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.