The First Swim ; A Mermaids Story

Part 6

As I entered my room I gasped. The bed was made out of blue

sea anemone, and was surrounded by a curtain of beautiful seaweed. The desk next to my bed was made out of thick sea foam. Hundreds of small, friendly ocean creatures filled the room. I couldn't wait until I knew all of them. I must have been looking around for a while, because soon Irena said we had to go meet Nitesha and Kisa.

After a bit of discussing, we determined that our rooms were the

same.

"You two are very fortunate. Not many mermaids get houses, including us." Kisa said. "We are twins, but not identical. Neither of us are of high enough status to own a house, but you do because you are new around here. Keep doing your jobs that you will soon get, or you will loose your houses too."

"You don't have a house?" I asked. They shook their heads. "You can sleep with us then. We can't have you not sleep in a house! Both rooms are plenty big, so one of you can come with me and one of you can go with Nitesha."

"Thank you so much!" They said. "Everybody we ask never lets us stay in their house."

"Back to what you said before. Do you know what kind of job we

might have?" Nitesha asked.

"Oh. Well, there are many different job types. I'll tell you all of them. You could be a mechanist, animal trainer, you might work at a store, you could be a repairman, you could study marine animals or plants, teach the young mermaids, or you might not have any job," Kisa explained. "Most people say 'Hey! Can I not have a job?' But you don't get to choose. Irena and I are both teachers. If you are chosen not to have a job, you get a special surprise!"

"And that is..." I imply.

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone, so you have to keep it a secret."

"Ok," Nitesha and I say.

"The top secret is-"

"KISA!!" The mermaid council leader just happened to be passing by. "What do you think you are doing?!"

"I uhh... sorry it won't happen again. I didn't see you there," She confessed.

"It better not, or you will lose your job!!" She yells as she swims away.

"Sorry about that. You will learn the secret if and only if the council chooses any of you two. You have to promise that you will not turn your back on each other if one is chosen and one is not." She says sounding concerned.

"You sound really scared," I quire.

"Well, if to people from the same group betray each other, horrible things happen to everyone."