Chapter Text
I love the water. I love looking out onto it, watching the waves dance in a little swaying motion across the world. I love the pitter patter of rain falling on the deck of my houseboat, the Foresaken Queen. My papa just calls her “Queen”. I love the thought of cutting through water like an olympic swimmer, dashing past competition and bouncing off the pool walls. There’s just one problem.
Papa never let me swim. He says the water is dangerous, that I could drown if I’m not careful. I’ve been begging him to let me go swimming, just once. I’ve told him before that I never understood why he wouldn’t let me go in the water when we live on a boat.
“We’re surrounded by it!” I’d say.
“Well, there’s no way you’re getting me in that salty stuff.” he’d reply. “Now help me with the groceries.”
I don’t think I’ve ever even been completely submerged in water before. Maybe as a baby, before I could shower, but that wasn’t swimming. We don’t even have a bathtub on the boat. Hey, it’s not like I’m dirty, it’s just that the shower room is too small for a tub.
But one day, one fateful day, I finally managed to crack him. We were eating lunch like usual, about a week before school started up. This time, the lessons would’ve been free, and at school! I could’ve been on the team! I begged him for swimming lessons again, but he refused like always. then, when I was in the middle of my sandwich, I saw his face.
He sighed, rubbing the stubble on his chin. He always rubbed his chin when he was deep in thought. Finally, he let out a groan. “Emily…” he muttered. I tilted my head.
“Hypothetically… if I did let you have…” I couldn’t believe it.
“... swimming lessons…” I jumped out of my chair and let a grin paint my face. I gasped. Just as fast, Papa turned his expression to his dad-like sternness.
“You’d have to promise to be cautious! Shower every day, and only ever swim under supervision!” He said sternly.
“Yes! Yes! I promise! Oh, thank you papa!” I got so excited I went across the table and hugged his neck. I felt him let out another breath before hugging me back.
My swimsuit was a dark lavender with a white wavy stripe right around the stomach area. I wore it under my normal clothes, a lilac top and blue loose jeans. I was jumping the whole morning of the first day of school. I couldn’t help myself! I’ve never gone swimming before. This was the most exciting thing that’d happened to me in years!
Brightport Secondary was a lot bigger than my elementary school a few miles away, which was a bit scary, but thrilling at the same time. Back in elementary and middle school, I always had to deal with this girl Mandy Rushton. Not only was she gone now, but I finally got to do the one thing I’d been hoping to do all my life! I was probably the happiest ninth grader to walk through those big red school doors.
Third period, finally got to the pool changing rooms, still happy until I saw her. Mandy. Her thick black hair had grown a lot longer. I pulled my own hair when I saw how sleek hers was as she stuffed it into her cap. I’d been growing my hair out too. It wasn’t nearly as long, only shoulder length, but I couldn’t shake the feeling she’d somehow copied me.
When she finally noticed me, her smile washed away like seafoam. Her swimsuit was purple, too. It was more indigo than my lavender color, but it still felt awkward. I tried walking past her without talking, but she pulled my hair just enough to get me to stop.
“Hi, Mandy.” I said quietly. She turned up her nose.
“Emily.” her voice was as condescending as always. I walked away into a corner, finally sprinting my final steps until I wasn’t seen. I didn’t want anyone to see all the bruises on my legs, anyway. I usually got them from getting on and off the ladder of Queen.
I was mumbling to myself. “Mandy? But I thought… I thought…”
“Thought what?” I skittered a bit when I heard a girl talking to me. Coming up to me, I saw She had fluffy brown hair poking out of her swim cap and deep, black-brown eyes.
“O-Oh, nothing.” I muttered. She smiled.
“I like your suit.” She said.
“Thanks.” i replied quietly. “I like your cap.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“It’s my sister’s.”
“You stole it?” I replied.
We both laughed, me moreso awkwardly. I almost felt comfortable until we all heard the coach’s roar.
“Alright! Everyone out here!” She yelled. Everybody shuffled out to the pool. My excitement rose in my stomach like a coming storm as I thought about swimming again. This was it!
The coach was a buff woman with cornrows that barely showed poking out her cap, kind of like the girl that talked to me. While she was lecturing, the girl stood next to me.
“I’m Julia by the way.” I smiled at her.
“Emily”.
No one else seemed as joyful as me about swimming. I guess it wasn’t very normal to not know how to swim in a seaside town like Brightport. It was likely everyone already knew, except me.
“Alright, listen up,” coach started, “I know not everyone in Brightport knows how to swim, raise your hand if you do.” A few kids raised their hands.
Julia raised mine up, too. When I looked at her with confusion and a sliver of fear, she whispered, “You don’t wanna learn how to swim from the coach”. I nodded as if I understood. Was the coach really rude or something? She did seem scary.
“Okay, a few of you are gonna do some laps in a minute. First, out of you swimmers, who would like to demonstrate some of what we’ll be learning this year?”
I saw Mandy fling her hand up and wiggle it a bit to grab the attention.
“Mandy, gimme three strokes around the pool.” Mandy lifted her chin like a princess.
“Yes, ma’am!” she replied before diving in with her feet parted.
She was halfway through the pool when Coach’s whistle screeched. It startled Mandy enough that she lost focus and stopped where she was, splashing around a bit. “No, no!” Coach pinched between her eyes. “Mandy, g-get out of the pool, please. I wanted you to demonstrate a stroke, not…whatever that was.”
I couldn’t help but let out a snicker as Mandy reluctantly got back out of the pool. Coach thought for a second, turned to the clock, then back to us. “Okay, we only got one hour. Those of you who can swim, tread in the shallow ends until I get back. The rest of you come with me to grab kickboards.”
As the groups parted, Julia took me to the pool. Suddenly, the excitement betrayed me as it starting morphing into fear. I stopped, looking at the cool, clear water. There were three steps before the pool hit the shallow end. Everyone seemed so familiar with the pool, Even Mandy got the hang of treading, which seemed to just be floating.
I dipped a toe in. “C’mon, the water’s not gonna bite you!” Julia teased.
“You sure?” I replied without thinking before both of my ankles were in the lukewarm waves.
Then Mandy’s laugh put rocks in my stomach. “What’s she doing here?” When she pointed, everyone looked at me. I felt completely out of place, like a scarecrow in the middle of a desert. “I thought your dad didn’t let you swim across the bathtub!”
I mumbled. I never know what to say around Mandy. Finally, just looked away. “No, c’mon! Show us what you got!” She went on. I noticed Julia giving a confused look to Mandy. “give us your doggypaddle! I wanna see what you’ve been practicing, miss never-takes-a-bath!”
I finally bursted. “Oh, I’ll show you!” then, I leaped into the water with my legs together. I cut through the waves like a knife through butter. It was just like I’d imagined. Left, right, left, right with my arms. It was nice. It felt almost soothing.
“Now THAT’S what I’m looking for!” I heard the coach shout. I glided across the water. It was almost like I’d known how to swim all my life, and it’d only just come back to me, but it didn’t last long. Soon, my legs started to feel strange. They were wriggling, pulling themselves together like magnets. I gasped and panicked, swallowing a little water as I splashed around.
“Help, help!” I shouted pathetically. “My legs!” as Coach reached out, I was close enough to the edge for her to pull me out of the pool.
“Calm down, it’s just a cramp, it’s alright.” I guess she wasn’t all that mean. I wasn’t thinking about that, though. The feeling was something I’d never gotten before, like my legs were being bound together by some electric force. Luckily, it faded away.
I was shaking. Coach put a small warm hand towel over my leg. “There.” She said kindly. “Why don’t you rest on the bench for now? Come back in when your legs are ready.” Silently, I nodded and scuttled over to the bench, but one thing was for sure. Nothing was getting me back in that water.
I watched everyone else swim in the pool, splash around and do some basic movements. I sighed and held my calf. A thought kept repeating in my head, “it wasn’t a cramp, it wasn’t a cramp.” I was lost.
Even after I got home, even after I had dinner with Papa and he asked about swimming lessons, and even after I said it was fine, I couldn’t shake that feeling. What’s worse, another feeling was mixed in with it. The feeling of swimming, how amazing it was for those few moments. it felt like I was home. But then again, that “cramp” was as terrifying as swimming was amazing.
I was in bed, still contemplating. My eyes lazily walked around the room, landing finally on my alarm clock. 10PM. my lungs puffed out a sigh. I rolled over, like the thoughts would quiet down if I did. Finally, I got up and pulled from my desk my secret diary. Just before I was about to write, there was something that caught my eye.
My window usually just shows the water, occasionally a fish would flash by or a piece of trash would float near my window, but nothing special ever came of it. Not until I saw that blue light. Blue? White? It was hard to tell. I couldn’t look away. When my eyes drew closer to the light, it was brighter, like it was reacting to my attention.
Curiosity filling my body, I went upstairs as quietly and cautiously as possible. Maybe it was the lighthouse, I thought to myself, maybe someone was out with their flashlight. When I got into the saloon, which is what we call the living room, the light was only brighter through the windows.
I looked outside. The full moon was shining onto me, like it wanted my attention. Well, it certainly had my attention. My hair fell a little off my shoulders as I gazed at it in pure curiosity. It was as if the moon was telling me something, but I didn’t speak that language.
When I heard the waves of the ocean outside, I knew what it wanted. I can’t describe this feeling I had, this calling. It sounds crazy, but i felt like the moon and the ocean both wanted me to go outside. I couldn’t help myself. I won’t lie and say I tried to resist the urge to sneak out and step onto the docks. They were close enough to the water. If I dived in, I could pick myself up.
I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t even have my jacket on. The moon shone its light and reflection into the deep black-blue water. It begged me to step in, and I obliged. My foot reached out, and I let gravity pull me into the waves.
That’s when the shock hit me. The water was freezing! I pulled myself up, gasped for air, and turned to the dock to pull myself out, shouting “Cold! Cold!” the entire time. I muttered to myself, “Why did I do that? That was so stupid! Papa’s gonna kill me!”
Before I could get back up, the feeling overtook me again. The cramp-y feeling, not the home-y feeling. When my legs tingled and wriggled inside themselves, I lost my grip on the dock and fell in. I was completely under the salty waves. My eyes hurt for a moment.
My legs were tingling and shivering with this indescribable electricity, like an energy was coursing through them, sewing them together. They eventually formed something new, something I’d never felt before. I lost my legs, I couldn’t feel them.
Strangely, though, it was okay. My heart stopped racing. My breath calmed. Yeah, my legs completely disappeared, but it was fine. In fact, it felt right. I felt safe. Against all human instinct, I let bubbles fall out of my mouth and I took a breath in, swallowing water… no. breathing it.
I don’t think I need to say much more. You know what happened to me. Breathing underwater, seeing underwater, no legs… you guessed it.
I’d transformed into a mermaid.