Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings

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Authors: Helene Boudreau
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disappeared below surface.
    “No! Come!” I wasn’t getting out. Still, a familiar sense of dread closed in on me. This was the deepest I’d been in the water since the summer before. Even though Mom was there, just a few dozen feet away, the same paralyzing fear gripped me. Then, another terrifying thought crossed my mind. What if I turned into a mermaid again?
    My breath quickened. Why wouldn’t she just come?
    “Swim to me, Mom! I’ll get Dad. He’s never going to believe…”
    But before I could finish my sentence, four hands emerged from the inky water around Mom’s head. My whole body shook with terror as the gleaming white fingers reached up and grabbed her.
    “No!” I forgot my fears and dove in.
    Mom thrashed in the water, tangled in weeds and matted hair. The gnarled, glistening fingers tried to clutch any part of her.
    “I’m coming!” I yelled between mouthfuls of water. A rush of heat coursed through my legs as I swam.
    “Go back!” Mom called as she bucked and flailed to fight them off.
    “I’m almost there!”
    But I hadn’t even bridged half the distance between us when one of the hands grabbed a fistful of Mom’s hair. Her eyes grew wide as her head flew back. She opened her mouth to scream but the sound dissolved in a gurgle as the hands pulled her underwater.
    Then she was gone.
    “No!”
    I treaded water, sculling my hands just below the surface. My eyes darted from side to side for any sign of her—a ripple, a splash, a flicker—anything to give me a clue where she was. But the only thing left was a circle of waves radiating from the spot where the three figures had just disappeared.
    “Mom!” I called again, but my voice got lost in the sound of rumbling cars still making their way across the bridge overhead.
    I blinked, trying to keep my eyes from blurring over with tears so I could see Mom if she resurfaced. My tongue stung with a familiar taste.
    Salt!
    I swung my head around. The lock. The salt water from the ocean to the lake. What if it was the salt that made me turn into a mermaid? I reached down to my legs and felt for scales forming on my skin, but there was nothing.
    Then, something brushed my foot.
    “Ah!” I hurled my body toward shore and pulled at the water with all my might.
    The thing brushed my foot again and again as I swam, like the feeling of wispy seaweed waving below the surface. But with each kick, the wisps turned into something more solid. Like fingers.
    They were after me!
    The fingers grasped my ankles.
    “No!”
    I tried to scream but my mouth filled with water as I was dragged below the surface. My T-shirt billowed around me as I sunk deeper and deeper into the lake. I gagged and gasped for air. But there was no air, just water, everywhere around me and inside me. It shot past my throat to my lungs, forcing a fizz of bubbles from my mouth.
    A big, red panic button tripped off in my brain. Was I drowning? What about Mom? I needed to get to her. What about Dad? Losing us both would destroy him!
    Air! I needed air!
    Without thinking, I inhaled a gulp of water as I struggled to get away from the vice-like grip around my ankles. I braced myself to gag, but amazingly, the suffocatingfeeling disappeared. What should have been a relief turned to a sickening horror as I reached for my legs and felt the uneven scales forming on my skin. My thighs began to fuse.
    Not again!
    I tried to kick the feeling away but suddenly, I heard a ripping sound and a humongous blast shot me through the water, forcing the hands to let go.
    My hair swirled around my face as I landed against the bottom of the lake. A cloud of dirt kicked up from the lake floor, making it hard to see. I could tell I still had my shirt and skirt on, so I was pretty sure the ripping sound came from the familiar white bits of cloth floating up to the lake’s surface. Sure enough, the dust cleared and my granny panties were gone, along with my legs.
    In their place? A disgusting, slimy tail.
    No!

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