by Xequina
“The sword fight scene,” Reggie said.
“The sword fight scenes are always your favorite,” Zander said.
“So?” Reggie said.
“So it’s boring.”
“No it isn’t. Just because you can’t fight.”
“Oh yeah? I’ll show you.”
Zander bent over and pulled a plastic sword out from under the couch. Reggie reached behind the couch pillows and pulled out her cutlass. They started sword-fighting and shouting and jumping on the furniture.
Elmo looked at me. “We always do this.”
“Hey kids, go outside if you’re going to rough-house!” Reggie’s mother yelled. Finally Reggie and Zander settled down.
“Hey, Camile didn’t say what her favorite scene was,” Elmo said.
“Let me guess,” Zander said. “The mermaids.”
I nodded.
“Not me,” Elmo said. “They were scary.”
“Yeah, though it was pretty cool when that first mermaid is all nice and singing, and then all of a sudden grows fangs and starts hissing,” Zander said.
“Do you think they were real?” Reggie asked me.
“No,” Zander said before I could answer. “You can’t just grow fangs, you either have them or you don’t.”
“Not the fangs, doofus. The mermaids.”
“They looked real,” Elmo replied. “Their tails looked just like goldfish tails.”
“Probably because they were goldfish tails,” Zander said. “They were probably photoshopped.”
“They didn’t look fake or photoshopped at all,” Reggie said. “Usually you can tell.”
“They couldn’t have been real because there’s no such thing as mermaids,” Zander said. “What about that one they caught? Her tail faded away and she had legs. It was just special effects.”
“That was her, but what about the other ones?” Reggie asked. “We could see their tails from all angles.”
“If they’re real, how come no one’s ever found one?”
“How do you know?” Reggie said. “Maybe someone has found one, but no one believed them. Or maybe they didn’t tell anyone.” She looked at me, and I nodded.
“Or they killed the people who saw them,” Elmo said.
“Why would they do that?” Reggie asked.
“Maybe no one ever saw a mermaid because they don’t want to be seen. So one day, someone sees one and of course, is going to tell everyone about it. The mermaids would have to kill him.”
That would explain why no one had ever seen a mermaid, but I couldn’t imagine my sweet and gentle Mermary killing anyone. But what about grown up mermaids and mermen trying to defend themselves? Elmo went back to the kitchen to fix another concoction. Zander and Reggie kept arguing about mermaids.
“Lots of people have seen mermaids,” Reggie said. “I know pirates have. It’s been documented.”
I knew that meant it had been written down in historical books.
“Yeah, and pirates are known to be very honest people,” Zander said. Reggie laughed, and then Zander did too.
“This whole world is mostly ocean,” Reggie said. “Mermaids could be living someplace that hasn’t been explored yet.”
“There could be mermaids in outer space,” Elmo said, coming back into the room with his drink. We all looked at him. “They were in a comic book I read.”
“That’s where Elmo gets all his information,” Zander said.
“Like you don’t read comic books,” Reggie said.
“Yeah, but I don’t believe everything I read in them, like you guys.”
“How do you know there aren’t mermaids in outer space?” Reggie said.
“Oh no, here we go again,” Zander said. “What do they do, fly around with fishbowls on their heads?”
Reggie’s mother stuck her head in. “You kids about ready for pizza?” she asked.
Everyone said yes.
She looked at me. “We usually get one Canadian bacon and pineapple, and another with sausage and mushroom. Do you like either of those?”
I nodded. I liked any kind of pizza. I hardly ever got any because my mother said it was junk food, but I knew it would be rude to say that. Reggie’s mother went to call in our order and Reggie looked at me.
“What do you think, Cam? You haven’t said anything.”
“She thinks she is a mermaid,” Zander said. “Isn’t there a kind of insanity where people believe they’re a mermaid, ickyphobia or something?”
“Be quiet,” Reggie said. “I want to hear what Camile has to say.”
They were all looking at me, waiting for me to say something.
“Well,” I started, “f-from what I read, mermaid tales come from all around the world. I think—”
“Tails?” Elmo interrupted. “How you do you know they’re not fish tails?”
“Tales as in stories, dumbo,” Zander said. “You know, like in books?”
“Just ignore them,” Reggie said to me. “Go on.”
“Lots of countries have stories about mermaids,” I said. “Some of them are thousands of years old.” I paused to take a breath.
“So? What does that prove?” Zander said.
“Quiet, let her talk,” Reggie said. “Camile never says anything because everyone else is too busy blabbing.”
“I think—I think it means there were m-mermaids everywhere a long time ago,” I said. “Maybe we don’t see them anymore because they’re almost extinct. They could be living in secret places, like maybe a cave in the ocean, or near a secret island or lagoon someplace. Maybe they stay away from us because we had something to do with driving them nearly to extinction.”
It was still hard for me to say a lot at one time, but I was getting better at it. It helped that Reggie wanted to hear what I had to say.
“Maybe humans ate them,” Elmo said. “Maybe they taste really good. That would explain why they stay away from people now.”
“Do you think the mermaids in the movie were real?” Reggie asked me.
I had been thinking about this, because although they didn’t look like Mermary, and they had five fingers, I had a theory that there were probably different races of mermaids, just like humans. That’s why mermaids looked different from each other sometimes.
“Yes,” I said. “I think Hollywood has some mermaids that act in movies, and they keep it a secret.”
“That’s absurd,” Zander said. “How could a half human live in water all the time? They’d be half wrinkled up all the time, not those smooth chicks we saw in the movie.”
“You’re absurd,” Reggie said. “Chicks are fuzzy baby chickens and can’t live in water. Furthermore, mermaid skin would adapt to being in water all the time. Humans are the most adaptable animal on the planet.”
“Oh, so now you’re saying mermaids are descended from humans?” Zander asked, shaking his head like he thought she was crazy.
“Maybe . . .” I started, and everyone looked at me. “M-maybe they evolved from humans.” I was thinking about the book I was reading earlier. Everyone looked at me again.
“Um . . . scientists think we evolved first into fish, right? When the whole world was covered with water. Then um, from fish, to live on the land.”
Everyone was waiting for me to say more.
“It’s just that . . . um . . . maybe some people lived on both land and sea for a long time, and people split off and became humans, and the other ones evolved so they had fish tails. That means mermaids are descended from humans.”
“Why would they do that?” Elmo asked. “Go back into the sea?”
“Yeah, wouldn’t that be de-evolution?” Zander asked. He changed his voice. “‘We are Devo.’” He laughed at his own joke again.
Elmo jumped up and started singing and dancing like a robot.
“‘We are Devo. D-E-V-O.’” He walked stiff-legged until he banged into the wall and rubbed his forehead, which made us all laugh.
“No. It’s still evolution,” Re
ggie said. “Evolution always happens in pursuit of food. Maybe there got to be too much competition on land.”
I nodded. We talked about it some more, until Reggie’s mother came in with two pizza boxes. The pizzas were huge and steaming, and smelled so good.
Reggie tore paper towels off a roll and gave a couple to each one of us. After everyone had taken a slice, I took one with Canadian bacon and pineapple because I’d never had it before. It tasted wonderful. It was fun to be at my first ever pirate party. Reggie was really fun, and she was smart too. I couldn’t wait to tell Mermary all about it on Monday.
Chapter 39
A Mermaid’s Cave
I asked my mother to drop me off at school extra early so I could go to church, but really it was because I had a lot to tell Mermary. I told her all about Reggie, her house, and the movie, and then about the sword fight and our argument about whether mermaids were real or not. Mermary loved hearing about the mermaids in the movie, but she thought the argument was really funny. When she laughed, she rolled and turned somersaults in the water and laughed in a watery, burble-y way that always made me laugh too.
“Mermaids are real, as real as real can be, I’m proof. Humans love mermaids, and yet they don’t want to believe in them to the point that they fight about it. Are people always mixed up about things?”
“Sometimes, yes.” I stopped giggling. “It’s good that most people don’t believe in mermaids, or there would be a lot more people out looking for them.”
“What’s the big deal? If someone looks toward me, I swim away really fast, even faster than fish. I don’t even think about it, it’s instinctual.”
Maybe that’s where the stories and art all came from, people seeing a mermaid, and the mermaid disappearing so fast, it made them think they had imagined a half human person with a fish tail. Mermary had something to tell me too.
“I found a little cave on one of the bird islands. The dirt washed out of a little area next to rocks, and the roots of a tree grow down into it. It’s moist, and I’ve been staying there. I keep things from the lake that I find there.”
The bird sanctuary had several little islands that had been built very close to the shore so people could bird watch. Nearby was a Regional Park Ranger’s building, where the park service had an office. They took care of the birds. Near to the center was the boathouse, where people could rent boats, or launch them if they owned one.
“Mermary, more people go to that area than any other place on the lake.”
“I know. But I’m careful. I go to the cave only after it gets dark. Besides, I always see people before they see me.”
“You do?”
“Yes. It’s almost like I can see behind me. That’s how I can disappear so fast.”
“Mermary, are you happy in the lake?”
“Yes, I love it here! Thank you so much for giving me such a wonderful, big home.”
I was glad that Mermary loved the lake, but I secretly felt a little guilty because, like my mother told me about the baby shark I’d found, Mermary probably really belonged in the ocean. I put her in the lake because I couldn’t bear to set her free in the huge ocean. Not only would she be in more danger there, I might never see her again. The warning bell at school rang, so we blew kisses and said good-bye.
Chapter 40
Presents
A few weeks after the Pirate Party, Reggie’s mother called my mom and invited us to a holiday bazaar at their church. Then Reggie got on the phone and asked me if I could spend the night.
“I have some mermaid videos I want to show you,” she asked. “And I got a mermaid DVD for us.”
My mother said I could spend the night and helped me pack my overnight bag. I was so excited. Lots of girls in my class had sleep-overs, and it always sounded like so much fun. I put a school book into my bag, but my mom took it out.
“Overnights are supposed to be fun, Camile. You’re not supposed to do homework. Save that for when you go to a study group.”
We all went in Reggie’s mother’s car. The bazaar was being held in the auditorium, which had been decorated with holly, red poinsettias, and garlands of pine. There were tables of baked goods and crafts. There was also a section for a flea market, which was where Reggie and I headed.
“Camile, don’t leave the building without telling me,” my mother said. Reggie’s mother winked.
Since it was going to be Christmas soon, I mostly looked for presents. I found a book on Stephen Hawking for my dad and a vase shaped like a dolphin for my mother. Reggie looked at everything, even things she didn’t want, and talked to the vendors about what they were selling. She wasn’t shy at all, and didn’t have a problem talking to anyone. At one stall, a woman was selling diving equipment.
“Are you a diver?” Reggie asked.
“No, my daughter was,” the lady replied. “She moved to the Midwest for a job and asked me to sell her gear.”
I found a small stainless steel knife that I thought was perfect for Mermary, now that she was getting bigger. It came in a rubber sheath that had two straps. The lady told me it was supposed to be strapped to a person’s thigh. Mermary would only need one strap to wear it, and I could make more holes in it so she could wear it around her waist. The lady told me it was eight dollars. Now I had a Christmas present for Mermary too. Reggie saw me putting the knife in my bag.
“Hey, can I see?” Reggie asked. “A diver’s knife. What’s it for?”
“Oh—I’m going to give it to my mother for Christmas,” I lied.
“You already got her a present. Does she dive?”
“Sometimes,” I said. Actually, my mother didn’t dive anymore. I hoped Reggie wouldn’t find out. “But she can use it for other things in her work. It’s stainless steel. It won’t rust.”
I didn’t want to answer more questions, so I pointed across the hall at a man who had piles of comic books.
“Look, comics!”
Reggie looked over. “Sure are! Let’s go see what he has.”
It’s a good thing Reggie was easily distracted. Her knowing about the diving knife made me feel strange because it seemed like a major clue to my big secret.
After we visited all the stalls, Reggie told our moms we were going upstairs to the school so she could show me her classroom. I was surprised that the room and walls and even the windows were messy. Desks were every which way, and there were all kinds of things on the walls, art, maps, quotes by famous people, numbered instructions on how to write an essay, and a great big calendar that had school events and days marked off, but also birthdays written in.
“Look at this!” Reggie pointed to the bottom part of the wall along the back of the room. It was a picture of a dark-skinned mermaid. It was mosaic, but made with paper instead of ceramic or glass.
“It’s really nice,” I said. “Did your class make it?”
“Yes, but it was my idea to do a mermaid. My teacher got a long piece of paper and drew the shape of the mermaid on it. Then we cut pieces of color out of magazines and glued them on to the different parts of her.”
“Your classroom is so different from the ones at my school,” I said. “It looks a lot more fun.”
After the bazaar we dropped my mom off and went back to Reggie’s house. For dinner, Reggie’s mom took us out for hamburgers, fries, and shakes, more food that I rarely got to eat. I had a strawberry shake but couldn’t finish it, so Reggie finished it for me, even though she had one already. Reggie talked with her mouth open while she ate, which I was taught not to do.
“Wait ’til you see the videos, Cam! People have been catching mermaids on camera and posting them!”
Since I had become friends with Reggie, she had gotten interested in mermaids too, and talked about seeing one “in real life.” When we got back to her house, we went up to her room and Reggie signed on and went to YouTube. The first video had been taken by a man. He was above the water, like maybe he was on a hill or in a helicopter. He was over a rock that was close to
the shore. It looked like a fish body was lying on the rock, then it moved and I could hear the guy saying, “What’s that?” A head looks up from the rock, and it looked like a mermaid with a roundish tail. She immediately scurried to the edge of the rock and jumped off.
The other video showed what looked like the top half of a person underwater. The bottom half of her was dark, and you couldn’t tell what it looked like. The mermaid, if that’s what it was, disappeared and the person with the camera kept scanning the water, but we didn’t see her again.
“Isn’t that weird?” Reggie asked. “She never comes up for air. That means she had to be a mermaid. Now watch this one . . .”
She brought up another video. In that one, a mermaid was on the shore of an island, lolling around on a beach like a film star. It was several minutes long, and I thought a real mermaid would probably have seen the boat and disappeared into the ocean, like the other two.
“The only thing is, the two mermaids look different from each other,” Reggie said. “If you just see one, you would think it was real. But when you compare the two we could see, the mermaids are completely different from each other. If they’re real, why are they so different?”
“Well, I have a theory that there are different races of mermaids, like there are different kinds of cats, sharks, or birds, some very different from each other. For example . . . manatees and dugongs, which are related . . . or sharks and whale sharks.” I went to Google images and showed her examples of each one.
“You’re right,” Reggie said. “I hadn’t thought about that. So people have probably always caught glimpses of mermaids, but now they’re starting to catch them on video.”
After we watched them a few times more, I asked Reggie if Zander and Elmo were coming over to watch the mermaid film with us.
“No, because it wouldn’t be as much fun. Zander doesn’t believe in mermaids and Elmo’s afraid of mermaids, which is ridiculous. Anyway, I just want you and me to see it so we can talk about it.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you know a lot about mermaids, and you know scientific stuff, so it’s fun to talk to you. Come on, let’s go get sodas and popcorn, then we can start the movie.”