The Eyes of the Water

Chapter 2: A Mystery Awaits

It was about 8 p.m., the sun had fallen from the beautiful beach shore and now, the city of Sea Salt Beach was quiet and calm. The tourists had returned home to their hotels and no one was on the beach. This was the perfect time of day for Carmen to visit the beautiful shores of Sea Salt City. Carmen slipped on her bikini, her brown bomber jacket and some shorts. She slid on some flip flops and patted her dog on the head as she quickly raced down the steps. You could hear her loud thundering feet as she ran.

"I'm going out dad!" Carmen shouted as she opened the door just a crack, letting a small bit of light linger in the hall.

"I could tell!" Her dad teased from out in the living room, "Don't wake me up when you come back! Oh, and don't let the cannibals get you!"

She rolled her eyes, "I think I'll be okay dad." She swung the door open, shouting, "See you later alligator!"

She ran from their small beach house, into the street and down a couple blocks. She ran as fast as she could because, coming to the beach at night, was her favorite thing in the world. She enjoyed the sound of the quiet waves and the cool sand against her feet. She had a moment to herself. The world was quiet, and the sounds of the world were silenced. She had time to think and a place to clear of her mind of all the fogginess that drowned it.

She could think about her dreams. She could walk down the secluded beach and imagine herself, surrounded with creatures of the deep blue sea. She could think of herself happy, paying back her dad everything she owed to him. Although they didn't have much, her dad provided so much for her so, she knew when she was wealthy, she would provide him with all the treasures in the world. She imagined walking down the beach shores with someone, that person holding her hand and spewing about how much they loved her.

But most of the time, she thought about her mother. How she would take her down to the shore and would show her how to find the best shells and how, sometimes you could hear the ocean through the shells. Now, you and I know that is not so, you cannot magically hear the ocean from the inside of a shell, it is just how the sound reflects off the shell that makes it sound like the ocean. But, just like Carmen, it all once filled us all with wonder.

She thought about how her mother would sing to her as she braided her hair, singing like the mermaids in the tales she heard about. There was always one song that always came to her mind whenever she thought of her mother:

Come to the sea,

Where the mermaids swim,

Look what you can see,

When the light is not dim,

I know it is hard to believe,

But deep down, under the sea,

There is something that you can achieve,

If you try to see what I see.

Her mother wrote that. She sang it to her all the time. She even sang it to her on her deathbed in the hospital. Before she died. Before she was long gone.

Carmen loved to think back to her mother because when she did, she remembered a time when she and her father were both happier. A time when their house wasn't filled with dread, sorrow and calamitous.

Carmen settled down on the beach and began to hum her mother's song when she looked over and heard splashing from a new exhibit from Water Paradise. She saw the long black fence but within the splashing she also heard giggling, which was odd because Water Paradise had been closed for an hour now and all the employees had been cleared out. The only person left at the park was probably Mr. Carver but Mr. Carver didn't seem like one prone to laughing.

She began to walk closer to the enclosure that lie closely to the beach. The splashing and laughter got louder and louder the closer she got. She peered over and saw something unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was real mermaid! Or what looked like a mermaid. Carmen began doubting her own senses. To prove she wasn't going insane, she looked left and right before hopping the fence. She crept close to the pool area where they were keeping this creature. She bent as close as she could and before her eyes, she saw a beautiful mermaid swimming who would occasionally come up to laugh. Carmen was dazzled and bewildered at the sight before her. She was so amazed in fact, that she did not notice that the bracelet from her mother, the thing she cherished the most in the world, was drifting away. It was floating but then, began to sink. Carmen panicked as she tried to reach it but in an instant, Carmen was no longer on the edge of the pool but, sinking into it. She flailed and tried to scream but she knew she could not swim. Carmen was slowly losing air and before she knew it, things had begun to get blurry. She did not remember what happened in those next seconds but all you need to know was that Carmen was safe and so was her bracelet.

Carmen opened her eyes and began to cough up some water, her bracelet cupped in her hand. She looked around as her vision began to get clearer. When she finally cleared the water out of her eyes she looked down and saw the mermaid, her head resting on her arms against the edge of the pool. And she was beautiful.