by Xequina
“You can come over sometime and play here if you want,” Mrs. Jones said.
I wrote down my phone number and gave it to her, but Libby never called me.
Chapter 23
A Big Problem
I never got tired of being with Mermary, of watching her swim, of playing with her, either with dolls or dancing with her, or even telling her everything I learned at school. The problem was, Mermary was growing. Some people on aquarium sites on the Internet said pet fish grew in proportion to the size tank they were in, but it was starting to seem like Mermary might be getting too big for the tank. She was longer and bigger around now, and I could see her features clearly when I went into my room. I didn’t know what to do about it. I could ask for a bigger tank, but my mother would wonder why I needed one. Several times she asked me why I didn’t get more fish. I told her I liked the fish I had. Finally she brought home a couple of goldfish, one was orange and the other was a fat one that was orangey-red and white.
She came into my room when I went to float the bag in the aquarium. The first thing she saw when I opened the aquarium was Mermary’s raft. She frowned.
“Why do you have a piece of wood in here?”
“Sometimes I put my mermaid doll on it,” I told her.
Sea-li and some of my other dolls were sitting on the desk next to the aquarium. I had forgotten to put them away after the last time we played dolls. I put them away now. My mother checked everything, the water, the temperature, the sand at the bottom. Everything was clean because Mermary always let me know when it was time to change the water, but I was still worried she would see the mermaid.
“You’re doing a good job of keeping the tank clean, Cammie,” she told me. “I’m proud of you.”
The whole time, Mermary hid in the midst of the seaweed. She had a trick now where she held on to the stem of a water plant in the middle of the seaweed forest and let her tail float upward, as if she was a plant too, then stayed really still until the person left. It was probably one of the ways mermaids stay hidden in the ocean when there were humans around.
My mother stared into the tank for a long time, turning her head. I couldn’t tell what she was looking at, and I hoped she wasn’t looking at Mermary and wondering what she was. I held my breath.
“Okay,” she finally said. “Leave the fish in the bag until the water is the same temperature as the aquarium, then you can let them out.”
I left the room with my mother, in case Mermary started begging me to let the fish out and my mother heard. Later I came back, and Mermary was trying to tear the bag open.
“Here, let me get that,” I said.
I undid the tie. Mermary reached in and shooed the fish out, then chased them around the tank. I laughed, watching her. The goldfish were small, and a perfect addition to the tank. But a few days later Mermary told me the aquarium was starting to feel too small. That was what I’d been afraid of, and why I hadn’t wanted any more fish.
“I need more room to swim,” she told me. “Do you think I could go back out to that basin I used to live in? You could fill it to the top with water and put all these plants in there.”
I didn’t think it was a good idea to put her back into the drain’s basin.
“I don’t think it’ll be safe, Mermary,” I said.
“Is there another place I can go?”
When I first adopted her, I didn’t think about what would happen when she grew big. Now I realized Mermary couldn’t live in the aquarium forever.
“What about the ocean?” she asked.
“The ocean? But . . . it’s too big. Something could eat you.” But obviously, mermaids managed to survive in the ocean. “I’ll think of something,” I promised her.
I had to do something for Mermary, but what? I couldn’t bear the thought of putting her in the ocean where I might never see her again. On the other hand, the way she was growing, I wouldn’t be able to keep her a secret from my parents much longer either. What I was really afraid of was her going away from me. I didn’t know what to do.
Chapter 24
The Solution
Summer was getting close to ending. I’d had so much fun I hated for it to be over, but I was looking forward to being in the sixth grade too. School would be starting in two weeks. My mother took me to school to register, pay tuition, and get a new uniform. I was growing too.
While my mother was taking care of school business, I went out to the school yard and sat on a bench. It faced Lake Meredith. The citizens of Luna Beach were very proud of our lake. We kept it clean, and there was a bird sanctuary with three little islands not far from the opposite shore, where birds roosted and no one was allowed to bother them. There were also turtles. My mother had told me they were non-native, and they were there because some kids had probably set their pet turtles free in the lake when they didn’t want them anymore. I could see them sometimes, sunning themselves on rocks in the shallow parts of the lake.
All of a sudden I wondered if Mermary could live in the lake. I had read stories about mermaids who did, so why not Mermary? She would have lots of room to swim, and there were little fish she could eat. It was across the street from Our Lady of the Lake school, so she would still be close to me. When I got home I talked to her about it.
“Is the lake a lot bigger than the drain’s basin?”
“Oh yes, lots bigger.”
“Is it as big as your whole room?”
“It’s more than ten times bigger.”
“Is it as big as that?” She pointed to the ocean.
“No, but the lake should be big enough for you, no matter what size you get. What do you think about that?”
“Wonderful!” She clapped her hands and did somersaults in the water before surfacing again. “Will the fish go with me?”
“No, they probably wouldn’t be safe in the lake. A bird or a big fish could eat them when you weren’t looking. Anyway, there will be lots of fish in the lake.”
Mermary didn’t seem to mind. She was excited, but I was sad. I wouldn’t get to talk to her all the time, or play dolls with her. But I didn’t want Mermary to know I was sad.
Later I cheered up a little. It wasn’t as if she was going into the ocean where, who knows when I’d see her again.
Chapter 25
First Day of School
During the last two weeks of summer I thought about how I was going to get Mermary from the house to the lake without my mother knowing what I was doing. She would never believe I was taking my fish in for a show and tell; that was for kindergartners.
Then, the night before the first day my mother said, “Cammie, I have to go into work much earlier than usual this week. If you got up earlier, I could drop you by school, but what will you do until the school opens?”
I thought about it. “I can take the bus. I know how. I did it all summer.” I held my breath while I waited to see what my mother thought about this.
“All right. I can pick you up after school.”
The next morning my mother woke me up before she left for work.
“Cammie, it’s time to get up and get ready for school. I’ve left your bus fare on the table, next to your lunch box. Should I pick you up at school or the library?”
“Library, please.”
As soon as my mother went out and closed the door, I got up and went over to Mermary. She was zipping through the water as fast as she could go, excited that today she was going to live in her new home. She paused in her zipping to kiss me good morning through the glass, then I went to wash up and put on my uniform.
I skipped breakfast so I would have plenty of time to walk to school and release Mermary. I grabbed my plastic beach bucket from the basement and ran up to my room. I took the whole lid off the aquarium. Mermary immediately surfaced.
“Hi, Mermary, are you ready?”
“Yes!”
“Okay, let me put some water in the bucket before you get in. You can help me by keeping the fish away.” She dove back i
n and herded the fish to the bottom of the tank. I put in some plants too. If someone looked into the bucket, Mermary would have something to hide in.
“Now I have to put you in the bucket,” I said. I cupped my hands and she jumped into them. It was always so exciting to hold Mermary. I kissed her little wet head and put her in the bucket. She immediately started scrabbling against the sides, but she couldn’t climb them. I knew she didn’t like being confined or not being able to see.
“You won’t be able to see anything until we get to the lake,” I told her. “It won’t be too long, then you’ll see much more than ever. Can you wait?”
“Yes,” she said, and settled down.
I tested the bucket to see how heavy it was. I knew from cleaning the aquarium that water is really heavy, that was why I didn’t put very much in. Luckily Mermary wasn’t too heavy, and she didn’t need too much water.
I put on my knapsack, then picked up my lunch box in one hand and the pail on my way out the door, and set out walking to school. It was a beautiful day and I wished the pail was clear so Mermary could see out. But she could see trees and telephone poles overhead, and she asked about them.
“Those are tree branches. They probably look different because you’re walking underneath them, instead of looking out at them,” I told her.
It was just before eight by the time I got to school. School started at eight-thirty. Lakeside Drive ran all around the lake. I stood at the crosswalk to wait until the crossing guard blew her whistle so that the children who lived on that side of the lake could cross to school. I was the only one going in the other direction, but kids were talking and didn’t pay any attention to me. The only one who looked at me was the crossing guard, but she didn’t say anything.
Near to my school was a colonnade with a climbing vine growing over it. From the center were steps down to a concrete platform over the water where people probably once launched boats, but now used to feed the ducks or go fishing. A fountain sprayed upward in that part of the lake, a little way away from the landing. Mermary could smell the water and was jumping up the side of the bucket, anxious to get out. So I sat down at the edge of the platform and lifted her up out of the bucket.
“See how big the lake is?”
“Wow,” she said. “It’s huge!”
I kissed her on the head and held her out over the water. She dove in and then surfaced.
“I love it!” she said. She looked all around, then pointed at the church.
“What’s that?”
“That’s a church.” I pointed at my school that was across the courtyard from it. “And that’s my school.”
“’Lady of the Lake,’” she said, remembering the name. “I’m the lady of the lake now.”
I laughed. “You’re the lady of this lake,” I said. “The Virgin Mary is the Lady of all the lakes in the world.” I had told her the basics of the Catholic religion when she first came inside to live with me. I had even baptized her, although I hoped that wouldn’t send her to Catholic heaven instead of mermaid heaven in the moon. I watched her swim and play around in the fountain, and was glad she was so happy. Finally the early bell rang, which meant I had ten minutes before class started.
“Mermary, please be careful and keep out of sight so no one will see you.”
“Okay, but why?”
“Because if the grown-ups find out about you, they might take you away, and they’ll never bring you back. It’s not just my mother. It’s probably any grown-up.”
“Why would they do that?”
“That’s just what humans do. You know how you’re curious and ask questions? People are like that too. Unfortunately, some people don’t have good intentions.” I looked at her. She nodded. “Now I have to go. ’Bye now.”
I was trying not to cry. Mermary leapt and sailed through the air and dove, then did that several times in a row.
“And make sure you don’t do that when people are around, okay?”
“Okay,” she promised.
I hoped putting her in the lake had been the right thing to do.
“Don’t be sad, Cammie,” Mermary said. “I know I’ll be happy here.”
I didn’t realize she could tell I was sad. I smiled and told her I would come back after school to see her. Thinking about that made me feel a lot better.
“A bell will ring in the afternoon. That’s the three o’clock bell, and it means school is over. I’ll come over to see you before I meet my mother at the library—” I pointed at the library, which was across from the colonnade and one street.
I was crying on the way back to school. There were a couple of other kids crossing too. The guard noticed.
“Are you okay, little girl?” she asked.
I wiped my eyes and nodded. Once I got across the street, I went into the church, to the white statue of Our Lady of the Lake. I said a prayer and asked Mary to keep my mermaid safe.
Chapter 26
The Mermaid’s First Day
The fifth grade classroom windows faced the lake, and all that first day I kept looking out the window, even though I couldn’t see my little mermaid from that distance. I worried whether she was okay, if the lake was too cold for her, if she would get lonely, and a dozen other things.
Our teacher was a nun this year, Sister Marie Anthony. The nuns who taught in our school were sisters of the Holy Names. My mother told me that nuns used to wear habits with veils, but now they dressed like everyone else. Although my parents weren’t very religious, they sent me to Lady of the Lake School because they said I would get a very good education, and it wasn’t far from our house.
Also, there were no bullies because we had a “zero-tolerance for bullying policy.” Actually, a couple of the kids were bullies, just not at school. I’d seen bullying a couple of times on my way home from school. No one ever bullied me though, probably because I was so quiet.
Most of the same girls and boys who I started first grade with were still in my class. I thought about what Mermary had told me about how to make friends. She had said, “You just start talking to them, like you did with me.” So on the first day of class, I turned around and smiled at the girl behind me. Her name was Bambi. She smiled back. I was surprised, and it made me feel happy. I had always been too shy even to look at people, but it seemed a little easier now. Maybe it was because I was older. Or maybe because I had practice now, with Mermary.
The school books we were going to use were already in our desks, and Sister Marie Anthony had us take them out, put our names in them, and look at them. She told us how our curriculum was changing from fourth grade, how she was going to teach, and said we were going to start getting serious about homework—as if we had been playing around in the lower grades. She also had us take some aptitude tests in math and English and write some paragraphs on topics she announced because she wanted to see what our writing skills were. It was an easy day and it would have been fun if I hadn’t been so worried about Mermary.
As soon as school was over, I went back across the street to see Mermary. I looked to make sure no one was around before I called her. There were kids walking under the colonnade on their way home, but mostly they didn’t pay any attention to me. I sat down on the edge like I had that morning and called her. I was so relieved when she came up smiling.
“How was your first day in the lake?” I asked.
“I loved it! I swam as far as that tree,” she pointed to a tree at a point that curved into the lake, “and then I swam all around this area. There’s no sand at the bottom of the lake, like at home.”
I liked that Mermary called the aquarium home.
“What is at the bottom?” I asked.
“This dark, soft stuff, like what I had at the bottom of the basin, only more. Lots more.”
“Mud?”
“Yes, mud,” Mermary said. “And there are all kinds of things to see in it.”
“Like what?”
“Bottles and cans, cups, lots of things I don’t know the
name of, like a long stick thing with plastic string attached and a sharp hook at the end—”
“That sounds like a fishing pole.”
“—and one of those.” Mermary pointed to an old man on the lake in a small boat. “Only it’s broken and on its side.”
“That’s a row boat,” I told her.
“A row boat,” she repeated. “And there’s some of those things he’s using to move the boat.”
“Those are oars.”
“Some were wooden and rotten. Some are metal.”
Now Mermary was telling me about her day, the way I used to tell her when I came home from school.
“How was school?” she asked, almost as if she’d read my mind.
“My teacher’s name is Sister Marie Anthony. I like her, even though I think she’s strict. The books are bigger and the math and English will be a lot more complicated this year,” I told her. “Also, Sister talked to us about public speaking. Sister Marie said ‘part of public speaking is presenting yourself to people. You should always stand straight and project your voice.’ ” I changed my voice to sort of like Sister’s, and Mermary laughed. “ ‘Every time I call on you in class is an opportunity to practice your speaking skills. For homework you will develop what you wrote in class.’ ” I wasn’t really making fun of Sister Marie, although I was exaggerating because Mermary thought it was funny.
“Did you write about me?”
“Of course not, silly mermaid, although I wanted to. I wrote about summer school, since my family doesn’t take a vacation until winter.” I didn’t tell Mermary how worried I’d been about her. I looked at my Little Mermaid watch.
“I better go. My mom’s going to pick me up at the library, and she’ll start looking for me if I’m not there.” I pointed across the street to where the library was.
“Okay,” Mermary said. “Goodbye, Cammie.”
I blew her a kiss, and she copied me. She didn’t seem sad that I was leaving, but then, she never had. A mermaid in one of the movies I’d seen said that mer-people didn’t believe in love. I wondered if that could be true.