Mermaid_ A Twist on the Classic Tale - Carolyn Turgeon [33]
And they’d all felt confident about the identity of the merman who was causing such a change in her: Falke, one of the men of the court, son of their mother’s cousin. A beautifully formed creature, with a long golden tail and dark torso, glittery eyes flecked with gold. For some days they’d watched quietly as Lenia neglected her normal pastimes and smiled to herself when she swam by, unaware of what surrounded her, her face changed by a dreamy look that spoke of new love. And they’d watched Falke gaze at her whenever she was near and attempt to be beside her at every feast.
It was Thilla who’d approached Lenia yesterday and posed the question directly. Arching her brow, her dark hair swirling around her broad face, she’d asked, “Are you in love, Sister?”
They’d been floating outside the palace, watching over a gorgeous set of Thilla’s bright blue eggs hidden in the rocks. A group of giant squids whirled about nearby, their long tentacles swishing back and forth like sea vines.
“Yes,” Lenia had replied. The question had clearly caught her off guard, but she’d answered openly, her voice soft and small.
“I knew it! Oh, Sister,” Thilla had said, reaching over and embracing her. “We were all so worried. You just seemed so … distracted, ever since your birthday and that horrible business with the shipwreck, and the human man.”
Lenia had looked at her sister, radiant with pleasure and love. She’d been surprised that Thilla, with her gift of sight, did not already see the truth. “That was when I fell in love,” she’d whispered.
Thilla had looked at her, confused, her expression hovering between excitement and worry. “What do you mean?” she’d asked.
“That night, in the upper world. The man I saved.”
“But … aren’t you in love with Falke? He is the best of the mermen.”
“No,” Lenia had said. “I do not love him. I love the man I held in my arms and carried to shore. Now all I can do is think of him.”
As the impact of her sister’s words hit her, Thilla’s face had changed. “Lenia! That is impossible. It is forbidden.”
“I know. That is why I am suffering so much now.”
“We all thought you were happy, that you and Falke …”
“No, Sister,” she’d said. “I am not happy.”
“You only think this because the man was not conscious. Believe me, if you’d known him …” Thilla had shuddered. “He would have hurt you. That is what men do. You only saw a man who was weak, and so you thought you might love him.”
“I do love him.”
“No, Sister.” Thilla had shaken her head, brushed away the starfish floating past. “And even if he was not dangerous,” she’d said more gently, “it cannot be. You are a mermaid. He is a man. You are an adult now, too old for this fantasy.”
“But, Thilla,” Lenia had said, leaning in. “It is not a fantasy. It is something inside me. I’ve always had this feeling that there is something more. A longing for a soul, for eternal life. I don’t want to become nothing, a handful of foam, the way Great-grandmother did, the way Grandfather did. After all those years and then … nothing. And when I carried him through the water, I felt it. His soul. Leaving his body and entering mine. I felt the way it could be, and it felt like everything I’ve ever wanted. And I saw snow, Thilla. Like Grandmother told us about. Snow! Snow and ice falling from the sky. And I felt their souls, in all of it.”
“But it is not nothing, Lenia, to become part of the sea. In this way we, too, live forever.”
“It is not the same,” Lenia had said, wanting to cry with frustration. How could none of them comprehend the beauty of a human soul, shining in heaven for eternity? Where it would be whole again, as they all had been once, in times past? “We disappear. Nothing of what we were or did or felt remains.”
“Oh, Lenia,” Thilla had said, taking her sister into her arms. “Why do you long for such things? Why are you so unhappy with what you have here, when we have so much?”
“I don’t know,” Lenia had whispered, wrapping her arms around Thilla’s slender waist.
THE WAVES LAPPED around her, breaking against the rock. Above her, the clouds were