Forever Tide: My True Identity

Chapter Nine

Our Island was small, and located about an hour north of our bay in the middle of Puget Sound. It was a safe haven, and a place filled with happy memories. Whenever Papa needed to think we would go to the island, and anchor, sometimes we would go ashore, but most of the time we just sat on the bow, and watched as the gulls floated, dived, and flew along the rocky shoreline. If Mama was with us we would normally take the small row boat, and go ashore for a picnic. Tonight we would stay on  the island for the second time in my entire life.

The first time that we stayed on the island I was only seven. Mama and Papa had been fighting over taking me on a family vacation. Mama was bound and determined to go to the city, yet Papa he was just as determined that we should stay in the wilderness. They went back and forth for weeks; finally, I had enough of the fighting and suggested that we stay on the island. I told Mama that I was afraid of the city, and I wanted to stay near the sea.

“What are you thinking about baby girl?”

“The year that we came to the island for our family vacation, do you remember the tree fort that Papa built me?”

“Yea, I remember that fort, it was more like a death trap.”

“Oh Mama you know that it was not a death trap, you just couldn’t bear the thought that you would actually have to climb a tree in order to come join me. “

“That tree was just about to fall over, and you know it. If I would have hauled my butt up into that tree then it would have fallen over, and we both would have tumbled to our deaths.”

“Ten feet would not have resulted in our deaths Mama!”

“Baby girl if I think that we would have fallen to our deaths then we would have fallen to our deaths. Do you understand me?”

“Yes Mama, I get that you are always right, even when you are wrong. I love that about you though.”

Haha, Mama was over dramatic about most things. That tree house we built literally was ten feet off the ground at that roof. Papa and I used drift wood, and rocks to build a sturdy base around a fallen tree. I loved to climb as far as I could and watch as Mama would stomp her feet, and yell. She would get so angry when Papa would tell her that I needed to be a little girl.

Building a tree fort was not the only good thing that happened on that trip, we also got to watch a pod of Orcas, and their calves hunt. That was as interesting as it was disturbing. Watching as they tossed baby seals into the air like they were play toys, and slap them back and forth by their tails, it was a cruel game, and it made both Mama and I cry. We cried for the baby seals, and their Mama’s who would miss them. It was that moment that I started to learn that the sea was full of all types of creatures, some more dangerous than others.

I will say that the ocean has never scared me. I learned to respect it from Mama and Papa, and love it from my swims. I have always felt that there was more to myself, then the boring life I would have led on the island, but if you would have told me that I was the mermaid princess, I would have looked at you like your crazy. Today though, I feel secure with my future, leaving Mama, and Papa scares me, but I think that I will love my future as a mermaid Queen.

“Darling are you ready to go ashore?”

“Yea Papa I am, I was just thinking.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“What is going to happen when I leave here? I think that I am ready to be a Queen, it still scares me, but I am ready.”

“It should scare you. That is a lot of responsibility on one so young.”