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.

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