Ava and Rita sat on the floor of the mermaid room looking at the shells that Ava had collected. Rita showed Ava the special parts of each shell, their names and their uses. "Is this what you did with your pod?" Ava asked.
Rita nodded, "Yea, we learned it in mermaid school."
"Rita, can I ask you something?"
"Of course you can" Rita answered, she smiled at Ava expecting a question about the shells.
"where's your pod?" Rita was clearly caught off guard by the question. She searched for the right words. Ava could see that she had upset Rita, she put her eyes on the floor, she didn't want to be in trouble.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."
"No it's okay." Rita reached out to Ava touching her forearm to reassure her. "I had to leave my pod when I decided to marry a land boy."
"…and you can't go back?"
"No, I've been cast out like Lyla, Nixie, and Serena have been."
"Kind of like me too?"
"Yes like you" Rita's voice trailed off.
"What happened to the land boy?"
"He died before we got the chance to get married."
"So you don't have a family anymore either."
"No..No I don't have a family either." Ava got up and carried her shells over to a shelf with a bunch of Rita's shells. She began to place hers with Rita's. "Why don't we find a special place just for your shells?"
"I'd like that" Ava said smiling. Rita cleared a space just for Ava's shells to go and she watched as Ava carefully placed her shells down, almost strategically.
"Sometimes," Ava started, not daring to look at Rita, "I wonder why my mom couldn't ever love me enough. I wonder why her pod couldn't love her enough to take her back after my father left her, and me too." She turned to look at Rita, "I don't understand either, how your pod could love you one minute and abandon you for falling in love and then leave you all alone when he died." Ava paused, she looked at Rita hoping for an answer, but she got none. "Sometimes, I don't think that love exists."
Rita moved to stand in front Ava and kneeled in front of her so that they were at the same eye level. Rita held onto Ava's shoulders, "Love is absolutely real. It is, I promise." She embraced the little girl and held her tight.