Sounds of a Siren

The Transformation

XII. The Transformation

The Professor and I agreed that we would start training the next morning, so for the rest of the day we just sat around. I went to bed last night excited for what was coming the next morning. That night was the best sleep I'd had since the accident. The nightmares finally stopped. I had forgotten what it was like to actually go to sleep happily. It was peaceful. That is until...

It was as if I had been baptized again, only this time, it was against my will. "Get up, son! It's time to start your training!" I woke up violently, freezing and soaking wet. I jumped out of bed, not fully cognizant of what was going on. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I screamed at the Professor. I looked on the ground to see two empty buckets. I could see that they had just had water in them. "Are you insane!?"

"It's time to start your training. You will come to learn that your abilities are not just little special things that you can do. They're who you are."

"What does that have to do with you turning my bedroom into an indoor pool!?"

"This is how my father taught me, and it's how I'm gonna teach you. When you can keep the water from hitting you before you wake up, then I will know that your training is complete."

"Oh, that makes since. I'm just supposed to will two buckets worth of water to just get out my way when I'm NOT EVEN AWAKE TO SEE IT! Have you give completely batty!?"

"Nero, do you want to go to Atlantis, or not?"

I paused and just looked at him. Still upset, I mustered up a "yes sir."

"Good. Now follow me."

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He took me to his house, and we went to the lake that ran through his backyard. "The first step: transfiguration. In other words: I need to get you to turn in to your merman form."

"Okay..." I said. "Seems simple enough..." I took off my shirt, followed by my shoes, followed by my socks, then my belt, and finally, my pants. There I stood, vulnerable in a pair of boxer-briefs. "I just..." I took a step into the water expecting for a tail to just magically appear. The Professor broke out into his playful, yet condescending laugh. I had gotten used to hearing it after working with him for so long.

"You think that becoming a merman is something that just happens? Nero, it's so much more than that. A merman is not something that you become. It's who you are. You just have to reach within yourself and find it."

"Okay, Yoda. Why do you always have to make the complicated seem like something that a four-year-old can do?"

"Phoebe learned to swim before she could walk..."

The mention of Phoebe infuriated me. "Phoebe grew up on this stuff! This is all new to me! Why is that so hard for you to understand? This stuff is impossible!"

The Professor looked at me for a moment, then just said "okay." "'Okay.' What do you mean, 'okay,'?"

"I thought you'd say that. I didn't want it to come to this, but..." He went into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet box. The ring! "Professor, what are you doing?" He opened the box and took the ring out. He took the ring, and tossed it in the lake. Without saying a word, I dove in after it, and that's when I felt it. Time around me seemed to slow down as it all came together. The water around me began to boil. As I watched the bubbles ascended toward the surface of the water, I realized that the cold water from the bottom of the lake began to mesh with the warm water that I was already in, but never seemed to mix. It was as if they were lacing through each other. When this odd tapestry of hot and cold surrounded my legs, it began to swirl around, first slowly, then rapidly like a tornado. My legs and feet were pushed together by some unknown force. It felt as if they were being sewn together. I could feel my bone structure changing. Finally, when the riding water and bubbles cleared, I could see that I had a fish tail. It was beautiful. My scales looked like opal or pearl shavings. But my transformation wasn't done yet. On the sides of my neck, I could feel pieces of flesh lift up, almost like pages turning in a book. I placed my hand on one side. and felt three slits there. Gills..., I thought, suddenly realizing that I could breathe again. Then I remembered what I dove in here for: the ring.

As time fell back into place, I frantically searched around. About two yards in front of me laying at the bottom of the lake was my engagement ring. I swam straight to it, all the while taking heed to the feeling of swimming with one tail instead of two legs. I thought it'd be hard, but it just came to me like when a newborn takes its first breath of air.

I picked up the ring and swam back up to the surface. When my hands touched dry land, I felt the transformation happening again. Within a split second, my tail was gone, and my legs were back. I climbed back up to the backyard.

"It seems as if this is becoming a habit." I said" How can you be so unimaginably insane?!"

"Did it work?"

"What? Yes, it worked. But that's besides the..."

"If it worked, why are still upset?"

"Because... The ring... You could have damaged it!" How could he be so reckless with his own wife's ring?

"Lesson one in Becoming a Merman 101: Everything is waterproof..." He said with a smirk as he walked back toward the house. I waited for a second, stunned. Finally, I just picked up my clothes and followed behind him.