Lovesick Little

by Leslie Phelan

  “Well before anyone suggests it, we are NOT calling her Dagmara!” said Ava defensively, with a look on her face that said she was ready to scrap with anyone who’d disagree.

  “Ava, relax. No one wants to call her Dagmara. We just think she bears a striking resemblance, that’s all,” said Lucia.

  “Well she sure looks comfy in her clothes!” Ava shot back.

  Lucia smiled patiently at her combative daughter. “She showed up wearing nothing, Ava. And since Dagmara doesn’t need it these days-“

  “You know I hate when you say things like that!” barked Ava angrily.

  “I’m sorry, you’re right,” said her mother apologetically. “I’m just saying that the Dagmara we knew would have wanted us to share her things with someone who had nothing.”

  “And it’s not like we’d dare ask YOU to share with the downand-out,” said Gabriel under his breath. Ava sneered at him.

  “Yeah, that’s the part I’m having trouble with,” she said. Why is everyone so quick to believe she’s actually ‘down and out’? How do we know she’s not lying to us, when she says absolutely nothing at all? Am I seriously the only one here that thinks this whole situation is messed up? I don’t even mess with Dagmara’s stuff and I’m her sister!”

  “Dagmara really wouldn’t have minded, Ava,” said Demetra knowingly and affectionately.

  Ava’s face reddened with fury. “What the hell do you know?” she asked, rebuking her harshly. “You weren’t even old enough to have had a conversation with her! Don’t presume to know my sister, since you were still in diapers when she disappeared!”

  Tears welled up in Demetra’s eyes while her only remaining sister berated her. She had a high threshold for other people’s nonsense, but this actually hurt her feelings. “Well she was my sister too and I miss her as much as any of you do!” she said in protest, standing up and sprinting away from the table and down to the beach.

  The whole family shot Ava a disapproving look. “Happy now?” asked Gabriel as he got up to go after Demetra. “You know, it’s interesting how you’d rather protect our lost sister’s old clothes than our baby sister’s feelings.” Then he ran down the steps and chased her down the beach. The tides were high and he didn’t like the idea of her walking out there alone.

  Ava sunk lower in her seat and crossed her arms across her chest, mad at herself for having said such things and even madder still that she was far too stubborn to admit it.

  “Well I think this is as good a time as any to conclude this meeting,” said Lucia, getting up and collecting the last glasses from the table. “Are we happy to just go with Ariel, then?” she asked the little stranger. “Do you like it?”

  The little mermaid nodded Yes. Yes, she certainly did.

  “Conjures up images of ‘front-side ten-eighty inverted aerials,” said Cliff enthusiastically. “Are we going to spell it the same way?”

  “Hmmm, perhaps a slight alteration,” said Lucia. “Arielle, maybe?”

  The little mermaid nodded, satisfied with what the family had come up with for her.

  “Arielle sounds nice,” said Ava softly, watching as her brother and little sister walked away down the moonlit beach.

  “Well, Arielle, I’m sure you’re dying for a warm bath after the day you’ve had!” said Lucia. “Let me show you to the bathroom so you can get all washed up before bed.”

  Arielle stood up and curtsied to the table before stepping away. She gave Ava a warm smile, after having gotten just the briefest glimpse of her softer side. She nodded a sweet goodnight to Cliff, glanced out to the beach at Gabriel, and then followed Lucia into the house.

  Upstairs, the halls were wide and inviting, and the wind chime that hung in the open window at the south end played melodiously upon the night breeze, drawing her towards a doorway spilling dim flickering light into the hallway. “This is my favorite room in the house,” said Lucia as they walked into the big, airy bathroom. The tiles and the marble countertops were an earthy pink coral; the walls, sinks and tub were a perfect pearly white. “It’s where I come to be alone,” she said as she turned the faucet to make warm water pour out. She reached for her frangipani bubble bath and poured it into the running water, making tufts of bubbles spread out across the surface until the whole bath was covered with the white, spongy froth. Arielle poked her fingers into the floral-scented foam then brought it to her lips to taste it. Lucia giggled as the strange girl made a face and spit the bubbles back into the tub. “If only everything tasted as good as it smelled,” she rued.

  When the tub was filled almost to the brim, the newly-dubbed Arielle watched with amazement at how Lucia could stop the water from pouring out by just simply turning the tap. A miniature sea on demand it was, and from it, lovely, sweet-smelling steam rose. She had never seen a little pool look so warm and inviting. “Alright darling, go ahead and jump in. I’m just down the hall if you need anything,” said Lucia as she pulled two fresh white towels out of the closet and set them down by the sink. Then she walked out, pulled the door closed behind her, and Arielle was left by herself for the first time since she regained consciousness in the family’s living room that morning.

  Arielle dipped her hand in; she had never felt water this hot before, and its warmth put goose bumps all over her body. Without taking her eyes off the steaming bath, she stepped out of her sundress and kicked her flip-flops off to the side, leaving her in her bra and panties. Sitting down on the ledge, she wiggled out of her bra and then trickled a bit of the sweet water onto her thighs and watched as her white skin gave way to the pearly blue scales she was used to seeing her whole life before this day. She picked up her right foot and massaged it, wincing as her hands moved over the tips of her toes, whose bottoms were covered in dried blood from her earlier exertions during Arabella’s song. While she was dancing, the enjoyment she felt upon her graceful new feet coupled with the sheer adrenaline of performing in front of all those people helped to numb the pain but now that she was alone, she could no longer ignore their aching. She braced herself on the ledge of the tub and swung both feet around until all ten toes were hovering an inch above the water, wiggling blissfully in the steam. She dipped them in and watched as the dark blue tips of her tail fin pushed out from under her toenails and spread open into the bathwater. The pain that had burdened her all day began to quickly dissipate as the soft white skin of her ankles tightened up into rows of shiny, round scales, spreading all the way up to her thighs and when they finally reached her hips, the panties she wore stretched and ripped off her body as soon as there ceased to be any space along the middle of her lower half. Propping herself up on her arms, she slowly dipped her entire lower half into the warm tub and let her dry tail saturate with the scented water. The transformation from girl to mermaid washed over her body like a blanket of soothing relief, and her day’s suffering lifted out of her like a woman’s feet freed from shoes that have looked lovely all day but are two sizes too small.

  She slunk herself low until she was lying in the water, letting the warmth flow into her ears and nostrils, sending shivers up her spine. She opened her eyes but they stung in the bubble bath so she kept them closed underwater, enjoying the feeling of her slippery tail sliding around across the smooth tub that cradled her. Suddenly, she heard a knock at the door and sat up panicking, frantically hiding her tail under the bubbles.

  “Arielle, I just remembered the shampoo in there is empty, so I’m coming in with a fresh bottle, okay?” Lucia came in with the shampoo and Arielle sat perfectly still, careful not to disturb the water and reveal her deep blue tail. “It’s from this handmade soap shop the girls and I love, have you ever tried it?” From the puzzled look on Arielle’s face, it was clear to Lucia that the girl had no idea what it was she was holding. “Shall I wash your hair for you?” she offered.

  Before Arielle was able to come up with a way to politely decline, Lucia took a seat in the chair behind the tub and began to lather up her long strands. Anxiously but inconspicuo
usly, Arielle arranged the bubbles so they covered the whole surface of the water evenly.

  “You have so many knots and tangles in here,” she said as she ran her fingers across Arielle’s scalp with the gentle finesse of a mother who had raised three long-haired daughters. “I had superlong hair in college, but your locks look like they’ve never been cut before!” Lucia reached her hands under Arielle’s head and behind her neck, and felt something hard tied into her thick locks. She squeezed some conditioner into her hands and untangled the hair around it until she pulled out a silver key that was etched in an intricate design. “What’s this key for?” Lucia asked curiously.

  Arielle remembered the day she braided it into her hair; it was the day after a big storm that had moved mountains of sand around, uncovering an 18th-century shipwreck that had been buried since it went down. She had found the key dangling from a silver chain around the neck of a skeleton whose clothing had long since rotted off. Beside him sat a big wooden trunk filled with gold coins and rubies but she liked the pretty little key the best so it was the only thing she had taken with her that day.

  In response to Lucia’s query, Arielle just shrugged. She learned quickly that shrugs often go unchallenged, not that she could give her any more information if she wanted to.

  Lucia continued to wash Arielle’s hair, running her fingers through and finding all sorts of random treasures tied in. After pulling out a caviar spoon, a few soda can tabs and a wing nut, she found a harmonica that looked strangely familiar.

  “Dear, where did you get this?” she asked in amazement as she untangled it too from her locks. “This was my father’s; he gave it to Gabriel.” Upon inspecting it closer, she saw that it surely enough had her father’s initials engraved into the mouthpiece. Arielle froze; she remembered the night she crawled across the sand to scoop it up after he dropped it from the balcony. But they couldn’t know that! So she just sat perfectly still and waited for Lucia to change the subject. “Well, anyway, he’ll be grateful you found it for him!”

  By the time Lucia was done combing out Arielle’s head full of small treasures, she had a table’s worth of artifacts. Once all the pearls, knots, weeds and braids were combed out, she could see that the hair was longer than the girl was tall. After combing lots more conditioner through it, she used a water jug to rinse the sugary-smelling lather from her hair. Arielle had never felt anything so luxurious. To her, it felt like heaven, and it would have been only slightly more enjoyable if she didn’t have to worry about keeping her tail hidden under the bubbles the whole time.

  “Alright, all clean,” said Lucia, standing up. “I left a fresh toothbrush by the sink for you and when you’re done in here, you can sleep in the blue room tonight, through this door,” she said, motioning to the room off the bathroom. “Tomorrow we can see about finding your family for you; they must be worried sick! Good night, dear.”

  The little mermaid sat still in the tub, graciously smiling, waiting for Lucia to close the door so that she could spread out comfortably again. Once the door was shut and Lucia’s footsteps were all the way down the hall, she breathed a big sigh of relief and allowed her fins to dangle once again over the edge of the tub. Once back in her space of solace, she began to think seriously about her family, and the consequences of her decision. She thought about the worried face her grandmother would be wearing, and how her father would be harshly blaming himself for her disappearance. She felt very badly but her decision was made in the name of true love, and she was determined to have it. She only wished it didn’t have to come at such high costs.

  When her warm bathwater had cooled to lukewarm, she quietly lifted her body out of the tub and sat herself down on the bath mat, allowing the fluffy shag to soak up some of the water on her tail. Quickly and quietly, she used the towels to pat her tail dry until her blue scales evaporated to reveal soft, white legs again. Standing beside the tub, she let the water drain and went to the room she would be spending the night in.

  When she stepped inside, she was amazed to see that she was surrounded by mermaid things! There was a mermaid lamp, seashell decorations everywhere and the shelves were lined with books on mermaid sightings and folklore. Surrounded by things that reminded her of home, she switched off the lamp and put herself to bed, happy to know that the girl who had lived in the room before her must have loved her without ever knowing her, just the way she loved the world of the humans before ever seeing it for herself.

  She woke up a few hours later in the middle of the night. Everything was quiet but for the crickets and the crashing waves. Being alone in the dark made her feel deeply homesick and she began to long very much for the company of her sisters so she could tell them all about her day with Gabriel. Feeling lonely, she got up and gently opened the big wooden door to peek out into the hallway and see if anyone else was awake. All of the bedroom doors were closed, and the whole house appeared to be fast asleep. Quietly, she tiptoed down the long hallway barefoot and, without making a sound, pressed her ear to Gabriel’s door. She could hear him breathing, and smell the sweet scent of him wafting out from under his door. She didn’t dare open it, but sat down on the floor and leaned her cheek against it, settling at the door, happy to be as close to him as she possibly could be without disturbing the quiet. After only a few minutes of imagining where his dreams were taking him that night, she fell fast asleep right there in his doorway.

  Arielle awoke to a sliver of bright morning sun burning a hole into her eyelid. Her cheek was on the floor and the light hit her from the gap between Gabriel’s door and the hardwood floor. Sleepily, she stood up and began to tiptoe back to her bed but as she approached Ava’s door, she began to smell something funny in the air. As she crept closer, she noticed little swirls of smoke coming out the open door and as she went to peek in, Ava, sitting by her window, turned to the door with her keen ears perked. Arielle froze in her steps.

  Ava exhaled deeply and smoke billowed out of her mouth and nose. “Come in, come in my child. We mustn’t lurk in doorways; it’s rude.” She spun around to face her and Arielle noticed she was sitting in a strange chair that had big wheels on it where its legs should be. Shyly, Arielle took a few steps into Ava’s big red room and curtsied for her. Ava laughed wickedly.

  “I don’t know where you come from, but no one here curtsies anymore. I think that custom was actually abolished along with slavery.” Arielle looked around in bewilderment at Ava’s beautiful room with the crimson walls and the ivory and gold window frames. As the breeze came in, it ruffled her long, white linen drapes and with the early morning sun pouring through them, they looked like the sails of a grand ship against a red sky. Ava inhaled again off the joint she was smoking and wheeled herself forward to pass it to Arielle. Not wanting to be rude, Arielle put her lips to it as Ava had and breathed in. The smoke tickled her throat and at once she began to cough.

  Gabriel’s dark sister giggled as she took her joint back and put it out in the armrest ashtray of her vintage wheelchair. When Arielle was finally done coughing and hacking up the last bit of smoke from her lungs, a little sneeze came out of her nostrils. Her head felt dizzy.

  “Haha just as I suspected . . . baby lungs!” laughed Ava. “You’re like what, fifteen?” Arielle, now feeling somewhat high and playing with the wheels of the chair by rolling it forward and back, was amazed by how the wheels could turn but the chair stayed upright and parallel with the ground.

  “Okay, okay; enough already, this thing is an antique!” Ava ran her fingers along the soft leather armrest. “People keep telling me it’s bad luck to roll around in a wheelchair. They say I’ll probably break a leg or something, like I’m tempting fate. I say phooey! It’s all voodoo and horse shit. Bad luck? Seriously? People who believe in that stuff are all so dense and preoccupied with superstition that they can’t even see the bright side, which is, if and when I ever do end up breaking a leg, I’d already have this pimp roller-chair worked in nicely, and I’ll already be very skilled at driving it! Plu
s, it was my grandpa’s. It still smells like him.”

  Ava looked Arielle up and down from her chair. She decided that while she’d concede that the squatter standing before her was pretty, there was something strange about her that seemed odd and otherworldly. Ava would have sooner shaved her own head than admit out loud that Arielle looked anything like her beloved lost sister, but from some angles, there were undeniable similarities - the fact of which made her uneasy. She spun around in her wheelchair and faced her vanity mirror, away from Arielle but holding her face in its reflection over her shoulder. She took the half- joint that sat in her ashtray and re-lit it, taking a deep inhale to stoke it, then releasing a long, slow exhale. “Run along now, Arielle; I’m sure you’ve got a thousand more firsts to experience today.” Arielle, sensing she was no longer welcome in Ava’s room, left promptly to go back to her own room to wait for Gabriel to wake up.

  Two hours passed and still she lay awake, waiting with bated breath to hear Gabriel’s door open. Alas, she heard nothing and, finally tired of waiting, decided to walk out to the beach to greet the morning. As she emerged from the shaded front doorway of the house, the glow of the already hot sun warmed her cheeks and she basked in it. She began to wonder seriously how most of her kind can go an entire three hundred year lifetime without ever having felt it for themselves.

  She squinted out to sea and, shielding her eyes from the glare with her hands, scanned the horizon and was surprised to see several sets of white arms waving at her from past the breaker. It was her sisters; all five of them! She beckoned them but none would dare swim in past a jagged rock pile that hid them from the shore. So she ran to them, climbing across the sharp rocks barefoot while they sliced her delicate soles wide open, not even noticing the pain because it was no worse than what she felt when walking on soft sand or carpet, even as they bled and stung. Overjoyed to see her sisters again, she greeted them all with warm smiles but as she came closer to them, she saw that none of them had smiles for her.