The Mermaid Girl

by Xequina

  All I could think about as I fixed the drinks was how nice it was that someone like Reggie liked to talk to me, especially because I thought she was smart and interesting.

  The movie was Splash, which of course I had already seen, but I didn’t tell Reggie. Anyway, I loved seeing the mermaid in the movie, although I got upset all over again when they captured her. I tried to hide my tears, but Reggie noticed. She paused the movie and gave me a napkin.

  “We can turn it off,” she said. “I can watch the rest another time.”

  I shook my head, and we watched the rest of the movie, which of course, had a happy ending.

  “They won’t really do that when someone finally finds a mermaid, I don’t think,” Reggie said when it was over. “People have learned to respect whales and dolphins and other animals from Greenpeace, and lots of other organizations.”

  I nodded, but I knew a mermaid would be in a completely different category from endangered species. People didn’t treat other people so well all the time, and mermaids were half-human, or at least looked that way. I didn’t know what they would do once they got their hands on a mermaid. And I didn’t want to find out, either.

  Chapter 41

  A Documentary on Mermaids

  The title of the documentary was Mermaids: Fact or Myth? It started out with the commentator asking different marine scientists if they believed in mermaids. Most of them said no. A couple made jokes about it. One man got angry and said, “What’s this about?” Then, the very last person who was a woman, said, “Science doesn’t know everything. I’m keeping an open mind.”

  Next we saw the same woman getting ready to dive from a boat. The narrator said that the woman was a marine paleontologist and explained that was someone who studied the ocean floor for fossils.

  “I’ve seen some strange things in my work at the bottom of the sea; many creatures that died out millions of years ago. They’re preserved in the hardened layer of sand on the ocean floor. Some of them are so strange, giant insects with plated armor and what looks like feathers; a sand-crawler that used protruding rib bones to propel itself across the sand, claws that look mechanical. Compared to them, mermaids don’t seem strange at all.”

  Next they showed several fossils of marine animals. Each one was followed with a cartoon of what it probably looked like when it lived, and how it moved and lived in the ocean.

  “Cool animation,” Reggie said.

  Then the narrator said, “What you are about to see has never been seen by the general public. The scientist who found it has agreed to speak to us only under cover of anonymity.”

  The camera showed a man sitting in a dark room. All you could see was a bald head because his face and the rest of him had been darkened out.

  “I’m a marine archaeologist,” he said. “We help to develop a picture of earth’s history. Two years ago, I was working with a team studying a particular ocean bed off of the coast of Florida when I came across something I’d never seen before.”

  They showed a man in scuba gear taking samples from the bottom of the ocean. It looked like he was cutting something from stone. Next the camera showed an image of what looked like a flattened squiggle of a long fish. Then I realized it had a head, I could see what looked like a profile. It also had two long fins where the arms might be. The flippers had five long bones, just like a hand.

  “A mermaid!” Reggie shouted.

  “A prototype mermaid, I think,” I said.

  “What’s that?”

  “An early mermaid from which today’s mermaids developed.”

  The scientist was saying it was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen. “Dozens of scientists have come to study it. Everyone’s divided on what it might be. Many say it wasn’t a mermaid, it only looked like one, and it had yet to be proved that it was a mermaid.

  “I’ve probably studied and tested this fossil a hundred times,” the scientist said. “But what’s most amazing, is that its DNA connects this creature to Homo sapiens.”

  Next there was a scene of a beach, and four people getting their gear out of a Jeep. The same guy spoke in voice-over: “A couple weeks after I found that fossil, myself and several other scientists were preparing to go back to work at the same part of the ocean where we found it.” A subtitle came up and said it was a reenactment by actors of something that actually happened.

  The scientists stood at the top of a bluff and looked down. Down below were a lot of men standing around on the beach, wearing a strange kind of coverall. A large part of the beach had yellow tape around it. When the scientists began climbing down the bluff with their gear, they were stopped and turned back by uniformed guards with rifles. The camera went back to the bald man in the dark room.

  “We had been studying that section of the ocean for more than a year and never had a problem. These people told us they were from some obscure branch of the U.S. government I’d never heard of.”

  Next it showed the men in coveralls coming up from the beach with a stretcher. It looked like a body was on it, which was completely covered with what looked like a dark plastic sheet.

  “After that they built a fence along the coast and posted ‘no trespassing’ signs.” The camera filmed the actual beach, and you could see a high fence had been built, and there was even a man patrolling it, waving the camera away. The camera focused on one of the signs. It said,

  NO TRESPASSING

  Restricted area reserved

  for government research.

  “When I found that fossil, I wondered if mermaids or a mermaid-like creature once lived in that part of the ocean,” the anonymous scientist said. “When we were kicked off the beach, I figured they found an actual mermaid. The only thing I don’t understand is why they would keep it a secret from the rest of the world.”

  The documentary ended with more interviews of marine scientists debating whether mermaids could be real. Some had really interesting theories.

  “Wow, that was amazing!” Reggie said when it was over. “What did you think?”

  “I liked it,” I said. “Wasn’t the fossil interesting?”

  “Yes, it looked like a mermaid. It even had a face!”

  I didn’t say so, but the documentary made me uneasy. I wondered if I could get in trouble for keeping the mermaid a secret from the world. It was a good thing I had never told anyone about her.

  Chapter 42

  A Talk about Mermaids

  The day to start giving our presentations arrived. I had done a lot of work on mine. I’d practiced giving it to my parents and Mermary, but I still dreaded having to do it in front of the whole class.

  “Don’t worry,” Mermary said that morning. “Remember, you’re an expert on the subject.”

  “No, I’m not!” I said.

  “Yes, you are,” Mermary said. “Not only have you been reading about mermaids for months and months, you’ve actually lived with one. Compared to everyone else, that makes you an expert. That might help you have confidence to speak.”

  I thought about that as I headed over to school. She was right. Even if I wasn’t a true sirenologist, which is an expert on mermaids, and even if I couldn’t tell anyone what I really knew about mermaids, I had read a lot about them.

  Sister didn’t mention the presentations all morning, through religion, English, or math, or even lunch. No one reminded her either, I think because we were hoping she had forgotten. But immediately after we got back from lunch, she announced we would begin the presentations.

  “Students, have the outline you prepared with you. You can refer to this from time to time, but not read from it. And remember to stand straight, speak loudly and clearly, and look at your audience.”

  Then, taking her gradebook and a timer, she marched to the back of the classroom where she often stood when we were reciting. She called on the first person, a boy named Gregory Abeba, which meant she was going alphabetically. I was fourth on the list. Actually, I noticed that Catherine Ardsdale was absent, so that made m
e third! I started getting nervous. Barry Baker went next and said something about his grandmother teaching him to knit until the timer went off. It was my turn. Sister had to call on me twice before I could make myself stand up.

  “Camile, I know that you’re well prepared. You can do this.”

  I tried to calm down, told myself I was a secret expert. At the back of the class Sister put her finger under her chin to remind me to lift my head. She always coached us with hand signs, like putting her hand behind her ear to let us know we should talk louder, or tapping the top of her head to tell us to stand straight, or her hands to her shoulders to remind us to put our shoulders back. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I closed it again.

  “Tell us the title of your presentation,” Sister prompted.

  “Uh . . . M-mermaids. Um, I mean . . .”

  Darn! I was already saying “uh” and “um,” which Sister was always telling us not to do. I held up my outline and looked at it. I was shaking so badly the paper was rattling. I took another deep breath and cleared my throat. Sister smiled and nodded encouragingly.

  “The Mystery of Mermaids,” I read.

  I saw Bambi and Kitty turn to each other with excited looks. I hadn’t told them what my topic was.

  Sister nodded. “Okay, go ahead, Camile.”

  I remembered something she had told us: if you’re having trouble, chose two or three people to look at when you’re talking. So I looked first at Bambi and pretended I was just talking to her.

  “Mermaids . . . um, I mean . . .” I glanced out at the lake and took a big breath. “The b-biggest mystery about mermaids is if they’re real or not. But people have always believed in mermaids. ‘Lore’ means the folklore and beliefs about a subject. Cultures from all around the world have lore about mermaids. The most ancient story about a mermaid is a myth that’s thousands of years old, and it’s from a country called Assyria. It’s about a goddess who turns herself into a mermaid. Another story is from Greece, and it’s one of the stories from the Odyssey. That one has killer mermaids in it,” I added, remembering what Zander had called them.

  Some of my classmates laughed, which surprised me so much, I forgot where I was. Sister pointed at my outline. I looked at it and got back on track. I wasn’t shaking as much anymore.

  “Most of the stories we have are hundreds of years old. The Disney movie The Little Mermaid is from a story by Hans Christian Andersen, and that story is over a hundred and fifty years old. But people still write stories about mermaids. I think it’s because mermaids are mysterious, and people tell stories to try to understand them better.”

  I stopped to breathe and glanced at the classroom. Everyone looked interested. I was calming down. I glanced at my outline to see where I was, then looked at Kitty. Looking at my friends helped me feel more encouraged. I could tell they were interested in what I was saying. I hardly talked when I had lunch with them.

  “Part of the mystery of mermaids is superstition. People thought mermaids were magic and could grant wishes and tell the future. But sailors believed mermaids were bad luck because they made storms and caused ships to sink, or lured them to drown in the ocean, so they could eat them.

  “In paintings, mermaids are shown with mirrors, combs, or harps. Those are symbols, and symbols are mysterious. Mirrors symbolize a mermaid’s beauty. Sometimes they use them to tell the future. Combs symbolize their long hair, and harps symbolize their singing, because mermaids love music.

  “Mermaids are also connected with the moon, probably because the moon controls the ocean tides. So mermaids are symbols of the sea, of good and of evil, and music and magic . . . I also think mermaids are a symbol for secrets, because there’s so much secrecy about them.”

  I was finished with my presentation. I took a big breath of relief. I looked around at everyone staring at me. Then Bambi started clapping, and then everyone else did too. I was surprised because so far, no one else got clapping. Sister was beaming. She nodded and I went to sit down.

  “That was totally awesome, Camile!” Kitty said as I passed her.

  Some of the kids around her nodded.

  I smiled. I was so glad to be finished!

  Chapter 43

  The Mermaid Girl

  After my presentation, other girls in my class started talking to me. They noticed when I checked books out on mermaids and asked me about them, or they asked me for titles of good mermaid books. A couple of girls asked me to teach them how to draw mermaids. Once in class, when we were talking about mammals that live in the ocean, someone asked if mermaids were mammals.

  Wanda, the most popular girl in class looked at me. “Why don’t we ask the mermaid girl?”

  I couldn’t help but smile. I loved that she called me “the mermaid girl.” It was like a compliment.

  Sister looked at me. “What do you think, Camile?”

  “Actually, I-I’ve thought about it a-a lot,” I stammered. “M-mermaids could be mammals because they breathe air and have hair, except mammals don’t have scales. So I think mermaids would be in a c-class of their own, one that hasn’t been invented yet.”

  “Very good,” Sister said. “Camile has pointed out that mermaids have scales, which mammals don’t have, and that mermaids don’t fit into any of the phylum that currently exist. And what is a phylum?”

  No one answered.

  “A phylum is a category that scientists use to separate out organisms from one another,” I said. “Mammals and reptiles are examples of a phylum.” I knew that because my mother had explained it to me lots of times.

  Everyone, even Sister, was staring at me, like they were waiting for me to say more.

  “S-so, if a mermaid is ever found, scientists would have to figure out which phylum she belongs to, based on her characteristics, like hair, and whether she’s warm or cold-blooded. Stuff like that.”

  After that, “The Mermaid Girl” became a sort of nickname, and pretty soon, it spread to the whole school. Kids from other grades started talking to me too, asking me questions about mermaids, or telling me about books or movies with mermaids that they saw. A boy named Will told me he thought he saw a mermaid when he went to Hawaii. He showed me a photograph on his phone. At first it just looked like a woman with her head out of the water, then I saw what looked exactly like a fin behind her, sticking up out of the water.

  “When she saw me, she ducked and she didn’t come back up for air,” Will said. “I was on shore, but I watched for about half an hour. I never saw her come up again. People can’t stay under water that long!” Then he asked me not to tell anyone because he was afraid people would think he was silly. Of course, that was an easy secret to keep, and I was an expert at keeping secrets.

  Little girls from the lower grades asked questions about mermaids, like if mermaids were real, and if I had ever seen one. I told them mermaids were real, and I had seen one near the ocean, which was the truth.

  A girl named Nela invited me to my first ever slumber party. “We’re going to tell scary stories,” she said. “Are there any scary mermaid stories?”

  “Actually, lots, because a lot of people are afraid of mermaids. They even call them monsters.” I thanked her for inviting me, and said I would tell a couple of mermaid ghost stories. Nela clapped and was excited.

  One day at lunch, Kitty brought up the talent show the school had every year before closing for summer. “Anyone can be in it, if they have an act. I think we should sign up.”

  “But what would we do?” Bambi asked.

  “We could learn a mermaid song like ‘Under the Sea.’ My mom used to be a music teacher and coached singers. I’ll ask her if she’ll teach us the song. We could wear our Halloween costumes.”

  “Yes! Let’s do it!” Bambi said. “Want to?” she asked me.

  I nodded.

  “It’ll be really fun,” Kitty said. “But we have to start learning the song right away. Can you come to my house on the weekends to practice?”

  Bambi said yes and I
nodded. Even though the thought of singing in front of the whole school sounded scary, I really wanted to hang out with Kitty and Bambi, plus have an excuse to wear my mermaid costume again.

  So, without even trying, I had become popular in a way. Not like the most popular girls in class like Wanda or Jeannie or Nela, who had good personalities and could talk to anyone, but a special popularity that came from my knowledge.

  There was just one person, an eighth grader, who didn’t seem to like me. She would stare at me, and when she did, she didn’t have a nice expression on her face. I felt kind of nervous when I saw her watching me, but she never said anything to me.

  There was another downside to my popularity. Sometimes my classmates wanted to walk home with me, or they would invite me to do something after school. Because I wanted to make friends, and because I really wanted to do it, I would say yes, but that meant I couldn’t visit Mermary as often after school. Mermary didn’t mind, but I did.

  Chapter 44

  Questions

  Bambi and Kitty were my best friends at school, we had lunch together and got together on weekends. But Reggie was my best friend out of school. She became as interested in mermaids as me, and it was fun to talk about them with her. I showed her how to draw mermaids, and pretty soon she was drawing them better than me. She had artistic talent and wanted to be a cartoonist when she grew up. She already drew comic strips that were silly, sometimes about us. They were always fun to read.

  When Reggie found out what my mother did, she asked a lot of questions, like what they did at the research center, if they had a lot of tanks, how they studied the animals, and if they dissected them. She also asked if they had endangered species at the center.

  “I think that’s the main reason they’re there, so they can study them and do research.”