Birdie's Book - Andrea Burden [14]
It was as if spring was spontaneously shooting into fast-forward all around me. The frozen willows and maples below began to explode with buds, which sprang into fresh leaves, which were electric green. Trees and bushes burst into life so fast, I could hear them growing, inch by inch.
Tiny flowers sprouted up between the cracks in the boulders, and the sweet smell of roses and lilies of the valley wafted through the air. Life gushed and leapt all around me. The Singing Stone’s tune was in the wind, the trees, the flowers, and the water rushing behind me.
Water was rushing behind me? I spun around on the rock seat, which was still there, thankfully, solid underneath me. The waterfall had melted and was cascading in sheets of turquoise water down from the rocky hill.
In between, birds warbled, bees and dragonflies buzzed. Then I heard a splash. It was different from the crashing of the waterfall, a plop, as if a fish had jumped nearby. Next I heard a giggle, then a mournful noise like bells and whale calls mixed into one sound.
I followed the sound. Just around a tumble of red rocks was a blue pool with layered falls, each dropping gracefully into sunlit rippling waves. Beneath the waves were long, flowing wisps of red, violet, and green. I thought the wisps were algae until the colorful strands came out of the water, and I saw that it was the hair of three beautiful women. Well, they weren’t exactly women, since instead of legs they had tails that shimmered in the sunlight. They gazed at me, and I gasped with wonder—mermaids!
Each wore crowns of flowers, gems, and shells in her hair, and their skin ranged from pale white to riverbank brown. The brownest swam closer to the shore. Her purple hair was as long as her body.
I shook my head, trying to wake up. My eyes must have looked like a little kid’s eyes on Christmas morning, full of awe and amazement. I had to be dreaming, even though it was beyond me how I could have fallen asleep in the cold. Yet I knew for sure I was dreaming when I saw I was no longer bundled up in my scarf and Mo’s coat. I was wearing the same jeans, but I had on my favorite soft T-shirt. I would have frozen to death in Mo’s winter garden in that outfit!
The woman—or rather, the mermaid—nearest to me blinked her chocolate brown eyes. They changed to violet, matching her mass of hair. She held out her hand, as if I was supposed to touch it or kiss it. I reached out to shake hands. Her skin was cool and wet. When I touched her, I was amazed to watch her hair lighten to glowing green. She let out a kind of watery sigh, then spoke in some trilling, musical language.
I wanted to understand her. It sounded like she was saying something important. It was as if I’d stepped into a fairy-tale book with beautiful watercolor illustrations, and I desperately wanted to be a part of it.
“Excuse me?” I said. “I don’t understand.” I was hoping that since I was dreaming, the words would come out in her trilling music, but they were in English, in my own voice.
The other two mermaids swam closer. One had waist-length red hair, green eyes, and skin the color of moonlight. She had a three-part tail that must have made her a fast swimmer. The other had full lips and aquamarine eyes framed with lashes that quivered with sparkling drops of water like diamonds. The violet mermaid batted her eyes several times at me, giggling all the while, and then fanned out her hair in a wide arc in the water, turning it a bright tangerine color. It appeared to be a gesture of welcome.
“Where I come from we have legends about them,” came a voice from behind me.
I spun around but saw no one.
The voice spoke again: “They coax children to ride on their backs and then they dive down deep and drown them.” It was a girl’s