Chapter 26- Cleo's POV

I stare at my daughter, who has stopped playing in the water and begun to look intently at the tiny tail that has now replaced her chubby little legs. After a second of curiosity, she becomes scared, her face crumpling into a small cry. Her tail flops as she tries to kick her legs and she cries harder, holding up her hands, her signal that she wants to be held. Before I can do anything, Lewis reaches down and grabs her under the arms, trying to figure out how to hold the little mermaid while cooing "Shhh, baby. It's alright."

I know I can't touch her or I'll grow a tail, but there's nothing I want more than to comfort my baby girl. Her fuzzy blonde hair is all over the place and her little red face is wet with tears. I just wish I could hold her to me … make her feel better.

Looking at me, Lewis is silent, a bittersweet look on his face. He begins to towel dry Isla, who, within a few minutes, she becomes human again. This only makes her cry harder and I take her from Lewis, holding our baby girl tightly. "Shhh," I whisper, patting her back comfortingly. "You're okay. Everything's okay, love."

After a while, Isla calms down, her sobs mellowing to whimpers and finally quiet. I hold her for a few more minutes before Lewis and I walk to her room. He begins to look in her drawers for something to wear while I brush her soft blonde hair, allowing myself a small smile. My baby is like me.

"Are you okay?" Lewis asks me, walking over with little blue and green striped leggings and a white t-shirt with Nemo on it.

"Yeah," I respond, smoothing down the last of her hair. "Are you?"

Lewis smiles. "Yeah."

Hosting up a now-dressed Isla, I follow Lewis out of the room and set her down in front of the tele for a bit, turning on a rerun of Bananas in Pajamas before meeting my husband in the kitchen. "So," he says, "we have a baby mermaid."

I laugh a little. "Yeah, I guess we do. Oh, Lewis, what on earth are we going to do with her?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, even if we explain to her that she can't tell anyone … she's just a baby. She's gonna let it slip somehow. Even if she doesn't tell anybody, she'll go play in the sprinkler with her friends one day because she forgot, or somebody will spill something on her and she won't be able to get out fast enough. And she definitely won't be able to control her power for a long time, Lewis. How are we going to keep her safe?"

Lewis doesn't look at me, instead he keeps his eyes down and forehead wrinkled. "I've been considering all this, too, Cleo," he admits. "And I think I have something of a plan. I think the best thing to do right now is just let her get used to her tail and try to look out for her power. Once she's older, we'll try and explain that she can't tell anybody about her … mermaid-ness, but even so, we're going to have to keep a close watch on her … playdates at our house, making up excuses when she's invited over other people's. And for school … we could send her to Emma's."

After majoring in early childhood education, Emma went on to open a small preschool for kids 2-5. I know that if we sent Isla to the Aquarium Daycare, Emma wouldn't let anything happen to her. I begin to warm up to Lewis's plan ands smile at him.

"Okay?" he asks me. I nod.

"Okay, great. So what do you want to do for din-" Lewis is in the middle of asking me this when Isla begins to cry. We both smile and walk out of the room.

When we get to her, however, I gasp. Isla is lying on her back, green tail flopping all over the place. What got her wet. Lewis picks her up, and indeed her little belly is wet with something- not any bodily liquid, they don't change us. In a moment, however, she transforms back, without Lewis even drying her. And on her belly is the plastic teething ring she'd just been playing with. I stare at him. Isla just liquefied it.