"Mommy! Hey Mommy, guess what?"
The young mother looked up at her daughter as she busily prepared the algae stew for dinner. Smiling, she distractedly asked, "What, princess?"
The girl could barely contain her excitement. "Today was the best day ever! You know why?"
Her mother shook her head as she sprinkled sea salt over the green bowl she had prepared. "No, honey. I don't know. Why?"
The child tossed her book bag to the floor and sat on the seashell couch. Her light purple tail swished enthusiastically, and her strawberry red curls bounced in the current. "Well, we had singing class today, and of course I love that. Marina also gave me this awesome piece of coral. But those weren't the best parts. The best part was reading time."
The woman grinned, albeit with a confused look on her face. "I thought you hated reading, Leira."
Leira jumped up and down on the couch. "Usually I do, but I found the most wonderful book. You know what it was about?"
The mother chuckled at all of the little girl's questions. "I'm sure I don't know what it was about, sweetie. Was it about an octopus?"
The child shook her head, obviously exasperated at her mother's answer. "No Mom. It was about a mermaid."
"Oh! What did the mermaid do?" the woman absentmindedly questioned, busy making sure her meal was just right.
"Well, it started off talking about the fact that she was a princess, and her best friend was a tiny yellow fish." Leira said.
"Mmm-hmm."
"And she was really interested in the world of humans."
Her mother stopped stirring the bowl with her spatula immediately after her daughter mentioned the word human. "What did you say?"
"She was really interested in the world of humans," the child repeated, realizing this probably wasn't the best thing to mention in front of her mother.
The woman put her hands on her hips as her pink tail rushed back and forth. "Go on," she harshly said.
"So, since she was really interested, she collected all of these human objects and stored them in her grotto, which no one knew about except for her best friend."
Leira's mom stiffened. She recognized this story, In fact, she knew it very well. The woman steely replied, "Please continue the story, princess. I want to hear all of it. All of it."
The girl swallowed. "One night, she went up above the water and found a thing called… a ship. That's right. And she saw this beautiful human prince. Then a storm came in, and he almost drowned, because he saved his… um, dog before himself. But he didn't drown, because the mermaid rescued him- however, she went back to the ocean before he woke up from unconsciousness."
"Before long, the princess came to love him. The prince I mean. And… and she really wanted to become a human herself. Explore his world. Her fish friend even brought her a statue shaped in his likeness," Leira uneasily said.
"Then the mermaid's father found about her grotto, and he destroyed everything in it. She… she got really mad and went to the sea witch to see if she could somehow meet the human." The child looked at her mother, who still had her arms crossed. A strange look of both anger and sadness was etched on her face. The little girl gulped again. "Should I continue, Mommy?"
The mother looked at her daughter and quietly whispered, "Yes."
"Well, the witch told her she could turn her human for three days in exchange for her voice. And the mermaid could remain a human if she was able to kiss the prince with true love in those days- or else she would belong to the sea witch forever and never have her voice back." The girl glanced at her mother. She was obviously upset because of something she said. Not wanting to antagonize her, the child again asked if she should continue with the book's story. Again, the young woman said yes.
"They… they fell in love, and almost kissed, but the witch made sure they didn't. She, she, um… changed herself into a beautiful woman to win the prince's heart. The sea witch did win his heart with the spell, and the mermaid princess was very sad. The sea witch and the prince were going to marry, and she didn't feel that she could do anything. But with help from her friends and the prince, she was able to reveal the woman's identity and kill the witch once and for all." Leira finished quickly, wanting to change subjects.
"What happened at the end?" her mother muttered.
Leira shifted uncomfortably. "What do you mean? She and the prince killed the sea witch. I told you that."
"No. What else happened?"
The little child immediately smiled, disregarding all of the tension in the room. "Of course. The mermaid princess and the human prince married. And they lived happily ever after. Isn't that so romantic and beautiful?"
"Happily ever after," her mother repeated silently, not caring about her child's question. Suddenly remembering that she was to be a role model for the girl, she regained her composure, "Leira, honey, I don't want you to read that book again." She sternly said.
Leira looked quizzically at her mother. "But Mommy, it's just a story- a fairy tale."
The woman looked at her daughter. How could she begin to answer why she couldn't read that book? Instead, she sighed and said, "Just sit at the table, Leira. Your father will be here soon for dinner." The little girl sat down, and immediately started talking again.
"Mommy, some other things happened at school today." The child said, hoping to make amends with her mother.
"What happened?"
"I was talking to my friends at playtime about this book and Lance- you know him, right?" Her mother nodded.
The girl stared at her and said, "He said that he heard his parents talking about Ariel, you know, the seventh princess of King Triton that died a few years ago of a jellyfish sting? Well, they said that she, she was a human and that she married a human and they had… children. Mommy, what if there are humans?" A long pause ensued. "And what if Ariel was one?" Leira inquired.
The child's mother stood still in rage. She couldn't take it anymore. If her daughter mentioned one more word about humans and Ariel…
"Leira! That is enough. Humans are not real, and that's final. All you have heard is stories and rumors. Nothing true, nothing important." Her mother yelled.
Leira glared at her and screamed back. "Well if land isn't real and humans aren't real, then how do we get night and day? Why do we see strange things pass over the water? Why? Why can't anyone tell me?"
The woman looked at her daughter. "It just isn't time yet."
The girl stared at her mom. "It is time! I want to know! I WANT TO KNOW!"
In that moment, the young mother did not think about her reaction. But everybody in that house heard the slap, and Leira definitely felt the red hot pain on her cheek. Realizing what she had done, the ashamed woman touched her hand to the child's face. The little girl instantly brushed her hand off and swam to her bedroom, locking the door behind her.
Feeling guilty for what she had done, the mother put her algae stew and seaweed sandwiches on the table. Then, she pulled out a chair and stared into space, mulling over what she had done.
No more than five minutes later, a man walked into the house, his brow beading with sweat after a hard day's work. He smiled as he looked around his home, but his beam went away when he noticed the frown on his wife's face. "What's wrong, angelfish?" he asked.
"Problems with Leira, as usual. Asking about humans," the woman groaned. She looked at him and then quietly added, "I got really mad at that, and well, I slapped her," she sighed and then started to cry, creating a mini-current around her.
Her husband put an arm around her shoulders, comforting her- his dirty blond hair whisking around. He softly whispered, "I know you were just mad. I understand."
The woman stared at him and indignantly got up from her chair. "No, you don't understand. You don't. She wants to know so badly about everything. She's beginning to wonder, and she has some pretty good arguments. I just don't know when, or much less how, to tell her everything she wants to know." The mother sniffled even more, and her husband brought her face up to his.
"Baby, I know you are very unsure about Leira's future. But let me tell you that in the end, everything is going to be alright," the man said.
The mother warily looked at him and weakly smiled. "I hope you're right," she whispered.
He picked his wife up and swung her around the room, her black hair fluttering around. She laughed and in a split moment their lips met and released. His eyes twinkled at his love as he whispered back, "Have I ever been wrong?"
Finally, an update! So this is mostly a filler chapter, to introduce you to Leira's family and show to what lengths the people of Atlantica have gone to keep the truth of humans and Ariel's death secret. And for the die-hard Little Mermaid friends, you may notice something familiar about Leira's mom and dad...
So yes! Hope you guys enjoyed! And as always, REVIEW!
More to come soon!