The Little Mermaid, an excerpt

If I stay absolutely still in just the right spot I can see everything and still breathe. There’s a spot right over the vent where the water flows fast enough to saturate my gills. I can just sit and catch my breath for a while. It gives the sea turtles and sharks a chance to get some face time. The tank really isn’t big enough for all of us, but the boss won’t hear anything like that. So I get to bump elbows with two black tips, a bull, a tiger and a mako. Not to mention the moray eels, pike, and a grouper with a bad attitude. I’m a scared little fish in a tank full of bad characters.

            Enough time sitting ideal, the boss doesn’t like his star going unseen for too long. It takes very little to get going a little flip of the tail and suddenly I’m out and in full view. It’s part of the magic. The little mermaid appears from the deep to awe and inspire the little kiddies. The childerns' faces press up to the glass whenever I swim by. In the sea tube their faces are all bubbled up and weird. I love watching their eyes light up when I tap on the glass. It’s something that money just can’t buy, though the boss charges an arm and a leg for the privilege. Lying on top of the viewing bubble also drives them crazy. Grabbing hold of Oscar the sea turtle and riding him around the tank is enough to set kids squealing with glee. But nothing beats looking right into the face of a little girl with her nose pressed to the glass. Anymore I think it’s just as thrilling for me as it is for them.

Marine-land has been boasting a real mermaid for about two years now and it still draws in the crowds in droves. They of course don’t realize that their watching a real real mermaid. Everyone up and down the coast has a “real” mermaid act. Of course their boss doesn’t make them swim in the shark tank. That’s what makes my act so extreme. That and being a real mermaid seems to help. If I couldn’t breathe underwater I doubt that the management would let me near a shark tank, but seeing as I can the insurance risk doesn’t seem so steep. Of course the sharks tend not to snap at things as big as they are. The bull shark, Marco, is really quite nice once you get to know him. He even lets me ride around on his fin. The moray eels try and take a piece out of me all the time though. And of course Larry the grouper fish has had pretty good hold of my arm before. Over all the fish in the tank aren’t that bad. It’s the people that really terrorize me.

I wouldn’t even be here if Anthony, the boss, hadn’t found me floundered on the beach. It was a dark night, no moon and wild surf. It was the first time I’d ever tried to swim in the ocean and low and behold what I found, I grew fish parts when I went into the sea. I was swimming with friends but when I started to change the tide pulled me out and I couldn’t seem to find my way back. I fought with the surf crashing and swirling me around and around like I was trapped in the washing machine from hell. When I finally hit the beach I was so exhausted that I passed out. I opened my eyes again to glass. Anthony found me on the beach and carried me back to his layer, the Marine-land fish hospital. Needless to say I was confused. I got to see my own tail for the first time under electric lights, and I feel like that might have taken something away from the whole experience.

After recovering from my shock and confusion I finally got to confront my rescuer. He gave me an ultimatum, either I could work at the park or he would hand me over to the government. I really didn’t have much of an out. He showed me the front page of the paper that morning. I made the headline. “SPRING BREAKER LOST TO SEA.” They weren’t looking for me, they were looking for my body. It wasn’t like I could do anything looking like the fish wonder. So I could be his cash cow, or I could be a government freak show. My prospects didn’t look good. So I work at Marine-land as the live in mermaid.