Forest of Imagination

Forest of Meeting Long-Lost Dads

McKenzie mouthed, Do you want me to do the air bubble for you? It's a beginners' trick, but half-mermaids don't usually master it quickly without practice. That made me proud, because I was the only half-mermaid (probably the only one, but whatever) who'd pretty much mastered the air bubble!

I brought all the bubbles to my mouth (I had ABSOLUTELY NO idea how) and replied, talking, "No thanks, I've got it covered." McKenzie rolled her eyes, did her own air bubble, and mouthed, show off.

"Well, thanks for bringing me here," I thanked after a long ten minutes of regular swimming through the ocean.

"You're welcome, but next time, don't keep humming verses from Let it Go," McKenzie sighed, and my cheeks turned red of embarrassment. Also, I was kinda surprised that Terra Meridian even knew "Let it Go...."

I looked up at the 3-story mansion that McKenzie claimed was where my dad lived--alone. I waved McKenzie goodbye and swam inside, surprised to find that there was air inside the mansion, because hey, you live in the ocean, you adapt to the ocean (or so Mom says, and I figure now that has something to do with this). My dad was sitting in his room on the third floor, reading a water sports magazine.

"Dad?" I whispered quietly, not wanting to interrupt him. He had a tail, alright, but no long, white, bushy beard they always show elder mermen having in those mermaid movies. Unfortunately, Dad jumped right out of his seat, so I guess I did interrupt him. Did I mention that I have no idea in the world how Dad's tail and everything would make it up three sets of stairs, or even sit down?

"Hey, are you...Melody?" Dad asked, which reminded me that there was a Melody who was Ariel's and Eric's...oh my goodness, this mermaid-movies thing is REALLY catching on, and I don't like it.

"Well, duh, unless you thought I was a huge figurine in your living room that came to life and supposedly stole a tail from a mermaid and came here to impersonate Melody," I answered, which sounded so much funnier in my head. Gosh, maybe that was so accurate, Dad thought it was true, even though the truth is I'm just a detailed, funny person that tries to be funny but actually isn't!

"Well, that is kinda specific, but you sound like Melody's mother, so I'm going to go with...yes," Dad replied, his eyebrows going up at one hundred miles per minute. I didn't even know someone could raise their eyebrows that fast.

"I know I do. Wait a sec...how did you fall in love with my mom anyway, if she was on Earth and you were in Mermaid Bay?" I asked suddenly, remembering Mom for the first time since I came to Terra Meridian.

"Well, here's a full story," Dad sighed.

"One day, Brooke, who was younger then, offered to take one person to the mainland Earth with her for her job as peacekeeper. She was bringing Harmony, a half-fairy on Earth, back home to where she belonged. Brooke knew that there were still four other half-humans, but Harmony was a fairy and so she was more excited for her.

"Of course, I wanted to go with her, because I would never give up a chance to go to Earth and see wonderful sights like such. Brooke had also been my secret crush and I was even more excited about the trip because she was going. I thought to myself, 'Since I can't fly, Brooke will have to hold my hand during the flight time!' Brooke chose me, surprisingly, because I didn't try to bribe her anything, and that was the moment I knew that I wasn't the only one with a crush on Brooke.

"So it was flight day, and we went off. The holding hands part wasn't that important, but I felt a kind of exhilaration that I'd never felt before. We'd landed at a shopping mall, where Harmony was shopping with her dad...Brooke said she wished she could say Harmony was her daughter right then, and I felt jealousy of whoever Brooke's future husband would be, because with one single sentence she had pointed out it would not be me.