The Mermaid Girl

by Xequina

  “Say a rosary to the Virgin Mary and ask her to help you learn the difference between reality and imagination.” Then he slammed the little door between us. I didn’t try to confess it again. All I could do was know in my heart, I was lying to protect her.

  Anyway, I had a bigger problem. I knew now that even a big lake was too small for a mermaid to live safely around human beings. That was probably the real reason mermaids didn’t live in them. I hadn’t thought about that before I released her into the lake. Of course, I couldn’t think of all the reasons it might be a bad idea ahead of time. That’s why sometimes, we have to learn from trial and error.

  Chapter 47

  Rumors

  I didn’t hear anything more about people seeing a mermaid in the lake, and I thought maybe I had been worried over nothing. Then one day at school, Bambi and Kitty asked me if I knew anything about it. I thought about saying no, but lying about it might make it worse.

  “Will Saunders said his friend thought he saw one. I think it’s just a rumor.”

  “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there really was a mermaid in the lake?” Bambi said. They both looked at me.

  “But if there really was a mermaid, wouldn’t we know already?” I said.

  “Maybe she just recently got there,” Bambi said.

  “Let’s go to the lake after school and see if we can spot her!” Kitty said.

  I thought about telling them that my mother had told me not to go to the lake anymore, but they would know that was a lie because I went every morning. So after school I went with them to the lake and stood on the landing where we had taken pictures at Halloween. They put their hands over their eyes to shield them from the afternoon sun and looked out at the water.

  “Mermaid!” Kitty called. “Mermaid! Where are you?”

  I hoped Mermary wouldn’t think that, because I was with Kitty and Bambi, it meant for her to come out. I stood behind them and made the sign for “don’t” so Mermary would know she shouldn’t come out.

  “Look at that guy over there,” Bambi said. “He’s hiding in the wisteria and taking pictures.”

  The man had a camera with a big lens on it.

  “He might be photographing the mermaid. Let’s go ask!” Kitty said.

  “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” I said.

  “I’ll do the talking,” Kitty said.

  “You’re not supposed to talk to strangers either,” Bambi said.

  “Only if I’m alone, but it’s okay because there are three of us.”

  I had a feeling she made that up. We went over to the colonnade where the guy stood behind a pillar.

  “Hello,” Kitty said. “Are you trying to get pictures of the mermaid?”

  “No,” he said. “I’m a private eye, and I’m working, if you don’t mind.” He moved further into the leaves that grew around the pillar. He seemed to be staring at two people by the side of the lake. I could tell we were bothering him, but Kitty kept talking to him.

  “People have been seeing a mermaid in the lake,” she told him.

  “Yeah, a mermaid,” he said. “Probably the Loch Ness Monster’s girlfriend.” He pushed his camera through the leaves then glanced around at us. “Hey, I’m sure you’re very nice kids, so be nice and go away, okay? If I see a mermaid, I promise I’ll take a picture.”

  Now I knew how rumors got started, and why sometimes they were dangerous. Except this wasn’t a rumor.

  Chapter 48

  An Excursion to the Lake

  About a month after Will’s friend had seen the mermaid, Reggie asked me to go to the wildlife sanctuary at the lake. It was a nice, warm day in April. When she showed up, she had an explorer’s hat on and the binoculars.

  “Are those for looking at birds?”

  “That too, but what I really want to do is look for the mermaid! Have you heard about it?”

  I stared at her. She went to school in a completely different part of Luna Beach. How did she know about the mermaid?

  “Hello, Reggie!” my mother said, coming downstairs. “Nice to see you.”

  “Hi, Ms. Barcela. Hey, have you heard that there’s a mermaid in Lake Meredith?”

  “A mermaid?” My mother stopped on her way into the living room. “Why, no, I haven’t.”

  “Lots of people have seen her. Her upper half looks like a regular girl except she’s brownish, sort of like a trout. She has long brown hair and she’s really pretty, but when she opens her mouth she has long, sharp teeth. Her fish half looks kind of like salamander skin, mud brown, so it blends in with the lake, and she has a big tail fin shaped like a crescent moon.”

  For a minute I was afraid my mother believed it, and that was actually worse than disbelieving.

  “That’s a pretty detailed description, Reggie,” my mother said. “Did you see the mermaid yourself?”

  “I wish. Jo Jo, a friend of mine told me her mother saw her. She was parked in a car facing the lake, and she saw her jump out of the water after a fish. Jo Jo told me not to tell anyone, but I can tell you because of what you do. Mermaids must be an endangered species since one’s never been found before.”

  “Why aren’t you supposed to tell anyone?” my mom asked.

  “Her mother doesn’t want people to think she’s crazy.”

  My mother smiled at this.

  “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had our own mermaid, right here in Luna Beach?” Reggie asked me. “Maybe we’ll see her today! That would show Thinks-He’s-So-Smart Zander.”

  My mother kissed me goodbye and told us to be careful before we set out. Reggie kept talking about the mermaid.

  “I can’t believe you haven’t heard about it,” Reggie said.

  “Actually, that rumor is going around my school too, but I didn’t believe it,” I said. “How do you know about it?”

  “Everyone’s talking about it.”

  “What do you mean ‘everyone’?”

  “The kids at my school. A girl said she and her friend were down by the pier a couple of weeks ago, and they spotted her.”

  I didn’t know what to think. Was it the same rumor going around my school, or had some different kids seen Mermary?

  As soon as we got to the lake Reggie swept the water with her binoculars, sometimes handing them to me so I could take a turn. We didn’t see Mermary, of course, because as soon as I got there I made the sign for her to disappear. I hoped she really had stopped swimming near boats or hanging out in populated areas around the lake.

  Looking at the water wasn’t all Reggie did. She also asked everyone we met if they knew about the mermaid. Some old ladies laughed when they heard. She even asked some seven-year-old kids who were fishing.

  “A what?” one of them asked.

  Reggie described a mermaid to them.

  “Oh, like the Little Mermaid,” one of them said. “My father said there’s no such thing.”

  “Well, people have been seeing one in this very lake. Tell that to your dad,” Reggie said.

  I was glum, because every time Reggie talked to someone, more people knew about a mermaid being in the lake and would be on the lookout for her. The only way to get her to stop would be to tell her the truth, but I couldn’t do that because I didn’t know if she could keep a secret.

  We walked by the side of the lake until we reached the bird and wildlife sanctuary. It was taken care of by the Regional Park Services, which had a science center attached to their office. I’d been there before with my mother, and I came on a field trip with my class because it was so close to school. They had stuffed birds and other animals, and an actual beehive with live bees inside a window, so we could see how they worked. There was also a display of animal skulls, and real specimens in jars that Reggie thought was really cool. On the walls were drawings done by children who had come to the center and drawn what they’d seen.

  Reggie went to the ranger’s office and asked the lady ranger what she knew about the mermaid.

  “We’ve been getting tha
t question a lot lately,” she said.

  “From who?” I asked.

  “All kinds of people. Isn’t it exciting? I’m thinking about making a mermaid exhibit. If you kids get any photographs of her, we’d love to have a copy.”

  “How about drawings?” Reggie asked. “My friend can draw mermaids.”

  “I’ll include mermaid art work,” the ranger said, smiling at me. “I like that idea, especially if you catch a look at her. That would make you an eyewitness.”

  I was miserable. I had thought Mermary would be safe in the lake, but she was being seen, and the rumors were going to be publicized!

  We left the ranger’s building and crossed over to the fence where people usually stood to look out at the islands. Reggie scanned the little islands with the binoculars, but spent more time searching the water.

  “Hey, are you okay Cam?” Reggie asked.

  “Yes, why?”

  “I don’t know. You seem kind of bummed out. Don’t you want to find the mermaid?”

  I nodded, although I could tell Reggie wasn’t convinced. After that I thought I better act like I was interested too. I reminded myself that just because some people claimed to have seen the mermaid, it didn’t mean they actually had. Mermary had promised she would be very careful. I decided to take this time to look carefully and notice if I could see her, and she just didn’t realize she could be seen. She was probably nearby because I was there, and I knew she was curious about Reggie.

  At lunchtime we got hotdogs and sodas from a concession stand and found a bench where we could eat and look out at the lake.

  “You know what I think?” Reggie said, talking with her mouth full. “That the mermaid must live in a cave on one of those islands. Let’s walk around to the other side of the lake and see the back of them with the binoculars.”

  I didn’t say anything, because of course, Mermary did live in one of them. But I thought it would be a good idea to find out if her cave could be seen from the other side of the lake.

  So after we ate, we double-backed and walked around the lake to the other side. The lake was narrow at this end, so it wasn’t that long of a walk, and it took us by Dragon Tree Point where I usually met Mermary. It felt strange because it almost seemed like I was showing Reggie the exact places where I saw a mermaid all the time. We reached the colonnade and I pointed across the street.

  “That’s Our Lady of the Lake Church, and that building across the courtyard is where I go to school.”

  “Wow, your church is awesome,” Reggie said, stopping to stare. “I know about Catholics and prayers and Jesus and Mary, but I’ve never been in a Catholic Church. Can you show it to me?”

  That was one of the things I liked about Reggie, she was interested in everything. We crossed the street and went inside, and I showed her the little font with holy water and how we used it to bless ourselves. The church inside was high, cool, and dim. No one else was there, only one small candle burned at the side of the altar. We walked down the middle aisle and looked at the stained glass windows, and I told Reggie about the statues of the saints.

  “So, who is the Lady of the Lake?”

  I pointed at the statue in a niche next to the altar. Our Lady of the Lake was a creamy white statue with her hands held out. I led Reggie over to it.

  “The mother of Jesus takes on lots of different forms around the world. Our Lady of the Lake is one on them.” I told her what Sister told us about her. “Even though she’s white, the original back in Europe was black, so she’s still considered a Black Madonna. They’re very holy, and grant miracles. Hundreds of years ago there were lots of Black Madonnas, but now the Catholic Church paints some of them white. Because of, you know, racism, but also because they’re trying to hide their former roots, which are pagan, not Catholic.”

  “Wait—pagan? I’m confused. Isn’t that the opposite of Catholic?”

  I tried to think of how to explain it. “You know how Christians go to other parts of the world and convert pagans? Well, say those people worshipped a goddess, that’s what made them pagan. Then the missionaries took down the statues of their goddesses and put statues of Mary in her place so that the people would forget about their old goddess and pray to Mary. But Mary is still connected with their old goddess. That’s how Mary’s roots are pagan. Does that make sense?”

  “Yeah. So go on about the Black Madonna.”

  “Black Madonnas are very miraculous, and they’re always connected with miracles and healing water. Most of them are in Europe, but we have one in Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe.”

  “I know about her,” Reggie said. “There’s pictures of her all over the Mission District in San Francisco. But she’s brown.”

  I nodded. “My teacher said that any Madonna who isn’t white is considered a Black Madonna.”

  “How about a green one?”

  I blinked. “Have you see a green one?”

  “I saw a picture of a carving from a castle in Europe. There were leaves all around her, and she was holding the baby Jesus. She was painted green.”

  I shrugged. “I guess so.”

  I knelt down on the kneeler in front of Our Lady of the Lake and put fifty cents in the box so I could light a candle, then said a prayer, silently asking the Virgin Mary what I always asked her: to keep Mermary safe. Reggie knelt too, but she kept looking at the statue.

  “Cam,” she said when I finished praying. “Could The Lady of the Lake secretly be a mermaid?”

  “A mermaid?” I had thought bringing Reggie here would take her mind off mermaids.

  “She looks like a mermaid,” Reggie said.

  I looked up. Of course I had seen her hundreds of times, and I never thought she looked like a mermaid. Her long dress was very slim and covered her legs and feet.

  “Look at the bottom of her skirt,” Reggie said.

  The bottom of her dress turned out sideways in both directions, and was carved very gracefully in a way that actually looked like they could be waves, or even a half-moon on its back, with curly ends.

  “Her dress could be hiding a tail, that’s why the bottom of her dress is spread out like that,” Reggie said. “Actually, it sort of looks like it could be a fin.”

  She was right, I had never noticed it before. I told Reggie we should leave so we could talk about it. I wasn’t sure if it was disrespectful to talk about green Marys, and Mary being a pagan mermaid, in church.

  Outside, I told Reggie, “One of the books I read said that a long time ago, there were cultures that worshipped mermaid goddesses. I know Our Lady of the Lake is from an ancient European culture that was on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the same area that had a mermaid goddess. So maybe you’re right.”

  “Cool! A Catholic Virgin Mary of mermaids!”

  That sounded funny and I laughed. We crossed the street back to the lake. I was glad I had prayed, I was feeling a lot better, a lot less scared than I was earlier. We walked along the side of the lake until the islands were across from us, but even with the binoculars we couldn’t see anything that might be a cave. I was glad we had done this, because I felt a lot more secure that it couldn’t be seen. After that we went home.

  I thought some more about Our Lady of the Lake being a mermaid. If Reggie was right, it really was cool, even magical. More importantly, I was sure Mary of the Lake would keep Mermary hidden and safe, because she was one of her own.

  Chapter 49

  Photo Evidence

  The rumors at my school didn’t stop. They got worse. Then one day when I got to school, a bunch of girls were gathered around Kitty and Bambi. I went over to see what they were looking at.

  “Come here, Camile, look!” Kitty said.

  She showed me one of the pictures her mother had taken of us on the landing at Halloween. “I was looking at our Halloween pictures this morning and I noticed this. There’s four mermaids!”

  I looked at the photo but I didn’t know what she was talking about. Then Kitty pointed to the water
behind us, and I gasped. The late afternoon sun was shining through the water, and there was a shadow that looked exactly like a mermaid shape. It was Mermary.

  “The mermaid came to look at us in our mermaid costumes!” Bambi said.

  All I could do was stare with my mouth open.

  “It’s just a shadow though,” one girl, Tricia, said doubtfully. “It’s not a picture of an actual mermaid, so it could be something else, like maybe a piece of wood floating in the water.”

  I nodded, glad that someone else had pointed that out.

  “Well, I think it’s the mermaid,” a bossy girl named Allie said.

  “Me too,” Susan said.

  Everyone was excited about it. Jeannie, one of the popular girls, was looking at me.

  “Camile, have you ever seen the mermaid?”

  I shook my head.

  “Some first graders told me you had,” Allie said.

  “I—I thought I saw a mermaid once, but I’m n-not sure if that’s what it was,” I stammered. “Anyway, that was near the ocean, not the lake.”

  “Why do you go to the lake every morning?” Nela asked.

  “Yeah, why?” Allie asked crossly.

  Everyone was looking at me now. I had known that sooner or later, someone was going to ask me this, and I already had an answer planned. “The lake is really beautiful in the morning. I go there to meditate and pray. Remember how Sister told us we could meditate anywhere?”

  “Okay, so why do you go again after school?” Allie asked.

  “I don’t.”

  “You used to,” Tricia said.

  “Because—because I love the lake.”

  “I think you’re seeing the mermaid,” Allie said. “Why don’t you want to tell us about it?”

  “Please tell us!” Kitty begged.