The Mermaid Girl Read online

  “Why don’t you talk about why mermaids are such a big mystery? Like why are there so many stories about mermaids, when people don’t believe in them?”

  “That’s a good idea,” I said. It was helping me to talk about my topic, making it clearer for me. “Anyway, it will be fun writing about it. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is the presentation itself.”

  “When is it?” Mermary asked.

  “The week before Thanksgiving.”

  “Oh, well then on Thanksgiving, you’ll be grateful that your presentation is over.”

  I laughed. “Yes, I will.”

  Chapter 32

  A Friend at Last

  I was excited to have someone to go trick-or-treating with. I always went with my parents, but the other kids I saw looked like they were having much more fun with each other. I was trying to be friendly with girls in my class, and they were being friendlier to me. But looking at them and smiling wasn’t enough.

  One Saturday morning my mother called me to the phone.

  “Hey Camile, this is Reggie. Remember me?” It was the girl who sold me the pirate knife. She sounded excited. “I got some mermaid anime comic books for you. That’s Japanese cartooning. Some of them have really cool art.”

  “How much?”

  “You can just have them. Where do you live? I’ll bring them over right now.”

  I gave her my address and told my mother she was coming over. I was excited, I’d never had anyone over! A few minutes later the doorbell rang. Reggie had ridden her bike over and brought it up onto our porch. She handed me four comic books.

  “This is the best one,” she said, pointing at the one on top. It had a drawing with a big-eyed mermaid in a river. “She’s really smart, and brave too.” Reggie looked past me into the house.

  “Cammie, invite your friend inside,” my mother called.

  “Want to come in?”

  “Yes!” She came in and looked all around. My mother came over to greet Reggie and I introduced them.

  “It’s nice of you to give your comic books to Camile,” my mom said politely, although I knew she didn’t really approve of them. She didn’t think it was real literature. “Would you like some cookies and milk?”

  “Sure! Thank you.”

  We sat at the table while my mother got us cookies and milk.

  “How did you like the comic books?” Reggie asked. “Did you have any favorites?”

  I nodded. “Cat Woman.”

  “Yeah, isn’t she cool? She’s my favorite too.” Reggie seemed distracted. She kept turning her head to look around at the house.

  “Do you have other favorites?” I asked.

  “Yes, I’ve read some really old comic books about Wonder Woman. They’re way cooler than the new ones, but the newer stories are more interesting.” We talked about comic books while we ate our cookies. Reggie told me that she wanted to be a cartoon artist when she grew up, and that she already drew comic strips.

  “I’ll show them to you sometime.” She leaned to see down a hallway. She finished her milk. “Hey, can I see your mermaid costume?”

  Reggie was a very curious person. She looked into all the rooms as we went upstairs. She didn’t make a big deal out of my room like Libby had, but made a beeline for the aquarium.

  “You have fish, cool!” she said.

  She got up really close and looked into it from the sides, and even went around to the back. She opened the lid. Of course, after Mermary left I took out her board because it wasn’t fun to play mermaids without her.

  “Why are there so many plants in there? You can’t see the fish.”

  “So it’s like a real ocean,” I said.

  “I used to have an aquarium,” Reggie said. “Hey, I like the way you decorated the tank. It looks like a little bedroom. A little mermaid bedroom.” I had left Mermary’s shell bed with the plastic doll that didn’t float in it, a little ceramic treasure chest, and her mirror stuck into the sand by the handle. She looked at me. “Like maybe you had a mermaid living in here once?”

  It almost seemed like a question, but of course I didn’t answer. If she only knew. It seemed like she was waiting for me to say something, but I didn’t even shake my head. That would be somehow admitting it. Instead, I went and got out Sea-li and the other mermaid baby to show her.

  “Sometimes I play mermaid dolls,” I said. But Reggie somehow didn’t seem the type to play with dolls.

  “Are there any other aquariums in the house?” she asked.

  I shook my head.

  “Oh,” Reggie said. She seemed disappointed. “Oh yeah, show me your costume.”

  I opened my closet door and brought it out.

  “Wow,” Reggie said. “That’s the coolest mermaid costume I’ve ever seen! It looks great with that knife. Told ya. Where did you get the costume?”

  “My mother and I made it.”

  “You made it?”

  “Mostly my mother.”

  She turned it around to see the back. “Hey, I should be a pirate again this year, our costumes would be really great together! I can still wear my ninja costume to a Halloween party I’m going to.”

  Reggie asked if she could see the rest of the house. As I took her around it almost seemed as if she was looking for something. I remembered she had an old-looking house. Maybe that was why she was interested, because our house was newer.

  “Can I see your backyard?” she asked.

  I nodded and led her to the back yard. She stopped at the corner of the house where the open drain was.

  “Hey, what’s this?”

  “Oh, that catches the rain from the gutters.” She stooped down to look into it. It was starting to fill up again because there had been a few rainstorms. She picked up a stick and stirred it up. Finally she stood up and looked out toward the ocean.

  “How far is the beach from here?”

  “A block. Then there’s the boardwalk.”

  “I have to go,” she said suddenly. She headed toward the porch to get her bike. “I’ll see you on Halloween. It’s going to be really fun. Zander is going to be a skeleton, but Elmo doesn’t know what he’s going to be. He better decide soon, he likes to make his own costumes.”

  Reggie waved and took off in the direction of the beach. I was so excited about our Halloween plans, and especially to finally have a friend. I couldn’t wait to tell Mermary.

  Chapter 33

  Halloween at School

  Halloween fell on a Thursday. It was a cool, but sunny autumn morning. Everyone was wearing their costume to school. I was going to walk but my mother insisted on driving me.

  “It’ll take too long to walk to school because it’s so form-fitting, you can’t take regular steps,” she said. She didn’t mind about the knife, especially when I explained why a mermaid needed one.

  She dropped me off in front of the church and I waved good-bye. As soon as I couldn’t see her car anymore, I went to the street and crossed over to the lake. Everyone was staring at me, but then, all the children in costumes were being stared at. I realized I could hike up the bottom part of the costume and walk faster. I hurried over to the colonnade where I met Mermary every morning because it was closer than the Dragon Tree. Mermary surfaced. She was wearing a jagged half of a broken tennis ball on her head. One piece of it came down and wrapped around her chin and she peeked out between the tear.

  “Mermary, why do you have that on your head?”

  “Because it’s Halloween. This is my costume! Do you like it?”

  I said I did because she seemed so proud of it, and oftentimes I’d seen some people with really crazy costumes, so it wasn’t really that strange.

  “Your costume is really beautiful,” Mermary said. “What are you?”

  “A mermaid!”

  “You are?”

  I looked down at myself. It made sense that I didn’t look like a mermaid to a real mermaid. “Well, that’s what I’m supposed to be.” I told her how my mother and I made
it, and how I had bought the knife from Reggie.

  “The material on the bottom half kind of looks like what fish wear,” she said.

  I laughed at the way she put it. “I know. That’s why I chose it.” The early bell rang across the street. I couldn’t believe my time with Mermary was almost up.

  “I walk slower in this costume so I better start back now. I probably won’t be able to visit after school,” I told her. “My mother’s coming to pick me up and she said she was going to try to get here early.”

  “That’s all right,” Mermary said. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

  We blew each other wind kisses, and I headed back to school. A lot of my classmates were late, probably due to their costumes, so Sister allowed us time before class started to look at each other’s costumes.

  Some of the other kids had costumes they had bought, but a few had homemade ones. Karl Gladstone was a tree. He’d made his costume out of cardboard boxes that he’d cut open and taped together and painted. Tricia Lee came as an angel. Actually, she was supposed to be a statue of an angel, and her costume and make-up were all grey, whitish, and blackish. Two other girls had mermaid costumes too, Bambi and Kitty who were best friends. Kitty’s costume was a shiny blue fabric decorated with tiny starfish, with a sort of tail gathered at the sides. Bambi’s was light green and pink iridescent on the bottom with green plastic that was swept out to look like a tail fin, and a green sequin top. She had a wig on with long, bright red hair. I’d seen one like it at the super drugstore. They were both staring at me.

  “Camile,” Bambi said. “Your costume is totally awesome.”

  “Yeah,” Kitty said. “Where did you get it?”

  “My mother and I made it together.”

  “You made it?”

  I nodded. “Your costumes are cute too,” I said politely. “Did you make yours?” I asked Bambi.

  “My mother did. I picked out the fabric.”

  “Hey, let’s all walk together in the parade!” Kitty said.

  “Yes, we’ll be a contingent, like in regular parades,” Bambi said. There was going to be a parade later, where everyone would show off their costumes to the rest of the school. “The Mermaid Contingent!”

  I nodded. I couldn’t believe they were inviting me to be with them. They also called me over to eat with them at lunchtime.

  “We should start a mermaid club,” Kitty said. “Anyone who loves mermaids can be in it.”

  “We could get mermaid tails and swim in your pool!” Bambi said. “You can get mermaid swimming suits on the Internet,” she told me.

  They were both looking at me like they were waiting for me to say something, so I nodded excitedly. Just like that, I had two new friends! Mermaids were believed to be bad luck sometimes, but obviously they were good luck too.

  It was hard to concentrate on school that day, probably because of the costumes and everyone thinking about trick-or-treating that night, but Sister made it fun for us. We had a spelling bee, and we got to watch a science movie on wolves. Then she read us a Halloween story about a witch who sometimes turned her cat into a person so she could discuss things with him, or go to human places together and cause mischief.

  School let out early for the parade. The older kids, grades seven and eight, didn’t get to wear costumes. They were going to vote on best costume, and were already in the school yard gathered at one end with their teachers. The first grade led the parade, marching in a line in front of everyone. Sometimes the audience clapped when they really liked someone’s costume. The second graders went next and so on. When the school saw our Mermaid Contingent everyone clapped and cheered, and that made us giggle.

  After school, Kitty’s mother wanted to take pictures of us. “Let’s go across the street so the lake will be in the background.”

  I was really glad she said that because I wanted Mermary to see the Mermaid Contingent and my new friends. We gathered by the side of the lake. No one was looking at the lake, and I looked quickly to see if Mermary was there. She put her face out of the water for a moment and winked at me, then quickly disappeared. Mrs. Connor got the idea to take more pictures under the colonnade, and then on the landing where the light was better.

  “Pretend like you’re going to dive into the lake,” she said, and we posed, curving sideways with our hands over our heads.

  My mother arrived and saw us by the lake. She parked and came over to talk to Mrs. Connor and meet my school mates. She was all smiles to see me with them.

  “Can you come trick-or-treating with us?” Bambi asked, after the pictures.

  “Yes, do!” Kitty said.

  “Oh, I’m already going with someone,” I said.

  “Well, I don’t see why that’s a problem,” my mother said, who wasn’t going to let me pass up a chance to make friends. “Why don’t you all go together?”

  I said I would make sure it was okay, and Bambi and Kitty gave me their phone numbers.

  “It seems like you’re finally making some friends, Cammie!” my mother said on the way home. “How do you like it?”

  I loved having friends, starting with Mermary, who had taught me how.

  Chapter 34

  Halloween Night

  I called Reggie to ask if it was okay that Bambi and Kitty wanted to come with us, and she thought it was cool that we all had mermaid costumes and said it was okay for them to come along.

  “Be at my house about a half hour before sunset,” she said. “My mom likes to take pictures.”

  My mom got on the Internet and checked the time of sunset, and I called Bambi and Kitty to tell them what time to come over. I wasn’t hungry, but my mother made me eat dinner anyway.

  “You’re going to be eating lots of candy and who knows what else, so I want you to have a good meal in you before going out.”

  Mrs. Connor dropped off Bambi and Kitty. Bambi had on a cape that her mother made, and Kitty had on a white shawl because it was getting cool. I had my pink leotards on under the costume, so I wasn’t cold.

  My mom took us all over to Reggie’s. She lived in a Victorian, and the front porch had been decorated with broken branches, autumn leaves, pumpkins, a big owl, and a really scary black cat, both fake. Everything was lit by little electric candles, so it all looked really spooky. Reggie’s mother opened the door. The house had a spicy smell.

  “Ahoy, mermaids!” Reggie said.

  She wore a three-cornered hat and an eye patch, a lady’s blouse with ruffles, and brown breeches tucked into black knee-hi boots. With it, she wore a wide belt with a musket stuck in the waist, and a cutlass. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she had drawn a curly mustache on her upper lip.

  “Camile, introduce your friends,” my mother said, so I said Bambi and Kitty’s names, and Reggie introduced Zander and Elmo.

  “And I’m Inez Barcela,” my mother said, because I forgot to include her.

  “I’m Jane, Reggie’s mother,” Reggie’s mom said. She had short, curly hair, and she wore a black sweatshirt with orange writing that said, “YOU SAY ‘WITCH’ LIKE THAT’S BAD.” “That’s my husband, Joe,” she said about the man in the front room, watching TV.

  He looked over at us and waved. “Hi, kids. Hello, Inez.”

  Zander was a pirate too, except underneath the pirate costume he wore a skin-tight skeleton costume. He had a red kerchief on his head, a vest, brown cut-offs, and combat boots. His head mask wasn’t on yet.

  “I talked him into going as a pirate again,” Reggie said.

  “Yeah, I thought it would be even cooler to be a skeleton pirate.”

  At first I didn’t know what Elmo was supposed to be. He had painted the top of his face green and wore a yellow-and-orange plastic beak. He had on a green sweatshirt with yellow feathers taped all along the arms and across the back, and green khaki pants rolled up to his knees. He was barefoot and his feet and legs were streaked and yellow. He also had green nail polish on his fingers and toes.

  “Awk!” Elmo
said, holding his arms out and moving his head side to side on his neck. “Pieces o’ eight, pieces o’ eight!” He flapped his arms.

  “You’re a parrot,” Kitty said.

  “A pirate parrot,” he said.

  The spicy smell in the house was hot apple cider that Reggie’s mother served us. Reggie called it grog.

  “That’s what pirates used to drink when they were out to sea for a long time. It’s a concoction of rum and lemon juice.”

  “I put lemon juice, orange slices, and lots of nutmeg in it so it tastes like rum,” Reggie’s mom told my mother. “There’s no alcohol in it.”

  “Mo-om,” Reggie complained. “You don’t have to ruin it.”

  Reggie’s mother winked at my mom. She picked up a camera.

  “Okay, now everyone, pose!”

  My mother got her phone out of her purse and they took pictures of us. Reggie stood between Kitty and me and put her arms around our shoulders. Zander stood behind Bambi and made his hands into claws over her head like he was going to grab her. Elmo got in front of all of us and stood on one foot with his arms spread out. He was the shortest one of us, plus he scrunched up and made himself even smaller to be more like a parrot.

  Reggie thought we would be safe trick-or-treating because there were so many of us, but my mother insisted on going, and Reggie’s mother decided to go too. Reggie and Zander groaned.

  “We don’t need chaperones,” Reggie complained. “We’re ten years old!”

  “I’m responsible for my daughter and her friends,” my mother said. “Nothing’s going to happen to them on my watch.”

  “Don’t worry,” Reggie’s mother said. “We’ll hang back far enough so no one will know we’re with you.”

  I didn’t know why Reggie and Zander didn’t want them to go. My mother and sometimes my father always went with me, plus I liked that she was going to be there.