Mermaid_ A Twist on the Classic Tale - Carolyn Turgeon [23]
She opened her eyes, looked out at the vision of her silver tail glittering in the dark room, against the old, rotting ropes.
Her sisters would think she was crazy. In love with ropes and bodies and rotten rum, horrible things that littered the immaculate ocean floor. But what they wouldn’t understand was how this decay was attached to something so beautiful she could barely stand to think of it.
Eternal life.
She scanned the room from her hammock perch. The splintering walls, a chest of drawers spilling open, more bottles filled with amber liquid wedged under some fallen beams, an eel slithering along the floor and then disappearing through one of the cracks, a team of glowing fish falling down into the room like raindrops.
An unbearable feeling opened up in her, and all she wanted was to see him again. The idea that he was there, now, existing in the world above her, the world she was not supposed to return to, made it impossible for her to stay away any longer.
She sat up and, just like that, made a decision. She started swimming, pushing upward. Leaving the ship and the palace behind. Past mountains and cliffs and sea caves, giant squids and whole lines of transparent medusas unfolding through the water. She let her body relax. She could have been anything, any creature that was at one with the sea and its movements. She closed her eyes, let the dark water fall in streams on either side of her. Her powerful tail pushed behind her.
She tried not to think about what would happen if her mother found out. Merpeople had been banished, even put to death, for crossing to the upper world on any day other than their eighteenth birthdays, but that was long ago, back when the decree had first been issued and merpeople still wanted to visit humans. No one ever tried to go now, it seemed, and, besides, Lenia was the queen’s daughter. What could really happen? she asked herself. And wasn’t it worth it, for true love?
It took longer than she’d remembered, but eventually the water grew warmer, she could see the surface of it, and she swam faster, reaching up to it and the dull ache of the sun beyond it. And then her face hit the air, and the silence of the sea was broken.
She blinked her eyes, stared out all around her. Hardly believing she was actually here. It was so simple. Once, mermaids had passed in and out of the upper world as if doing so were nothing at all. Just like this. This is how it was meant to be, she thought. It felt silly, suddenly, that she had waited eighteen long years to go. It was all wrong, the separation that existed now, this fear that something terrible would happen if a merperson entered the upper world. And now here she was. Perfect, alive, free. The air caressing her skin, sweeping her into itself.
She was careful to let the air enter her body slowly, naturally. This world was more peaceful than it had been before, despite the glare of light, but a variety of new sounds blared into her ears even so. The crash of waves, the whoosh of wind, the caw of birds flying overhead.
And there was so much light! As her eyes adjusted, she realized that something was falling from the sky. Big white flakes falling to the water and melting into it. She watched for several long moments, transfixed. They rushed down to the water, vanishing against the surface.
Water extended out from her in every direction, as far as she could see. It was so silver and pure from this vantage point, lapping and rushing, full of life. The sound of it! The foam funneling down the waves. The sky was pure white, almost blinding. Lenia had never seen so much white. She stretched out her arms, opened her mouth, and let the flakes