Mermaid for a Day

10

The man in front of me clinging his hands to my face was my father. My father! He had been dead, or so we thought, for eight years, and why didn't he tell us any of this? Was I a mermaid to begin with and didn't know about it? Does my mom know anything about this crazy messed up situation? Does my brother? Jacob couldn't seriously his father was a merman. Was that why he was so rude and wanted me to get out of his sight?

I had to know and the man in front of me probably had more answers than I had questions, and that was counting the excuses he would most likely give about not being there for eight years. I wonder if we were rich only, because my father decided to use some of his own riches on land for finances. It seemed pretty obvious that that was mostly like the case.

The man, my father, cried the moment I said one word to him. Why was that? His eyes turned to look down at my tail which made him smile then grimace like something was missing. His eyes scanned my hands with remarkable intent to almost examine me to see if the mermaid he held with his own muscular hands, which were bronze in their tanned state, was actual his own little Water lily. A name my dad gave me when he say me fantasize about becoming a mermaid before he supposedly died from drowning, which was why I stopped wanting to go out to the beach in our backyard.

The idea made me chuckle at how ironic this has actually become. During the time he was around he knew of my desires to have tail and swim playfully with the fishes. He dies, but isn't really dead but just under the sea ruling it like Poseidon in a weird way. I don't go into the water anymore because he drowned. The moment I do go back into the water, I get an opportunity to get a tail, and discover that there's now a whole bunch of pieces missing in this puzzle I call my life that I need to find out. Plus, this all went even further downhill the moment when I figured out my dad is the king of the sea and a mermaid. So, what does that make me? Was I really turned into a mermaid or was I already one to begin with? Did Armana know my father?

The light from high noon was a spectacle to behold. My mother and brother should have been here with me and with dad. Then we might just be a happy family once more. My dad say the look in my eyes and understood the feeling that were bothering me, such as, confusion, anger, sorrow, regret, and mainly loss of understanding. He comforted me with a strange deep blue aura that seemed similar to his tail. It was as if he was hugging me just like when I was six and I fell scraping my knee crying while his warm, loving embrace gave me happiness after my sadness had dissipated. The look in his eyes was with the sort of feeling like was remembering that moment with me.

The aura cloaked me in its draping cowl of spiritual and magical energy. The feelings that had tortured me were gone from my soul. I felt rejuvenated by his dark sapphire aura while my own aura seeped out of me giving me the sureness of the love embrace of his dearly beloved's daughter. Mom would be pleased to see dad again, if she knew about as much as I did about the entirety of the insane situation. My father's hands left the sides of my face and reached around me hugging me with warm embraced that was fit for father seeing his long lost daughter. Or was it the other way around. I didn't bother thinking about or anything really.

Then everyone gasped as a figure in purple, flowing robes came up into the golden underwater Parthenon. Whispers swung around the great hall as if a rumor had sprung in the water and out everyone mouths. The figure was no stranger, but she seemed mysterious and unpredictable. It was Armana, the good sea witch. From what Damien told me she had ultimately been reformed to the side of good. Armana gazed swayed with her head observing the fear in everyone's eyes except mine, my father's, and Damien's. She saw our reactions.

My reaction was like me visiting an old friend. My father's reaction was like he was going have to reenact a scene from our history. Damien's reaction though showed him wondering and worrying about the same thing but for two different reasons. Why was Armana here? What was she going to do? My father bolstered his chest and pried his arms from mine with a looking of dreadful regret as he faced the sea witch where she stood.

"Why are you here, Armana." father questioned as she walked forward as if the water never existed around and acted like she was parading on land. Tapping the left heel of her sandal a sound resonated freezing everyone in the instant in time they were a second ago, everyone except me. I saw her approach me laughing at my reaction to what was apparently a spell.

I looked around the great hall noticing not even the sun or the ocean moved from its place. I was stuck here in this frozen frame of time. Armana continue walk forward laughing hysterically.

"Lilian, you are quite a catch, my dear." she exclaimed looking at me chuckling from the look of my mere mind wondering what in the world was happening being displayed on my face.

"What?!" I shout irritated by her insensitive humor, but her laughing fit continue with her now face to face with me.

"You're the king's daughter and my niece. That's got to be the best joke of the millennium." she concluded with one last bit of vocal hysteria, which ludicrous in my book, but that was shock like no other.

I stood with Armana facing me looking at me as if she was getting ready to tell me the long story to this family drama. Time was frozen still and I was stuck here with her. In my book, this meant chivalry wasn't dead, not entirely. Armana could be the only person I could talk to first about this, as time stood still. My father would have to wait to tell his part of the past while he remained statue still like his gilded glory's representation standing out in front of the doors of the Parthenon.

I was frozen in time, and I was stuck with Armana. As she stared at me ready to speak, I recalled how I thought being frozen as a mermaid I would be in solid ice. I stood here in the ocean as everyone was frozen in time, but I was a mermaid in frozen time. I was mermaid in frozen time, and I was standing here with my supposed sea witch aunt about to have a family talk. I must have the most screwed up family tree in the world.