Amphirite

Dreams of Stone

The mermaid Amphirite sits in stone on the bottom of the ocean floor in grand cayman. Divers flock to see this amazing statue. But the real question is, what's the story behind the statue?
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The legend of the mermaid Amphirite changes with every diver who goes and sees her. But me, I know her true story. I looked in her eyes and knew. I knew what really happened.

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She was happy. Her father was king. She had many sisters. She was living the high life. But her curiosity always got the better of her. Her father allowed her to see the surface. He allowed her to see the world. Her mother was gone. No one really knew what happened accept her father, who refused speak of it. He got a faraway look in his eyes. That scares Amphirite. She loved looking at the humans. She found it strange and funny when they try to mimic the sea animals and bring their air down with them. The look so silly. Wearing suits to keep them warm like seals. Wearing flippers to help them move like fish. Wearing glass over their eyes to help them see. And finally, carrying those huge things called 'tanks' on their backs. According to Stella, my older sister, they carry a piece of their world in those 'tanks' and its what keeps them alive. And when they use up that piece of their world, they have to go back. Amphirite found this practice, called diving, very silly. But she was always glad to see them enjoying her world. She especially liked it when the humans brought their young along. She liked to send the fish towards them and watch the humans react. They try to follow the fish, but the fish can out swim them easily.
This was the ordinary day in the life of Amphirite. She had no duties. So she swam in the crystal clear waters of grand cayman looking at all the coral and playing in the grottos and Eden's rock. She didn't understand the name 'Eden's rock.' It wasn't even a rock.  And who was Eden? And such was the ordinary day of Amphirite. But everything was about to change.
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She would go and watch the humans daily. Being careful to only come halfway from the breakers. She watches them build castles of sand, dig large holes, and even bury each other. She loves listening to their laughter, which carries across the water and into her eager ears. Sometimes, if she is lucky, she can capture their laughs in her jars. She keeps the jars and listens to them when she feels sad. The laughter is hard to catch. She is very skilled and practiced in the area of catching sound waves,  which is the only way she is able to capture the sound of laughter. She watches them for hours and captures their laughter in her jars. She secretly always wanted to meet the humans, and she got closer and closer to them every day. She always kept the breakers in sight, but as she got closer and closer to shore, they mattered less and less. Many days passed by and she gradually got closer and closer. Until finally, she was so close that she could make out their individual features, like hair color, height, and clothes. She was so close now. She felt a rush of exhilaration being so near to them.
Her dream of being with them and near them was becoming more and more obvious. And harder and harder to suppress her need to be with them.
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She awoke that morning and was going to watch the humans. She surfaced by the beach holding her jars, ready to capture their sounds. But what she saw was not happiness. It was not laughter. It was a sound and a sight she had never seen before. It was tears. It was crying. It was sadness. She was astounded. She took off all the lids to the bottles she has been holding and the crying eagerly fills up the bottles. Misery loves company. She didn't even have to try to capture the sounds. They ran into the jars on their own. She has never seen anything like this before. It fascinates her. And then she looks at the humans. They are sadness. They are being cruel. They are hurting each other. Amphirite feels betrayed by these people she has never met. She fills the sea with her tears. She thought the humans were always kind. Always loving and always peaceful. Her heart broke into millions of pieces. She could not stand to see this. But, still, she diligently came every day to see if they would stop fighting. But they never did. She collected their cries and their mournful tears in her jars, and stored them away. After years of watching the humans fight, she could take it no longer. She swam to the sea witch and asked to be turned to stone. She claimed she would rather die than see the people she wanted to be with fighting and being cruel. The sea witch reluctantly agreed. And Amphirite was turned to stone. Her family was devastated. They took the jars she had collected and broke them on the coral reef surrounding her statue. Even the jars filled with laughter had changed into jars filled with sorrow and mournful cries. With every jar that was broken on the coral reef, tears and misery were set free. When you see the statue of the mermaid princess Ampharite, if you follow her eyes, you will notice she is looking to the surface. She is waiting and hoping the humans will stop fighting. For legend has it, when there is peace with the humans, and peace under the water, when the two worlds intersect and join together in unity and in peace, legend has it she will break out of her stone and be alive again. Swimming among the coral reefs and the fish. Legend has it, she will come back to life.

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So when I actually got to go and scuba dive with this state, this was the story I came up with about her. It's fiction, but it's still fun to think about how she could've got there if she was real. Thanks for reading!!!