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.