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For as long as he could remember, which in the grand scheme of the universe wasn’t that long since he was only eight years and eleven months old, Steve had always loved mermaids.
Every summer, his parents would drop him off at his nonna’s house for a whole month and go who knows where. Steve certainly didn’t care. In fact, he often wished they would never come back, so he could live with his nonna forever. Nonna was just that cool.
Sure, her house was small, but it didn’t make creepy creaking noises like his house did. Yes, they never went out to eat (something unthinkable in the Harrington house), but that didn’t matter because Nonna made the best food. And maybe she didn’t have her own pool as he did, but she shared one with all of her neighbors, which sometimes meant he would have friends to play mermaids with.
Nonna had a big leatherbound book with illustrations of mermaids and tales of their adventures that he would beg her to read to him before bedtime, even though he was perfectly capable of reading it on his own, thank you very much. He just preferred it when she read it to him. She had been reading it to him since . . . well, since forever. Plus, she used funny voices for the characters.
Mermaids were the most fantastical creatures to ever exist in Steve’s opinion. After all, who wouldn’t want to live underwater?
So, each year at Nonna’s pool, Steve would try to befriend her neighbor’s grandchildren and play mermaids with him. They’d have lots of fun swimming and splashing together until their skin turned pink from the sun. However, this summer, Steve hadn’t seen any kids at the pool, and he had been at Nonna’s retirement community for almost a whole week! He was starting to think that he wouldn’t make any new friends this summer.
As he and his nonna walked down to the pool, Steve was prepared to spend the next hour or two swimming alone, showing off his underwater handstands to Nonna.
His ears perked up when he heard splashing coming from the pool area.
In the shallow end stood a little boy about his age, with long, gorgeous brown hair like a mermaid. The boy looked up as Steve approached.
“Hi, I’m Eddie.”
“I’m Steve.”
“Do you want to play mermaids?”
Steve’s chest nearly exploded with excitement. “You like mermaids?”
Somehow, the other boy’s eyes got bigger. “I love mermaids.”
Steve slid into the pool, glad he had already put on sunscreen. “What are your mermaid powers?”
Taking in a deep breath, Eddie opened his mouth to answer.