She had blond hair and Emma could not tell what color eyes. She looked to be about Ms. Chatham's age. Unsurprised to see the three people in the pool, and only mildly surprised to see that two of them were mermaids, she spoke.
"Who are you?" The woman had a slight Australian accent, although she used French.
"I am one of the tenants for this week. This is my brother and sister."
"That may slightly identify you, but I would prefer to know a name, rather than why you are here. For example, my name is Julia McMillen. I used to live in Australia. My two best friends growing up were Louise Chatham and Grace Watsford, and my name growing up was Julia Dove."
"Ok then...My name is Emma Gilbert. These people are my siblings Elliot and Ceili Gilbert. My best friends are Rikki Chadwick and Cleo Setori, who are also friends with a girl I have never met named Bella. I do not know her last name. Ceili is adopted, and we are staying here until the rest of our family arrives. From here, we will be going to Madrid, Spain, where we will be going to an airport to fly home, to Australia, where Elliot and I are from. Ceili is from Northern Ireland, but we met her while both of our families were visiting Southern Ireland."
That seemed to satisfy her.
"Beware of those you think you can trust, Emma. It is often hardest to not trust your closest friends, but sometimes you must not. My husband tried to expose me, after I had given up my tail, using photographic evidence that he stole from me. That was the reason why we adopted our daughter, originally. I wanted to let her be free, but he wanted to expose her. I told her the truth the day he died, and have not heard from her since. You are best friends with her younger sister, whom she worried incessantly about."
Emma just stared at her. "Who would want to expose me? Ash has disappeared off the face of the Earth, seemingly, and none of my close friends would want to expose me, because then they'd be exposing themselves."
At her words, Mrs. McMillen just laughed. "I do not mean now, my dear, but rather when you are older, and married. Keep this part of you private, and even if you do one day give up your tail, know this- the full moon may still affect you, if you have had enough full moons to be used to them. This place was all the work of a full moon. Have you explored inside the rental?"
"No, we haven't." Ceili had finally found her voice. "We just came out here and swam after taking a tour of some palace. We should probably go in, though, Em. Our parents could be here soon." Emma nodded, and swam over to the steps, where Elliot helped her, then Ceili out of the pool. Ceili pulled the water off of herself, then turned to do the same with Emma, only to find she was already dry.
"How? I thought that when you gave up your tails, you gave up the powers with them." Ceili asked.
"No. After a year, a mermaid will keep her powers if she ever does decide to give up her tail. If a mermaid waits more than fifty years to give up her tail, she will keep the tail. We found that out the difficult way- dear Gracie somehow kept her tail, then told us about a year later that she was about fifty years older than us. We didn't know each other before we became mermaids, and in those days, the magic of the moon was so strong that we all transformed within ten seconds of climbing into the pool. Out of all of us, she was the one who was most annoyed by her tail, and after she told us, we could see why. Although she looked young, she died a few years back, as did one of her daughters."
"How did your necklace end up in the jewelry shop back home? The owner said it was from the estate sale of a deceased person, but you are very much alive."
"I sold everything I could at that sale, as I did not want to remember anything. I used the money to buy this house, one night when I was moonstruck. Over the next month, I painted the house, but being moonstruck caused on of the bathrooms to look like the Moon Pool of Mako."
"Do you ever want it all back? The tail, the swimming, all of it?"
"The tail, no. The swimming, why would I want it back, after all, I still have it? The secrets, I do not miss. I have the best of it all, and the only complication is the full moon. Can you answer your own question now?"
"So you are not at all upset by any of it? I wish we had known last year with Charlotte... Then we would not have fought so hard against her, and merely made her join us in the water. It would have been much easier..."
"Charlotte? Isn't that Gracie's granddaughter?"
"Yes, she is. She is also a huge, well... witch. She somehow had all of the mermaid powers, and tried to make us do stuff for her. She made Cleo really depressed for a while, because she stole her boyfriend, and used him for her own evil means."
"And so you made her lose her powers."
"Yes. She was a mermaid for only about a month, but we made her lose her powers with the last removal full moon. I left shortly thereafter to travel the world. Cleo and Rikki then met another mermaid."
"What are your feelings on her existence?"
"Well... I'm excited that she exists, but I hope that I have a place in our group when we come back. I think they both miss me, but I am not sure. I know that I miss them. She changed in Ireland, and Cleo sent me pictures of what her power is like. I've never seen anything like it. Her power is most similar to mine, because she can make water stay somewhere, but then it is like Cleo's, in that it can stay there no matter what the temperature is like. Mine melts..."
"Ahh, so you are like Louise. From the sound of it, I am like Rikki, and Gracie was like Cleo, yet I do not think that this girl- Bella, correct?- has had any guidance on her power, and has figured it all out for herself?"
"I think that is about right... So I can't blame her for wanting to have friends, or Rikki and Cleo for letting her be friends with them..."
Just then the door opened, and in walked Emma's mother. She took in the scene, and then said, "Ahh, you must be Mrs. McMillen, the landlady. Here, I have the payment for this week all ready to go." With that, she handed her an envelope, which had the correct payment in it. "Emma, could you help unload the cars?"
"Sure, Mum. Ceili, could you go unpack our stuff in our room?" Ceili nodded, and quickly moved their suitcases to the bedroom with the mermaids on the walls. The rest of the family came in, and they quickly sorted everyone into their rooms. Elliot shared with Cade and Caite, who could not bear to be away from Cade. Adrian shared with Tatiana, and Emilia and Caelin shared the room that adjoined with Ceili and Emma's room. Emma and Ceili had decided that they could tell the four-year-olds their secret, as long as they promised to not tell their parents.
Tatiana was nowhere to be found, and Caelin and Emilia agreed that it was best she did not know, as she would tell everyone she saw. They promised not to, and sat down on their bed.
Ceili started telling them by saying, "You know how, a few months back, I disappeared overnight, and you couldn't find me anywhere?" Both girls nodded solemnly. "Well, that's because I was at the beach. I just felt... compelled, I guess, to be there, and I was in this cave. There was a blue pool in the cave. Just as the full moon rose, I climbed into the pool. It began bubbling like a Jacuzzi. These little golden bubbles came out of the water, floating to the hole through which the full moon shone. I fell asleep, because I suddenly felt exhausted. Exhausted, but also more complete. The next morning, when I woke up, I found myself in the water, and I found that I had a tail. I found that I was a mermaid. I really began hoping that it would go away, on its own, but the water didn't seem to be helping at all, so I pulled myself out of the pool, and waited for it to air-dry. I got impatient, and so began doing weird hand motions with my hand, and suddenly, all the water on me popped into a giant bubble, which I lowered back into the water. I then looked down, and found myself in my clothes from the night before. I went back to the hotel, and slipped into the big group that was our family. Mum and Dad never even noticed I was gone."
"Really? Are you still a mermaid?" asked Caelin.
"Of course I am. Do you want to see?" replied Ceili.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" both girls chanted.
"Ok, then. Emma, could you get me some water?"
"Sure" Emma got up and got a glass of water out of the bathroom, freezing the top few millimeters so it wouldn't splash onto her. They had agreed that they would only show the girls Emma's secret if they asked about other mermaids, which was highly probable.
Emma handed the cup to Ceili, who was the only one who noticed the ice, which she subtly broke when she made a tentacle of water come out of the glass and touch her skin, leaving a residue of water. She then counted down from ten. When she reached one, she changed. Both girls looked at her tail, and their eyes widened.
"Can we go back to Ireland? I wanna be a mermaid!" exclaimed Emilia.
"Are there other mermaids, Ceili? Why does Emma know before us?" added Caelin.
"Ok, so, no. We may not go back to Ireland. Emma knows before you because she is a mermaid. She changed in Australia with two of her friends. We are going to relocate to Australia, and so, after you show Emma's mom that you don't like swimming, you can come with us to Mako, and change there, after you turn eight. I want you two to understand the decision you would be making, and the implications of such a decision."
Emma went to go pick up the cup, which was still half-full of water, and began to walk back to the bathroom when she tripped over a rug, spilling the water. She managed to freeze about half of it, but not all of it, and some of it dripped onto her body. After ten seconds, she transformed into a mermaid as well. The two four-year-olds were both excited, but they promised not to say anything to anyone about it.
After a quick meal, the Gilberts all went to bed. Emma stayed up to read more from the journal.
I am so excited for my wedding! I cannot believe my good fortune! I will be marrying at the perfect age, if what the Irish say about the Virgin Mary is true. I have convinced Conan to hold off on children, though... Like I said earlier, dear diary, we shall just be friends, then grow into lovers when we are older. No need to worry about being an old maid, if I am already married. I do hope, however, that when we have children, I have at least one daughter. I would love to share this secret with her, maybe even raise her semi-aquatically. I can see her now- my dark hair, Conan's expressive green eyes, mayhap his freckles, or his smile... my tail... Oh, how wonderful it would be! Well, now I've got to go, it is the day of my wedding, after all. 24 hours have gone by without me seeing Conan. We have asked for some tweaks to be made to our ceremony- for example, I asked that we not be sprinkled with Holy Water (that would be a disaster!), and we wrote our own vows, the first couple in living memory to do so.
Here I copy my side of the vows:
"I, Rebekah Evalynn Downson, promise to love my beloved, Conan Richard Chadwick, for as long as I shall live, and never to be more than a footfall away from him, ready to help him whenever he asks. I do solemnly swear that, together, we shall continue the work of our families, and follow God's Holy Law until the day we die, enduring together forever, for, indeed, although together we are better, separately we can be the change with our unending reign of love for one another."
I hope that he likes them. I know I do. When he reads me his for the first time, just as mine will be for him, it'll be the first time either of us have heard them from the other, although Ms. Chadwick did help us write them, separately.
I have been home now, since my large change. No one even noticed my absence, other than my stepmother, who never wanted me there in the first place. I was allowed to remain alone for the last week or so, and I went to the gypsy caravan fair with Conan, where I met another mermaid- or, at least, I do believe she is a mermaid, for, when it began raining, she ran for cover under our awning, and counted down to 0 from ten, while making random motions with her hands. She left behind a large amount of ice, which I discretely melted. I invited her to my wedding, as weddings are large celebrations in our village. She agreed that she would come and see it, if I would meet her in a cave afterwards. 'Twas odd. She seemed old enough to be my mother, in her words and actions, yet she looked so very young. No matter now. I shall go be married in just one moment.
Emma read the diary silently, wondering to herself the whole time how a girl so young could be so excited for marriage. True, she planned to someday marry, but that was someday, not now, and she was older than Rebekah.
Thank you for reading this far. I know it's been a while; I started college in September, and everything has been going almost non-stop since then. I know I haven't updated in a while, but I am trying to get ahead on the chapters somewhat before posting, so that I can easily post things when I'm busy.
If you review, and would like for me to take your review seriously, I would really appreciate proper grammar and spelling mechanics. I appreciate all reviews, but, if someone uses poor grammar/spelling while complaining about my story, I won't respond to them.
And, "shellie" (as you did not know that I would not respond, this is your only response until you use proper grammar and mechanics)- I started writing this my Junior year of high school. I admit that it is "kiddish", but that is because I was a high school student. Things work out too easily in this story for you? Go find something else to read, please. I am trying, so if you have any actual feedback (anyone who is reading this), please do not hesitate to tell me!
