The Secret Sea Horse

by Debbie Dadey

  Contents

  TRIDENT CITY MAP

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  1 THE WORST THING

  2 GLOOMY

  3 THE SEA HORSE LEGEND

  4 ZOLLIE THE SEA HORSE

  5 ECHO WANTS A PET

  6 PRISON

  7 END OF THE OCEAN

  8 RIGHT OR WRONG?

  9 WILD CREATURES

  10 SECOND CHANCE

  CLASS DRAWINGS

  THE MERMAID TALES SONG

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Dream of the Blue Turtle Excerpt

  About Debbie Dadey

  GLOSSARY

  To my Moland House friends:

  Ed Price, Ken and Lorraine Barlow,

  Clare Reilly, Mary Lutz,

  Bob and Joy Snyder,

  Murrie and Chaya Gayman,

  Cal and Sandy Uzelmeier,

  Warren Williams, Nancy Crowder,

  Nancy Elias, Ginny Wolfe,

  Toots Brown, Cheryl Lewicki,

  Joan and Dave Healy, Ed Greenawald,

  Dave and JoAnne Mullen, Chet Davis,

  and Dawn Dickson

  The Worst Thing

  ECHO REEF HELD HER BREATH. She crossed her fingers and her pink tail fins. She was hoping that Mrs. Karp wouldn’t say the worst thing ever. But she did.

  “Class,” Mrs. Karp said, looking around the room of twenty third graders, “we will have a spelling test on Wednesday.”

  Echo’s heart sank. But a merboy named Rocky Ridge cheered, “Yippee!” Everyone looked at Rocky in surprise. Usually he hated any kind of schoolwork.

  Rocky smiled and then he laughed. “Just kidding.”

  Mrs. Karp raised her green eyebrows at Rocky, but continued. “Since we only have two days before your test, I’ll give you a short list of ten words.”

  Ten words! Echo thought it might as well have been a million. Echo was a good merstudent in most of the subjects at Trident Academy. She liked merology, storytelling, science, and astronomy. But spelling was difficult for her.

  Mrs. Karp pointed to a list of words on a seaweed chart. “These ocean creatures are extremely interesting. It will be quite useful to know how to spell their names.” Echo looked at the list as Mrs. Karp called on various students to read the words aloud.

  “Pipefish,” Shelly Siren said.

  “Sea dragon,” Kiki Coral read.

  Then Pearl Swamp read, “Sea horse.” Echo loved sea horses. She couldn’t help daydreaming about them. They were so cute and graceful. Sometimes she visited the Conservatory for the Preservation of Sea Horses and Swordfish, where her mother worked. Housed in the fabulous Trident Plaza Hotel, the conservatory had the largest display of sea horses known to merfolk. It was also a hospital for sick or hurt sea horses. Echo liked sea horses even more than she liked humans—and she adored everything about humans.

  “Echo,” Mrs. Karp said, “please read the next word.”

  Echo gulped. She’d been so busy thinking about sea horses, she wasn’t sure which word were they on. She guessed and read, “Stonefish.”

  Mrs. Karp tapped her white tail on her marble desk and shook her head. “Echo, you need to pay closer attention. Pearl, please read the next word.”

  Pearl looked at Echo and stuck her nose up in the water before reading, “Trumpet fish.”

  Echo sighed. How was she ever going to learn ten new spelling words before Wednesday? She wished she could ride away on a sea horse and never take another spelling test ever again.

  Gloomy

  MERSTUDENTS FROM GRADES three to ten filled the cafeteria. Rocky and Adam sat at a table full of loud boys, seeing who could slurp the longest ribbon worm without breaking it. Echo, Shelly, and Kiki were in the lunch line when Shelly handed a folded piece of seaweed to Mr. Fangtooth, the lunchroom worker. “Mr. Fangtooth, we found this letter. I think it belongs to you,” she said.

  Echo recognized the note they’d found near the Manta Ray Express station a few days ago. “A nice lady dropped it by accident. We tried to give it back to her, but she swam away too quickly,” she added.

  Mr. Fangtooth opened the letter. His eyes got wide and he smiled, something he rarely ever did.

  Without a word he dropped his big serving shell and swam out of the cafeteria. “That was weird. I wonder where he went,” Kiki said as she helped herself to some ribbon worms.

  “I can’t believe it! I think we made him happy,” Shelly said. “But someone else needs cheering up today.”

  Echo looked around the large lunchroom. Carvings of famous merpeople hung on the walls. Merstudents of all ages sat around polished granite tables with the gold Trident Academy logo in the centers. Everyone chatted in between bites of food. No one looked sad. “Who?” Echo asked.

  “You!” Shelly said as the three mergirls sat down at their favorite table.

  “Me?” Echo said.

  Kiki nodded. Her long dark hair swirled in the water around her face. “You’ve been acting gloomy ever since Mrs. Karp told us about the spelling test.”

  Echo groaned. “You know how much I hate spelling!”

  “Don’t worry,” Shelly said. “We’ll help you.”

  Echo smiled. “Really?”

  “Of course,” Kiki said. “That’s what friends are for.”

  Shelly took a bite of her hagfish jelly sandwich. She swallowed and said, “Okay, Echo. Let’s get started. The first word is ‘pipefish.’ It’s pretty easy. Just put ‘pipe’ and ‘fish’ together.”

  Echo tried it. “P-I-P-F-I-S-H.”

  “Close,” Kiki told her. “You only left out one letter.”

  Echo groaned again. “It’s so hard. I don’t see why we have to have spelling tests, anyway. I’ve heard that humans don’t have them.”

  “It doesn’t matter, because you aren’t human,” Shelly said. “You are a mermaid, and you have a test on Wednesday, so you’d just better study.”

  Echo sighed. “What’s the next word?”

  Kiki thought for a minute. “I think it is ‘sea horse.’ Try ‘sea’ and then ‘horse.’ ”

  “That’s the one I know how to spell!” Echo said. “S-E-A H-O-R-S-E!”

  “Perfect,” Kiki said. “I knew you could do it.”

  Echo smiled. “Wouldn’t it be cool to own a sea horse?”

  “Do you know the legend of the sea horse?” Kiki asked.

  Echo and Shelly shook their heads.

  Kiki grinned. “Then let me tell it to you.”

  The Sea Horse Legend

  ECHO AND SHELLY PUT DOWN their sandwiches and leaned in close as Kiki started her story. “Sea horses once lived on dry land. They had four legs and a tail of hair that was just for decoration. They could hardly swim at all and carried humans on their backs over dry land.”

  “Humans?” Echo asked. “I never knew that sea horses carried humans.”

  “Me neither,” Shelly said before wiping hagfish slime off her face.

  Kiki nodded. “They were called horses then. Until one day, a big stallion—”

  “What’s a stallion?” Echo asked.

  “A male horse,” Kiki said. “So this boy horse walked along the shoreline in murky water with some of his friends, and quite by accident stepped on Neptune’s tail.”

  Echo gasped. “You mean King Neptune? The King Neptune?” Neptune was the original king of the sea.

  Kiki nodded. “Neptune was furious and swiftly touched the horse with his trident. The stallion reared up on its hind legs and tried to run away, but it was too late.”

  “What happened?” Shelly asked, her blue eyes wide.

  “The horse’s front legs disappeared and its rear legs turned into a tail. It got smaller and smaller until it was no longer than your hand. Then it plopped into th
e ocean and quickly swam away.” Kiki finished her story and ate a handful of ribbon worms.

  “But some sea horses are big,” Echo said. “I’ve seen them at the Conservatory for the Preservation of Sea Horses and Swordfish.”

  Kiki nodded. “Yes, King Neptune changed the stallion’s friends to sea horses as well, but some he kept large so they could pull his royal shell.”

  Echo closed her eyes for a second and imagined being in Neptune’s royal shell carriage. She sighed and opened her eyes. “I don’t care how sea horses came to be. I think they are amazing.”

  Rocky floated by their table with an empty lunch tray. “You’re right, Echo. Sea horses are awesome. I know all about them,” he bragged. “I have one at home.”

  Echo looked at him and laughed. “No wavy way.” Rocky was always acting silly, and Echo figured this was just another one of his jokes.

  “I really do,” Rocky said. “I’m not kidding!”

  “Then prove it,” Shelly said, scrunching her nose. “We want to see it.”

  “All right,” Rocky said. “Meet me in the front hallway when the last conch sounds after school. You can all come to my shell and I’ll show you my sea horse. If you’re nice, I might even let you ride him.”

  Echo gasped. Could Rocky be serious?

  Zollie the Sea Horse

  MY SEA HORSE IS NAMED Zollie,” Rocky told Echo, Kiki, and Shelly, as the three mergirls swam with him to his shell later that afternoon.

  “That’s a funny name,” Echo said, still not believing that Rocky actually had a real live sea horse. She was sure he was teasing them.

  “Echo, it’s not nice of you to say it’s a funny name,” Rocky said. “My grandfather was named Zollie.”

  Echo felt bad for making fun. Maybe Rocky wasn’t joking. “I’m sorry,” she said. You’re right. It’s a great name.”

  “Rocky, I should be home studying our spelling words,” Shelly said. “If you’re wasting my time, I’m going to be mad.”

  Rocky and his father, Mayor Ridge, lived at the farthest edge of Trident City in a big shell. When the merkids finally arrived, they floated to the back of the large home.

  Rocky went around a smaller storage shell and pointed. “I’m telling the truth,” he said. “There, that’s Zollie.”

  Echo squealed. She couldn’t believe her eyes. In front of them drifted a large, bright orange sea horse. It snorted and nuzzled Rocky’s hand. Rocky gently rubbed Zollie’s neck. The mergirls had never seen Rocky act so kindly toward anything!

  “Look, Zollie’s wagging his tail,” Kiki said with a laugh.

  Shelly nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, Rocky. Your sea horse is amazing.” Zollie’s head towered over them and his body was covered with big bumps. Echo knew the bumps were quite normal for sea horses.

  “How old is he?” Kiki asked.

  “He’s about five, which is pretty old for a sea horse,” Rocky told them. “He was a birthday present. My uncle found him trapped in a human net.”

  “So he grew up wild?” Shelly asked.

  Rocky nodded. “Yep. Zollie is one hundred percent wild sea horse.”

  “You are so lucky,” Echo told him. “I wish someone would give me a present like this. All I ever get is glowing plankton for my hair.” Echo did like shiny objects, but she’d trade all her sparkling treasures for just one sea horse.

  “Would you like to ride him?” Rocky asked.

  Echo looked at Rocky in disbelief. She’d always thought he was kind of cute, but now she thought he was the best merboy in the whole world. She was so excited, she could hardly speak. “Really?” she asked.

  Rocky nodded. “Zollie is nice. I don’t think he’d mind.” In less than two merminutes, Rocky helped Echo get on Zollie’s back.

  “Are you sure this is such a good idea?” Kiki asked. “Maybe you should ask your parents first.”

  “Don’t worry,” Rocky said. “I ride him all the time. My dad said Zollie is the gentlest sea horse he’s ever seen.”

  “Hold on tight,” Shelly suggested.

  Echo nodded and squeezed Zollie’s leash tightly. “Now what do I do?” Echo asked.

  “Just say ‘giddyup’ to go and ‘whoa’ when you want to stop,” Rocky said.

  Echo shrugged. “Okay. Giddyup!” she said.

  Zollie raced off, with Echo screaming happily as she rode.

  Echo Wants a Pet

  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!” Echo told her older sister, Crystal, that evening. “I never knew anything could be that exciting.”

  She was helping Crystal make crab popovers for dinner while they waited for their parents to come home from work. “More than anything, I wish I could have a sea horse for a pet.”

  Crystal glanced up from her shell bowl of crab and shook her head. “That will never happen. Ever.”

  Echo looked at her sister in surprise. She knew their mother didn’t like keeping pets, but maybe she’d make an exception. After all, Echo really, really wanted a sea horse. “What if I earned the jewels myself?” Echo asked. “How much do you think a pet sea horse costs?”

  “There’s no wavy way,” Crystal said.

  Echo put her right hand on her hip. “Why not?”

  “Because sea horses are not pets. They shouldn’t be kept on a leash!” Crystal snapped. “Sea horses should be free. How would you like to be locked up?”

  “What?” Echo said, even though she had heard her sister. Crystal didn’t say another word and neither did Echo.

  At dinner, Echo didn’t even mention Zollie to her parents. She could barely eat her crab popover. She kept hearing her sister’s words: Sea horses should be free. Could her sister be right?

  Later, Echo was supposed to be studying her spelling words, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Crystal and Zollie. Echo tossed and turned all night. The next morning, she woke up extra early. She left a note for her parents and swam silently over to Rocky’s before school. Zollie snorted when he saw her. Echo giggled when he nudged her hand. She patted his head. “Are you happy being a pet?” Echo asked him.

  Unfortunately, Echo didn’t speak the sea horse language. She was pretty sure Zollie didn’t speak the mermaid language either because he didn’t answer. But when she saw a big tear slide down his cheek, she got tears in her own eyes.

  Prison

  THAT’S QUITE LOVELY,” MISS Haniver told Echo later that morning at school. “You show amazing artistic ability.” The merkids were in art class drawing pictures to match their spelling words. Echo sure hoped it would help her remember them.

  Echo was tired, but still grinned at her octopus ink drawing of a sea horse. She had never thought she was talented at art. Her sister, Crystal, was the one who’d won school contests with sculpting. In fact, Crystal’s goal was to sculpt every sea creature in the ocean.

  When Echo was finished with the sea horse, she went to the art station and got another piece of seaweed to draw a picture of the next word. A colorful poster about sea horses and razorfish caught her eye. She didn’t care about razorfish, but read about the sea horses.

  Zollie was a male sea horse. Echo couldn’t help wondering if he had ever carried babies in his pouch. Then she had a terrible thought. What if he had children that were looking for him? Did sea horses keep in touch with their young like merpeople? Suddenly Echo felt horrible.

  “Miss Haniver,” Pearl complained, “Echo isn’t doing her work and she’s in my way. I need another piece of seaweed.”

  Miss Haniver peered through her tiny glasses at Echo. “I’m sorry,” Echo said, swimming away from Pearl and back to her own artwork.

  Echo picked up her sea quill, but she kept looking back at the sea horse poster. Before she knew it the class was over, and she had only finished drawing pictures for four words.

  On the way to lunch Shelly whispered to her, “You didn’t study very much. You’d better finish this evening.”

  “I will,” Echo answered. She was quiet until they were all at the lunch table
. Suddenly she blurted out to Kiki and Shelly, “Can you speak sea horse?”

  Shelly and Kiki spoke the languages of many different sea creatures, but they both shook their heads. “Why do you want to speak sea horse?” Kiki asked.

  “I want to ask Zollie if he minds being a pet and kept on a leash by Rocky,” Echo explained.

  Shelly looked up from her lunch of spotted scorpion fish soup to answer, “Well, I don’t know about Zollie, but I’d mind.”

  Kiki nodded. “I’ve heard that if a merperson is captured by humans, they put them in a pen and never let them go.”

  Echo gasped. The thought of being trapped in some sort of prison would give her nightmares. What would it be like? What was it like for Zollie? She had to find out. She would visit him again right after school. Spelling would just have to wait.

  End of the Ocean

  GET YOUR FRESH RIBBON EEL!” Echo called to the crowd of customers at Reef’s Fish Store. She tried to be cheerful. Her family’s shop was the last place she wanted to be, but her father had insisted she help out at the huge high-tide sale. They’d been so busy that she hadn’t had a chance to think about sea horses until Crystal put a lovely hatchetfish on the rock counter for a customer.

  After the happy shopper left, Crystal asked Echo, “Did you think about what I said about sea horses?”

  Echo had thought of nothing else, but for some reason she didn’t want her sister to know. Echo shrugged. “A little.”

  Crystal wiped the rock counter while there were no customers and said, “Some creatures should not be pets.”

  “Why not?” Echo asked. All her life she’d dreamed of riding a sea horse. Why was that so bad?

  Crystal frowned. “Because . . . because they should be able to choose,” she said.

  Echo held up a ribbon eel. “This eel didn’t choose to be someone’s dinner.”

  “That’s different,” Crystal snapped.