The Eighteenth Year

Chapter 5

Sunday, June 1st 1:26 a.m.

I woke up thinking I was in my own bed, that it was all a dream. But when I opened my eyes, I was laying down in Julia’s bathtub. I could see that my mother, father, Julia, and Derek were all looking at me from above. I did so much as mutter a “Hey” to all of them. But they weren’t paying attention to me, they were all staring at my feet. They felt weird. Slippery, slimey even. I sat up and screamed. What was in front of me was breathtaking. My vision was still sort of blurry, but once they focused, I almost fainted.

In front of me was a tail. Attached to my body! It was slippery and scaly, like a fish. It was a beautiful aqua marine blue and the scales made it sparkle. I couldn’t believe it. Then my mom noticed that I was conscious and started hugging me and kissing me.

She stopped and said, “Honey, your dad and I, well we’re not your birth parents-”

I interrupted them, “What do you mean?”

She continued, “On a trip we took on your dad’s boat we found you. We were in the harbor talking when we heard you crying. You were in the back of the boat, in a basket where we keep the fish. You were draped in seaweed and a cloth made of scales. We knew you weren’t just any child from the beginning. We took you home and notified the police of a found child, but no one claimed you. After three months of waiting, they let us adopt you. For a long time, your dad and I doubted you being a mermaid,” Mermaid? Me? “but once you started swimming as well as you did, it was obvious that you were.”

She looked at me and saw that I was confused.

“I know that this is hard to take in, but this is who you are. You can’t live on land anymore.”

I started to cry. My two best friends were in that very room, and we were all together for the first time in four years and now I can't even enjoy it. This is the worst day of my life.