Meanwhile, Captain Star had taken Chloe back to his home, which was a house right on the edge of the harbor, not too far away from his Star Fleet office; the house wasn't too big, but it wasn't too small, either. As soon as he arrived at the front door with Chloe in his arms, the door opened, and revealed a woman in her late thirties. The woman had light skin, freckles on her cheeks, aqua green eyes, and dusty light brown hair tied back in a low ponytail. "Mrs. Muddlesworth," Captain Star said to the woman, "We have a new member of the household coming to live with us."
"Oh my!" Mrs. Muddlesworth gasped when she saw Chloe in Captain Star's arms, "Are you alright, my dear?"
As Chloe opened her eyes, Captain Star said to Mrs. Muddlesworth, "OJ found her on a boulder in the sea. I have a note that came with her that I'm going to study some more. In the meantime, we'd best get Chloe, here, up to the washroom to have a bath!"
"A bath?" Chloe asked, "What is a bath?"
"Why, darling, a bath is how you keep clean!" Mrs. Muddlesworth said to Chloe as she gently took the girl from Captain Star.
"Forgive her, for she was struck in the head, and she's lost her memories of what happened to her and her parents," the captain said to the woman. He turned to Chloe and said to her as he and Muddlesworth went inside the house, "Chloe, you have a whistle around your neck. When we put you in the tub, I want you to blow into that whistle to see what will happen."
"Yes, sir," Chloe nodded, feeling confused.
A few minutes later, Chloe, Mrs. Muddlesworth, and Captain Star were all in the bathroom. Mrs. Muddlesworth had prepared a warm bath with sudsy water for the child, and Captain Star kept his back to the females as he waited until Chloe got into the water and was surrounded by bubbles before he looked back to see how Chloe's shell-shaped whistle would work.
Chloe, meanwhile, was amazed at all the bubbles in her bath, and she picked up a handful of bubbles and blew them away. "Pretty!" she cooed.
"Now, Chloe," Captain Star said to her, "Let's see how the whistle 'round your neck works!"
"He's right, my dear," Mrs. Muddlesworth added, "The Captain says that this whistle works best in the water – according to the note you were found with!"
Chloe looked down and saw the shell-shaped whistle on the necklace around her neck. She picked up the whistle and examined it before she noticed the little holes. She then blew into the bigger hole, and then, something strange happened.
"Oh! My tummy feels funny!" the small girl cried as she clutched the lower half of her abdomen.
"Chloe?" wondered Captain Star.
Suddenly, Chloe's legs formed together in the water and transformed into a mermaid's tail. Chloe, who had no memories of her life as a mermaid, took the transformation as quite a scare, and let out a scream of terror!
"It's alright, Chloe!" Captain Star cried as he and Mrs. Muddlesworth helped the child out of the bathtub.
Mrs. Muddlesworth gasped with shock, "That whistle's magic! It turns the child into a mermaid!"
Chloe started crying as she was taken out of the tub by Star and his housekeeper. "Chloe, stop crying and blow into the whistle again!" the captain cried to the girl.
Chloe sobbed a bit, took a deep breath, held her whistle up, and blew into it again. This time, her tail turned into a pair of legs again. "I'm scared of this!" she wailed, "I don't want to have fins and a tail!"
As Mrs. Muddlesworth wrapped the girl in a towel, Captain Star moved his hand under Chloe's long hair and gently took the necklace with the whistle off. "Hush now, Chloe," Captain Star said to the crying girl, "I will keep this whistle with me and give it back to you when the time is right for you to fully understand. It is clear that you really have been through quite a bit." He turned to Mrs. Muddlesworth and said to her, "Would you mind looking to see if there's anything for her to wear?"
"I haven't the slightest idea," Mrs. Muddlesworth said as she shook her head and cradled Chloe close to her chest, "But I can certainly sew something up if there's nothing around here!"
Captain Star gave her a nod as he left the bathroom with the whistle in his hand.
Mrs. Muddlesworth carried Chloe over to a small room with a bed, a chest of drawers, a closet, a rug on the floor, a little table with a pitcher and basin, and a dressing screen. Chloe still cried a bit into the woman's arms as Mrs. Muddlesworth gently placed her on top of the bed and shushed, her, "It's alright, my dear. Shhhh! Don't cry. Come on now."
Chloe clutched the towel around her as Mrs. Muddlesworth took one of her old shirts out of the closet. It was a light blue pullover shirt – something that would do to fit a four-year-old girl for the time being.
The housekeeper put the shirt on Chloe as she sang:
Baby mine, don't you cry
Baby mine, dry your eyes
Rest your head close to my heart
Never to part
Baby of mine
Chloe stopped crying and managed a small, sad smile as Mrs. Muddlesworth embraced her in a hug. Then, the housekeeper picked the little girl up, moved the bed sheets, and gently placed her in the bed to rest.
Mrs. Muddlesworth: Little one, when you play
Never mind what they say
Let those eyes sparkle and shine
Never to tear
Baby of mine
Meanwhile, as the sun began to set outside, Captain Star sat in an easy chair, looking at Chloe's mother's note over and over, and keeping the whistle nestled in his hand. "Maybe her real parents were Wiccan," Star wondered quietly to himself, "Or maybe… they could've been fairies from Ireland or someplace like that…" He shook his head as he stood up from his chair and scoffed, "No, no, no! That's impossible." He went over to a small desk and put the driftwood note down on the top of the desk. As he took out a little box, Captain Star sighed as he opened the box, placed the whistle inside, and then closed the box again. Finally, he opened the lid of the desk and put the little box inside of it. As long as Chloe's transformation is kept a secret, everything will be fine, he thought to himself.
If they knew all about you
They would love loving you, too
All those same people who scold you
What they'd give just for the right to hold you
Over in the harbor, the Start Tugs continued with their work. OJ and Ten Cents were doing work in the area close to Captain Star's home. OJ stayed looking up at Captain Star's home, wanting to know if Chloe was okay. He smiled warmly as he remembered Captain Star talking about his housekeeper and said to himself, "The child has found nourishment. And she has people lookin' after her." Then, the paddle steamer continued his work with Ten Cents.
From your head down to your toes
You're not much, goodness knows
But you're so precious to me
Sweet as can be
Baby of mine! (2x)
Meanwhile, over at a different set of docks in Bigg City Port, Zorran and his fellow Z-Stacks, Zebedee, Zak, Zug, and Zip, were gathered in front of a pier where a man was talking into a megaphone. That man had light skin, dark blue eyes, and light brown hair; he was wearing a red shirt, a black tie, a gray and burgundy jacket, black pants, black shoes, and a black hat with a red band. "Don't be ridiculous, Zorran!" the man shouted in his megaphone with a Scottish accent, "Mermaids do NOT exist!"
"I'm telling you, sir!" Zorran insisted with a frown, "I heard it for myself that Captain Star might actually have a live mermaid in his docks!"
"You and those crazy stories from Scuttlebutt Pete!" snarked Zak.
"I'd say winter's mysterious winds have come early this year!" snickered Zug in his Peter Lorre-type accent.
"But it's June!" said Zip.
"Shut it!" Captain Zero shouted, "There will be no more stories about mermaids or fairy tales! Get back to work and try and win us a contract for the next ferry to arrive!"
"Aye-aye, sir!" the Z-Stacks saluted as they hooted their horns. But little did Captain Zero – or his Z-Stacks, or anyone else in the harbor – know that there really was a mermaid who would appear again in a matter of time…
Author's Note: The song "Baby Mine" is from Dumbo. ((c) Disney)
