by Susha Golomb
“It’s okay, Ben,” Mom said, happily licking away at her Rocky Road. “After all, all the best dragonfly fairies have one. Mmmmm,” she added, totally focused on her ice cream.
“Our daughter is not a fairy,” Dad said testily. He had never completely forgiven the dragonfly fairies for grafting wings onto his precious daughter, a.k.a., me, without asking him first.
“She may be human,” Rose replied, “but she has all the right equipment.”
“That’s an understatement if I ever heard one,” he said tartly. Look at her. She has legs, so she’s human but she’s about to acquire a tail, so she’s a fish, wings… that makes her a bird and a couple of built-in pockets which I believe--correct me if I’m wrong--means our only child is a marsupial.”
“Hey, come-oon,” I said. “Why are you so touchy? I’m on my way to visit Grandma and Grandpa Mermaid. Everyone’s happy, happy, happy. Remember?”
At least we were supposed to be happy, happy, happy. But Dad was right, I was like some mythical creature. The kind that’s made up of lots of different animals. What would my adopted Grandparents think of me when they met me for the first time? What if I was too weird even for them?
“It will be all right, Ben,” Mom said, getting right to the heart of what was really bugging Dad. She put her arm around his shoulder. “Relax. You know as well as I do that Miriam will be perfectly safe as long as she’s under the water,” she reminded him. “Even in bad weather, as long as she stays in deep water, she’ll be fine. The worst thing that could happen is that someone might be rude to her. But no one will hurt her. Not while she’s in fairy form.”
“Mmph.” Dad had succumbed to the lure of Rum Raisin, grunting his agreement between licks.
We reached the water’s edge and the beginning of an old fishing pier. The wind was even stronger now that we were over the water. I had to hold my hair back with one hand to keep it from whipping around into my ice cream. The stiff breeze kept pushing me back the way I had come. It was like the ocean didn’t want me to be there.
The clacking of our shoes as we walked on the weathered planks echoed back from the empty sky, attracting out of nowhere a flock of scruffy-looking seagulls looking for the avian equivalent of spare change.
Ignoring the gulls and each other, we concentrated on our ice cream cones until we got to the end of the deserted pier. I stared down at the deep water under the pier, then out to the whitecaps on the horizon. This was the moment I had been waiting for.
CHAPTER 2
GIRL WITH GILLS
With a shake of my long fluffy hair, I would dive gracefully into the sea, giving an artful flip with my tail fin as I disappeared into the depths. My parents would gasp with admiration at my power and beauty.
That was the vision…
…then there was the reality.
My parents gasped all right. It was either that or laugh out loud and risk one of their hormonally challenged daughter’s tantrums.
Sucking in my breath for courage, I gave the necklace a quick twist. Almost before I finished, my pale skinny legs disappeared, replaced by a large muscular fishtail, the kind worn by mermaids in all the best storybooks.
I was left standing on my tail. But not for long. No knees. No feet either. Without feet to support me and with a lower half that felt more like Tefnut’s tail than stuck-together legs. Try to imagine a cat, standing on it’s tail. Same deal. I slithered gracelessly to the ground, then flopped myself into the water.
“Sheesh. For someone whose mother spent a big chunk of her childhood as a mermaid, you should be better at it than this,” Dad choked out, in between belly laughs.
“Next time, Miriam,” Mom said through quivering lips, “twist the scale after you jump.”
“Thanks a lot Mom. You could have told me before I bruised my butt…or whatever it is.”
“Sorry, Doll,” she sniggered.
“Oh, look.” Mom pointed to a place just behind me. “Miriam, you still have your wings.” I wiggled my shoulder blades and could feel the pull of the current tugging on the wings poking out from under my t-shirt.
“My daughter,” she sighed with mock pride, “the flying mermaid. Speaking of which, is Poppy’s cape all right?”
Flying mermaid? I pressed my lips together and didn’t say the words that wanted to come out. It’s all right for them to make fun of me, but look out if I try to defend myself with a funny comeback.
So, I kept my mouth shut and checked the right wing pocket. I could feel the little lump that was the fern-coat that Poppy, had given me, the day I received my wing buds and sampo from the rest of the dragonfly fairies. The wing pocket was still nice and tight.
“Snug as a bug,” I answered.
“What about the sampo? Is it still there?” Dad said anxiously and perfectly reasonably, since my pants were not. I checked.
“Yes. It’s here.”
I was still wearing my T-shirt, but except for the drawstring bag around my waist, the rest of my clothes seemed to have disappeared. My new blue-green tail was covered with shiny scales almost, but not quite identical to the charm around my neck which had taken on a translucent glow. Giving the necklace another twist I felt the weight of wet sneakers and jeans on my skinny legs and quickly twisted myself right back to tail again.
“I wondered about that,” I said. “But this T-shirt, ugh. I must look awful, and it feels worse. Wait a minute,” I said to my parents. “And don’t look.”
Swimming under the pier for privacy, I switched to legs and climbed onto a sheared-off, out of use pylon. First I took off my squishy sneakers.
“Here. Catch.” I called up to Mom and Dad.” Reaching out and leaning as far as I could towards the edge of the decking above me, I tossed them up one at a time onto the dock, sneaker, sock, sneaker, sock. Thump, plop, thump, plop. Four perfect landings.
Next, I opened my bag. Out came a tiny bra top made of seashells.
“I hope you’re not looking,” I hollered out.
I held the thing at arm’s length to examine it. Two big shells, mother-of-pearl smooth on the inside, each one decorated with a border of tiny golden-yellow conch shells. Dozens of small, oval shells were strung together to make the straps.
I put the whole thing gingerly across my chest over the wet T-shirt. Six years old, I thought. When I was six, I would have eaten mashed peas to have one of these. I think I blushed.
“I can not do this,” I muttered to myself. Making a face, I quickly shoved the Little Mermaid Bra Top back into my bag.
Impulsively, I pulled off my T-shirt and stuffed it in on top of the seashells. Now this is what a real mermaid would wear, I thought, opening my arms wide to get the full effect.
This worked for about two seconds. Then I crossed my arms over my bare chest, looking around and up through the cracks in the planking to make sure that Mom and Dad weren’t peeking and that the deserted stretch of beach was still deserted.
Finally, out of my bag, came a modest two-piece bathing suit. Since I’m not a real mermaid, I guess this will be okay, I thought. My jeans and underpants were the next thing to hit the deck.
“Keep not looking,” I shouted. Crouching naked on the pylon, I put on the bathing suit and lowered myself back into the water. Another twist on the necklace and the bathing suit bottom was gone. I was back in my new fishy form. There is no way I’m going to wear a bunch of seashells on my chest, I thought, swimming out from under the pier.
“Like my new outfit?” I said to Mom and Dad as soon as I got to where they could see me. The bathing suit top felt a little silly with my tail, but it was comfortable.
“Looks great,” Mom said. “Have you tested the gills yet?”
“No.”
“So, do it. You’ll love it.”
The truth was, that I wasn’t in a hurry to figure out the breathing part. You think everybody wants to be able to breathe underwater, right? But faced with actually doing it is scary. Just the thought of sucking in water made me feel panic
ky.
I put a hand to the back of one ear. The skin was rough and scabby. I felt behind the other ear. Same thing.
“That’s them. Those are the gills,” Mom said.
“Can you see them?” I said nervously. “Do they show a lot? Do they look right?”
“We can’t see them from here,” she said, “but they’ll work just fine. Go ahead and try it out.”
“I guess I have to do this sometime, don’t I,” I sighed.
“Yes, and now is a good time,” Dad said. “If you mess up we can pull you out.” Mom elbowed him in the ribs.
“Ben, she can’t mess up. It’s impossible.
“Miriam,” Mom called down to me. “Don’t worry. You can’t make a mistake with this. Just relax and breathe comfortably…you don’t even have to relax. Go ahead. Be tense. The gills work all by themselves.”
“Well… goodbye,” I said as I ducked reluctantly under the water.
I started out by opening my eyes just a little. Then, I opened them a lot. It was like wearing goggles on your eyeballs. Everything was crystal clear and the salt water didn’t sting.
So I tried a little sniff through my nose. Just the barest smallest sniff I could manage. Water went in. Nothing bad happened. I sniffed in a teensy bit more. It was still okay. I sniffed in a lot.
It was great. I was breathing under water. The water went in my nose and out my gills. It never went near my lungs.
I opened my mouth and let a little water in. It went out the gills just like the nose water. I tried swallowing some. I gagged.
It tasted terrible. But I was all right. I was still breathing…breathing water.
I powered up my tail and dolphined out of the water and took a deep breath. It still worked. I was officially a double breather.
“I love it,” I shouted. “This is great.” I did a couple more leaps, accidentally on purpose too close to the pier. Mom and Dad were soaked. Then I dove deep and came back up further away.
“I love you,” I called out to them, swimming backwards and waving with both hands. “I’ll call you tonight. Bye.”
“Don’t mess around with any rogue sky and stay away from humans,” Mom shouted into the wind. “Stay far away from boats and don’t even think about teasing any scuba divers.”
READ THE REST OF OUT OF PLACE SOON!
(In case you are wondering about what happens next, Miriam doesn’t tease any scuba divers. She also doesn’t stay away from boats.)
Dear Reader,
If you enjoyed this book, please tell your friends.
Out of Place is the second book of The Fairy Gifts. In Out of Place, Miriam visits her adopted grandparents and finds a sister. She is kidnapped by a rogue Sky and will need to be really creative about how she uses her sampo if she is going to escape.
The third book is called Zazkal. Miriam is still with her adopted grandparents, but now she is studying magic. She and her teacher travel to find the shape shifting pirates that she meets in Out of Place. I am working hard to finish Zazkal. It won’t be long before it is ready.
I am sorry that there are no cats in books two and three. This is because both stories are set under the water. You may not have known that cats can swim if they have to, but you probably do know how they feel about it. Tefnut would never consider traveling with Miriam to visit her adopted grandparents. However, Tefnut will be in the fourth book when Miriam finally visits Ailuria. There is also a prequel that will tell the story of how Tefnut came to live with Miriam and her family. All the characters are cats.
So that’s where The Fairy Gifts are now. I am writing as fast as I can. I don’t have a website, but you can write to me at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Susha G.