Chapter Two:
Melanie Neptune:
"Melanie!" Mother called to me. She saw my worried expression and wrapped her arms around me in a motherly hug. "What happened?"
"I…I was by the rocks…and when I…I turned around…there…there was a human…" I panted.
Mother's eyes widened in horror. "Did they see your tail? Do they know what you are, Ocean Eyes?"
I shook my head. "No…he didn't see it. I splashed him and swam away…" She hugged me again. "Don't tell Father," I pleaded. "He'll be so angry that I was careless like that."
Mother nodded. "Promise you won't do it again and it will be our little secret, okay Ocean Eyes?"
I nodded. "I promise."
"Good." She held my shoulders and grinned. "Your sixteenth birthday is coming up."
I nodded. "I know."
"And your father and I decided that it was time you learn more about the humans that fascinate you so much."
My eyes lit up. "Really? You're going to tell me about them?"
Mother nodded. "Yes. We have a book, it has the history of humans, and it will tell you everything about them."
I hugged her. "Thank you, Mother!" I paused. "Do I have to wait until tomorrow to get it?" Tomorrow was my sixteenth birthday, and it was the day I would officially become heir to the throne.
Mother nodded and kissed my cheek. "Just until tomorrow, Ocean Eyes. Can't you wait that long?"
I sighed. "I suppose I can."
"And there's more, as long as you promise to be careful. We both agreed that you can go to the surface to read it. Not out of the water, but perhaps on a rock, but avoid the ones the human saw you by."
I nodded and hugged her again. "Thank you so much, Mother! You won't regret this, I promise!"
I turned and swam away, to where my friends were waiting.
"Happy birthday, Ocean Eyes!" Mother cried, handing her the package. I took it, excited. It was a plain brown leather book, the words Human History on the front. It was a fairly thick and heavy, but I didn't care.
"Thank you, Mother, Father!" I yelled, hugging them both. They beamed with pride and appreciation.
"You can read it now," Father said, motioning to the surface. I nodded.
"I will!" I swam towards the outside of the bubble. "I'll be home before dark, I promise!" I yelled over my shoulder.
I broke out of the bubble and headed for a large pile of rocks that I knew were a good distance away from where I had seen the humans.
I pulled myself halfway out of the water and opened the book to the first page. My eyes widened when it said that they couldn't breathe underwater.
"Wow," I whispered. "They're so much like us and yet they are not at the same time!" Fascinated, I read on. I discovered that their second set of hands was called feet and the fingers called toes.
I wiggled my tail. I wondered what it would be like to have legs and feet and toes instead of a tail and flippers. Well, they couldn't be that great, could they?
I turned the page and read on. They ate the same way we did but different things I had never heard of. They had more than just one king, and in some places they were called 'presidents' instead. Humans were very strange, so far.
"So, are you following me, or am I following you?" a vaguely familiar voice said from in front of me. I looked up and saw the human from the days before. He was sitting on the rocks, arms resting on his legs. I must have been too indulged in the book to hear him walking down the rocks.
I snapped my book shut and held it to my chest, backing away slowly. He raised one of his eyebrows at me.
"I…I'm not supposed to talk to you," I whispered. As I said this, he threw his head back and laughed.
"But you don't even know who I am," he said. He held out his hand to me, and I stared at it, not sure what he wanted me to do. "I'm Ben Jacobs."
I didn't swim away, but I stayed silent. He waited for me to respond, but when I didn't he spoke again. "What's your name?"
"Melanie," I said quietly. So far, I didn't understand why I wasn't supposed to speak to humans, because he hadn't done anything mean or deadly so far.
"What book are you reading, Melanie? You may want to keep it out of the water, or it will get wet."
I looked down at the book. Of course it was wet. What did it matter? It would be the same dry as it was wet. I looked up at him curiously.
He sat back, confused. "So far, every time I've seen you, that's how you look at me. Why?"
I shook my head, startled by his question. "What do you mean?"
He shook his head, his blond-brown hair shaking with it. "Nothing, I guess. Do you ever come out of the water?" he held out his hand again, expecting me to take it.
I shied away from it. "Of course," I lied. He couldn't know what I was, though he obviously didn't care if I knew what he was. "I am a human. I cannot live in water."
He laughed, as if I had made a joke. "But where did you go yesterday, and why did you splash me?"
I hesitated before speaking again. "I told you that I am not supposed to talk to you."
"But you sit on those rocks every day and watch my family and I work on the shore. Why is that?"
"I've never seen it before," I said honestly. Slowly, I edged closer and propped myself up on the rocks, but not high enough that he could see my tail. I paused before gradually inching my hand closer and touching the baggy white cloth he wore over his chest.
"What is this called?" I asked. I brought my hand down to the brown cloth he wore over his legs, that separated in the middle. "And this?"
His expression was puzzled. He pinched a piece of white cloth between his fingers. "This?" his voice sounded confused. "It's a shirt." He dropped the cloth and touched the brown one. "These are pants. How did you not know that?"
I brought my hand away. "I had just forgotten, that's all," I lied again. I looked back towards my home, noticing the setting sun. Ben seemed to notice my bare arms and back for the first time.
"Why aren't you wearing anything?" he asked.
I looked down and back up at him. "Why would I need to? I have hair to cover anything I need it to."
His face became red and I backed away again. "I have to go," I said quickly before ducking under water and swimming away.
Ben Jacobs:
As he sat down at dinner, he couldn't stop thinking about Melanie. She confused him so much. But as much as he confused her, he wanted to see her again. He hoped she'd go back to her usual spot on the rocks so he could speak to her again.
His father was speaking to his mother about something his friend Peter had caught in the fishing nets.
"Said at first, he saw a girl. Beautiful blond hair, but too pale to be healthy," he was saying. Ben snapped to attention. Just like Melanie's skin. "But this girl, she wasn't wearing one stitch of clothing on! Hair that reached her waist and covered everything in its path, though." I have hair to cover anything I need to. "Then Peter, who I swear must have been drunk, says the bottom half of the girl is a fish! Like a fish tail! So now he thinks that he's caught the first mermaid ever! Can you believe how crazy that it?"
"What do you know about mermaids, Father?" Ben asked, taking a bite of his fish and looking at his father.
"You think you caught one, too?" he laughed. "Oh, all right. Well, first, obviously they're part fish. Second, they got beautiful singing voices, which they use to lure sailors to them before they attack and kill them. Third, they are the most beautiful creatures on Earth, which helps when sailors see them. Fourth, they don't wear anything, not one thing to cover up anything. Fifth, they hate humans, with a passion! They don't care to learn anything about us." What is this called? "And last, the ones who don't kill humans are terrified of us, and if they were real it would be for good reason." I'm not supposed to talk to you. "Why, son?"
Ben looked back at his father. "What? Oh, I was just curious." He took a drink of water.
His father chuckled. "Is it about the girl you thought you saw a few days ago, Ben?"
"What girl?" his mother asked, looking at him.
"Nothing," he mumbled.
Ben's father laughed again. "Two days ago Ben asked all of us if we see a girl out on one of the rocks, and then he dives in there because he thinks she's being dragged down by a shark. I think it's just the heat."
"Probably right," Ben said, his cheeks getting warm.
"But Mommy," Margret said. "Mommy, I saw the pretty girl too." His mother stared at his sister. "Mommy, she was really pretty! But she was really pale, too! And she was all wet, with really pretty black hair!"
"Pretty and pale, you say," his father murmered, taking a large drink of beer. "Maybe Peter's not as crazy as I thought."
