Call of the Water (COMPLETE)

25. ALL THE CHANGES

The room went silent. Opal focused her honey brown eyes on me, while Ardea, who was sitting at her dressing table, looked at my reflection in the mirror. I returned the look, noticing that her eyes weren't obstructed by contact lenses. She took them out to clean them, the breeze must have blown particles of dust into her eyes while she was gardening.

"Well, don't just stare at her," Opal said, attracting my attention. "It's not your fault she has to wear contacts. And do you know what I had to do to clear the dust from my eyes?" She blinked vigorously several times. "That was it. Now, you owe me a detail explanation. Start talking!"

I had no choice but to do as she said.

"This image," I pointed at the lung transplantation captured in one of the photos. "The one that had such a strong impact on you, represents the most complicated part of the whole process. The procedure changed over the years, so there was no need to cut me open like the Aquantien on that picture. However, I do have barely noticeable scars on both sides of my torso, under my chest. It had to be done because without lung transplantation, breathing on land would be impossible."

"What about your gills? Where are they now?" Opal asked further.

"Gone. They surgically removed them all together," I said and moved my hair back. With one of my hands I stroked the spot high on the side of my neck where the gills used to be. "Sometimes, during the summer, if I'm in the sun for too long and my skin gets tanned, you can see two lighter stripes, one on each side of my neck. For some reason, the skin doesn't become darker where it was sewn together after they removed the gills."

"But when you were in the pool that one time, you could stay under water much longer than the rest of us. How come?" Opal stared at me with narrowed eyes and tilted head.

"My body still has ways of storing more oxygen than yours. I've read that humans can train their bodies and in time, they too can acquire that ability. I never had to train. It has always been a part of me." I hoped I made it clear enough to dispel Opal's confusion.

"Okay," she nodded. "They gave you new lungs, took away your gills. What else?"

I lifted my hands in front of me, with palms in the upright position, and spread my fingers as far as they let me. "Webbing between the fingers. They removed it. Between my toes too."

Opal came closer to take a look. "Fascinating!" she stated, studying my fingers.

"I had frills on the outer sides of my shins," I said and lifted one of the pant legs to show her my leg. "They removed that as well."

Opal reached her hand and touched my leg. "You don't even have a scar!" she said with amazement and then looked at my face again.

I gave her a wide smile, exposing my teeth. Indicating at them with a finger, I said, "They used to be pointy."

"Really!? Did they sand them with that horrible thing? You know, that drill," said Opal, after which she imitated the buzzing sound the drill made once a dentist would pick it up.

"Yes, that's the one," I confirmed.

"Horrible!" Opal replied. She brought her palms up to her mouth as if she were afraid that a dentist would barge in with that infernal thing in his hands. "That must have been worse than anything else."

Ardea was struggling to suppress laughter, but I wasn't gonna point that out. I focused on Opal instead.

"Look into my eyes," I told her and bent down to bring them to her level. "Each of my eyes had another eyelid. They covered the eyes underwater. I could see through them. They moved from the inner corner of my eyes towards the outer corner." I moved my finger in front of my eye to indicate the movement of the aforementioned eyelid.