Day 4 - water
Eeeek, I so enjoyed this one! A chance to finally get into words a very strong memory of my childhood, that still baffles me to this day.
Did you know it's water nymphs that flow from river to lake, to sea to swamp. Swapping their stories as they pass. Never staying for long, always mixing, swirling, dissolving into each other. Salt gives way to murk, murk becoming clear and crisp. They have flowing hair, colourless eyes, beautiful...yet dangerous. She can rejuvenate you as quickly as she can take you. Calm, yet beastly beneath. But beautiful, always beautiful.
She holds untold treasures in her depths, lost things, bones, sunken ships. She will keep them forever. She also gives life and a home to a whole menagerie of creatures, from the silver roach to the great whales and mermaids. I met a mermaid once.
It was the year 1997, I was almost 7 years old myself. It was slap bang in the middle of the summer holidays I had gone on a very rare day out from my bedroom with my Mum and her friend to the beach. I had no real rules to follow, just not to interrupt my Mum's outdoor tanning session.
I wondered along the beach, kicking stones, searching for ones with galaxies on their sides to take home and keep. Perhaps I could search for jelly fish again, the life guard seemed so pleased the last time I presented him with my red bucket full of them.
The sun was beating down on my bare shoulders. It was too hot to collect stonea right now. I sat by the water's edge, watching the waves in the distance crash and rise. They looked so angry - or perhaps they were playing. It's hard to tell sometimes. All that movement and and energy to arrive at my feet to tap at my toes, gently, almost inviting me in.
I accept the invitation. I walk into the water, it is cool, but not cold. I take a moment to catch my breath, and acclimatise to the water. It's lapping around my knees, then my thighs, my stomach, my chest. I push off from the sandy bed and start swimming. I swim until I am away from the noise from the rest of the beach goers. The laughing and screaming kids, their smiling but panicked mothers. Boys on their fancy body boards, strapped to their wrists. However will they learn to swim with no risk, no way to feel the water, to move with her?
Once I am far enough out, I take a deep breath and rise to the surface. I float, the sun warm on my face, my ears fill with salty water. I try to listen , to see if I can hear any of its stories.
Out of nowhere a girl, about my age, appears. I drop from my float and begin moving my arms in and out, treading water, just keeping my head afloat. Maybe I had gone a little too far this time. "Hello" she said. Her black hair seemed to flow down her face and shoulders as though it was ink, yet it was dry and shiney. Where it met the water it seemed to melt into it. Somehow, I knew it flowed a long way past her hips. Her eyes were so blue it was as if one of those lagoons I had seen in my library books lived inside them. Her skin was perfect and pale, as if it had never been touched by a spot or ice cream or the sun. "Hi," I mumbled back.
Unblinking, she replied "I am a mermaid," my ears heard what I already felt, could it be?? "Oh," I replied, my brain suddenly felt empty. My mouth moved like a freshly caught fish. I searched, and found no words. "You can come with me, I will show you my world, but you will never return here, back to your family again. You must choose quickly, for I can not stay here long." Wow!!! My brain exploded with words, what a chance! I could swim away, I had often considered running away, but this could be so much better! The things I would see! The things I would do! But, wait. Would my Mum, laying on the beach wonder where I had gone, would she look for me? Would she miss me? Would would my dog, Sonic, sleep with at night? Who would feed my hamsters - Charlie, Matt and James? (named after my favourite band Busted.) In a few weeks I can finally go back to school, I am so excited to move up a year. Maybe I'll get a classroom job if I work really hard. Suddenly, I felt anchored to stay, to land life. I couldn't go with her. "Sorry, I want to stay here," with no change of expression she turned and swam in the other direction, out into the wide ocean. Past the danger sign. I turned too, back to shore. Shamed for upsetting my new friend. I looked back to see if I could see her. If I could see her inky hair, if I could see her laughing with her friends at me for falling for her trick. Mermaid! How silly.
Only, there was no black haired girl, no sign of her at all. I sat back on my spot. The waves tickling at my feet again. Was that real? Had I really just seen a mermaid?
I hear my Mum calling me, I run over, I know better than to keep her waiting. "And where have you been?" She asks. "No-where Mum, no-where at all."
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