by Debbie Dadey
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MAP OF TRIDENT CITY
CAST OF CHARACTERS
1 EA HORSES
2 DR. WEEDLY
3 NO DANCING!
4 CRUTCHIES TO THE RESCUE!
5 MIRACLE?
6 DILLY DALLY DODO
7 ANOTHER PLAN
8 ACCIDENTS HAPPEN
9 HUMAN GAMES
10 SHAKE YOUR TAIL
11 PEARL’S BIG IDEA
12 THE COMPETITION
CLASS CARDS FOR ECHO
THE MERMAID TALES SONG
AUTHOR’S NOTE
GLOSSARY
BOOKS VS. LOOKS EXCERPT
ABOUT DEBBIE DADEY
To Betty Gibson and Judy Dohr
for helping me through
the worst week of my life
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Metta and Michi Vojta for their keen eyes on the Mermaid Tales teaching units.
Sea Horses
GREAT JOB ON YOUR KELP reports,” Mrs. Karp told her class of third graders. “I’m so glad you enjoyed ‘My Side of the Ocean.’ It is one of my favorite stories.”
Echo tried to pay attention to the lesson, but she couldn’t keep her pink tail from tapping the ocean floor. She couldn’t wait until school was over! When the final conch shell sounded, Echo soared out of her seat and down the hallway of Trident Academy.
Her best friend, Shelly, followed Echo and patted her shoulder. “Do you have Tail Flippers practice today, or can you come over?”
Echo loved being part of the Tail Flippers dance team, and since the big Poseidon City Dance Competition was coming up next week, Coach Barnacle had been making them practice almost every day after school. Echo’s fins ached from all the hard work.
Echo had been working especially hard because she had a big job to do. She was going to perform a very difficult flip called a Scale Dropper. And she was going to do it from the top of a mer-pyramid formed by the other team members! It would be their big finale.
Normally, Echo would have spent her free afternoon at Shelly’s home, especially since Shelly lived right above the Trident City People Museum. Echo loved learning about the human world. But there was something else she liked just as much: sea horses!
Echo shook her head. “We don’t have practice today, but Rocky invited me to ride his sea horse this afternoon.”
Shelly smiled. “That sounds fun.”
Just then, Coach Barnacle swam by the mergirls. “Well, if it isn’t our star Tail Flipper herself! Tell me, Echo, how is your Scale Dropper coming along?”
“Fin-tastic!” Echo told him. “I’ve even been waking up early to practice it every day before breakfast!”
“Mervelous!” Coach Barnacle boomed. “After all, you’re our secret weapon! If you keep practicing, I think our team has a great chance of winning first place.”
Coach Barnacle zoomed down the hall just as Rocky burst out of their classroom. He took one look at Echo and grinned. “Shake your tail! It’s sea horse time!”
Echo squealed in delight. She waved good-bye to Shelly and sped out of Trident Academy after Rocky. As they swam past the Big Rock Café, Echo’s mouth watered at the smell of boxfish burgers. She’d love to have a snack, but she wanted to ride Pinky more.
Pinky was one of Rocky’s two sea horses. Zollie was his first sea horse. Rocky’s uncle had rescued Zollie from a human’s net. Pinky was Zollie’s mate, who’d come to stay at Rocky’s house too. Echo couldn’t help being a tiny bit jealous of Rocky. After all, he had two sea horses and she didn’t have any. But at least Rocky was nice enough to let Echo ride Pinky.
The two merkids swam around Rocky’s large home and a storage shell to find the two sea horses feeding on small shrimp. When the pets saw Echo and Rocky, they raced over to see them. Echo laughed and hugged Pinky while Rocky petted Zollie’s head. Soon the merkids were riding on the backs of Pinky and Zollie.
“This is shelltacular!” Rocky yelled. He leaned down over Zollie’s orange neck, urging him to go faster.
Echo did the same to Pinky and yelled, “Giddyup!”
This is what it must be like to be a sailfish, Echo thought. She loved the feeling of water whipping through her curly black hair.
Pinky sprinted through MerPark. Echo waved when she passed Pearl, a girl from her class. Pearl frowned as the two sea horses charged past. “Echo Reef! You’d better slow that thing down!” Pearl snapped.
Echo laughed and shook her head at Pearl. “No wavy way!” Echo yelled. “This is too much fun!”
But just as Echo turned her head, something horrible happened!
Dr. Weedly
A MORAY EEL SLITHERED IN front of Pinky! The sea horse stopped suddenly, but Echo didn’t. She went flying off Pinky’s back and landed on a big rock with a PLUNK.
Pearl and Rocky rushed to Echo’s side.
“Echo! Are you all right?” Rocky cried.
Pinky galloped over and licked Echo’s face. “I’m not sure,” Echo moaned. “My tail hurts!”
Pearl took charge. “Rocky, ring the dugong ambulance bell! Then get Echo’s parents.” The dugong’s huge back would be able to carry Echo to the Trident City Medical Center.
Rocky’s eyes grew wide, but he didn’t move. He seemed to be frozen to the spot, staring at Echo.
“Go!” Pearl snapped at him. Rocky flipped his brown tail around and sped away.
“I’m scared,” Echo told Pearl. “My tail looks like it’s twisted.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll be just fine,” Pearl assured her.
Echo had an awful thought. “What about the Poseidon City Dance Competition?”
“Dr. Weedly will fix you right up,” Pearl said, though she didn’t sound very sure. “I bet you won’t even miss one practice!”
Pearl held Echo’s hand until the big dugong arrived. Soon after, Echo’s parents showed up. The ambulance carried Echo to the medical center. Pearl and Rocky followed, but stayed in the waiting room. Pinky and Zollie peered through the window.
Echo’s dad held one of her hands, while her mother held the other. Echo’s tail felt like someone had twisted it into a tight knot. Dr. Weedly examined it carefully. He gently moved it up and down.
“Owww!” Echo yelped.
“Hmm,” Dr. Weedly said, scribbling on a kelp pad. Finally he tapped his chin and frowned at Echo.
“I have some news,” he announced. “But you’re not going to like it.”
No Dancing!
THE NEXT AFTERNOON ECHO sniffed the scurvy grass her mother had put in a vase beside her bed. The dainty white flowers did cheer up her hospital room, but Echo still felt glum. She kept hearing Doc Weedly’s words in her head. “Your tail is twisted! Swimming and dancing are out of the question!”
A tear rolled down Echo’s cheek just as three of her friends swept into the room.
“Echo!” Shelly said, giving her a hug. “It is so good to see you!”
Kiki nodded. “School wasn’t the same without you.”
“When are you coming back?” Pearl demanded. “We missed your Scale Dropper at Tail Flippers practice!”
Echo burst into tears. “Dr. Weedly said I can’t dance. I can’t even swim for a while!”
Shelly, Pearl, and Kiki gasped. “That’s horrible,” Kiki said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
“I am going to start a petition to ban moray eels from Trident City!” Pearl snapped. “If that nasty eel hadn’t slithered in front of you, none of this would have happened!”
Echo shook her head. “It’s not the eel’s fault! It was an accident.”
“Wait a merminute,” Shelly said. “Did the doctor say when you’d be able to swim?”
Echo looked at the big white bandage on
her tail. “I have to keep my tail wrapped for a few days and then I can start swimming slowly.”
Pearl squealed. “That’s tail-kicking! If you can swim in just a few days, then you can flip in a few days!”
Echo sighed. “But Dr. Weedly told me that it depends on how quickly my tail heals. There’s a chance I won’t be able to swim in time for the competition next week.”
Pearl slapped her gold fins on the hospital room floor. “Nonsense! You’ll be swimming and flipping in no time!”
Shelly frowned. “Pearl, Echo needs time to heal. Otherwise she could get even more hurt.”
“But without her we won’t win first place at the Poseidon City Dance Competition!” Pearl glared at Echo. “And that’s not fair to the rest of the team.”
Echo’s heart sank. She didn’t want to disappoint her teammates. Plus, she’d been working so hard on her Scale Dropper. There must be some way she could make her tail heal faster!
Crutchies to the Rescue!
TWO DAYS LATER KIKI AND Shelly were in MerPark after school. Pearl stopped beside them on her way home from Tail Flippers practice.
“What in the ocean are those?” Pearl asked Kiki. Shelly and Kiki each carried a long metal object that was wide on one end and narrow on the other.
“They’re from the People Museum,” Shelly explained. “Grandfather said humans use these when they hurt their legs. We thought they might help Echo.”
“They’re called crutchies,” Kiki told Pearl.
“How do they work?” Pearl asked. “Will they help Echo flip faster? We really need her for the competition.”
“That’s the problem,” Shelly said. “We don’t have any idea how humans use them.”
The three mergirls stared at the crutchies. “Maybe you use these holes to put your tailfins in and then someone pulls you along,” Pearl suggested.
Shelly stuck one fin in each of the crutchies while her friends pulled on the short ends. Splat! Shelly fell facedown in the muddy ocean floor.
She sat up and wiped the mud from her face. “I’m pretty sure that’s not right.”
“What if we put them together to make a mini bed?” Kiki suggested.
Shelly and Pearl held the two crutchies side by side while Kiki sat on top. “It’s working,” Kiki said as her merfriends lifted her up. Unfortunately, the crutchies came apart and Kiki slammed to the ocean bottom.
“Ow,” Kiki said, rubbing her own bottom. “That can’t be right either.”
“Maybe they’re like flippers,” Shelly said, grabbing a crutchie in each hand and flapping them up and down. She started rising in the water.
“That’s it!” Pearl yelled. “Let’s take them to Echo.”
The girls rushed over to Echo’s house. Echo was lying in her bed, looking at the latest issue of MerStyle magazine.
“Look what Grandpa Siren found,” Shelly told Echo. “These are what humans use when they hurt their legs.”
Echo sat up and smiled. “Really?” She was excited to try something that a real person might have used.
“Give me those,” Pearl said, snatching the crutchies away from Shelly. “This is how you use them.”
Pearl flapped her arms up and down while holding the crutchies. Unfortunately, they whacked Echo’s barrel sponge chair and toppled an antique hawksbill turtle shell lamp.
“What are you mergirls doing?” Echo’s older sister, Crystal, asked as she floated into the room.
“Sorry about the mess,” Kiki said, picking up the lamp. “We were just showing Kiki how to use crutchies.”
Crystal took one look at Pearl and laughed. “That’s not how you use those,” Crystal said.
“How do you know?” Pearl asked.
“Because in my sixth-grade human study class we learned about them,” Crystal said matter-of-factly. “And they’re called crutches, not crutchies.” She grabbed them from Pearl, tucked one under each armpit, and swung her tail between them. She zipped across Echo’s bedroom in just a few seconds.
“Wow!” Echo said. “That’s amazing.”
“Totally wavy,” Shelly agreed. “With those, you can be back in school tomorrow.”
Echo smiled. She had actually missed being with her friends at Trident Academy.
“And you’ll be doing the Scale Dropper before you know it,” Pearl said, nodding her head.
Crystal frowned at Pearl. “That’s not going to happen,” Crystal said. “Echo needs to forget all about that silly competition and focus on getting well.”
“It’s not a silly competition!” Echo insisted. But the truth was clear: Unless there was some sort of a miracle, there was no way she could tail-flip in the Poseidon City Dance Competition.
Miracle?
IT TOOK ECHO THREE TIMES as long to get to school the next morning using the crutches. It was a good thing she had left extra early.
Shelly was a true friend. She floated beside Echo the whole way. “Sorry I’m so slow,” Echo told her. “Using these really makes you appreciate how fast swimming is.”
“No worries,” Shelly said. “If we’d been going fast I wouldn’t have noticed those pretty mandarin fish.” She pointed to a group of brightly colored fish. Each one was orange and yellow with blue and green markings.
Echo looked up from her crutches and smiled. “That’s true. Normally we would have zoomed right past them. And look at that stargazer in the mud there.”
“Oh, be careful. Don’t let it sting your fin,” Shelly warned.
Echo agreed. “My tail is sore enough without that!”
Just as they arrived at Trident Academy, Pearl rushed up to greet them. “Echo! All our worries are over,” Pearl proclaimed, holding up a glass bottle.
“What’s that?” Echo asked, peering at the bright-blue blob inside the bottle.
“It’s miracle cream,” Pearl explained. “I found it on my mother’s dresser. The bottle says it will fix any skin problem.”
Shelly shook her head. “I’m pretty sure that won’t help Echo.”
Pearl frowned. “Of course it will. I happen to know this is very expensive stuff. It’s made from the webbing of the blue-footed booby.”
Echo gasped. “They hurt a bird to make it?”
“No, of course not.” Pearl shook her head and pointed to the tiny print on the bottle. “No birds were injured in the making of this product.”
Echo felt relieved, but she still wasn’t sure she should use something that cost so much money. “Won’t your mom be upset?”
“Not at all,” Pearl said, opening the bottle. “She’s always happy to help someone in need.”
Echo had to admit she really did need to get well fast. She used the crutches to move to a bench in front of Trident Academy. With Pearl and Shelly’s help, she unwrapped the big bandage on her tail.
Echo giggled as Pearl slathered the cream on her fins and tail. “That tickles,” Echo said.
Pearl smiled as she used every last bit of the miracle cream. “I bet that means it’s working.”
Echo liked the tingling feeling in her tail. It felt good later as Mrs. Karp’s class welcomed her back.
“Hello, three-tail girl,” Rocky said.
“What are you talking about? I only have one tail, and it feels just great,” Echo told him.
“You have one broken tail and two metal ones,” he teased, pointing to the crutches. Rocky’s kidding didn’t bother Echo because Pearl’s cream had made her fins feel so sparkling good.
But as the morning went on, the tingling feeling stopped. When Echo used her crutches to get to the cafeteria, her tail began to prickle, then itch, then burn.
“My tail is on fire!” she cried.
Dilly Dally DoDo
ECHO HAD NEVER BEEN TO the Trident Academy nurse’s office before, and she was really scared. Her tail felt like she’d bumped into a weever fish, but when Echo saw the nurse, she forgot about the pain for a mersecond.
The nurse was the tallest, thinnest mermaid Echo had ever seen. Her
hair was bright orange to match her bright-orange tail. A thick purple stripe ran down the middle of her bushy hair.
“Well, well,” the nurse said. “What’s my patient’s name?”
“Echo,” Echo squeaked.
“Shelltacular! My name is Dilly Dally DoDo, but you can call me Nurse DoDo.”
“Is that your real name?” Echo asked in surprise.
Dilly Dally DoDo laughed. “Do you think I would make up such a name? My parents were a bit silly.”
Echo nodded. She’d always thought it would be fun to have an unusual name, but not one as wild as Dilly Dally DoDo!
“Now, let’s take a look at this tail.” Nurse DoDo gently unwrapped Echo’s bandage.
“I hurt it by falling off a sea horse,” Echo explained. “But this morning my friend Pearl gave me some miracle cream to help it heal faster.”
“That was a bad idea,” Nurse DoDo said. “I think it was a disaster cream, not a miracle cream. You must be allergic to it.”
“Oh no!” Echo said when she saw her tail. Her lovely pink tail had turned a yucky shade of green! Echo’s eyes watered and she knew she was going to cry.
“Don’t worry,” Nurse DoDo said. “I think you’ll be fine once we wash all this goop off.”
As Nurse DoDo began wiping off the miracle cream, she asked, “What did the sea say to the little mergirl?”
Echo shrugged and Nurse DoDo answered, “Nothing, it just waved.”
Echo giggled.
“How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?” Nurse DoDo asked as she continued cleaning Echo’s tail.
Echo guessed, “Eight? One for each arm?”
Nurse DoDo shook her head. “Nope, ten-tacles!”
Echo laughed. She knew that an octopus’s arms were called tentacles.
Echo was glad to see her tail returning to its normal color. The stinging had already stopped. “Is there a secret to helping my tail get better?” Echo asked.
Nurse DoDo smiled. “Of course.” She leaned in and whispered something into Echo’s ear.
