“No, wait!” cried the voice. “Do you have a daughter named Pearl?”
“Yes, yes we do!” Lina gasped. “Have you seen her? Is she all right? Did you talk to her?”
“Not exactly,” the man said. “She kind of wrote your number and a message on the outside of our submersible’s dome.”
“So she’s okay?” Lina asked.
“That’s the message she wanted us to give to you. So, if you consider that it’s all right that she was swimming under the ocean at twelve-hundred feet, and she has a long fish tail, then I guess she is.”
“Where is she?”
“We met her near Cocos Island, southwest of Costa Rica,” he answered.
“Thank you so much!” Lina said and then let out a long sigh.
“Please pardon the question, but are you some kind of mermaid too?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Lina answered a bit too curtly. “My husband and I are ordinary humans. Pearl is…..special.”
“Oh, yah, well that explains it,” he muttered.
“But thank you so much for calling and giving me her message,” she said with relief. “It was very kind of you.”
“Yeah, well, any time,” the man added awkwardly and then hung up.
“What happened?” Ivan blurted out.
“Where is she?” cried Hal.
Lina looked at them for a moment, and then reached for the sketches she had been working on before the phone rang.
“I started this about fifteen minutes before the call came in,” she told them as she scanned the picture one more time. Then she turned it for them to see.
It was a sketch of a new, high-tech, three-man submersible. The three men inside were staring up through the clear spherical dome where Pearl, with her tail flared out, was writing a message with some kind of stick on the top of the dome.
“Half an hour ago,” Lina said in hushed tones, “Pearl stopped to write a message with a grease pen on the dome of a three-man submersible. They were twelve hundred feet deep in the ocean out off Cocos Island off the west coast of Costa Rica.”
Ivan and Hall looked at Lina then looked at the picture. Slowly they started to gather up all the other pictures and look at them carefully. With a growing certainty, they all realized that what they were actually looking at, was the story of Pearl’s journey.
Say Uncle
On a normal Sunday on Maui, Amy and Randy Weiz would be out surfing, snorkeling, or sailing with their two kids, Zach and Jessie. But not this Sunday … not since the mermaid madness began.
Randy Weiz had been a top deep-sea diver and photographer when he met his lovely wife Amy during her internship under Dr. Steve Gittings in her second summer at NOAA. She’d been working on her master’s degree on marine biology, specializing in the study of coral genetics and the effects of an anomalous temperature regime on coral health. After having two kids, Randy and Amy had regretfully retired from the marine research community to find more lucrative careers.
Randy had become a major real estate broker and developer, and Amy had become a banquet and special events director for the Lahaina Hilton. They looked like a Hollywood version of Adam and Eve. He had worked his way through college as a personal trainer to the stars, and she had been a model from her teens through her twenties. They had the golden touch to go with their golden looks and lived a very nice life in the “Garden of Eden” of the Pacific.
They were also Hal’s godparents. Randy had gone to school with Holger and Halder and he’d done all the photography for every paper, book, or pamphlet they had ever published. Amy had entered the picture three years before Halder’s death, and the two of them had been the saviors of Holger’s sanity when the “accident” happened. Holger’s wife, Lisa, had seen the accident as a sign to end their marriage, and it had been Amy and Randy who had kept him together when she took his baby boy and left him. They were also there a couple years later when Lisa arrived out of nowhere to leave the then three-year-old Hal on his doorstep so she could go off and pursue her rock-and-roll career with her new boyfriend.
Hal and the eldest Weiz boy Zach were like brothers, and their daughter Jessie thought she was the Little Mermaid. Randy and Amy were the ones who watched over Hal every September 29th, and the only people Holger had ever told about Halder’s phone call, or to whom he had ever shown the picture of Adara.
Whenever Holger needed a shoulder to cry on or a buddy to drink with, Randy and Amy were his first call. Today was not going to be any different. He stood outside on the balcony of his hotel room in Bermuda, hit the speed dial on his phone, and waited for the other end to pickup.
“Hello, Amy?”
“Holger!” Amy’s warm voice had a touch of panic to it. “We’ve been worried sick about you! What is going on?”
“Amy, is Randy there too?”
“Yes, he’s right here.”
“Have him pick up the other phone please—or put me on speaker.” Holger sighed, relieved he was able to reach them. “I’ve got something to talk to you both about, and I don’t want to do it twice.”
Holger heard the other phone pick up and Randy’s voice came in right on cue. “Hey, buddy, I’m right here. What’s up? Is Hal okay?”
“Everyone is fine so far, but things are a little crazy and getting more complicated every time I turn around.” He was so thankful to have someone he could talk to, that he had to be careful not to break down.
“We’re right here for you, pal. What do you need us to do?” Randy continued in a strong, steady voice.
“I FedEx’d a package to you today. I want you both to read everything in it as soon as it arrives, and call me back on my satellite phone when you’re done. But please use a pay phone—not your home phone or cell phones.”
“What’s all this mermaid nonsense?” Amy asked.
“I wish I could tell you it was nonsense,” he said softly.
“It’s real?” asked Randy.
“Read the papers in the package, and then we’ll talk,” Holger told them. “Amy, I need you to hack into the Washington State medical records and get me a copy of a birth certificate.”
“Whose? What year?” she asked.
“September 29th, thirteen years ago. The name is Adara Thorson.”
“So it really was Halder?”
“Yeah, it was.” Unable to keep his emotions in check any longer, he sobbed.
“We’re so sorry, pal” Randy soothed.
“But that’s wonderful!” Amy gasped.
“It would be, if she hadn’t turned into a mermaid.” Holger sighed.
“Wow, that whole Queen of the Oceans story just came back to bite you, didn’t it?” Randy quipped.
“Like I said, read the papers, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow. Just see if you can get me the birth certificate. I’ll talk about everything with you tomorrow. Love you guys.” and he hung up.
On the other end of the line, five and a half thousand miles away in Hawaii, Randy and Amy looked at each other in utter disbelief.
“Okay, that was just too weird,” Randy muttered, as he poured himself another cup of coffee and Amy finished clearing the morning dishes away.
“It’s Holger we’re talking about. He’s a scientist, not an alien abductee,” Amy retorted.
“Yah, well, we’re just going to have to see what these mysterious documents are all about,” Randy added as he crossed to open the front door and grab the Sunday Times. It was their personal guilty pleasure. They had the Sunday New York Times delivered every weekend and did the crossword puzzle together.
“Even for Holger, I don’t want you hacking into any government files on some wild—” Randy stopped in mid sentence as he glanced at the front page.
“Randy, what’s the matter?” Amy said as she crossed over to him to peek over his shoulder. He was staring at a picture of a mermaid sitting on top of the dome of a submersible, scrawling a note on the glass. The caption below the picture read, “Move over E.T.—Mermaid phones home!”
<
br /> They took one look at each other, dropped the paper on the floor, and crossed over to Amy’s computer. She was a computer geek par excellence, and within five minutes, was scrolling through the records of birth certificates for the Seattle, Washington area.
Two Legs and Back Again
Pearl felt like the fish out of water that she was, as she tried to hoist herself up onto a ridge of rocks that rose out of the water and stretched back to connect with the island. Patches had just swum straight to the beach and walked up out of the water. That was easier said than done for her. She would either have to drag herself by her hands up to dry sand, or struggle up on to the rocks—neither option, an easy task.
It was all very undignified as far as she was concerned. What would Ann Hathaway do, or better yet, Julie Andrews? She always makes a “classy entrance,” she thought, using the phrase her mother would use. In “Mary Poppins” she just held up that strange umbrella of hers, and it lifted her up in the air.
“Princess,” patches called to her from the beach, “we really must be going.”
“Thanks for the tour guide info, Patches, but I’m still working on getting myself out of the water.”
“Well, just create a wave that lifts you up and puts you down on top of the rocks,” he called out to her.
“Yah, right. Why didn’t I think of that?” Pearl huffed. “Like that’s gonna work.”
“Then please do so, Princess. We need to get you out of sight before one of those human ships sails by and sees you.”
“You mean you’re serious about the wave?” she blurted out.
“Well of course I am,” Patches replied. “That’s what mermaids do.”
“I guess I missed class that day, Patches,” she retorted, “because I haven’t got a clue how to do it!”
“Just focus on what you want the water to do, and then command that it be done,” he said in a way that made it sound so simple.
So Pearl did what he said, but she tried a little too hard. All of a sudden she was hurled up into the air on a very high column of water. She was so surprised, she lost her focus and the water immediately subsided, leaving her flailing in mid air five feet off the ground, only to drop like a ton of bricks onto the hard rock ledge with a thud. Worst of all, she tumbled back into the water with a splash.
“That’s the right idea, Princess, but a gentle, swelling wave would be more effective,” Patches called out.
“Ouch!” was all Pearl could answer as she rubbed her hip. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”
“Shall we try it again?” Patches called from the beach as he started to crawl in her direction.
“Not in this century!” Pearl snapped.
“But I can’t navigate the rocks you landed on, and you need to ride on my back as we travel to the Turtle King. That way your tail can dry so you can transform back into your human form.”
“I can do that?” Pearl gasped. “You mean if my tail dries, it will change back into my legs again?”
“Yes.” Patches sniffed.
Pearl giggled in fascination.
“Couldn’t you just make another wave to wash you up past that jagged rock that blocks my path?” Patches whined as he pointed with his front flipper to a large boulder at the end of the ledge that blocked access to and from the beach. The shape of the
boulder really did make it impossible for him to climb, she realized.
“Yah, right,” Pearl muttered as she also realized it would take a major wave to lift her over it, or around it, and she might lose control again and smash into the rocks. Then suddenly, something Patches had said sank into her brain. “Wait a minute, Patches! If I need to ride on your back until I dry out, why didn’t I just sit there as you walked up out of the water?”
“Well, I suppose that would have been all right, but most mermaids like to rise up on a wave, and that tends to be much faster than riding with me.”
“Most mermaids? Just how many mermaids have you known, Patches?”
“Besides you, Your Highness?”
“Yes, besides me!”
“Then only two—your grandmother, Queen Helmi, and your mother, Princess Miranda.”
“And about how old were they when you met them?”
“Well, Queen Helmi was almost three thousand years old, but the princess was not yet eight hundred years.” Patches sighed.
“Well, I’ve only been a mermaid for a week, so give me a break, will you?” Pearl blurted out and snapped her tail in frustration. It turned out that wasn’t such a good idea either since it propelled her forward and caused her to skin what would be her knee, if mermaids had knees, on a piece of submerged coral.
“Ouch!” she whimpered as she rubbed the new gash. “As far as being a mermaid goes, today really stinks!” And Pearl stubbornly waited for Patches to swim out to her.
“All right, Princess,” Patches muttered in his ‘patient’ tone. “Grab on to the edge of my shell behind my neck, and as
soon as my flippers touch the sand, pull yourself up onto my shell and sit.”
“Okay, I think I can manage that.” And in fact, the whole thing went swimmingly. Pearl felt like a perfect princess perched on the back of Patches’ shell as he crawled up onto the sand.
“Take that, Jenna Ambers!” she said with a wicked giggle. Pearl looked up and gave the princess wave to a couple of flightless cormorants who were staring at her from the rocks as they stood there holding out their wings to dry.
Actually, quite a few critters, including iguanas and turtles, had begun to gather. It was all going beautifully until she could swear she heard Patches grunting. “What’s the matter, Patches?” she asked.
“Nothing, Princess,” he said with a definite grunt. “I’ve just never carried a princess on my back before.”
“Hey,” Pearl said, “you’re not implying I’m fat, are you?” she teased.
“Not at all, Princess,” Patches reassured her.
“Well, if you were, I’d have to turn you into a … a toad!” Pearl joked.
“Quite the contrary, Princess, you are admirably slim,” Patches sputtered. “Besides, I don’t think turning turtles into toads is part of your mermaid powers.”
“Are you sure about that?” Pearl tapped her tail on the rim of his shell.
“Not exactly,” Patches grudgingly replied.
“Then be quiet before we both find out.” She grinned.
“Humph,” was his only response.
Pearl wasn’t sure Patches knew she was only kidding, but their conversation really did help lighten her mood.
Knights of the Deep
The next call Holger made was to the advocate and investment management firm of Bruun & Gottorp. They were listed on the documents he’d found in the safety deposit box as the attorney and trust management firm for the Oceanus Foundation and for Duke Valdemar and Duchess Miranda Brahe-Sinkel-Laurvig of Egeskov.
“Hello, my name is Holger Thorson, and I would like to speak to—”
“Just a moment, Mr. Thorson,” a secretarial voice cut him off with an excited gasp. “I’ll put you through to Mr. Bruun immediately!”
“Mr. Thorson?” a rich, buttery voice, with just a hint of Nordic accent, clicked in a moment later. “So glad to hear from you.”
“You’ve been expecting my call?” Holger asked in amazement.
“Yes, of course. We’ve been waiting to hear from you for years, but under the terms of the trust, we were not allowed to contact anyone in the royal family, except for the Duchess Miranda at the Faeroes manor, unless it was an emergency. We’ve been trying to reach you concerning Princess Adara since last Thursday. The duchess has not contacted us in many years, which, all things considered, is not that unusual. But after Princess Adara appeared on television and in the papers, we expected to hear from Duchess Miranda directly—or your brother, the duke.”
“Okay, I think we need to take this a little slower. You know about my niece … and my brother was a duke?”
“Was? Dr. Thorson, has something happened to the duke?” Mr. Bruun’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Miranda and Halder died in a car explosion outside of Seattle, Washington, thirteen years ago,” Holger answered simply.
“The duchess is dead? That doesn’t seem possible. She’s … immortal—she doesn’t age … I’ve known her since I was a child! My grandfather almost married her. She can’t have died.”
“The people who rescued Adara believe it was not an accident … that the car was blown up with a bomb,” Holger proffered.
“Vasili!” Mr. Bruun’s voice hissed.
The Beginning of a Greek Tragedy
Vasili might have become a different man, but fate can be either a cruel mistress or a kind friend. She had been both to him. Fate had shown him the one love of his life as a boy, tantalized him with her immortal beauty, and then denied him that love, again and again.
She had sailed in and out of his life, the beautiful Madonna who had come to Mykonos to aid the orphans and the poor after the devastation of World War II. At first, he had scoffed at his fellow street urchins who talked about the lovely lady who brought gifts of food, clothing, shoes, and chocolate. But then he had seen her for himself.
Miranda was truly beautiful and radiant as she walked among the widows and the orphans. She brought doctors with her, and they gave medicine to any who were sick. She pressed coins, food, and candy into the hands of all the children of the streets.
She possessed a beauty he had never seen in any woman before, and she carried that beauty in a way he could not describe. Somehow, deep in his heart, the young Vasili knew she was destined to be a part of his life.
So he’d decided to take destiny into his own hands and put himself into hers, by swimming out into the harbor and stowing away on her ship. After they sailed away, he would reveal himself to her, she would praise him for his bravery, and she would adopt him. She would make him her little prince, and they would live happily together for the rest of their lives.
All The Mermaids In The Sea Page 20