. Looking down at the girl, I saw that she was missing one of her two appendages. Putting two and two together, I swam swiftly to the side of the pool and handed the shaking girl to her parent. She breathed a sigh of relief and helped her to sit down in the odd chair. The woman turned towards me after caring for her daughter. "Thank you," she said. "You saved her life."
I smiled a bit in response, and slowly dove underwater, my pale red, white and gold tail breaking the surface for a moment before silently disappearing below it. Sitting down on the sandy bottom of the thirty-foot-deep pool, I waited impatiently for the silence that once shrouded it to reappear.
The commotion continued its chaotic sound above the water even after the ten minutes I remaind underwater. Normally that would've been enough to deter the humans away from the exhibit, but these ones were stubborn. I surfaced out of curiosity to see what was going on.
When my head broke the glassy water, I saw that a grouo of children were at the barrier of my pool. They looked normal, until I realized that each one of them was sitting in one of the same odd chairs as the girl with the missing leg had. I recognized one of the children was the same child who had fallen into the pool just minutes earlier since her hair was still slightly wet. For some reason, I felt a pain in my heart for her. Poor girl, I thought. She must've gone through so much.
I began to swim over to the group of children when I remmebered the ancient law that protected Merfolk. We were forbidden to have contact with humans. I shook my head slightly, as if trying to remove the thought from my mind. That's gonna have to wait, I thought to myself. If I want to get out of here, then I need to do whatever I can to raise my chances.
When I reached the wall of the pool, I dove underwater and did a front flip. I remained under the surface afterwards and looked up through the slightly wavy water at the girl. She turned towards her mother. "Look at her tail mommy!" I saw the mother nod. "She's so pretty. I wish I could be a mermaid like her."
I placed my webbed fingers at the bridge of my nose and sighed slowly, a few bubbles escaping my lips. It was these same kinds of people, the ones who loved us so much, that put our race in danger of extinction. I opened my eyes and looked up when I felt a slight vibration in the water. I saw that the young girl had reached her hand through the iron fence and placed it above the water, as if she were waiting for me to do the same.
Intrigued, I reached my hand through the surface of the water and placed mine on hers. I heard the girl laugh slightly, then pull her hand back through the barrier. As if it were a signal for me to introduce myself, I surfaced and looked at the girl, whose mother was standing behind her.
"Hi. I'm Evelyn, what's your name?" I couldn't stop the expression of shock spread across my face as I didn't know how to respond. The children around her eagerly waited, impatient for me to reply.
"Evelyn honey, I don't think she is going to talk," Evelyn's mother said sympathetically. "Who knows, she might not even speak like us," her mother said sympathetically. For some reason I felt guilty. Of course I spoke English, I just didn't want to, but something inside of me kept pushing for me to reply.
"Alexandra," I said tentatively. The children around the girl smiled and clapped their hands in excitement. The fins behind my ears lowered shyly as I sunk down into the water. I wasn't used to this much attention.
"Wait! Don't go!" Evelyn said once she noticed me trying to leave. I raised my head out of the water and looked up at her. "I like your tail," she told me, pointing to the large fin on the lower half of my body. "Red is my favorite color."
I nodded as if to say it was mine too. "Where did you come from?" Evelyn asked slowly. "Did you swim into the fish tank?" There was a mental battle between the truth I wanted to hide and the lies I wanted to tell. After a few moments, I decided to tell her the truth in an effort to get out of the horrid place.
"I used to live in the ocean. I fell asleep on a rock near the shore. It was early morning, so I thought that I would be safe from the eyes of humans, as no one was awake yet, but I slept for too long. I awoke to the feeling of a net being thrown over me. I panicked and tried to escape, but it was no use.
The humans hauled me into the back of a truck and held me down as they drove me here. I flailed around, trying to get the people off of me, but I couldn't. They threw me into this tank and I've been here for a few hours now," I said, finishing the tale of horror I was forced to re-live.
"Why did they do that to you?" Evelyn asked.
I shook my head slowly. "Truthfully, I don't know. Maybe it was money, or maybe it was love... I...I don't know," I said slowly, as tears began to escape my eyes.
"Hey, hey... It's okay," Evelyn's mother said gently, reaching her hand through the iron fence to hold mine. "We'll get you home. I promise."
"You'd really do that for me miss?" I asked, sniffling slightly.
Evelyn's mother nodded. "I would. I've always been against these aquariums. At least now I can make one small difference, and please, call me Jackie," she replied. I let go of her hand and nodded, smiling a bit.
"No one has ever been so nice to me since you two, even back home. You're great people," I said to the mother and daughter. Jackie smiled and nodded as Evelyn leaned forwards and reached her hand through the bars of the fence.
"Can I touch your tail?" She asked as she leaned forwards in her wheel chair. I nodded and raised my large fin from the water. She cautiously reached down and felt my fluke before she withdrew her hand and set it back on the armrest of the chair.
"Look, you can pet the mermaid!" I felt my stomach drop as the children near Evelyn realized that she got to touch my tail. One of them, a little boy noticed me talking to my new friends, and pointed at me, yelling like I had suddenly become a mindless creature at a petting zoo.
I looked over panicked at Jackie and she frowned. I looked back at the group of children to see that even people standing at the glass windows of my pool were now swiftly making their way up to the top of the pool where I was now.
As people began to grab my tail I dove underwater and sulked at the bottom of the tank. The commotion above resumed as people took pictures of me through the water. The usual crowd of people formed at the glass windows as they realized I was now underwater. A sharp pounding sound echoed throughout the pool and I looked up.
At the east window, Jackie and Evelyn stood amid the large crowd. I swam over panicked and mouthed the words 'help me'. Jackie nodded, then helped Evelyn leave the crowd. I could only watch as my last bit of hope walked away from me and out the exit for the park.
---oOo---