Authors Note:
Sorry to keep you all waiting so long. I figured I'd explain why the updates are slower this time. I'm sure some of you are wondering about that even if you haven't said anything.
In the first story I would find myself sitting down and writing a chapter on the spot. I'd figure it out as I went. The story did come out good but as the author I felt it had a bit of a tossed together feel to it. I wanted to break away from that this time. So now I'm spending a few days going over what I want to happen next. I think about several different ways the chapters can happen. Pick one, or mix several, and then write. I'm finding this is a better approach as I can run some sub plots over two or three chapters instead of my original approach of having one sub plot per chapter.
It's giving me a bit more creative freedom. Now I'm ready to write the next chapter. I've given this one some thought and can promise some answers, but not all. There might also be some new questions raised. I hope so, cause they make it more fun.
Chapter 5:
Repercussions
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Bella asked me
I finished brushing my teeth before I answered. "No. I'm not sure." I looked down into the sink basin unable to look her in the eyes. "But I can't hide forever."
She put a hand on my shoulder offering me comfort. "True." She turned me to face her. "But you can take your time to be ready."
I cracked a wry smile. "I don't think any amount of time will be enough. So I better just go out there and face it."
She nodded and then drew me into a comforting, sisterly hug. "We're here for you. You just have to ask."
"I know. Thank you." I returned the hug. "I know this time I'm going to have to take you guys up on that."
We shared a laugh then I took a deep breath and let it out. I was as ready as I'd ever be. I grabbed my stuff and headed for the door.
"If you don't mind the company I was hoping I could stop by and join you for lunch today. You can tell me how it's all going." Bella called out to me.
"I think I'd like that. I'll see you then." I answered and headed off to work.
It had bee three weeks since the storm. I'd spent the first week in the hospital being gawked at by all the other patients. While the doctors and nurses were restricted from talking the other patients weren't and so word had spread fast. Any patient that was not confined to bed found a reason to wander by and look at me.
They'd of course told any friends or family that came to visit them and so even more people came to stare. Somehow in the whole mess my name came out and it had spread. Fast. By the end of the fourth day I'd had a camera and microphone shoved in my face and was being asked for a statement.
Thankfully the hospital staff had rules against that and had gotten them out quickly. But it really didn't matter anymore. I was public and now I would have to deal with the fall out.
"Hey baby!" A teenage boy ran up to me and dropped to one knee. "Marry me and take me away to your kingdom under the sea!"
"Urgh!" I snarled throwing my hands up and stepping around him. "Why won't you idiot's leave me alone!"
"Don't be like that beautiful!" He said running around to get back in front of me, again on one knee. "You should give me a chance to prove I'm the best man for you."
Oh to hell with it! I turned to the side and made a dash for the canal. I held my bag close as I dove into the water. Soon as I finished the change my bag, my clothes, and anything else I was wearing or carrying vanished. There was a splash behind me as the young idiot dove in after me. I took off before he could do anything else stupid.
I hated being forced to swim everywhere to avoid this stuff. It had been happening for the last week since I'd been allowed off bed rest. Men of ages teen to geriatric had been coming up to me to propose, some even did it with their wives standing not ten feet away. This had led to a rumor that mermaids stole husbands. This had resulted in me being slapped by some women on principle, at least according to them.
There was even a rumor that the legend about if you kissed a mermaid you could breath underwater was true, and now I had to avoid people, men and women, who would come up to me and try to get me to kiss them to find out if it was true. And then there were the ones that hated me because I was just different. I'd visited Cleo's house the second day back, and had had to deal with Kim's tantrum that a fish was allowed in the house and that I shouldn't be there.
Things had been just peachy for me this last week. Can you tell?
I arrived at the sea entrance to the park and opened the underwater gate. After swimming through it I made sure to close it behind me and was greeted by an enthusiastic Ronnie. At least someone was happy to see me and wasn't going to act like an idiot because I was a mermaid. He nudged me a time or two, then swam away and circled back to nudge me again. I smiled and decided I'd humor him and swim for a bit.
It was a much needed pick me up after this last week and I admit I lost track of how long I'd been swimming with him when there was a splash near the pier. Ronnie swam off and grabbed whatever it was then swam back and tried to offer it to me. I noticed it was a squid which meant it was feeding time.
I winced a bit at how long that meant I'd been in the pool with him and quickly swam over to the pier and surfaced.
"Is this where you've been all morning?" Cleo said to me, unsurprised. "Laurie's been looking for you."
"I had to swim here." I told her as I pulled myself out of the water. Cleo quick stepped to the side to avoid the water I splashed.
"Here allow me." Cleo said holding out her hand. With a bit of a twist she pulled all the water off my skin drying me almost instantly.
"When did you learn to do that?" I asked her.
"I've been working on it for a while now. It's just really hard to do on myself, but I'm getting better." She answered.
"Rikki's going to be so jealous." I said.
"Especially when she finds out Bella's been trying to do something similar by gelling the water." Cleo smirked.
"Emma's gonna have a fit." I said. "At this rate she'll be the only one that can't dry herself off with her own power."
"Well you should go see Laurie he's waiting in his office for you." She said.
I groaned but got to my feet and headed to his office. I knocked at the door and after getting told to come in I entered his office.
"You wanted to see me?" I said.
"Laura your back. Please take a seat." He gestured to a chair. "It's good to see you."
"Thanks." I smiled. "Sorry I'm late I had to swim to work to avoid people acting like idiots to me and then Ronnie wanted to play when he saw me. I kind of lost track of time."
"That's fine. I wanted to talk to you about the staff." A feeling of dread settled over me. "We went ahead with the lecture meetings. They were well received." He smiled. "But there was a large demand for a lecture on mermaids after the first two and so I went ahead and did that one last week."
I nodded, still wary. "How did that go?"
"Extraordinarily well." He answered. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding as I relaxed. "Everyone was so excited to learn about you, and after what happened they all knew. They don't seem to mind in the slightest. Cleo has only held off as you requested that she wait to see what the general reaction is to you. Correct?"
"Yes. We all felt the longer we could stay anonymous the longer we could have a normal-ish life." I said. "It's too late now for me but the others shouldn't have to suffer this if they can avoid it."
"Fair enough," he answered me. "I can respect that." He got up and held out a folder to me. "Sick leave." He explained, "I just need you to read it over and sign it."
I did so. It didn't take me long and I was kind of glad. I did have to pay my share of rent after all and I didn't want to dig too much into my savings.
"Well now that the staff is aware of your abilities you will be able to take up your full duties here. Starting by assisting the staff in cleaning the display tanks and then moving all the animals back in." He said.
"Cleaning the display tanks?" I asked?
"Yes the winds from the storm did blow a lot of sediment into the open top pools, and having moved all the marine life out to secure them for the storm it's a perfect time to do it anyways." He said.
I groaned. I knew from Cleo that you had to clean a fish tank regularly. I just hadn't equated the parks tanks to fish tanks, but in retrospect I should have. The added debris from the storm would only make cleaning them now more of a necessity.
"How much is there left to do?" I asked with a sigh.
"We're done with the smaller tanks." He said. "And we've started on the bigger tanks. Some of them take a team of three several days to do. Even I have been helping so ..."
"So don't feel like I'm getting stuck with the busy work." I finished. He nodded. "So when do you need me to start?"
"If you'll follow me I'll show you." He got up and led the way out the door. After a bit of a walk we came to one of the shark pools, currently empty of sharks, where two other employee's were gearing up in dive suits. There was a trio of belts with brushes of various shapes and sizes attached. I recognized both of them. Amanda was a tall blonde woman with an easy smile and hazel eyes that always seemed as if she was amused by something, and Karl was a short raven haired man who's easy going attitude made him instantly liked by everyone who met him.
I was shown how well the staff had accepted the news of me when they both greeted me no differently now then they had before. I felt some tension drain out of me and joined them happily.
"I'll let you guys get too it." Laurie said heading away. "If you have any questions Amanda and Karl can answer them."
"So where do we start and what do we do?" I asked.
"Well unlike a normal fish tank we can't drain these to clean them." Amanda said.
"The coral and species we can't remove from the tanks are still in there and that would kill them." I said.
"Well some corals can survive out of water but not for the length of time we'd need for tanks this big." Karl said.
"I remember. So where do we start and how do we do this? I assume we can't use cleaners because they'd just dilute in the water to uselessness." I said.
"Yup. That about sums it up." Amanda said with a laugh as she checked her air regulator. "Basically we do the next best thing. We take a brush and get all the gunk off the tanks and rocks and let the filter system pick it up."
"And then we replace the filters and we are golden!" Karl said.
I took off my shoes and dipped my feet in the water. Once my tail had formed I picked up one of the belts and snapped it closed around my waist.
"Whoa. That so cool." Karl said.
"Yeah. I'd heard about it in the lecture but to actually see it is just amazing." Amanda said.
"I'm kinda used to it." I said nonchalantly. We all laughed.
"OK so we started at that end of the glass there," Amanda pointed. "And we've been working our way around this way." Again she pointed this time sweeping her arm to the right. "I'll show you were we left off yesterday and we'll pick up from there. I expect this to take us at least another day or two."
"That long?" I asked.
She got her air tanks settled on her back with Karl's help and after securing the buckles helped him. She filled me in as they did that. "We have to change air tanks between 45 minutes to an hour. So we break each time, and take lunch after the second run. We can only safely do this for 4 hours and that's pushing it as it is."
"Ah. So you fill the rest of your eight hours with other duties?"
"Nah." Karl said. "Whole thing takes about eight hours. We have to do safety checks on the tanks each time and that takes a bit."
"Right. So about these brushes?" I asked.
They spent the next ten minutes or so explaining what each brush was best suited for and that if I was unsure to ask them. That led into a brief lesson on the hand signs they would use to communicate while in the water. After that we finally were able to get started.
The first 45 minutes went smoothly. We started at the top of the tank and worked our way down. I startled them a few times by hanging upside down and getting under some of the rock ledges that were very close to the bottom and therefore difficult to get to. They kept checking their air supply gauge, and, using hand signs, asked how I was doing on air. I waved back that I was fine and kept working.
We made good progress and eventually they signaled their air supply was running low and it was break time. I followed them up and we all got out of the water.
"You know that's actually impressive." Karl said to me.
"I was probably good for another 5 to 10 minutes too." I replied.
"That's just crazy." Amanda said. "I'll go get the fresh tanks. You guys wait here."
"OK." We both answered her. As soon as she was gone Karl stretched out and then laid on his back. He then twisted to first one side then the other, popping his back each time.
"That can't be good for you." I said.
"I get a bit stiff from all the time swimming. It's one heck of a workout." He said.
I laughed. "Try swimming from here to Mako twice a day. Now that's a workout."
"That's crazy. How long does that take you anyways?" He asked me in a curious tone.
"Less time then a speed boat honestly." I told him. "Also depends on if we're racing each other or not."
He just laughed as he shook his head. "I can't imagine how cool that would feel. To have the water racing around you as you speed from here to there. Man, that would be such a rush."
"It is. Some day's I think it's the best part of this." I smiled as I floated on my back. "Especially these days. Some people out there are just such idiots."
"Really?"
"Trust me you don't want to know."
Amanda returned at that point and they got to doing safety checks. While they weren't looking I dove down and got back to work. I wasn't feeling very restful anymore. It took them almost half an hour to make sure everything was good and finally join me. I went up for air when they got in the water and we continued working until it was time for lunch.
The park had been reopened to the public and things were in full swing by the time we stopped for lunch. I hadn't noticed it much while cleaning as we'd been in the back of the tank and out of view from the glass, but now on the surface and breaking for lunch I couldn't miss how people would stop and stare at me as they went by. Laurie had stationed security to keep people from getting to close, but it wasn't a perfect solution.
"Here you go." Karl said handing out sandwiches, chips, and soda's. It being his turn to make the run for fresh air tanks he also pick us up lunches. I didn't know what time Bella was going to arrive, and I hadn't been able to call her and ask yet either. But Karl and Amanda made for good company so I wasn't feeling too bad.
"Are you a real mermaid?" I turned at the sound of the voice to see a young girl dressed in cute pink dress with white frills. She couldn't have been much older then 7 or 8, and had the innocent curiosity of the very young. It was for that reason alone I chose to answer her.
"Yes I am." I lifted my tail clear of the water and brought it close enough for her to reach. "See."
She hesitated at first not sure if it was OK, but after a little encouragement reached out and put her hands on my tail. She let out an excited 'ohhhh', and then poked at a few individual scales.
"See. It's all real." I told her. She smiled. "What's your name? Mine's Laura."
"Sara, with no H." She said with youthful pride.
"Sara what are you doing?" A woman came running up. Clearly the child's mother.
"She's not being a bother." I said. "She's just curious and I don't mind."
The woman looked at me, clearly not reassured.
"She's a real mermaid mommy." Little Sara said. "Please can I stay." Her mother frowned. "Just for a bit?" Her mother started to shake her head when Sara gave her a pleading look and said "Please." In a dragged out wheedling tone. The poor woman never stood a chance.
"I'll be right over here so don't do anything funny." She told me and took a few steps away and sat on a bench watching me like a hawk. Karl and Amanda snickered.
"So, Sara with no H," I said to her. "What brings you to the park today?"
"I wanted to see if the dolphins were OK. After the big mean storm." She said clearly.
I smiled. "Oh. Well I spent some time with them earlier today and they seem to be doing good." I told her.
"Really!" Her face lit up like that information was the best thing she'd ever heard.
"Yes really." I said back.
"You're nice." She said. "Everyone says your mean but I think your nice."
That statement just about made my week. I couldn't help but smile. "Thank you. It's nice that someone thinks that."
I thought for a moment and then held out my hand to the water. "Do you want to see something special?"
She nodded, an excited look on her face. I lifted my hand and brought out a small globe of water. Sara clapped happily, Karl and Amanda choked on their lunch. I brought the water near me and began to shape it.
First I flattened it into a small disk, then I put a single scale from my tail into it. After that I did something that I was better than Cleo at doing. I made a raised pattern on one side in the shape of a mermaid holding the scale. I started to add small details to it. The tail had scales and the hands had fingers. I was even able to give the hair the look of individual strands. Small details that would be very difficult for Cleo to do but then my powers worked better on the small end then the others.
I raised my other hand and started to set the details in place as I finished each one. At the top I made a small loop for a string or chain to go through and then I was ready for the hard part, at least for me anyways. Before I could begin the whole thing set in place and then a hand came into view between me and Sara.
"Here allow me." Bella said with a smile. Then she drew her hand back and turned the whole thing to something that resembled clear glass.
"You sure about this?" I asked her in a whisper as I caught the the disk.
"I don't know yet. It just seemed like the right thing to do." She said back.
Sara clapped. Delighted by the show. Bella plucked the disk from my hand and took off her moonstone necklace and removed the leather string. She quickly strung it through the loop I'd made for just such a purpose and then handed it to Sara.
"I'll get a new string on the way home today." She told me in a whisper. Then in a louder voice, "I believe this is for you."
"Are you a mermaid too?" Sara asked with the insight of the young, and the volume discretion too.
"You should have seen this coming when you stepped in to help you know." I commented to Bella with a half grin and a raised eyebrow.
Bella just winced. Clearly she hadn't thought this far ahead. "Yes." She said with a sigh. "I am. I was about your age when I became one too."
"Can I be one too?" Sara asked.
"Not any more." I said.
"Why not?" She asked in a despondent tone.
"There used to be a place where at the right time magic could happen and you could become a mermaid." I began. "But then some people wanted the magic crystal that made it work. However the crystal was too big for them to carry and so they broke it into many pieces, too many to ever put back together."
"That wasn't nice." Sara said.
"No it wasn't," Bella said picking up the thread of my slightly modified retelling of events."And after it was broken into small pieces the magic stopped working and now there can be no new mermaids."
"And we can't give the magic back anymore. Not that we would." I finished.
"Oh that's not very nice of them." Sara said again. We just nodded. "But why would anyone want to stop being a mermaid.?"
"Well remember how you said people thought I was mean?" She nodded. "Well some of those people are mean to us just because they think we are mean. They don't wait to find out that we are actually nice. So after awhile you might want to just stop being a mermaid so people would stop being mean to you."
"Oh. Why don't they try not being mean and then they'd find out how nice you really are." She didn't get it but you had to love the child's simple answer to the problem.
"That would be nice. Maybe you can help." I said to her.
"Really? I can help?" She seemed unsure.
"Yes. All you have to do is tell people the truth. That mermaids are actually very nice. Not everyone will believe you but some might." And people would be less likely to argue back with a young child, but I didn't say that part out loud.
"I can do that!" She said. "That's easy."
"Come on Sara. It's time to go." He mother called.
"OK." Sara said. She turned to me. "Thank you for talking with me. It was very nice."
"Your welcome." I looked over at her mother and saw Cleo behind her. I waved her over. "This is one of the dolphin trainers that works here at the park." I said to Sara and her mother. "If you ask nicely maybe she'll take you to where you can meet one of the dolphins."
"Would that be OK with you mommy?" Sara asked.
Her mother seeing what she assumed to be one of the normal park employees relaxed and smiled politely to Cleo. "If that isn't to much trouble for you? I have no objections."
"No trouble at all. Please follow me." Cleo started to lead them away.
"Bye bye mermaids." Sara called out. I didn't miss the plural and by Bella's wince neither did she, but we both waved and smiled pleasantly as Sara and her mother followed Cleo in the direction of the dolphin tanks.
"So," Karl said. "Is she here to help?"
Bella just groaned. I laughed. "Sit and join me for lunch. I didn't get to eat much yet." I told her. I also dried myself off. It was just more comfortable to eat while dry. And we could use a table that way too.
"I'm gonna hear about this later I assume." Bella said as we ate.
"Not from me. I'm in no position to judge." I said.
"You're not the one I'm worried about." She took a bite of her lunch. "It's the others and you know she was close enough to hear." Bella finished leaving Cleo's name unspoken.
"Yeah. That's true. I'll support you in this. I figure at this point anyone I spend time with will end up under suspicion sooner or later." I paused to think. "I guess it was bound to happen once one of us got found out anyways." I sighed.
"I feel your right." Bella suddenly started laughing. I looked at her confused. "I've been a mermaid since I was nine and other then my family no one else knew until I chose to show myself to them." We were keeping names out since we didn't know who would overhear. "Then in less than a year he figured it out, and then you, and now everyone is going to."
I laughed getting the joke. To go that long and then have it all rapidly fall apart in such a small time was funny in a way.
"So what's so funny?" Cleo asked.
"If you sit here people are going to wonder now that everyone knows about me and little Sara wasn't very quiet about Bella here." I said to her not looking up.
"I think Bella's right. It's going to happen now. I don't think we can avoid it for much longer." Cleo started eating. "I'd rather have some say in it I guess."
"And so it begins," I said. "The others are not going to like this."
"I don't think it's going to matter." Cleo said. "I invited them to come for lunch with us. For support you know."
I looked up at Cleo to see her staring at the entrance to the small eating area we were sitting in. I followed her gaze to see Emma and Rikki coming our way. I also noticed a lot of the parks guests looking at the three of us with narrowed eyes. As soon as Emma and Rikki joined us I could even see some of them start to count.
"Hi guys? How's it all going." Rikki said in a low voice.
"People are counting." Was all I said. Was all that needed to be said. Emma and Rikki nodded almost imperceptibly and continued to another table near us but clearly separate from ours. No one gave them a further look. Cleo managed to get a few other park workers to join us at our table and that helped as it gave the impression that my coworkers were just showing some kind of support.
"We'll talk about this later. Meet at the beach." I said. Cleo and Bella just tapped my leg under the table to show that got it.
"I'll pass the word," Cleo whispered. I nodded.
"I have to get back to work. Thanks for joining me for lunch Bella." I smiled as I got up collecting the wrappers and empty can for the waste.
"No problem. I was glad to come." She answered.
I returned to the tank I was helping clean. I couldn't help but think things were about to get out of our control. The rest of the day seemed to take forever to pass as I was more focused on our meeting on the beach later and not on my work. After I found I had to redo several sections I decided to focus on my work and worry about 'later' later.
When we were finally done for the day I didn't even bother to leave by the land entrance. I just headed straight for Mako. I wanted some time alone before the others got there. I needed to think and I didn't want to be disturbed while doing it. So I headed to the one place I knew they wouldn't go. I went to the moon pool.
I ended up missing the meeting.