24. The Lonely Mermaid

     Thus it was, Prince Arturo brought Momo to live at his family’s castle along a wide plain, and what a grand castle it was! It had high walls, towers, fountains, and banners floating along the walls. Within the castle, elaborately carved wainscoting, famous artworks and statuary adorned walls and niches.  The grand ballroom was large enough for hundreds of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen to enjoy.

     The castle was surrounded by beautiful gardens of all kinds: a stroll garden, a rock garden, a miniature garden, a statuary garden, a water garden, flower gardens, and a maze. Each garden blended into all the other gardens in such a way that it was impossible to tell where one kind of garden ended and the others began. All of these gardens were joined by pathways and by streams with waterfalls and fountains. Hidden behind the castle were an herb garden, a vegetable garden, greenhouses, and stables full of fine horses. One of the bridle paths followed a small creek running through the nearby mudflats, and from there to the sea.

     Among the clothes Arturo provided Momo was a set of riding clothes. The two of them often went out riding to various places in the kingdom. On one such occasion, they rode to a patch of dry ground along the mudflats, where they laid out a picnic lunch.

     It was on that day that Momo learned that Beauteous Kingdom had enemies that would stop at nothing to harm the royal family. A man with a bow and arrows crept from the forest. Unseen by Momo and Arturo, the man moved closer and closer, until he felt close enough to shoot an arrow into the prince.

     As he drew back his bow to shoot, a sparrow hawk swooped down from the sky, snatched the hat from the man’s head, and flew away with it. The man’s shriek of surprise caused Momo and Arturo to turn around to look. There they saw the man running after the bird, screaming, “Come back here, you stupid bird!” Of course, the bird had no intention of coming back, and this made the man look foolish. As he ran across the mudflat, a mangrove tree put out one of its roots and caused the man to trip over it and fall face down into the mud.

     Covered with mud, the man was angrier than ever. He kicked the tree root and said words that shouldn’t be repeated. Then he turned to look at Momo and Arturo. He shook both fists at them, said something else that shouldn’t be repeated, turned, and stormed into the forest.

Arturo, seeing the questioning look in Momo’s eyes, said to her, “Nobody seems to know what his name is. We call him Ghasan the Assassin. Every few weeks or so, he tries to kill someone in the royal family, but he never succeeds. Mainly, he tries to kill me, since I mingle more freely among the people and roam the woodlands. The living things of the forest always protect me.”

     He realized just how odd that sounded, so he further explained, “The creatures and other living things of the forest manage to do things to stop him from doing wrong. You see, assassins have an unwritten rule that they must look presentable when they kill somebody. Mainly, they have to look like someone who can scare people. If something makes them look foolish or awkward, they have to go away and, perhaps, try again some other time. A proper assassin can’t allow himself to be seen falling face down in a mud hole or having pigeon droppings on his coat or having his face covered with bee stings. It’s also bad form to try to commit an assassination after someone has seen you get chased by dozens or squirrels, or if you’re seen screaming and shaking your fist at a rabbit. It’s even worse form to commit an assassination when you’ve been sprayed by a skunk; all the assassin can do then is go home, take a bath, burn his clothes, and try again some other time. I have to give Ghasan the Assassin credit for one thing, though: He doesn’t give up.”

     Prince Arturo added, “Our kingdom has enemies in a land far away. They hate us for our happiness.”

23. Beauteous Kingdom

     Momo was happy to learn that Prince Arturo’s father, King Zaniddiate, was a very kind ruler who cared for all of his subjects as if they were his children. Unlike Momo’s father, the King of Marbella, the King of Beauteous Kingdom was always busy making decrees to improve the lives of his subjects.

     Of course, the royal treasury needed to use a lot of gold and silver for all of this involvement in the needs of the people of Beauteous Kingdom. That was not a problem because King Zaniddiate was as wise as he was caring. Many years earlier, thirteen powerful magicians had come to Beauteous Kingdom and began working for the king.

     These magicians had the power to create gold and silver out of thin air. Much of what they did and how they did it was a carefully guarded secret, but a few things about their methods were well known. The magicians would write magic words on slips of paper, and gold and silver would magically appear in the royal treasury. As long as no one actually looked into the royal treasury, the gold and silver would keep piling up. That was the only way the magic would work. King Zaniddiate and his ministers were enormously pleased with this arrangement because it means that they could spend as much as they wished, and the gold and silver would keep piling up.

     Because King Zaniddiate was such a wise and caring person, no one in the land was poor. That doesn’t mean that no one ever complained about his lot in life. In every kingdom, you’ll find some people who complain that they don’t have enough money or that they have reason to be unhappy, even when everyone else is happy and prosperous.

     You see, at the same time the thirteen powerful magicians came to Beauteous Kingdom, several lesser magicians arrived. These magicians spent all their time counting things and adding them up, and multiplying and dividing and all sorts of other magic that they did with numbers. They even had magical ways of counting things that no one else was able to count—things such as happiness and well being. For that reason, these magicians were called happiness counters.

     In their wondrous prophesies, happiness counters were always using such magic words as Kurtosis and regression analysis. Because of the magical ways they worked with numbers, the happiness counters knew that you can’t always believe what you see.

     They knew that there were deceivers known as outliars who were constantly trying to interfere with their work. An outliar was someone who was able to out lie anyone else. For example, whenever the happiness counters conducted a survey to prove that people were happy, the outliars would say the opposite. Since you can’t believe what an outliar tells you, their answers were always excluded from the survey.

     Of all the magic words the happiness counters used, the most powerful was granger. The word was always in the comparative; nothing ever had grange or grangest, whatever that meant.

If the happiness counters said that pigs fly, of course everyone would doubt it. On the other hand, if the happiness counters said that flying pigs had granger, no one doubted it. In fact, if flying pigs were said to have granger, several former skeptics would tell you that they’d seen lots of flying pigs.

     No matter how much certain people (the outliars, I mean) complained that the people were miserable and hungry, the happiness counters were able to use their numbers and something called a “like it scale” to prove that nine and seven eighths out of every ten people in Beauteous Kingdom were prosperous and deliriously happy, and that all the others were comfortable and moderately pleased.

22. The Mermaid and the Prince

     The sun was just rising when Momo groggily stirred. Though she felt a stabbing pain in the lower part of her body, grogginess got the upper hand. Momo rubbed her face and shook her head to clear the cobwebs from her brain.

     Suddenly aware that someone was watching her, Momo startled to semi-alertness. As her head quickly cleared, she saw Prince Arturo standing before her. His face was an image of confused indecision as to how to handle the situation.

     Momo began to feel uncomfortable by the way Prince Arturo was staring at her. She was sure he meant well, but he was, after all, a twit—rather awkward in social situations that were new to him. Arturo just stood there and stared, mouth agape, his eyes as wide as two fried eggs.

Then she became aware of her smooth, pretty legs—legs like a human girl. For the first time in her life, Momo began to feel embarrassed at the thought that her legs must be disconcerting to him. Little did Momo realize that it wasn’t her legs on which Prince Arturo’s dark eyes were focused.

     At that moment, several people came rushing from the palace. A Moorish slave girl, taking no heed of the fact that Arturo was a prince and she was a slave, snatched the cape from Arturo’s shoulders. Then she quickly helped Momo to her feet and wrapped the cape around her.

     Prince Arturo was such a twit and a blockhead that this simple act of courtesy would never have occurred to him. As the Moor and the others escorted Momo into the palace, Prince Arturo recovered enough of his wits to tag along with them.

     They asked Momo who she was and whence she came, but she was unable to speak. All she could do was look at them with her expressive blue eyes.

     The slave girls took her to a bath and washed the salt and sand from her body. Then they dressed her in costly robes of silk, sequined with jewels and cross stitched with images of birds and flowers.

     They watched Momo as they finished dressing her. She had never worn clothes before, and she rather liked it. She tried out her legs and noticed the approving looks on the women’s faces.  She walked with a graceful gait that rivaled the waves undulating on gentle seas.

     The cooked foods of the palace also were new to Momo, but she was sure she’d grow accustomed to them. Because others were watching to see her reaction, Momo pretended to like the taste of these foods from the first bite.

     The day passed in a flurry of activities that Momo could scarcely understand. Still, she accepted each event as a part of her new adventure and her new life as a human.

That evening, the slave girls bathed her again and changed her clothes once more. At some point, she thought, she should become familiar enough with bathing and dressing that she could do it herself.

     The slave girls, in groups and individually, sang for Prince Arturo and the other members of the royal family. They all had beautiful voices. One girl’s voice was lilting; another soared operatically; another had a forceful, hard-driving voice. Each had her own style that set her apart from the others.

     Momo wistfully recalled when her voice was the most beautiful voice in the sea kingdom of Marbella. Alas, but she had given up her enchanting voice to be with her prince. Sadder still, Prince Arturo had no way of knowing that it was she who had rescued him or how much she had sacrificed to be with him.

     The slave girls began dancing for the royal family. As with their singing, each had her own dance style that could be called her forte.

     One girl danced as liltingly as she had sung. I believe she called it “The Dance of the Swans.” She ended with something she called “The Dying Swan.”

Another did something appropriately called belly dancing. Actually, her belly seemed to be doing less dancing than the rest of her; but Momo could see that most of the energy of the dance seemed to come from the girl’s belly. Momo also realized that humans, like mermaids, had navels.

     Momo took her turn in dancing. Unfamiliar with human dances, she drew from her swimming experience and mentally put that experience into her new legs. Everyone acclaimed Momo’s dance as poetry in motion, gently swaying and pirouetting like dolphins, darting and suddenly changing directions like a school of fish, raising her arms expansively in a manner that suggested a puffer fish. Everyone who saw Momo dance wildly applauded.

     Momo was filled with joy when Prince Arturo told her that she would stay with him always. Then came the big let down: He would have a cushion placed outside his bedroom door where she could sleep every night. Well, I did say that he was royalty. I did say that he was a blockhead and a twit.

     Thus, Momo slept outside his door each night. Each morning, when Prince Arturo awakened, Momo could hear him passing gas. Prince Arturo’s five cats also heard, and they took that sound as a signal that he was awake. In a herd, the cats ran toward the bedroom—sometimes running across poor Momo’s face—and leaped onto Prince Arturo’s bed. For them, it was time to be petted and fed.

     Momo wondered, What have I gotten myself into? She would find out soon enough.

21. Momo Leaves the Undersea Kingdom

     Momo struggled through the whirlpools and quickly swam to her father’s palace for a final glimpse of her loved ones—for a final glimpse at her sisters, her father, and her grandmother. The festival had long ended. All was dark and everyone was asleep.

     She silently slipped into her garden and picked seven flowers—one for each sister, one for her father, and one for her grandmother. She gently laid one each by the sleeping forms of her father, her grandmother, and each of her five sisters, making sure to hold it in place with a small stone at the base of the stem.  

     Her heart was breaking at the thought of eternal separation from her loved ones, yet hopeful at the thought of togetherness with the prince.  She wished she could kiss each one before leaving, but she couldn’t take the risk of waking them. 

    Momo turned for a final gaze at her home and turned her thoughts somewhere beyond the sea.  With a sigh, she turned her face toward the moonlight that played on the waves, and she swam toward it. Just beneath the surface of the sea, Momo swam toward the land—toward the palace of Prince Arturo.

  It was still dark as she approached Prince Arturo’s palace. Twinkling stars seemed to hang so low in the night sky that she almost felt as though she could reach out and pick one. Cumulous clouds played tag across the sky as the diamond stars and full moon played hide and seek.

     The moon bathed the sea waves with a faint glow and caused the dancing waves to glisten like stars. The moon, as it rose behind the palace, cast a silhouette across the dreamscape tapestry.

     By the time Momo had reached the beautiful marble steps, the moon had risen just high enough to bathe the steps in a ghostly glow. For Momo, the fateful moment had arrived.

     She held the vial in both hands as though fearing it would get away, while at the same time, she feared opening the vial. She removed the top from the vial and let it fall to the surf with a little splash. A pungent smell escaped from the vial and assailed her nostrils. She held her breath, closed her eyes, and lifted the vial to her lips.

     Momo quickly forced herself to drink the liquid and swallow it before she got much of the taste in her mouth. She gagged and felt like spitting, but she feared that if she spat, she might lose some of the potency of the draught. She felt like vomiting, but she forced herself to restrain the urge.
     Momo’s grew dizzy and her head began to spin. All seemed to turn pitch black. In a moment, she felt her body suddenly bump into the marble steps, and she realized that she had fallen. Barely aware of the pain of falling against the steps, Momo rolled over onto her back. In her state of confusion and dizziness, she watched the sky as it seemed to spin around her.

    Slipping into unconsciousness, Momo was faintly aware of the waves lapping against her on the shore, and the distant pounding of the surf against the shore. Then she was unaware of anything, and Momo lay there as though she were dead.

20. The Sea Hag Remembers

     As the sea hag watched Momo swim out of sight, she laughed bitterly. What a fool! she said to herself. If I could do as much for her as she thinks I can, I’d do more for myself. I’d enjoy better health and live in a finer house. Ha! They’re all fools.

     The sea hag brushed the thought from her mind, sighed, and brooded in the loneliness of her crude dwelling made from the bones of dead humans. A toad-like sea creature swam up and settled on her lap. It was the only sea creature that dared come near her place, and she loved it as a pet.  The sea hag looked into the distance. 
     She dimly remembered a time before she had become known as the sea hag. She was young once. She was pretty. She loved a merman, and he loved her in return. That was more than a hundred years before the events of this story took place. 

     In those days, she was better known as Yelayta the traditional healer, and many people spoke of going to see her. Her husband Bastiat had been an advisor Wayan, the king of the merfolk—the father of the present king of the merfolk, Wayan II. Those were happier times, attending court balls at the sea palace and enjoying the respect of mermen and mermaids alike. 

     She had many visitors to her happy home—so many, in fact, that hardly a day passed without one hearing someone say they would see her.

     Alas, Yelayta’s happy existence came crashing to an end. Fishing boats came to the area above the Kingdom of Marbella. That was a common enough occurrence. The fishermen were using nets to catch tune; that, too, was a common occurrence. This time it would be different. 
    Bastiat and other mermen rushed to the area of the fishing boats, trying to keep dolphins away from the nets. Dolphins and merfolk, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, were friends—and friends take care to look out for friends. 

     Tuna fishermen don’t really want to catch dolphins, but some of them use the kind of nets that catch dolphins anyway. Since dolphins are air breathers, they can get tangled in the nets and drown. And since dolphins tend to be friendly and trusting toward people, they sometimes fail to see the dangers that net fishermen pose to them.

     One such dolphin foolishly ignored the mermen’s warnings and got tangled in a. fishing net. Bastiat, caring more for the safety of the dolphin than for his own safety, swam straight for the net to rescue the dolphin. The dolphin escaped and safely swam away, but Bastiat became entangled in the net.

     Mermen can breathe in the air or in the water, so there was no chance of Bastiat dying as a result of being away from either. Yalayta watched in horror.  After the net was hauled aboard the fishing boat, the other mermen followed the boat in hopes that the fishermen would throw poor Bastiat back into the sea as an unwanted catch.

     No one ever saw Bastiat again.

When a mermaid’s husband dies, no one sees her in the same way again. To married merfolk, she’s suddenly single; thus, she’s no longer invited to events that involve couples. To merfolk who have not mated, the suddenly single mermaid is still seen as unlike mermaids who have not yet mated. Then there’s the question, “What do you say to a grieving mermaid whose mate is not actually known to be dead?”

     Like many people on land, Yelayta’s former friends simply left her to grieve alone. Alone is how she remained for the next hundred years, and everyone forgot the names Bastiat and Yelayta. 
     It’s often helpful to be alone from time to time, but it’s unhealthy to live unhappily alone for a hundred years. Social graces are forgotten, friendships fade, strangers become suspicious, suspicions become hatred, and bitterness has time to fester. 
     Yelayta, the pretty, outgoing young mermaid, gradually became old, bitter, hateful, hated, and alone. In short, she became the sea hag.   Hag, it seems is a word people use for an older woman whom people have chosen to reject.  Degrading words such as hag provide a  means for rejecting someone while placing the blame for the rejection on the person we reject. 

     Visitors no longer came to see Yalayta.  Sadder still, the oft-spoken words, “I’ll see Yelayta,” became nothing more than a figure of speech.

19. At the House of the Sea Hag

     A few weeks after Momo had made her fateful decision, her father King Wayan would celebrate his 200th birthday. Of course, everyone was invited: mermaids and mermen, undines, melusines, river nymphs, Mokens, amas, and cetaceans. With the exception of the evil sea hag, every kind of mammal that lives in or on the sea was invited.

     Mokens and amas were unable to come because they lived in another part of the world. It was too far for them to travel. Besides, Mokens and amas, being air breathers, could have attended for no more than a few minutes at a time. It was difficult even for river nymphs.

     The undines displayed their synchronized swimming, and the mermaids sang their beautiful songs. The highlight of the evening came when Momo sang for the crowd. Momo had the most beautiful voice of any creature on, beneath, or beside the sea.

     After the entertainment, representatives of all the invited creatures made their rounds of speeches in praise of King Wayan. Throughout the sea, on the sea, and near the sea, creatures enjoyed prosperity and happiness. None of the speakers could point to a thing King Wayan had done to make them prosperous or happy. In fact, most of the time, they had no reason to be aware that they even had a king. Nonetheless, they were happy, healthy, and well fed; and they—for whatever reason they may have had—wanted to give King Wayan some of the credit for their good fortune.

     While all this speechifying was taking place, Momo quietly slipped into the night. She looked back at the festivities and set her face toward the house of the sea hag.

    The area along the way to the house of the sea hag was alive with whirlpools that threatened to suck her beneath the ocean floor. Polyps grew from the ocean floor, reaching to grab her and pull Momo to her death.

        Momo could not swim above them. Because the house of the sea hag was in a shallower part of the sea, the threatening plants—if, indeed, they were plants—grew almost to the surface of the sea.
       Momo quickly tied up her hair so that the polyps would have less means of grabbing her. She also held her arms close to her breast so they couldn’t grab her arms. 
        As the vicious polyps swirled and snapped around her, she saw the bones of various sea creatures and seafarers they had killed and eaten in times past: dolphins, sharks, and seamen, to name a few. 

     Most frightening of all, she saw the skeleton of a little mermaid. Its bony fingers still clutched the tentacle-like growth that had strangled it to death. Momo wondered what had possessed the mermaid to have gone to such a dark and accursed place anyway. In the next moment, Momo began to wonder why she had gone there herself. 
     In the distance, Momo saw the house of the sea hag. It was a dreadful place made from the skeletons of whales, dolphins, porpoises, and even mermaids and mariners.

     Not one living thing grew in the area within twenty yards of the sea hag’s house. It was a dark, gloomy, and foreboding. Near the house of the sea hag Momo bubbling fumoroles, pale yellow from toxic sulfur, rose from fissures in the sea bed. 
   Amid the swirling and bubbling mists, Momo saw the sea hag. It was as if the wretched monster had expected her and was waiting for her arrival. Momo had always heard that the sea hag always surrounded herself with snakes and toads and other slimy creatures. She was surprised—but not very surprised—to see that no creature dared venture close to the house of the sea hag.

     When Momo came within speaking distance, the sea hag cackled a mirthless laugh and said, “I knew you would be here. I’ve known it all along. I know what you want, and you’re a fool for wanting it.”
    Momo shuddered at the sound of evil in the sea hag’s voice. Presently, she stammered, “Will you help me?” 
     The sea hag cackled tauntingly, “Heh, heh, heh! Will I help you? I suppose you know what you want and you deserve to get it good and hard.” She cackled again at her wicked joke. “You’re in luck—if you can call it luck. If you had waited another day to come here, you would have waited another year. 

     "I’ll prepare a potion for you that will turn you into a human with legs. You must swim toward land until you make landfall and then drink the potion. Then you will get your wish, but I warn you: The morning after your prince marries another, you will die. You will dissolve into the foam of the sea and completely cease to exist.”

     “Love always finds a way,” Momo said managing a brave smile.
The sea hag laughed uncontrollably. For what seemed like several minutes, her bitter laughter reverberated throughout the sea around them. She finally gained control of herself and sneered, “Love is the bitter pill that blinds the hearts of fools. Once you have drunk the potion, you can’t go home again.”

     “Home is where the heart is.”

“One more empty-headed cliché like that and I’ll send you away empty handed. Do you want it or not?”

     “Yes, I do. Is it all prepared?

     “No, child, I must prepare it in your presence; and I must also be paid first.” 
     “I brought nothing with me. How can I pay you?”

     “You brought your lovely voice with you. Your tongue and a few drops of my blood must go into the potion to—shall we say—seal the deal.”

     “My tongue? If you take away my tongue, how can I hope to persuade him to marry me?”

     The sea hag cackled, “The same way that human women have been persuading men for centuries. Your pretty face, your walk that’s as graceful as the sea waves, your shapely legs, your lithe figure, and your luxuriant hair blowing in the breeze—all that and more will be at your disposal. All things worth having require sacrifice. You can always go back to your palace and live out your life as a mermaid.”

    Momo took a deep breath and said, “I’ll do it. I’m willing to sacrifice anything for the man I love.”

     “That does it!” the sea hag exploded. “I warned you not to spout any more empty-headed clichés. Get out of her and don’t come back!”

     “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Please don’t send me away. I’ll try to hold—“

     “Your tongue?” the sea hag cackled again, “That’s the one thing you’ll not hold.    
     The sea hag swam over to a small, covered cauldron she had placed over a fumarole. She beckoned for Momo to come nearer. The sea hag picked up a razor-sharp knife and seized Momo’s tongue. With a single swipe of the knife, she cut off Momo’s tongue. As Momo grimaced in pain, the sea hag cackled, “No more empty-headed clichés about love from you, young lady,” and slipped Momo’s tongue under the cover of the cauldron.
     With the same knife, the sea hag held one of her sagging, pendulous breasts and cut it. She placed it under the caldron lid and squeezed it a little. “There,” she said almost to herself. “That seals the deal between us.”
     After the cauldron had bubbled a few more minutes, the sea hag picked up a vial, held it upside down, and breathed into it, filling it with air. Using a pair of tongs, she slipped it under the cover of the cauldron and gave the tongs a half twist so that the air would escape from the vial, replaced by the potion in the cauldron.

     The sea hag quickly removed the vial from the cauldron and placed a stopper on the mouth of the vial. With a triumphant grin, she held it up for Momo to see. 
     “This is the potion you wanted, dearie,” she cackled again, “and it will be your ruin. Now you must somehow escape through the forest of polyps and swim to shore. If any of the polyps try to grab you—and they will—a single drop of this potion will destroy them.”

     Still grimacing in pain, Momo took the vial and swam away from the house of the sea hag as fast as she could. Like powerful, elastic arms, the polyps reached upward to grasp Momo, but they suddenly recoiled as if in horror at the sight of the amber vial in her hands.

*           *           *

18. Grandmother's Advice

  The more often Momo visited the Prince Arturo’s palace, the further away from her he seemed. She sighed to herself, “So near, yet so far away.”

     Meanwhile, Momo’s sisters and grandmother had grown increasingly concerned about Momo’s obsession with the prince. Momo didn’t even know Prince Arturo except at a distance, yet she increasingly wove a fantasy around him and increasingly mistook that fantasy for reality.

     She had always valued her grandmother’s advice, so she asked her, “Is there any way I can be with my prince as his bride?”  
     The old mermaid surprised Momo with her response. “He’s not your prince,” she said flatly. “You don’t even know him. Momo, listen to me. Your father, your sisters, and I are all concerned about this obsession of yours. You’ve been stalking the prince and living in a fantasy world. From what I hear, you’ve been leering into the windows of his castle, spying on him, listening in on people’s private conversations, and letting everything else go on account of this fixation of yours. It’s just not healthy, and I don’t see how any good can come of it.”

     “Oh, but, among humans, it’s considered romantic,” Momo replied.

     “How might you know that?”

     “I hear people talk. In a country across the sea, there’s a romance writer named Edgar Allan Poe, who really understands what it’s like to be young and in love. In one of his stories, a man’s wife died and he let everything go, just as you say that I've been doing, and finally his whole house came crashing in around him. In one of his poems, a young man’s wife died; and he loved her so much that he slept beside her dead body in her tomb. In another of his poems, a man was grieving over the death of his wife—that happens a lot in his stories and poems—“

      “So I’ve noticed.”
     “Well, as he grieved, a large, black bird came to him and said, ‘Nevermore.’ Oh, Grandmother, don’t you think that’s romantic?”

     “No, Momo, I think it’s sick. I don’t think it can be considered normal even among humans. I suspect that the bird in his poem was giving him advice on his writing career. Momo, you need to get a life.”
      “But, if I could become human just long enough to get him to marry me, Arturo would be my life. Is there any way it would be possible?”

     The old mermaid was reluctant to even discuss the matter, but the entreaties of her youngest and prettiest granddaughter touched her heart. “Mermaids live for three hundred years, but humans live less than a hundred years,” she said at last. “Our lives are much longer and much freer than theirs. We’re always surrounded by living things of the sea.

     “Humans like to surround themselves with dead things. Even in their houses, as dead as those things are, they seldom abide by living things. If they find a living thing growing ‘too close’ to their houses, they tear it away. Once in awhile, they find a living thing such as a flower and cut it and place it in their dead houses. The flower, cut away from its roots, soon dies. They deceive themselves into thinking that they do this because they like flowers. 
     “They do the same thing to birds and say that it’s because they like birds. They capture a poor bird, take it away from its home, its family, and its freedom; and they keep it captive in one of their dead houses. It’s very cruel.

     “No, dear child, I should not like you mating with a human. If you had to mate with anything on land, you’d be better off with a dog or a horse, which are nobler animals; or with a mountain gorilla or a sasquatch, which keep to themselves and rarely bother anyone. You’d never be happy with humans.”

     “Oh, I’m sure I’d love them!” gushed Momo. “Surely you must remember something of what love is like!”

     The old mermaid sighed, “Many allowances are made for the illusions of youth, but few are made for the disillusionment of old age. I’ve heard that melusines are able to change their shapes and walk on land for short periods of time. I’ve also heard that, if a melusine is able to win and wed a human, she will remain human for the rest of her life. I’ve never heard of a mermaid forming two legs like a melusine, though. I think you’d best enjoy the 300 years you’ve been given and not try to be something you’re not.”

     After she had talked with her grandmother, Momo sat in her garden thinking about what the old mermaid had told her. She gazed upon the statue she had placed there, imagining that it was her prince. It made her sad to think that her grandmother had grown so old that she had forgotten what it was like to be young and in love. 
     Momo continued her frequent visits to Prince Arturo’s palace. There she dreamily watched him as he dreamily gazed into the night. What was he thinking? In her imagination, he was thinking of her. As time passed, Momo linked fancy unto fancy in search of a way to make Prince Arturo hers forever.

     Momo, of course, was not a melusine. If she were to grow two legs, then going to him would seem a simple matter. As a mermaid, though, she fancied herself “almost a melusine.”

     Was there, she continued to wonder, a way she could do as the melusines do? Was there a way that Momo could form legs, walk up to her prince, and win his heart?

     The sea hag would know the answer to that question, for it was said that the sea hag was a powerful witch. Momo shuddered at the thought, for it was also said that the sea hag was unspeakably evil. Her very surroundings spoke of evil itself. Yet, only the sea hag would be able to help Momo. 
       Such a step as this would be a wrenching, life-changing decision and a difficult step to take. Momo would have to leave her family, perhaps forever. She would have to enter a new and unfamiliar culture and somehow adjust to it. She would be a stranger in a strange land where people spoke a strange language. How welcoming would they be toward her? Momo had no way of knowing.

     At length, Momo “screwed her courage to the sticking place,” as the saying goes. “I’ll go to the sea hag,” she resolved. “At whatever cost, I’ll follow my heart and follow my dream.”

     From that moment on, Momo looked for an opportunity to slip unnoticed from her home. That opportunity came sooner than she had expected.

17. Prince Arturo is Praised by His Subjects

     Momo wanted to learn all about Prince Arturo. Not satisfied with peeking through the windows of his castle and watching him as he stood on his balcony, she eavesdropped on people who worked by the sea and along the banks of rivers and creeks.

     She listened to women washing clothes, oyster farmers going about their work, and fishermen at sea—anyone she could overhear without being seen.

    Not surprisingly, most of the conversations she heard were just mindless chatter, uninteresting even to the people for whom they were intended. Once in awhile, though, people’s conversations included talk of the royal family.

     Often, conversation is understood only within the context of the culture in which the conversation is heard. The definition of a word isn’t necessarily the intended meaning of the word. Momo knew that, and she tried to account for it in listening to what the people of Beauteous Kingdom were saying.

      If, for example, someone were described as a salon, Momo knew that he was a wise lawmaker, like the ancient Greek fellow named Salon. If he were described as a Kong-ming, Momo knew that he was considered a clever strategist.

Momo knew a lot of human names that were associated with certain traits; but, when people of Beauteous Kingdom spoke of the royal family, they made an unfamiliar comparison. Momo had never heard of a famous person named Dick Ed—or anyone by that name who wasn’t famous either.

    All along the banks of river and creeks, all along the coast, and on the seas, Momo heard people say of Prince Arturo, “He’s a Dick Ed like his father.” Prince Arturo’s subjects also described him as a twit. Momo had heard that the word twit was used to describe someone of noble birth and regal manner. Sometimes he was called by both terms in the same sentence.  Whoever Dick Ed was, Momo was sure that he must have been as kind and loving and wise as she imagined Prince Arturo to be.

     Momo reflected on the night she first saw Prince Arturo aboard his ship. It was love at first sight. Now Momo was thrilled that the young man she loved was also loved and admired by his subjects.

     Oh, how fortunate these humans must be, she thought. They can quickly sail across the sea in ships and ride across the land in carriages. And how much more fortunate the people of Beauteous Kingdom must be! They’re blessed by having a prince who is a Dick Ed and a twit.

     With each visit to the surface, an idea formed in Momo’s mind. Melusines can form legs like humans, and they can remain human if—and only if—they succeed in marrying a human. If it were possible for mermaids to do the same, Momo wanted to take the chance.  She would follow her heart.

16. Observing the Prince

      Word of Momo’s adventure in rescuing the prince spread from one mermaid and merman to another until the story was well known throughout Marbella. The story finally reached the ears of two undines who remembered having seen the party aboard the prince’s ship. They not only knew who the prince was but also where he lived.

      The prince lived in a beautiful palace near the edge of the sea, in a land called Beauteous Kingdom. 

     One of the undines, named Cachina, was a friend of Momo’s oldest sister N’Shal. Cachina agreed to guide Momo as far as the steps that lead from the palace down to the water’s edge.

     Oh, what a beautiful palace it was! Carved of marble and granite, the palace was several stories tall with high towers topped by cupolas (that’s what they called the dome-shaped structures on the tops of the towers.) Manmade waterfalls emptied into elaborately carved fountains adorned with statues and carvings inspired by nature.

     Through the windows, Momo could see cloth more beautiful than she’d ever seen people wear. Of course, Momo had never seen more than simple curtains (on the prince’s ship) before, so she didn’t know what tapestry was.

     To one side of the palace there was a man-made wetland which was home to little egrets, various species of frogs, and other wetland creatures.  Momo often swam up to the wetland to listen to the music of the frogs and water birds. She was later to learn that the wetland served a purpose other than to provide a beautiful sight and melodic sounds. Water purification plants were unknown in those days, and the wetland served to purify the palace’s waste water before it reached the sea. 
      Momo observed the palace by moonlight and watched it until the lights within the palace were extinguished for the night. She sometimes saw people come and go in the rooms, but she couldn’t tell if one of them was Prince—oh, what was his name again? Of course, she thought: Prince Arturo.

     Momo discovered a canal that passed beneath Prince Arturo’s balcony. At times, when no one was around, Momo would sit on the steps near his balcony and imagine that she was human and that she was his princess. This was risky, as she was almost caught a few times. 

     Other times, when Arturo came out to his balcony to peer into the nighttime surroundings, Momo settled just beneath his balcony and watched him for the longest time. As he was in a semi-lighted spot and Momo was in the shadows, Prince Arturo was unable to see her. 

     This worked well for Momo until, one night, Prince Arturo had to relieve himself and—well, let’s just say that indoor plumbing was unknown in those days. From that time on, Momo decided to situate herself a little upstream from the Prince’s balcony when she wanted to observe him.

15. Momo Rescues the Prince

  The surface of the sea was littered with broken wood and other things that the waves had thrown overboard. To avoid getting hurt, Momo swam under them and looked about for the prince. He had been knocked unconscious and was already sinking toward the bottom of the sea. Momo turned head downward and swam toward him as fast as she could. 
      The prince had sunk more than thirty meters below the surface by the time Momo reached him and grabbed his arm. Swimming around behind him, she put her arms around him under his shoulders and began pulling him toward the surface.

     As they broke the surface, Momo suddenly pulled the prince upward in a tight embrace. Water gushed from the prince’s mouth each time she squeezed him in that manner.  
     He coughed a little but remained unconscious. Remembering a story her grandmother had told her, Momo held the prince’s nose and placed her mouth to his mouth. Several times, she squeezed the prince’s chest and blew into his mouth. He remained unconscious. 
     It was taking all her strength just to hold his head above water. Finally, she gave up breathing into his mouth and used her energy to swim toward the shore.

     It was almost morning by the time Momo saw that they were near a little bay. In another hour or so, they reached the shore, and Momo struggled to drag the prince onto the beach.  
  She laid him on his back and pressed on his chest some more and breathed into his mouth some more. At length, she saw that the prince had recovered some of his color. He was no longer unconscious; he was just sleeping. Momo put her mouth to his once more and enjoyed the feeling of her lips against his.

     As Momo lingered over the sleeping prince, she heard the tolling of bells somewhere nearby. That meant that humans were nearby and that they might be able to see her. She quickly turned and dived into the sea. Swimming out to some rocks a few meters from the shore, Momo covered herself with seaweed and watched to see what would happen next. 
     A young woman came from a nearby building and walked toward the sleeping prince. Drawing closer, she gasped in surprise to see a young man lying on the beach as though dead. She collected herself and rushed over to him to see if she could help.

     As she raised his head, the prince woke up and looked into her sea-green eyes. Momo noticed that the young woman had russet hair just as Momo did. Looking more closely, Momo seemed to see that the young woman had a slight overbite. How odd, Momo thought, that this young woman looked that much like Momo herself!
    Momo hid behind a rock and covered herself with seaweed.  From this vantage point, she watched to see what would happen to the prince.  

     More people rushed from the building and helped the prince to his feet. As they led the prince to the building that seemed to be their home, the prince thanked each one of them for their kindness. He was full of appreciation for all of them but none for Momo.      

       He didn’t know of the little mermaid who had saved his life, and Momo had no way of knowing how—or if—she would ever see him again.  With breaking heart, Momo turned and swam away.

14. Momo Discovers the Prince

     We now return to the day that Momo came of age.  

    Momo excitedly broke the surface of the sea just as the sun was going down. There before her, on gently swaying waters, she saw a three-masted schooner with elaborately carved wood and inlaid with gold. Presently, she heard the sounds of a party taking place aboard the ship. Momo decided to swim aft of the ship for a closer look.

        A set of windows wrapped around that part of the ship just below the afterdeck. As the windows were just above eye level, Momo had to take advantage of the rise and fall of the waves for her to take brief peeks into the windows.   Yes, there was a grand ball taking place on the ship. The people were celebrating the birthday of a young prince named Arturo.  

     I wish I could tell you that Arturo was a handsome prince. After all, princes in fairy tales are supposed to be handsome. Arturo was tall and he was slender. Well, he was gangly, anyway. He had curly red hair, freckles, a long nose, an overbite, and a receding chin.

     In those days, Prince Arturo’s appearance was what most people called regal. That’s because, from one end of the continent to the other, men and women of the royal houses tended to have long noses, big ears, receding chins, and overbites. That was a result of the inbreeding among royal families. Because royalty married only other royalty, everyone in every royal house from one end of the continent to the other was closely related to everyone in every other royal house. 

      Early in the history of the royal family, a group seeking to overthrow a certain king tied a rope around his neck and tried to hang him. Because of the king’s receding chin, the rope kept slipping off, leaving the king with a rope around the middle of his face—just below the ears and nose. From then on, the facial characteristics of the royal family was seen (by the royal family) as a sign of heaven’s favor.

      Another result of this inbreeding was that, from birth, almost all royals were twits.

     From one end of the continent to the other, that was the word that came to people’s minds whenever any discussion of a royal family came up. The royals, not knowing that it was an uncomplimentary remark, thought the word twit was recognition of good breeding—which further demonstrated what twits they were. Consequently, a royal statement was sent out decreeing that no one other than titled nobility shall be called a twit. Their subjects cheerfully complied with the decree.
      Somehow, though, Momo found Prince Arturo oddly appealing. She continued to watch the young prince, unaware that some of the light from the ship’s grand ballroom illuminated her and the water around her. 

     At one point, she found it difficult to get a good look at the prince because two men were standing in front of the set of windows near Momo. As a wave lifted her up, one of the men turned and noticed her at the window. He quickly leaned for a closer look. The other man noticed that his friend was looking out the window and tried to see what had gotten his friend’s attention. In the next moment, Momo rose toward the window again. Noticing the men, Momo smiled and waved.

      The first man asked, “Did you see that?”
      “I didn’t see anything,” the second man replied.
      The first one said, “I didn’t see it either.”
      As it grew very dark, the partygoers moved to the main deck of the schooner. All of a sudden, flames darted across the sky and exploded, casting sparks and fireballs across the sky. Momo had never seen fireworks before. One sky rocket following the one before it in rapid succession, so many exploded at nearly the same moment that they made rumbling sounds. Eventually, the people began to run out of fireworks, and the noise and flashes ceased.

     As darkness settled over the prince’s schooner, strong seamen hoisted lines, and the wind filled the ship’s sails. Momo noticed then that the sea was starting to get rough as the schooner pulled away from her. Swimming as fast as she could, she managed to keep up with the schooner, hoping to get another glimpse of the prince. 

     Now the wind and waves were tossing the ship about as a kitten would play with a toy mouse. The ship’s timbers creaked and threatened to crack. Each flash of lightning allowed Momo to catch a glimpse of the prince standing on the poop deck of the ship.   He seemed to thrill at the feeling of the salty wind in his face.

     Suddenly, a high wave crashed over the schooner and washed the prince overboard. Momo was beside herself with happiness. The prince would come to her, and she would always have him! Then she remembered that humans weren’t able to live beneath the sea. The prince would sink to the bottom and drown if she didn’t rescue him.

13. Sadness

     When Momo returned from the surface, she went straight to her garden and sat there, just staring at her favorite statue. She refused to tell her sisters what had happened. For the longest time, she refused to speak to anyone. She was engulfed in a deep and terrible sadness. 
     For days, she spent many long hours sitting in her garden, tortured by some unspoken sadness. She no longer tended her garden, and her plants grew in a tangled mess. 
     It especially saddened Momo’s sisters to see her embracing the statue in her garden as if it were a real boy—as if her heart would burst at the thought of loving and losing him.  
     From time to time, she swam to the surface and sat on a rock. For the longest time, she would silently and sadly face the land. 

       One such time, Momo had a visitor. It was a fiddler crab that thought of herself as an entertainer. This crab, whose professional name was Lolita Detritivore, tried to cheer     Momo up by singing and dancing for her. Lolita sang that, no matter what’s bothering you, you can put on a happy face and sing your way out of any troubles that come your way. Poor Momo! In her unhappy frame of mind, the last thing in the world she needed was a crustacean that danced and sang nonsense. 
     Mercifully, Zora the Helpful Seagull swooped down, seized Lolita Detritivore in her talons, and flew away to feed Lolita to her young seagulls. As Lolita screamed and wiggled for dear life, Momo muttered half to herself, “Sing your way out of that one, you little creep.” Feeling somewhat uplifted by this experience, Momo turned and swam back to the undersea kingdom.     
     At length, Momo’s oldest sister N’Shal could bear it no longer. “You’ve always trusted me,” N’Shal pleaded, “and you’ve always confided in me. Whatever it is, I'm sure we can work it out together." 

      Momo stammered out a few words at first. As the first few words broke through the crack in her defenses, a torrent of words gushed from her. She told N’Shal everything that had happened.

   

12. Momo Comes of Age

     Year after year, one by one, Momo watched her sisters come of age and rise to the surface of the sea. Year after year, one by one, she listened to their tales of the world above and beyond the sea. From her garden, she would often turn her eyes upward and gaze toward the surface, imagining what lay beyond the undulating waves of the sea. 
        She could see changes of light and shadow and know that it was due to movement of the sun. From time to time, she would see a dark shape moving across the surface of the water and could tell whether it was a whale or a passing ship. Whenever she recognized a shape as a passing ship, she thought of all the humans that must be on board, and she wondered where they were going and what they were thinking and feeling.

     Momo’s five sisters gradually lost interest in new discoveries about the world above.     Eventually, they agreed that the world beneath the sea was far more interesting than the world of dry land. 

      From time to time, though, just before a storm, the five sisters rose to the surface, arm in arm. Sadly, Momo watched as they rose, impatient for the day that she could join them. 
     Once on the surface, they sang to seamen who were struggling to keep their ships from sinking in the storm.  
     They sang about the joys of the world beneath the sea, and they sang that the seamen should not be afraid of joining them down there. 
Since they were singing in the melodious language of mermaids, the seamen didn’t understand. They thought that the sound they heard was the sound of the wind in the storm. 
     At long last, Momo’s grandmother told her that she was old enough to go to the surface and see what it was like. Since Momo was the last of the mermaid sisters, this would be a special occasion.

      Momo’s grandmother ordered twelve oysters to fasten themselves to Momo’s tail. She formed a necklace of sea grasses and placed it on Momo. A lettered cone hung from it as a pendant, and dozens of colorful nerites took their places on the necklace. A pair of fox miters fastened themselves to her earlobes to serve as ear bobs.  
     Momo would have wanted to travel with far less weight. Her grandmother, however, insisted that she “look her best,” whatever that was supposed to mean. Grandmother had her way, and Momo endured it. Finally, she bade her family farewell and rose to the surface of the sea.

11. Magki in Winter

      It was in the dead of winter when Magki’s turn came. When she rose to the surface, she saw whitecaps, ice floes, and even an iceberg or two. She decided that it would be fun to find a seat on an iceberg and enjoy the view. Since Magki was a little heavier than most mermaids, the extra weight on her body protected her from the winter’s chill.
      She stretched her arms and deeply breathed in the brisk air. She delighted in the way the cool breeze played against her face and through her hair.

     Oh, what a view it was! The clouds in the sky overhead looked like a blanket of snow.      

       The choppy sea was a hazy shade of gray, the ice floes were soft, silvery white, and the iceberg was a pale blue-gray. In fact, everything she saw appeared in various shades of blue-gray. Ships, which occasionally came close enough for Magki to watch, seemed a deep charcoal gray, though with a slightly bluish tint.
       Oh, yes, I must mention the ships. For reasons unknown to Magki, the seamen steering the ships tried to stay as far from the iceberg as they could. One of them was unable to do so, and his ship came closer to the iceberg than the other ships. 
       At length, the ship’s helmsman caught sight of the beautiful mermaid sitting on the iceberg. He quickly put his mind back on his work. To avoid crashing against the iceberg, he had to fully concentrate on steering the ship.  
     It all seemed quite a contrast in attitudes. The helmsman, hating and fearing the weather, was desperately struggling with the helm. To lose his concentration even for a second could destroy the ship.

     Magki, by contrast, enjoyed the fresh, bracing weather. As the wind caused her hair to billow, she smiled broadly, threw back her shoulders, stretched her arms behind her, and completely filled her lungs with the brisk winter air. 

   In the next instant, the ship crashed into the iceberg and sank in minutes. There were no survivors.