The First Swim ; A Mermaids Story

Part 2

"-And that's how mermaids came to exist." Mom finished. Every night she tells us the same story. Me and Nitesha love hearing it. But don't believe it.

"It's not real though. Stuff like that doesn't exist! Mermaids? Fake!" Nitesha always says.

"Yeah. Mermaids don't exist. Right Mom?" She never answers me, even though I ask it every day. All I get is a smile.

"I think we've had enough about mermaids in the last five minutes. Time for bed you two!" Mom exclaims. Since we were born, mom always tucks us into bed. I can't say I don't like it, but me and Nitesha are almost 15 years old already.

"C'mon Mya! I'll race you upstairs." Nitesha cries. "Oh you're on!" I yell! "Last one in bed has to do the other ones chores!" We both giggle. We always do that. But we are too nice to each other to make them do our chores- even though we have a whole list of them. Right before we take off, mom stops us.

"Actually, no one has to do chores tomorrow." We look at her in confusion. "You two are both going somewhere tomorrow. When you wake up, I want you both to pack for 30 days."

"30 days!!" We yell in unison.

"You are going to go on the continent's biggest cruise ship for one month. I will have to stay here, because I only bought two tickets. And, best of all the weather looks nice. OKAY now girls let's go upstairs." Mom tells us. We follow behind her to our room.

Our room that we share is teal, with dark blue sponge paint on three walls. The wall by our beds has dark blue paint splatters. We both collect seashells, lava lamps, and glass animals on shelves lining one wall. Underneath the bottom shelf is an electric fireplace. We also worked together to paint an ocean mural on one wall. Our favorite part is that it has a walkout patio with a secret path to the ocean. Our matching bedspreads have a large dolphin. The desk in between our beds has two clocks facing either one of us. The counter opposite the door has a big fish tank with exotic fish.

Mom tucks us in and says goodnight. After she leaves, I push away fear and ask Nitesha the question that has been bugging me for a long time.

"Mom never, and I mean never, talks about Dad. Why do you think that is? What happened?" Her answer bothers me.

"I've been thinking the same thing," She explains. "What if moms stories are real? And he is a merman!?"

"I refuse to believe that. And, mermaids? Unlikely. Mermen? Absolutely not!" I snap. We talk quietly about merpeople for the next 5-10 minutes. Soon we start to get a little sleepy, and drift off...

The next morning I am woken up by an obnoxiously loud alarm clock. After I violently press the snooze button, I realized that I smelled bacon! I quickly woke up Nitesha, and we ran downstairs.

"All packed?" Mom asked. Me and Nitesha glance at each other guiltily.

"We smelled breakfast, and we just woke up, so, no." Nitesha explained. Mom pretended not to care as she flipped the bacon.

"It's 9:00, and your ship leaves at 2:30. I'll take you down to the harbor at 1:00. Please be ready. You can't be late! If I was going I'd be packed and ready to go by now." She pleaded as she told us the times. We rushed upstairs to start packing before breakfast was done. We finished packing about half our stuff before our mom called us down for breakfast.

After a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, we finished packing. And double checking. And grabbing the things we missed. And double checking again. And grabbing missed items. Over and over again until we were absolutely sure we had everything.

"I wonder how long it took us?" I looked at the clock. "OMG! It's 12:57! We only have 3 minutes until mom wanted to leave!" We ran down the stairs as fast as physically possible while carrying a bunch of huge duffel bags. We warmed up some hotdogs, grabbed a bag of chips and some hotdog buns, and followed Mom out the door. Our lunch was gone within two minutes, and we were watching the view outside.

"We are so lucky we live in Australia, so much water!" Mom says.

"Well, me and Mya have never been out of Australia, because it's so, expensive! I wish this was a cruise somewhere else," Nitesha complains.

"Just be glad you are going on a cruise! I don't need to spend money for vacations if you are going to complain!" Mom snapped. The next half hour was completely silent. I could only hear the soft rumble of the car on the road. I couldn't see much either. Me and Tesh have like half of our wardrobe in the car.

"We're here!" Mom says in a singsong voice. Me and Nitesha jump out of the car. The cruise ship is massive! We climb aboard, and find our 'rooms'. Mom comes with us. I glance at the clock. We have half an hour before the ship leaves.

"Let's unpack!" I say. Surprisingly, it only takes us 25 minutes. We run back off of the ship and give mom a hug. She gets in the car and watches. There were lots of I love you's and goodbye's being said, not just by us, but by many families all over the pier.

"I'll miss you two a bunch! Call me! And make sure you write letters and send them to me on the little paddle boat that brings letters to and from the ship." I saw a single tear slide down her cheek. I fought back my own tears, blinking quickly. I saw Nitesha fighting hers too.

"I love you!" I screamed as we boarded the ship. I couldn't hold it anymore-tears started streaming down my face. Horrible scenarios flashed through my mind 'the ship sinking...never seeing mom again...mom getting hurt...Nitesha falls overboard and I'm alone...' Millions of thoughts flooded my mind. The one good one being, 'The ship is awesome, and mom stays safe while we are gone. We all see each other again!' The thought unfortunately doesn't stay in my mind long. The ship's loud horn blows. "Last call!" The loudspeaker yells.

"You know what?" I ask Nitesha, "I don't want to do this anymore. Being away from mom for a whole month? That is way took longer!" I turned to run off the ship, but the dock was to far away already, and guards were putting safety bars up. I run to our shared, dull gray room, and cry. Nitesha joins me.

For the first few hours we cry.