“Not so much…” Ben shook his head and puckered his lips.
“I do.” I said. “I believe in God.” The maid stared at me with joyous eyes, and her smile was bright, friendly. It was comforting to know that they shared the same God. Even though I had no idea how.
“So you are only the second generation of mer?” Ben asked, severing Aella’s and my moment of peace.
“I don’t understand.”
“Are there any mermaids left?” I asked.
“They say there are, but I have not seen them. Some say they live here…in the Wasteland hidden from the abomination that is mer and maid. Our history with them is violent.”
“Why?”
“One day, I will share our story. But I’ve told you enough.”
“Wait. What about the curse? What curse?”
“When Aarif took the seat, a curse fell on our people…a horrible curse leaving us barren and desolate in our womb. No maid can produce and…” she stared down at her hands, “we are slowly dying…not just mer and maid are dying but the crops, the kingdom is not profiting none of the other cities come near us for fear of being cursed. We are a kingdom divided by evil.”
I looked up at Ben, his eyebrows raised and then I returned my gaze to Aella who was still staring at her hands.
“I’m sorry…maybe the curse will lift.”
“It will,” she said to her hands, “when Hanan takes the seat.”
“How will he do it?” Her eyes averted to me.
“He will do it.” Then she stood up abruptly, gathered the left-over food and bowls and walked out of the room.
“How do they know about Adonai?” Ben asked me.
“I don’t know…I mean real mermaids?” I was in a bit of awe.
“Did you hear Aella? She was talking like a dolphin?”
“Dolphins talk?”
“I don’t know. But how do they speak English?”
“Good question…I feel bad for them, to know you are gonna die, your whole race.” I honestly felt guilty. Here I was complaining about being separated from my family when I have a greater chance of living than them.
“There is nothing we can do about it. We need to get home.” Ben said sternly.
Chapter 17
Ben and I sat in the warm cave room. Ben was lying with his arms behind his head staring up at the ceiling, shooting off random questions—I barely acknowledged them. I was lost in my own head, my own thoughts…trying to decipher the nature of these mer people. I didn’t exactly understand their existence, how they lived and breathed so far under water. How were they created? Did God create them when he created Adam and Eve? Their feet, they were human as far as the eye could see, but no they were not. I didn’t have to pinch myself to know I was in reality because I bit my tongue seconds ago and the taste of copper filled my mouth.
“Do you think they’re...uh…romantically involved?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t know Ben. Ask if you really want to know.” I looked down at my wrist, wishing I had an idea of what time it was. “What time do you think it is?”
“Well…when we left my room it was 3:30…when we left your room it was about 4:00…so I imagine it’s about noon.”
I tried to imagine the chaos happening up above, on the surface land. News cameras, dead body counts—did any live to tell the tale? I could only hope it was my family that survived. “Noon.” Just then Aella entered the room.
“If you need anything just call me.” She turned and walked away. I scurried to my feet and followed after her, stumbling over the unevenness of the cave floor. I needed to speak to her. I had so many questions, I was so confused. I needed to understand them, this place, and their world. The shell in my purse…
“Aella?” My voice bounced off of the walls. I made a right at the end of the tunnel leading out of the hot room. “Aella…Ouch!” I stubbed my toe on a part of the uneven floor. “Damn! Forgot my shoes!” I bounced around on one leg, clutching my hurt toe.
“Yes?” She suddenly appeared; I glanced up from nursing my aching big toe. I turned and she was behind me. “Do you need something?”
“Uh…” I straightened up, shaking my foot trying to dissipate the pain. “No. Ben was just annoying me.” I laughed nervously. I was kind of weary. Daddy would be too. Trust no one, he would say.
“Annoying?”
“Nothing, never mind. The shell on Hanan’s face…”
“It’s a sign of royalty.” She cut me off and turned to walk away, and I followed right after her.
“He was born with it?” I stopped when we came to the cave with the eyes…I bit my lip and danced around in place, you know the potty dance? That little number you do when you have to go really bad but you’re stuck waiting in line to use the restroom. That dance, except I didn’t have to go, I was just scared of the tunnel.
“No. It was given to him during a ceremony after his birth.” Her voice echoed. I couldn’t see her silhouette in the cave, which meant she probably made it out to the end.
I glanced up at the eerily lit cave, listened to the clicking sound of the eyes legs tapping against the stone and held my breath and quickly tiptoed through the hall—ignoring my pulsing toe—pushing the scraping sounds of the eyes out of my mind. All I could see where their skeletal bodies and their many eyes, moving in all directions. “When he was a baby?” I exhaled as soon as I made it out of the tunnel.
“Yes.”
“Oh. Where do they come from?”
“What?”
“The shell.”
“They are passed down from king to king, queen to queen.” We walked into a room, with a hole in the floor filled with rushing, gurgling water.
The water was white foam as it swirled around in a rush lapping out of the hole, making the floor wet. The room was small with sticks of different sizes with sharp points (spears and axes) and were lying in a woven seaweed hammock hanging from the ceiling walls. I didn’t know seaweed and shells were so versatile. I looked over the stone slab, to a rock stand and saw a gleaming triton. An actual triton! It rested on the showcase like stand. I walked over to wear it lay and stared at my reflection. The handle was wide about the width of my wrist and long. The pitch fork end was sharp and…covered in…dried blood and hair. Aella stepped in front of me and threw a seaweed cover over it. “You shouldn’t be in here. I have work to do.” Sounding a bit agitated.
“I can help.” I wanted to, I needed to keep busy. I didn’t want to think of anything. Plus I had questions that needed answers. “Do you know what a mermaid is?”
“Okay well come, sit here. And yes, remember I told you, our ancestors were mermaids.”
“I meant, what did they look like? Because where I come from…”
“Had long fin tails with beautiful black scales—the scales would change color as they drifted and changed direction in the water, green and pink, purple then back to black. The tail was like the fin of an Angel fish, delicate. They were beautiful, half flesh, half scales…that’s what the stories say. I have never seen one.” She said with a smile.
“Really? Well how is it that you have legs? Did a mermaid mate with a human?” I’ve heard that in stories.
She laughed. “No that has never been done. A time ago the king—the last mermaid king—Anugya the Authority birthed a son, Bomani the Warrior. When Bomani came he had no fin, he had legs with scales. The Warrior’s birth created an uprising. The people of Tahirah accused Anugya of evil acts, sorcery; saying that they were cursed for their iniquity. They wanted Bomani dead along with the king and queen, so the people gathered and went up against the king. But Anugya fought—only having his faithful aides at his side and his queen Azizi—all the guards fled siding with the people.”
“The queen fought?”
“Yes, she was defending her child, her love, her kingdom…wouldn’t you?”
“What?”
“Fight to defend yourself, your life. Fight f
or something you believed?”
“Yes.” I kind of whispered, feeling her heavy compelling gaze gutting my insides.
“Good. The fight was not long, because word came that another mer baby was born with stems and another—every mermaid in every sea was producing young with legs. It was awhile before for the mermaids accepted us, because some still produced mermaid. There was separation between the two then finally we were accepted by most of them—they really had no choice, their race was dying off and so the king separated the name mermaid, to mer and maid.”
“But how are you here? How were mermaids made? Where did you come from?” I just couldn’t grasp their existence, how had they come to be on this earth?
“Our forefathers from Africa…”
“But.” She raised her hand silencing me.
“Our African forefathers believed that while life was being born into the world the blood of sea amalgamated with the blood of the surface…but there is also the story of the God Adonai, who created Earth and Sea—He brought the two together. The story goes that Earth and Sea, believed that order was needed in the waters. Sea could not control the beasts alone. So Sea went to Adonai seeking help, and so Adonai ordered Sea to emerge from the waters and there he would find his answer, his help. And as his foot met the surface Earth appeared. Earth showed Sea the way she populated the land, she showed him how the creatures of the land controlled the beasts.
Sea saw this and wanted the same, but how? The land had already been given to surface creatures to control, but what of the waters? So the spirits Earth and Sea came together uniting as one, thus creating the mermaid, the Two. And the Two were placed in the sea, ordered to populate and prosper the waters, and control the beasts. And so it is what we believe most—Earth and Sea uniting through Adonai, creating us.”
“The Two?”
“Yes, two mermaids.”
“So you think Sea is a person?”
“No, the Sea is a spirit of Adonai he was given control of all things water. Earth of all things land…but that is enough talk, there is work to be done.”
“Wait, so when you say spirit, you mean like an angel?”
“Yes.”
“There are angels here?” I asked lethargically, I looked around the cave room.
“Yes, Eva. Now please let’s work if you want to help. Or have you anymore questions?”
“Okay…” I answered incoherently. I was still trying to digest the story, I wasn’t sure how true either of them were, but then what other way had they come. They believed in God. “What are we doing?”
“Making a resting place for Ben.”
“And me?”
“I’ve made one for you.” She pointed to the corner near the triton, where a green mat laid on the floor. Another seaweed creation.
We sat there in silence as we worked, laying long strips of seaweed one over the next, weaving them together into a blanket. Then we laid the bulbs that once hung off the weeds in between the two sheets of weed blankets we wove together, it provided cushion. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable to lie on. After we were done filling the green mat we tied and knotted the ends to keep them together and then moved it on top of the first mat.
Then she took and gathered a bunch of spears and axes and moved them over to the hole of water, and then she brought over two rocks with seaweed tightly wrapped around them. She filled two of those large clam shells with water from the hole and then instructed me to dip the rock into the water and then scrub the blade clean—they were stained with blood and gunk which I identified as guts. A lot of guts. I didn’t recoil this time. Aella picked off the large chunks with her fingers and dumped them into an empty clam shell. I swallowed my disgust and did the same.
“Where did all this blood come from?” I asked as I scrubbed profusely at the thick shell speared weapon. I guess everything was bigger and thicker down below.
“Hunting food, and some…” she held a piece of bloody hair in the air at eye level, “and some mer.”
“Mer?”
“Yes, sometimes, not often, a mer will see me or Hanan leaving our home and we have to kill them.”
Raised eyebrows, “kill them?”
“Yes, no one can know we are here.”
“You’ve killed?” I tried to remain calm. She was so small and soft spoken. I couldn’t see it.
“Yes…I have, more…more than once.” She answered slowly. “Hanan and I are survivors. For us it is kill or be killed. Aarif would love to have our heads.” Aella looked up from the axe she was cleaning. “But, I will not hurt you Eva.” I nodded and continued scrubbing the blood from the blades, occasionally coming across hair, and a few times a dreadlock. She was right, she killed more than once.
After we were done cleaning the weapons, we carried the first bed to where Ben and I would be sleeping. On the way to pick up the last mat I asked her another question.
“How is it you are here with Hanan? Have you always been his…friend?”
“No, I was fortunate enough to be in his path as he made his escape.”
“So you just saw Hanan and decided to go with him?” She stopped and turned toward me.
“No, not exactly Eva. I was dying and he saved me.” Her golden eyes pervaded me. I don’t know that she intentionally wanted to fill me with fear, but she did and so I held my breath. Maybe her gaze was purposeful, her way to get me to stop asking so many questions.
I felt the hairs on my neck prick up and I decided to end the game of twenty-one questions, so I said, “I’m sorry. I’ll stop with the questions.”
“Thank you, Eva.” She turned and I followed her through the tunnel leading to the weapons room. I heard a loud splash of water and stopped to glance behind me. Remembering when Hanan returned, there was that same splash of water before he appeared. My heart stuttered, I’m not sure why, I didn’t feel too afraid. Involuntarily I reached my hand down to touch my fanny pack.
“Aella…” Still looking behind me, “was that Hanan?”
“No.”
“How do you know?” I whispered.
“It was just the water. Why?” I turned and met her questioning eyes. “Why?” She pressed.
“I…uh…I just thought of Ben.” She stared for a brief moment, as if she were trying to pull the truth from me.
“Hanan will not hurt Ben.” She smirked and turned and I continued to follow behind her occasionally glancing behind me.
We bent to pick up the last bed, “Aella?”
She straightened up, hands on her hips, “Eva how many more questions do you have? Didn’t you come with me to be away from Ben and his questions? And now you are doing me the same favor.”
“It’s just that…someone, this lady, she gave me…” My fingers grazed my waist purse. I reached down to unzip it, pulling out the red cloth. I held onto the shell in the cloth with a shaking hand.
“What is it?” She reached a hand out to me, staring intensely into my eyes. I heard a voice in my mind say, “give it to me…give it to me.”
My heart stopped and then, “never mind. Nothing.” I nodded my head shoving the shell back in its soggy place.
She smiled. “Okay…” she whispered, “when you’re ready. But till then, no more questions today, please. Swear by it.” She held up two fingers to me. “Swear by it.”
“Uh…I promise?”
“No. To mean it from your heart…” she grabbed my hand and folded all of my fingers down except for two (my index and middle finger). She then pressed her hand into my chest, over my heart. “When you mean it, it comes from here. You are in Tahirah now, when you speak from the heart, you must show it.”
“Uh…I swear not to ask you anymore questions.” I giggled.
“Bless His name! Thank you Eva. But you also swear to show me, what it is you wanted to show me?”
“Yes. One day.”
Should I have shown her the shell? As tired as I was this question, was the reason I could not sleep. I mean why hide it? What made me b
elieve that the shell Ms. Reba gave me was somehow important? Maybe I was just over tired, over thinking…my eyes were getting heavy as I laid there on my uncomfortable bed. I glanced at Ben who was sound asleep, his arm draped over me. We pushed our mats together, he didn’t trust Aella. Really it was Hanan he was weary of, but somehow I knew I could trust them both. I turned over onto my side and just stared around the room. Thoughts of my family were beginning to fill my mind so I shut my eyes and finally slept.
Chapter 18
Hanan
I stood at the edge of the cliff trying to clear my mind, watching the life of the water. The water that once belonged to me. Though it remained beautiful, the life was slowly diminishing. The color of the sea was fading. Once limpid and beautiful, now murky and brown. When Chike reigned, I could stand on this cliff and watch as the engralius swam by—thousands of them together—their silver scales, glistening as they changed direction. I used to watch the white spotted lampris—bright red fins and lips against a blue face—race among the fastest thunnus, and though the lampris were flat and round, many times they won. And my favorite, the turtle with their reddish brown shell, they drifted slowly through the water, in no hurry. Lazily with each stroke, they swam through life without a care. I once lived that life.
I watched the water for a little longer and then opened my mouth and belted the call.
I saw them coming. Three of them. They moved gracefully through the water. The closer they came, the more visible they became. Their angelic feature was a veil—they were really savage hunters, the phins. One of the more dangerous beauties of the sea. Some mistook their friendly appearance as weakness, and never lived to warn against it.
I’ve studied their approach to kill, and found it disturbing, yet masterful. The phin’s were master strategist hunters, using their intelligence instead of their strength to surround and corner their prey. It was a game to them, they took pleasure in terrorizing. I knew it was the chase that made the kill that much more exciting. It wasn’t the strong preying on the weak; because I’ve witnessed them kill the many beasts of the water. So it was much like a thrill. And their sister phins the killers were even more vicious.
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