All The Mermaids In The Sea

by Robert W Cabell

  “From myth, to mermaid, to momma! You sure know how to knock the wind out of a guy.” Halder sat down with a thud. “Wow! It may still be a week away, but it sure feels like Christmas now!” Then he did his favorite thing in the whole world to do. He kissed his wife.

  So, when Mr. and Mrs. Anderson—Hans and Christine—sat down to have dinner with Mr. Grimm, a whole new topic of discussion began, and it suddenly became important to make plans—long-range plans. Despite all the joy and excitement and all the considerable efforts of Canute and Bruun & Gottorp, Vasili Thermopolis was still out there somewhere. Until he was taken care of, they would never be safe.

  They didn’t return to the inn. A porter from the ship went to collect their things and settle the bill, and they sailed out of the harbor before dawn the next morning.

  “Where are we headed, Little Miss Mystery?” Halder asked groggily when he felt the ship picking up speed, as he rolled over on his side to glance out the window.

  “To the Bahamas, dear, just about a mile off Little Inagua Island.”

  “Why go there?”

  “I told you I grew up in the Bahamas, didn’t I?”

  “Yes. So won’t Vasili look for you there?”

  “I haven’t been back there since Krakatau exploded in the late 1800s, and Father died, so no one will know anything about the place. Besides, we didn’t live on land at all, we lived in the Coral Palace with the corylians.”

  “Is that some native Bahamian tribe?”

  “You might say that. They certainly are natives to the Bahamas. They practically built the place, but that little surprise can wait. The Bahamas also have more giant, personal pleasure yachts than almost anyplace else in the world, so one more won’t draw anyone’s attention. Before we have breakfast, put on your robe and come with me. I have a little surprise for you that I didn’t show you last night.”

  “Your surprises have been literally legendary of late. Can we save this one for a day or two? I’m kind of ready to explode here.” He tapped his index finger to his head.

  “No, dear, not that kind of surprise. This is just a regular human, deluxe fixture on the new yacht … kind of surprise.”

  “Oh, you mean a high-tech toy? I love high-tech toys!” He rolled over onto his feet and grabbed his robe.

  “My, you get excited easily,” she said with a sniff.

  He winked at her, and about two seconds later, a pillow whomped him on the head. It wasn’t until about an hour later that Miranda finally escorted Halder down to a large hold in the bowels of the ship. They passed through two pressurized doors, like something Halder might have expected to find in a high-tech submarine, to the main hold.

  “Voila,” was all Miranda said at the top of the stairs. She flipped a switch and an overhead light came on to illuminate something in the center of the floor, while the rest of the room remained in darkness. The object she pointed to below as he peeked over her shoulder, was a circular pool.

  “We have a private hot tub in the basement. How cute!” He chuckled.

  “No, darling, take a closer look,” she suggested and flipped another switch. That switch initiated some sort of alarm signal, and all of a sudden, the floor in the center of the pool opened up, revealing the ocean as the yacht slowed to a halt.

  “A glass-bottom Jacuzzi in the basement. Very chic!” He sighed.

  “No, you dimwit!” She snorted, then raced down the stairs. Flinging off her robe, she dove into the center of the pool and down under the ship, transforming into her tail before she was out of sight.

  “A moon pool? Hot damn!” And a few seconds later he was swimming under the hull with her.

  They swam for a couple of hours and sampled the local seafood while the ship dropped anchor. There was something very satisfying, Halder discovered, about chomping on a fish you’d snatched with your own hands. Also, his taste buds as a merman were very different, sensing different levels of flavors and sensitivities to marine food. At times it was almost vampiristic, since he found himself touching their minds and quietly putting them to sleep before he ate them. The little buggers usually thanked him for the honor, which he found very bizarre at first.

  Finally they swam back up into the moon pool, and once Miranda closed the bottom of the pool again, the yacht automatically set sail without either of them having to issue orders. Halder swung his legs over and stood up to dry himself off. He was getting pretty good at it actually, and liked to remain standing during the transformation as his legs, hands, and feet, shortened.

  “It’s like Through the Looking-Glass,” he joked. “Alice, drink this to grow tall and eat that to shrink back!” He laughed as he took human form again. He looked around the hold. It was filled with a myriad of mysterious objects all covered with white tarpaulins. He looked at Miranda questioningly as she stood up on her regenerated feet. “Why does this look like something out of Frankenstein’s lab?” He pointed to the rows of covered objects.

  “Well, dear, because it is a lab, only it’s yours. I purchased all the equipment you need to keep studying dolphins and whales, and to heal them as a veterinarian. We’re going to be a kind of floating animal hospital. Mother came up with the idea, actually. Surgery that can save dolphins is one of the very few modern ideas she’s ever approved of.”

  “Holger will love this too!” Halder exclaimed. “He’s the real master healer in the family when it comes to dolphins and whales.”

  “So, now if you wonder how your patients are feeling, you can ask them and they’ll actually answer.”

  For once, Halder was speechless. He just laughed and hugged her tightly.

  Preparations and Cravings

  Miranda and Halder had gone over and over their plans. They went back and forth with the lawyers, creating legal documents, setting up a safety deposit box, filing certain deeds, forming a corporation, and opening a bank account. Their time in the Bahamas was busy but miraculous, and the summer palace was astonishing. It would be the perfect place to raise their baby.

  Several months before Adara was to be born, Halder insisted that they take the yacht through the Panama Canal and up to Puget Sound in Washington State. He wanted Miranda to give birth in a Seattle hospital where Adara could be registered as an American citizen under his name.

  Halder was getting more and more anxious about the baby and more and more desperate to talk to Holger as the months flew by. He felt an overwhelming need to share his joy, to bring his brother into the amazing world that had become his life, to have Holger meet Miranda.

  He had thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world, but motherhood made her so much more. They say some women are never happier than when they’re pregnant, and that seemed to be the case with Miranda. She truly glowed.

  They traveled at a very lazy pace, since Miranda needed to spend most of her pregnancy in the waters of the sea. They generally only boarded the ship at night, to sleep in the cabin.

  After her second trimester, Miranda had a large net attached to the aft of the ship that trailed behind it like a giant

  hammock, and they spent most of their nights resting there. It was healthier for the baby.

  As for the cravings of pregnant women that men usually trade stories about when they first become fathers, Halder had a very unusual list. Mermaid cravings ran the gamut from exotic to bizarre in a way only aquatic life could provide. Certain cravings became rampant on the full moon, which had a much greater effect on mermaids than on humans. At these times, Miranda craved things like sea cucumbers from three miles down, or bioluminescent plankton. Oh, yes, and try finding a blue whale cow with extra milk to pour over roasted Sargasso Sea grapes at three o’clock in the morning. At least the whales swam up to the ship and delivered her “take-out.”

  They got closer and closer to Seattle as Miranda’s due date approached, and soon Halder would call Holger. His brother had missed his wedding, but Halder was determined to reunite with him and share the wonder of Adara’s birth. Then, he could explain
his plan to Holger and give him the key to the safety deposit box in the Bahamas.

  Canute Bruun had everything ready and waiting when they finally docked in the Elliot Bay Marina outside of downtown Seattle. They dined at the Palisade restaurant and enjoyed the view of downtown with the Space Needle and Mt. Rainer to the south.

  It had been a couple of months since Miranda had devoured the last bit of chocolate on the ship, and she was putting a large dent in the dessert menu tonight having ordered four different confections instead of seafood. After their meal, the valet produced their sporty little aqua-blue Mercedes 420 convertible, which had been off-loaded from the yacht, and they headed out for a drive in the cool evening air before returning to the ship to rest and wait for Adara to come into their world.

  All the plans they’d made these past months, and thoughts of sharing everything with Holger, raced through Halder’s mind as Miranda clutched his hand tightly.

  A New Mermaid Cometh

  She cried. Adara cried.

  There she was, his daughter, dangling by her feet in mid air, as the doctor snipped the umbilical cord, and the nurse slipped a soft, white blanket around his beautiful new baby girl.

  Halder turned to Miranda and wiped away a few sweaty locks of her hair, then kissed her forehead, and then her lips. “She’s beautiful, babe, and so are you,” he whispered joyfully.

  “May I hold her now?” Miranda asked the nurse, and a moment later, Adara lay in her arms.

  Halder walked around behind her and knelt so he could circle his arms around them both.

  “Smile,” an aide called out, and they beamed at the camera as a light flashed. “We don’t get much royalty here at Valley Medical Center,” he said, grinning proudly. Renton is nice, but we don’t usually have folks like you here!”

  Halder turned to glare at the doctor. “I thought you understood the security needs for our identities, Doctor.”

  The doctor pulled his mask off and raised his hand apologetically. “I’m sorry, Your Grace,” he blurted out.

  “Doctor, please!” Halder hissed.

  “I mean, Mr. Anderson.” He pointed to the aide and the nurse. “We three are the only ones who are aware of your identities—we have to be in order to fill out the records. But I assure you that we are keeping your true identities completely confidential.”

  The aide handed Halder the Polaroid camera and the photo of him crouched behind Miranda who was holding the baby. “This will be a great start to her scrapbook.”

  “Thank you,” Halder smiled at the picture and relaxed a little.

  “Now, why don’t we let this young mother have a moment to get cleaned up and rest, and we’ll finish taking care of this little princess we have here.” The doctor smiled at him.

  “Sounds like a good idea. I have a few calls to make.” Halder kissed Miranda and Adara again before he left the room and went off to finally call his brother.

  A Sailor’s Proposition

  The Hag was in her glory. For years she had sat passively, waiting for news of the mermaids as Vasili amassed his power and wealth. Now that she had that, what she wanted next was revenge, and so did Vasili.

  If he could not have Miranda, no man could. If he was forced to grow old and die, then she didn’t deserve to live on for centuries after him. For a year, he had been frustrated at every turn, learning where Miranda and Halder had been, sometimes a moment, sometimes a month, after they had left. Then his source came through once again.

  “I know where she is,” the shaky voice of the old sailor whispered over the phone. “But I won’t tell you unless you swear to send my daughter and my grandson back home to me within the next six hours.”

  “You are in no position to make such a demand,” Vasili snapped.

  “This time, I think I am. Princess Miranda won’t be going anyplace for the next few days, so you will be able to reach her. If you don’t have my daughter and grandson on flight number 1702, KLM Airlines, from Athens to Copenhagen today, I will call and warn her. I am dying of cancer. I want to see my daughter. I have nothing to lose. So you’d better take this deal if you want to see the duchess again. Because I assure you, after the next few days, she will disappear for as long as you live.”

  “All right,” he snarled. “You have your deal.” The past year had taught Vasili a lot about dealing with others when they had the upper hand, and he knew when to concede if it got him what he wanted. “Now, what have you got to tell me?”

  “The Manor House just received news that Princess Miranda had a baby. I can give you the name and location of the city and hospital and the name of the marina and boat slip they’ll be docked at for the next two days. Now put my daughter and grandson on the plane, or I will make sure they disappear.”

  “I may want to keep her here until I get the information from you,” Vasili snickered.

  “I’ve got twenty-four hours, maybe a little more, to live, Vasili,” the old sailor said quietly. I don’t give my daughter much of a chance to live a long life after I’m dead if she is still in Greece. So, I either save her before I die, or I free my soul and confess my betrayal to the princess. One or the other is going to happen by two o’clock this afternoon. The choice is yours.”

  “They will be on the plane,” Vasili hissed and hung up.

  The Nonbeliever

  Halder had waited so long to make this call. He was actually trembling as he listened to his brother’s phone ring. He was dreadfully afraid that Holger would be out somewhere. He needed to reconnect, to have Holger back in his daily life. It was the only darkness that had been between him and Miranda—the promise he had made to her to wait until Adara’s birth before he contacted Holger to say he was still alive. Now he could finally do that.

  After they met with Holger, they planned to go back into the sea for as long as it took for Vasili to be caught, or to die. They’d leave all the things that Halder had put into motion in Holger’s trustworthy hands. Halder had just signed the papers for the purchase of the Willcox House moments before Miranda’s water broke. He could just picture what Holger’s face would look like when he told him he wanted him to live there. And little Hal would be like a big brother to Adara. He wanted Holger to establish this home as their Manor House in the Northwest.

  Although the Willcox House didn’t have a secret stairway down to an underground lagoon, and it wasn’t as large as the real Manor House, it had its own unique charm. It was a picturesque, 1930s, 10,000-square-foot mansion sitting on a bluff overlooking the water. It had been frequented in its prime by celebrities like Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, and Spencer Tracy.

  What made it special to Halder was its setting, which included lovely rambling gardens surrounded by acres of natural forest, 500 feet of private beachfront, and a 122-foot, deepwater pier that stretched out into the cool, clear saltwater of Hood Canal. The canal was the only natural fjord in the continental United States and would give them easy access to the ocean. They could sail or swim straight in from the ocean and back out again with ease—and without detection.

  Halder and Holger had visited the Willcox House as kids when it was a boy’s school. Then a couple bought it and turned it into an elegant bed and breakfast inn. It was listed in the Best Places to Kiss in the Northwest, and Halder took Miranda there to prove it before they settled in at the Elliot Bay Marina. She’d fallen in love with the house and the gardens the moment they’d docked their yacht there and agreed it was a perfect land nest.

  “We’ll put Mother up in the Constance Suite when she comes to visit,” Miranda had decided.

  The locals had dubbed it “the fish scale house,” because the red siding of the mansion resembled the scaly skin of a fish. Best of all, they could leave the estate in Holger’s care.

  The secluded location would allow their visits to be secret. Halder planned to stay there each year in December for Christmas. Miranda and her family had never celebrated Christmas, and that was one Thorson family tradition he was going to insist on sharing wit
h his daughter. The Willcox House would make that possible.

  The phone had been ringing for some time, and Halder was afraid he’d missed his chance to reach his brother when the line clicked, and he heard Holger’s voice.

  “Hello?”

  “Holger?” Halder sighed in relief. “Holger? It’s really me,” he said softly. “It’s Halder.”

  “Who is this, and why are you calling me!” Holger shouted into the phone. Then things just started to fall apart.

  Holger mistook him for some lunatic prankster, probably a disgruntled student, and refused to listen to anything he said. He didn’t really have a chance to convince his brother of the truth before Holger hung up. Halder took a deep breath and dialed him back.

  “Whoever you are, leave me alone,” Holger whispered.

  “Holger, I’m a father. I just became the father of a beautiful little girl named Adara. We’re here in Seattle. I had to call and arrange to see you before we leave. You mustn’t tell anyone, but I have to see you. I want you to meet us at Saltwater State Park tonight at ten o’clock, right after they lock the gate. I’ll explain everything then.” Suddenly the line went dead.

  Halder tried dialing again and again, but the line was busy. Finally he called the operator for assistance. After checking the line, she told him it was out of order. Halder couldn’t believe that after all this time, he couldn’t talk to his brother. He couldn’t risk driving over to his apartment. Holger was living on the University of Washington campus, and too many people might recognize Halder, even with his beard and long hair.

  Besides, Vasili still had his trackers on them. Twice they’d barely escaped his wrath. Halder had been shot at in Jamaica, and had escaped on his own. Not long after that, off the coast of Brazil, five men had boarded their yacht with knives and guns drawn. Fortunately for Halder and Miranda, their entire crew was armed and dangerous, and the boarders had been quickly dispatched. A little too quickly, unfortunately, since the intruders never confirmed it was Vasili who’d sent them. But Halder and Miranda knew he was still out there looking for them either way.