Trapped with a Way Out

by Jeffery Martinez

  "What are you doing here?!"

  "Just came to see the sights," he said carelessly, "What are you doing here?"

  "I work here!"

  "So I can see!" he said carelessly, rolling over so that he hung upside down in the water, "It looks so boring!"

  "What do you care? You aren't even supposed to be here!" William snapped.

  "Please!" he scoffed, "no one can make me leave," he swirled around so that he was right side up, "I am everywhere und nowhere."

  "So I see!" William snapped.

  She was not the brightest girl, and so it took a few minutes for her to think to say, "Maybe you should be 'everywhere und nowhere' somewhere else!"

  He laughed at this little display of wit, and hovered closer.

  "The guards are going to catch you if you stay around here!"

  "Let them come," he said, "I will just come back if they take me away."

  Sure enough, the guards soon came to chase him away, and he was indeed back to bother William not long after that. She did not fully understand why he was forbidden to be in the seal palace, but she knew she did not like him because he was cocky and arrogant.

  However, this did little good.

  No matter how William would snap or snarl at him, no matter how much she tried to hit him or thrash him, Schrödinger would always laugh her off and come back for more. Sometimes he would go away for a while, especially if William sent him away in a particularly nasty huff, but inevitably he came back. And when he did come back, he always hovered close to William. She did not understand why he chose to hang around her when there were so many better children or fish to bother, and she often tried to make him want to leave by being rude and unpleasant.

  However, Schrödinger was immune to William' hostility. He was not at all bothered by her dour attitude or her hostile disposition. If anything, he seemed to like her all the more for it. He did not set out to annoy her per se, but he always teased her for some reaction or another, and was glad for any kind he got. William was annoyed by his constant pestering, but she would have been lying if she had said she completely despised his company.

  "Why are you always following me?" she demanded one day.

  "Isn't it obvious?" he asked, smiling that same unreadable smile.

  It was not, but William softened toward him over time. Eventually, she resigned herself to being followed by him as a shark is followed by a pilot fish.

  In fact, a strange symbiosis formed between the two. While he would never admit to it, William suspected that Schrödinger floated carelessly from place to place because he was searching for something, perhaps some sort of amusement, and whatever it was he was looking for, he found it in William. While she would never admit it to anyone, least of all herself, William was very lonely and found a companion in the persistent Schrödinger.

  "We are like two sharks in a single egg," Schrödinger would grin, and try to cuddle up to William.

  "Get away!" she would say, and dart off.

  Even the guards eventually realized the futility of trying to keep him out of the sea palace completely, and so they forbade him from going inside the royal palace but not the royal grounds. This was apparently a compromise that Schrödinger could live with, and so he stayed away from the palace and came to play with William only when she went out into the gardens.

  "You took so looooooong, William!" he complained once, "In the entire time it took you to tidy the little princess's bedchamber, I went all the way to the deepest trench, found some sunken treasure, got chased by a glowing monster, got my head chomped off, und came back. Maybe you should think about hiring some help, mein Schatzi."

  "You better stop making fun of my parents right now!" William shouted angrily.

  "I'm serious…"

  But William smacked him and swam away.

  This is not to say Schrödinger was a bad friend. On the contrary, he often remembered things about William that others forgot or never knew to begin with, and he often encouraged her interests and hobbies, like her love of the surface world and all connected to it.

  Despite her fear of the endless abyss, William would often come out into the royal grounds when she was not cleaning the royal bedchambers.

  Out in the royal grounds, each little princess had her own small garden plot where she could dig and plant whatever she liked. One of them made her little flower bed in the shape of a whale, another shaped hers like a little mermaid, but the youngest of them made hers as round and golden as the sun. William was not a royal princess and so did not have a plot of her own, but she often tended to the youngest princess's garden since she was often off exploring sunken ships, and she often ran her fingers over the flowers that were golden as the sun.

  William was an unusual child, quiet and wistful when she was not dour and glaring, so when the royal sisters decorated their gardens with all kinds of odd things they had found in sunken ships, William would moon over them and contrast their appearance to the sun flowers. Sometimes, William would borrow the little treasures just for a moment, and lie in the sun flowers and look up at the real sun above, and pretend she was a human being lying in a bed of flowers beneath the golden sun in the surface above.

  Schrödinger alone noticed these little peculiarities and often made fun of her for it. However, he also began to bring back little treasures that he claimed to have also found in sunken ships as well.

  One day, as William tended the youngest princess's flowers, she looked up to see Schrödinger hovering near her with his hands behind his back and a mischievous grin on his face.

  "… What's all this about?" William glared skeptically.

  "I haf brought you a present, mein Schatzi," he gloated.

  "Stop calling me Schatzi," William said automatically.

  "Fine," he shrugged, "I guess you don't want your present."

  "No, wait! I do! Just tell me what it is!"

  "I will only tell you after you pick a hand!"

  "You must be joking!" William cried.

  "I am not, just pick a hand!"

  "What if it's a trick?"

  "Now, would I do such a thing?"

  "Yes! All the time!"

  "Well then, I guess I should take my present elsewhere."

  "Schrödinger!"

  "All right, which hand do you want it from?"

  William growled in frustration, and then pointed to the left hand. Her glare promised that if this was a trick, she would slug him.

  Schrödinger presented her with a silver dinner fork that you or I would eat our meals with.

  However, William gasped in awe, and then reached out to hold it like it was a priceless treasure.

  "How did you ever find something so wonderful?"

  "I found it in a sunken ship not too far from here," Schrödinger gloated, "You could haf found it too, if you had come with me."

  "I'm not going out there!" William cried, "There are sharks in those waters!"

  "Please, I would never let a shark eat you."

  "As if you could do anything about it," William grimaced, thinking of her failed rescue of her parents.

  However, she smiled slightly as she examined the fork more closely.

  "What is it?" she finally asked.

  Schrödinger closed his eyes, puffed up his chest and placed his hands on his hips like he was a real authority.

  "It's a dinglehopper!" he exclaimed.

  William frowned. "No, it's not!"

  "Yes it is."

  "That's such a stupid name!"

  "Well, it's what it's called."

  "Yeah right!"

  "It is!"

  "Like I believe that! Every time you say something has a stupid-sounding name, it always turns out to be a lie!"

  How could she forget the Snarflat Incident of '29? William had gone around thinking that a little brown, bulbous pipe that Schrödinger had given her was called a snarflat, until the royal court composure had corrected her… it was really a small saxophone, used to make fine music by blowing
into it. William had then chucked it at Schrö's head.

  In spite of his mischief, William continued to receive and collect little gifts until she no longer had room in her tiny toy chest. She thought that was the end of her collection of human trinkets, until Schrödinger surprised her one day by finding a little grotto near the palace to hide her possessions, far away from the little princess's grabbing hands.

  With a loyal (if mocking) companion to pass the time and a secret trove to store her treasures, William slowly mellowed enough that adults and children alike were not unnerved by the mere sight of her.

  However, the only adult that really took to William was the aforementioned royal court composer. He was an old, fat, balding merman that was about as thick as a porpoise, with the negative buoyancy of a shark. He often floated along with his giant pot belly hanging out and his tiny fish fin perfectly still, and stayed afloat by flapping his hands. He often grew tired from this minimal effort though, and often panted from exhaustion.

  Regardless, he was a genius composer and a rather kindhearted fellow, and took a shining to the little maid.

  "William… Wake up, William…"

  William woke to the sound of his deep baritone, not realizing she had fallen asleep after escorting the youngest princess to rehearsal and running errands for her. She would have panicked on being late with her work had she not being creeped out by the fat, smelly, panting merman floating before her.

  "... Who are you?" she demanded.

  "I am the royal court composer! The Great Baron Vincentimir Harkonnen!"

  "AH!" William screamed and fled outright. Nobles never talked to her unless she had done something wrong!

  "Ah! Don't flee! Don't flee! Just wait! Come back! That is, don't swim away!"

  William stopped to look at him.

  "William, I want to give you my support! You are always working so hard. Now, go ahead and ask me anything you want! And don't hold back!"

  "Um… Well… it's just…" If he had asked her several years later, she would have been earnest in her question. Now? She was an angry and skeptical child that did not see the good in anything, and questioned the sincerity of his offer. However, maybe…?

  William sighed. "Everything's in the pits. My mum and dad are dead, I'm stuck on the ocean floor, I can't leave because of the dark waters and sea monsters that live on the ocean floor around this magic city, I can't visit the surface for a very long time, I always get in trouble when my mistress does something bad or skips out on rehearsals, everybody hates me, and every time I try to do something right, it falls back in my face! Oh, and the royal grandmother wants to push me out. Will the rest of my life be this unhappy?"

  Harkonnen just stared blankly. "Uh…"

  "I KNEW IT!" William screamed, and swam off to cry.

  "WAIT! WAIT!" he called frantically after her, "THAT DOESN'T COUNT! COME BACK! I LIED! IT'S NOT THAT BAD! WAIT!"

  William whimpered unhappily and looked back at him.

  "Listen, William, I cannot control what has happened in your life so far," he said, "But I can offer you some consolation."

  "What do you mean?" she sniffed.

  "Why don't you come and work as a stage hand for my royal concerts?" he said. "You have to escort the youngest princess to rehearsals anyway (since she is always skipping out), so this way you can stay, sing, and dance with other mermaids that are interested in music just as you are, rather than swimming all the way back to the palace to work some more before swimming back here to escort the youngest princess home."

  "I'm not interested in music, Harkonnen," William said.

  "Really? But you sing so beautifully," he said.

  "I don't sing," she frowned.

  "Then you have such a lovely voice."

  "What do you care, anyway?"

  "I just want to see you foster your talents just as your dear mother did—"

  "You knew my mother?!"

  "Of course!" he cried, "She was one of the finest sopranos I ever had the pleasure of training! It's a shame she was not of noble blood, or she would have been the crown jewel of my professional achievement!"

  William remembered how beautifully her mother had sung. Her voice filled her heart and mind with melodies and lullabies, which William recalled in her mind and wept over every night before she slept.

  She accepted Harkonnen's offer without another word.

  At first, William only did small things like bring tools to help decorate the stage, then she started helping with curtains and props, but with more coaxing from Harkonnen she eventually joined the chorus, where they did indeed foster some of her singing talent. William was convinced that her voice was like metal scraping against rocks compared to her mother, but Harkonnen would not let her give up because of it.

  Working for Harkonnen brought William only small joy though, not just because helping with the stage gave her more work and less time to play and explore, but because the Sea King and Dowager Queen would not hear of a commoner taking any role that might be filled by their infinitely worthier royal princesses. Harkonnen had tried to give William larger singing roles, but the monarchs rebuked him so savagely that William was convinced there was no future for her there.

  Despite her secret home in the grotto, her companionship with Schrödinger, and her part time job working as a stage hand for Harkonnen, William remained quite taken with the surface world and all connected to it.

  As William grew up serving the royal princesses, she often listened eagerly as the little princesses grew old enough to visit the surface and tell each other of what they encountered.

  When the eldest princess had her fifteenth birthday, she came back with a hundred things to tell her sisters about. The most marvelous thing of all, she said, was to lie on a sand bar in the moonlight, when the sea was calm, and to gaze at the large city on the shore, where the lights twinkled like hundreds of stars; to listen to music; to hear the chatter and clamor of carriages and people; to see so many church towers and spires; and to hear the ringing bells. Because she could not enter the city, it was just what she most dearly longed to do.

  Oh, how intently William listened. After this, whenever she looked out the open window at night and looked up through the dark blue waters, she thought of that great city with all of its clatter and clamor, and even fancied that in these depths she could hear the church bells ring.

  The next year, the second sister had permission to rise up to the surface and swim wherever she pleased. She came up just at sunset, and she said that it was the most marvelous sight she had ever seen. The heavens had a golden glow, and as for the clouds - she could not find words to describe their beauty. Splashed with red and tinted with violet, they sailed over her head. But much faster than the sailing clouds were wild swans in a flock. Like a long white veil trailing above the sea, they flew toward the setting sun. She too swam toward it, but down it went, and all the rose-colored glow faded from the sea and sky.

  The following year, the third sister ascended, and as she was the boldest of them all she swam up a broad river that flowed into the ocean. She saw gloriously green, vine-colored hills. Palaces and manor houses could be glimpsed through the splendid woods. She heard all the birds sing, and the sun shone so brightly that often she had to dive under the water to cool her burning face. In a small cove she found a whole school of mortal children, paddling about in the water quite naked. She wanted to play with them, but they took fright and ran away. Then along came a little black animal (it was a dog, but she had never seen a dog before) that barked ferociously that she took fright and fled to the open sea. But never could she forget the splendid woods, the green hills, and the nice children who could swim in the water without fish tails.

  The fourth sister was not so venturesome. She stayed far out among the rough waves, which she said was a marvelous place. You could see all around you for miles and miles, and the heavens up above you were like a vast dome of glass. She had seen ships, but they were so far away that they looked like sea
gulls. Playful dolphins had turned somersaults, and monstrous whales had spouted water through their nostrils so that it looked as if hundreds of fountains were playing all around them.

  The fifth sister's birthday came in the wintertime, so she saw things that none of the others had seen. The sea was a deep green color, and enormous icebergs drifted about. Each one glistened like a pearl, she said, but they were loftier than any church steeple built by man. They assumed the most fantastic shapes, and sparkled like diamonds. She had seated herself on the largest one, and all the ships that came sailing by sped away as soon as the frightened sailors saw her there with her long hair blowing in the wind.

  In the late evening clouds filled the sky, thunder cracked and lightning darted across the heavens. Black waves lifted those great bergs of ice on high, where they flashed when the lightning struck. On all the ships the sails were reefed and there was fear and trembling. But quietly she sat there, upon her drifting iceberg, and watched the blue forked lightning strike the sea.

  William grew up hearing such stories as she went from a sour-faced child to a pretty young maiden. Though she grew quite buxom and her hair remained short and wild (which was against the mer standard of beauty), she often combed the sea princesses' long hair and decked their slim bodies in pretty shells and pearls so she could listen to their stories as they told each other of the surface around their joint coral vanity and mother of pearl mirrors.

  Each of the sisters took delight in the lovely new sights when she first rose up to the surface of the sea at first, but when they became grown-up girls allowed to go wherever they liked, they became indifferent to it. They would become homesick, and in a month they said that there was no place like the bottom of the sea, where they felt so completely at home.

  On many an evening the older sisters would rise to the surface, arm in arm, all five in a circle. On the evenings when the mermaids rose through the water like this, their youngest sister stayed behind all alone, looking after them with her bottom lip a quivering.