Ari and Zac

Prologue

The Transcript (Segment 1)

Broadcast: THE TRUTH FILES

Episode Title: The Mermaid Hypothesis

Air Date: June 28, 2020

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT OF TELEVISION BROADCAST

HOST: Good evening. Welcome to a new season of The Truth Files, bringing you an all new in-depth investigation into a real-life unsolved mystery. This season, over a series of eight interviews with key witnesses and experts, we'll attempt to explain the unexplainable. We'll delve deep into a story that seems impossible—a mystery that we've entitled: The Mermaid Hypothesis.

Our story begins in the quaint seaside community of Seabreeze Point. Located on the Jersey shore, with a population of less than 500 year-round residents, this quiet town may feel like a familiar setting to anyone who enjoys spending a lazy day at the beach. Last summer, however, the residents of Seabreeze Point were rocked by a bizarre series of events that played out more like the plot of a Hollywood techno-thriller. Join me now on this exclusive Truth Files investigation: A story of music and magic, stormy seas and IPOs, corporate greed and sabotage, suicide... and murder.

What really happened on one fateful summer night in Seabreeze Point?

Our coverage begins tonight with Lucy Callahan, daughter of New Jersey real estate developer Thomas Callahan, who owns the majority of the businesses along the Seabreeze Point boardwalk. Lucy was born in Seabreeze Point, grew up there, and graduated from Seabreeze High School this past June. Lucy, thank you for joining me in the studio this evening.

LC: Thank you for having me.

HOST: Can you share with us what life's been like in your town in the aftermath of last summer's events?

LC: I guess people are still kind of shaken up. No one ever expected something like that to happen in Seabreeze Point.

HOST: You yourself were involved in those events, and I'd like to ask you more about that later. For now, if you don't mind, let's start by hearing more about your sister.

LC: Ari?

HOST: The two of you are the same age, correct?

LC: Yes, but we're not twins. People always assumed that, but no. Ari was adopted.

HOST: How old were you when Ariel came to live with your family?

LC: We were both four year olds. My parents took her in as a foster kid at first, and eventually they adopted her when no other relatives came forward.

HOST: We found a clipping in the local Atlantic City newspaper dated August 19, 2005. Have you seen this?

LC: About Ari?

HOST: It refers to a young child, found alone in the wee hours of the morning wearing nothing but a nightgown.

LC: Yep. That was her. They found her in the water that night. Some little kid, all by herself. Everyone considered it a miracle she didn't drown. She was basically in shock though. She couldn't tell anyone what her name was... where she came from... how she got there. She couldn't remember anything from the time before they rescued her that night.

HOST: And she came to live with your family soon after?

LC: My mom was the town police chief at the time. I guess they were having trouble placing Ari with a family. She always had some...quirks.

HOST: What do you mean by that?

LC: Don't get me wrong. I loved Ari like a sister from the moment she moved in with us, but she was always...haunted, I guess you would say. She spent pretty much her entire life in therapy. The psychiatrists kept changing the diagnosis. At first they called it a trauma reaction. Then attachment disorder. Selective mutism. Generalized anxiety disorder... My parents tried and tried to get her help, but none of the treatment ever seemed to make much difference with her symptoms.

HOST: What symptoms were those, exactly?

LC: Mainly that she couldn't speak. At least not in front of other people. Not even her family.

HOST: You never heard her voice?

LC: Never. We all learned sign language when she was little. We mostly texted once she was old enough to use a cellphone. But she never spoke aloud. At least, not until she met Zac.

HOST: Yes, we'll hear about him later. But tell us more about Ari when she was growing up. Her condition never improved as she got older?

LC: If anything, it got worse. I remember last summer, I overheard my parents whispering. Something about possible psychosis. Schizophrenia. Delusional beliefs...

HOST: What kind of delusional beliefs? Do you know?

LC: Just the one thing, really. She was pretty much obsessed with it.

HOST: Obsessed with what, Lucy?

LC: That night when they found Ari on the beach, she was wearing a nightgown with a Disney character on it: Ariel. You know, the princess from The Little Mermaid movie? That's how Ari got her name, actually.

HOST: She was named after the character on her nightgown?

LC: She couldn't tell the social workers her real name, so they had to make one up for her. I guess they thought it would be cute. They named her Ariel. Ari for short.

HOST: I see.

LC: She was basically obsessed with that fairytale ever since. She must have owned every single storybook version ever published. I can't remember a single Halloween when she didn't go as a mermaid.

HOST: And her delusional belief—

LC: See, it kind of made sense in a way. It wasn't totally irrational. The Little Mermaid in the fairytale can't speak either. Not while she's on dry land. The Sea Witch took away her voice in exchange for a pair of legs. That's the part that Ari always got hung up on. Like, if The Little Mermaid character were real, how would the psychiatrists diagnose her? Some girl who washed up on the beach and couldn't talk, for no apparent physical reason? Never improved, no matter what kind of therapy they did, or what kind of drugs they gave her? They'd probably label it anxiety. Or PTSD. Or selective mutism.

HOST: Or maybe even delusional psychosis?

LC: Exactly. She knew it sounded kind of out there, but she couldn't let it go.

HOST: The belief that she herself might be—

LC: A mermaid, stuck on land, living under a magic spell. And someday the spell would be broken. Someday she'd go back to the sea.