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.

10. Sirena Shyly Stays at Sea

     By the time Sirena reached the right age, she had had plenty of time to think about Eeba’s story about the terrors to be found on land. Sirena firmly decided that she would stay as far from land as she possibly could. 

      When her turn came, she stayed in the midst of the sea. To her mind, the sea was just as interesting as anything she’d ever heard about the land. 

     Dolphins sported in the water and occasionally swam up to her, inviting her to join them in dolphin games. Of course, she joined them in their sport, and it was as much fun for Sirena as it was for the dolphins. Flying fish also flitted by her. Flying fish are fun to watch, but they’re more serious and less sociable than dolphins.

      Sirena saw distant ships with billowed sails. The seemed a bit like the softly billowing clouds overhead. As the ships slowly passed along the turquoise-colored sea, so the clouds slowly passed along the blue heavens above her. 
      The clouds were as far from her as the ships were. But the ships, being much smaller than the clouds, looked farther much farther away. Somehow, the distance made the ships seem more pleasing to her. 
At the close of day, Sirena decided to bid farewell to her new-found friends, the dolphins. She promised them that she’d look for them the next time she returned to the surface. By their actions and dolphin sounds, the dolphins made it clear to Sirena that they’d like to visit her in the Kingdom of Marbella.

9. Eeba's Bold Adventure

     Eeba’s birthday came during the middle of summer.  Eeba was the boldest of the mermaid sisters. She hurriedly prepared herself for her big adventure and left for the surface by mid morning. 

      In the distance, she saw a large cluster of something that must have been forty shades of green. She knew that she had sighted land. 

        Eeba swam so close to the land that she could see the sand crabs and birds called plovers running along the beach. Wondering how she could get closer, she swam along the coastline until she sighted a creek flowing into the sea.  

     Her heart thrilled at the thought of swimming up the creek for a closer look at the land. None of her sisters or friends had ever swum that far before. At the same time, she feared what may happen to her if she swam too far and the tide went out. 

    Could she even get back? Hesitating a few minutes, her curiosity and sense of adventure got the better of her fears. She swam farther and farther up the creek.

       She saw birds of many sizes and colors. She saw butterflies and flowers, and she basked in the coolness and smells of the forest: wildflowers, wild onions, and wild hickory trees, to name a few. 

She saw what looked like a tiny little forest covering a rock by the creek. Eeba had never heard of moss and didn’t understand what it was. As she touched it, some of it came loose from the rock, and the aroma of fresh soil filled her nostrils.

       All along her journey up the creek, she noticed that she was being followed and watched by fairies that flitted about in the forest. Mermaids and fairies have no trouble seeing each other, just as children have little trouble seeing fairies. 

     One of the fairies said to her, “We don’t get very many melusines around here.”
      “What’s a melusine?” Eeba asked.
      “A melusine is like a mermaid, only it lives in creeks and rivers.”
      “Oh, I’m not a melusine. I’m a mermaid; and I don’t really live in this creek. I came here only for a visit.”
      “So you’re a tourist! While you’re here, you must go see the children.”

      At that moment, Eeba heard some splashing and laughter somewhere farther up the creek. She immediately recognized it as the musical-sounding laughter of children, for children of the land and merchildren laugh in similar ways. Eeba wanted very much to meet some human children. She cheerfully swam toward the sound of laughter and playing.

      Eeba had always heard that humans wore something called clothing, but what she saw came as a surprise to her. These human children were quite naked as they frolicked in the water. Even more surprising, they swam and dived and frolicked as skillfully as merchildren. Eeba was delighted to see that human children and merchildren had much more in common with each other than she had always believed.

      Eeba watched them for several minutes, wondering if she should swim closer and try to get to know them. On one hand, she didn’t know how to speak any human languages. On the other hand, it seemed that children were basically the same everywhere—beneath the sea and on land. Surely, these human children would be happy to find a new friend. Finally, Eeba decided to swim close enough to speak to them.

       Speaking in the melodious mermaid language, Eeba greeted them and waved. Suddenly, all playing stopped. Children pointed and screamed at her, scrambling for the safety of the creek bank. Without pausing to put on their clothes, they grabbed their clothes and ran into the forest.
      Eeba called for them to come back, trying to tell them that she wanted only to be friends; but none of them would listen to her. 

     As she called out to them, a small, black, furry animal (for she had never seen a dog) ran to the creek bank and placed itself between Eeba and the disappearing children. She couldn’t understand what the dog was saying to her, but she was sure that the dog was angrily warning her about something. Eeba spoke kindly to the animal, but it continued its noisy complaining. 

     The sheer anger and bad manners of the animal frightened Eeba. She quickly turned, swam out to sea, and headed for the security of home.  

Her fondest memory of her visit to the surface would always be the children she saw. She would always marvel that they were able to swim as well as any merchild, even though they didn’t have tails like mermaids. 

8. Ayon and the Sunset

     Ayon’s birthday came toward the beginning of autumn. As it had been with her older sister N’Shal, the family made a big fuss over decorating Ayon with seashells of various sizes, species, and colors.

     When Ayon reached the surface of the sea, the sun was just beginning to set. From her grandmother’s stories, she knew it as the hot ball of light and not the cool one. But, at that time of day, it didn’t really seem hot or especially bright; and it wasn’t bright yellow, as Ayon had been led to expect it to be. The sun was as much orange as it was yellow.

     Except for the area near the sun, the sky was a bright blue; it was a brighter and richer shade of blue than the ocean itself. In the area of the sun, now nearing the horizon, the sky was changing to deep shades of orange. The sun itself was changing from orange to red. As half the sun dipped below the horizon, the sky around it became a dazzling panorama of burning orange and flaming crimson.

     She felt that the sun was slipping away from her. She had to see more! With all her strength, Ayon swam in the direction of the sun, hoping to catch up with it before it could escape from her sight. Either the sun was too fast or Ayon was too slow. The sun finally slipped completely beneath the horizon, leaving a pale, reddish glow.

     At that moment, Ayon realized that the sky behind her was becoming dark. As the sun surrendered its claim to the sky, the darkness rushed in to fill the sky. In a few minutes, even the pale, reddish glow had faded from the horizon. 

     With the coming of twilight, a single star appeared somewhere to the north of Ayon. Then two others appeared: one in the eastern sky, the other in the west. 

     The twilight of evening, in its turn, surrendered to the dark of night, other stars appeared a few at a time, until the whole sky was garnished with thousands of twinkling pinpoints of light.

     Ayon noticed the moon. At least, she thought it was the moon. It wasn’t round, as N’Shal had described it. It looked more like a glowing cockle shell as viewed from the side.

     For the next few hours, she dreamily gazed upon the stars and the moon and watched the play of moonlight on the ocean waves. At length, she flipped her tail and turned toward home.

7. N'Shal Observes the City

     Finally, the first of the mermaid princesses reached proper age. N’Shal’s grandmother prepared her for the occasion by decorating her tail with six scallop shells and adorning her hair with more than a dozen smaller shells: cowries, periwinkles, and wentletraps. She also wore a necklace of even smaller seashells.

     Her whole family and many other mermen and mermaids waved farewell as she swam from the palace and rose toward the surface.
     When N’Shal reached the surface of the sea, she stopped and looked around. Along the horizon, she was surrounded by darkness. Above her, the sky looked like a dark bowl garnished with pinpoints of light. 

     She had never seen stars before, and she marveled at how they merrily twinkled. In one direction, a cool ball of light hung dreamily over the horizon; it was the full moon, and N’Shal had never seen the moon before.
       Presently, she noticed what appeared to be a ribbon of stars stretched along a small area along the horizon. She knew from her grandmother’s stories that this must be a city—one of those places where humans lived.

     Eagerly, she swam for more than an hour and came to rest on a sand bar in a bay. She sat on the sand bar and watched the boats sail to and from the harbor. She listened to the gentle murmur of the ocean waves lapping on the shore. Listening very carefully, N’Shal could hear the sound of horse-drawn carriages as they moved along cobblestone streets. 

   She could hear the “clop, clop, clop” of the horses’ hooves and the rattling, grinding sound of the carriage wheels bouncing across the cobblestones.

      Twice as she sat there watching and listening, she heard the tolling of a brass bell. The first time, it tolled eight times. The second time, it tolled nine times.
     Afterward, the sounds of the city gradually grew quieter until not a sound was heard—that is, not a sound except the murmur of the ocean waves lapping against the shore.

     N’Shal turned and swam out to sea, toward Marbella. She was filled with excitement and could hardly wait to tell her sisters what she had seen.

6. Grandmother's Stories

     Besides tending to their gardens and sporting about the palace, the six mermaid princesses delighted in hearing their grandmother’s stories. They especially liked to hear her stories about what things were like on land. Since they had not yet come of age—the age at which mermaids are allowed to go to the surface of the sea—they yearned for knowledge about life beyond their undersea kingdom.

     No doubt you’re wondering how old a mermaid has to be when she’s considered “of age.” Since you’ve probably read another version of this story someplace else—or have seen a sickeningly sweet cartoon somewhat similar to the story—you’re probably wondering how old a mermaid has to be before she can leave home without telling her parents and pursue a romantic interest.

      (Actually, no one knows. Since the life under the sea can’t experience the same seasons as life on land, the merfolk must measure time by a means unknown to those of us on land. Hans Christian Andersen set the age at fifteen; William Shakespeare would have set it at thirteen; more recent writers have said sixteen.

     (We do know from the story, though, that merfolk live three hundred years, and that the oldest mermaid in the “little mermaid’s” family was her grandmother. This would lead us to believe that a mermaid comes of age sometime between the ages of eighty and a hundred twenty. Certainly, this calculation would make the story less pleasing to children and teenagers but more pleasing to their parents. For the sake of preserving the romance in the story, let’s just say that we don’t really know when a mermaid comes of age.)

     The six mermaid princesses were thrilled to learn that flowers on land had pleasant aromas, and that each flower had its own scent and its own season for blooming. Grandmother also told them about birds that were almost as varied in their size, shape, and color as the fishes of the sea. As she described how some of them flew among the trees and others flitted from flower to flower, she called them “fishes.” Because the six mermaid princesses had never seen birds, this seemed the best way to describe them.

     The six mermaid princesses especially delighted in hearing the kind of tales that human parents tell their children at bedtime and other occasions. You wonder, no doubt, how mermaids can know what kind of stories human parents tell their children. When merfolk venture close to land, they sometimes meet fairies. Over the centuries, mermaids and fairies have sometimes been friendly enough to swap information. Mermaids tell about life beneath the sea, and fairies tell about life on and above the land.

     The stories that the fairies pass along to the merfolk always begin with the words, “Once upon a time,” and they end with, “…and they lived happily ever after.” Because the merfolk learn these stories only from the fairies, you can imagine what mermaids call these tales.

     Humans must have very happy lives, thought Momo: No matter how dangerous or hard things become for them, there’s always a happy ending. She could hardly wait come of age, so that she could see what happy lives people lived on land.

     Since Momo was the youngest of six mermaid princesses, and the oldest was not yet of age, she would have to wait a long time before she would get her chance. Each of the mermaid princesses made a promise to each other: As soon as they returned from their first visit to the surface, they would tell the others everything about their experiences.

5. Merfolk, People of the Sea, and Landsmen

    Merchildren don’t have classrooms the way children on land do. They sit around older merfolk and learn from them. Since the merfolk usually live three hundred years, they gain much more learning than most teachers on land.

     For the six mermaid princesses, school consisted of learning from their grandmother. Oh, how they enjoyed listening to their grandmother’s stories!

That’s the form that education usually took. Instead of studying geography from books, they listened to grandmother’s stories about other places and the people who lived there. They eagerly listened, asked questions, and discussed what grandmother told them.

     Oh, and history wasn’t some dull litany that involved memorizing who did what, when, and where. Oh, no! It was oral tradition; it was the stories of people of every sort in every known culture on land, on the sea, or beneath the sea. It was the stories of struggles and triumphs and failures and moral lessons to guide merchildren to responsible futures.

     Whenever possible, biology lessons involved hands-on, interactive experiences with real plants and real animals. When it wasn’t possible, the merchildren would listen to Grandmother’s stories.
     In short, education consisted of field trips, stories, first-hand experiences, and discussions. The six mermaid princesses eagerly listened, participated, and asked questions about the world around them and the world beyond them.

     When the mermaid princesses were small, they had thought that there were only three kinds of folk in the world: cetaceans, who live in the sea and have bodies similar to fish; merfolk, who have lower bodies like fish, live in the sea and could breathe underwater as well as in the open air; and people with legs, who lived on land and could not breathe underwater. You probably thought the same. Grandmother taught them otherwise.

     Oh, there were cetaceans, merfolk, melusines, undines, river nymphs, Moken, amas, bayou dwellers, and landsmen.

     Cetaceans, like people and mermaids, are mammals. They include whales, dolphins (including freshwater dolphins), and porpoises. Unlike fish, cetaceans breathe only air; but they can hold their breath underwater for many minutes. For the most part, cetaceans are gentle creatures; and dolphins are the noblest of them all. Dolphins are helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, and brave. Just as people on land consider it a compliment to be called true ladies or gentlemen, merfolk consider it a compliment to be compared to dolphins.

      You already know about mermen and mermaids, but let me correct one mistaken belief about mermaids. The merfolk aren’t really half man (or woman) and half fish. That would be quite impossible, and it’s just a fairy tale. The lower half of a mermaid’s body is like that of a cetacean.  A mermaid's tail sways up and down like a cetacean's tail rather than side to side like a fish's tail. 

     Melusines are very much like mermen, except that they live in fresh water. A melusine can change herself (or himself) into a person with legs, but only temporarily. If a melusine marries a human, she becomes fully human and can remain human until death. 
     An undine has two legs, lives in the sea, and can breathe underwater as well as in the open air. 
     A river nymph is like an undine, except that it lives in rivers, creeks, and other fresh-water areas. 
     Moken live in boats on the sea.   They’re not able to breathe underwater, but, like cetaceans, they are able to hold their breath for many minutes at a time. 

  Many of the Moken have no country, and they only occasionally set foot on land. When they do, it’s only to harvest shallow-water clams, seaweeds, and other things they need to survive. They don’t associate with landsmen any more than they must.

      An ama sleeps on land at night but spends most of her days in the sea and under the sea. Like Moken, amas are able to hold their breath for surprisingly long periods of time. 

     Amas are always women because women can resist the colder temperatures of the water better than men can, and they can hold their breath longer. Their men folk usually operate boats or help the amas in other ways.
     Sometimes amas are seen carrying small wooden buckets to the sea. The buckets are left to float on the water while the amas dive underwater in search of foodstuffs or other items to harvest.
       When they go farther out to sea, they sometimes attach weights to help them to sink, and ropes to get back to their boats.  
     At the end of each day, they wash the salt water off their bodies and return to their homes in villages on land.

      Bayou dwellers live in swampy areas on or by creeks, and they get much of their food from the hunting and gathering of fish, crawfish, and land animals. Many of them live in floating houses on the creeks. Like the merfolk, they’re generally peaceful.
      You know, of course, about the people who live entirely on land. Many of them try to set themselves apart from nature and even above nature. As a result, they’re the greediest and most warlike of the creatures grandmother could describe.

     Many of the landsmen, of course, are harmless. Nonetheless, Grandmother cautioned her precious mermaid princesses to beware of them.

      The land does have nobler creatures than men, and the land does have other man-like creatures. On the land, one can find dogs, horses, and elephants, which are far nobler than men.      
     The land is also home to great apes and Sasquatches, which, unlike men, tend to be more responsibly behaved, generally having a live-and-let-live way of regarding their neighbors and surroundings.

     These other land creatures, though, are another lesson for another time.