above and beyond

Chapter 6

I'm actually not joking , she writes. I do sometimes have a playful sense of humor, and I know that I always have, because I don't actually have amnesia. But this isn't a joke.

Hop squints at her words, before asking, "What does that mean? You remember where you're from? But why did you lie? What are you trying to say?"

I really am a mermaid.

He laughs for a moment, but it seems forced and quickly fades. Looking at her, it takes him a moment before he says, "It sounds completely ridiculous, you know? But...you look so serious right now, I don't think that you're making it up. Gloria...?"

Leon really was saved by a mermaid. He isn't crazy, I just wasn't supposed to be seen by him, so I left before we could talk. And then I got turned into a human, so that I could come meet him, and that's where I am now.

"Wait, wait, you're going too fast here. Could you talk back then? You can't talk now. And how did you turn into a human?"

Gloria decides to try and slow down, and explain things more clearly to Hop. She tries to think about where to start, and decides that Nessa is the best place. Picking up her pen again, she writes, There are some mermaids who can do magic, and I had a friend who could. But she warned me that this spell would come with drawbacks, and specific things I had to do. One of those things was that I would lose my voice.

"This is completely mad..." Hop says, more to himself than to her. He shakes his head to snap himself out of it and says, "Alright, so then what? Are you going to be stuck like that forever?"

Not if I can make the spell stick. If I can do what I have to do to keep it in place, then my voice will turn back to normal. Now she has reached the part of the story that she knows will be more difficult to tell. She will have to tell him about Leon, and that he is the reason for her being here, but she has already come so far that she knows she can't hold back from him anymore.

"Wait, so it isn't permanent? Will you turn back to normal?" When she nods, he says, "So, what do you have to do to stay human? And...and why did you want to be a human so much in the first place? Was it because you met Lee?"

She blushes, surprised that he has caught on so quickly, and nods again. You have to promise not to tell him about any of this. One of the conditions for the spell is that he can't find anything out. Specifically, she said that Leon can never know the truth until time is up, or else it will all be undone.

"How much time do you have?"

I had a month when I got here. If Leon finds outs, or if I run out of time, I'll turn back into a mermaid, never get my voice back, and never get another chance. But if I do things right, then I'll get my voice back and I'll get to stay here forever.

"So...what do you have to do?" asks Hop.

I have to get a kiss from someone who has fallen in love with me. That's what she said, and so while I'm here, I have to try and get him to love me, and then kiss me. Gloria does not bother to specify who it is, because she is sure that Hop already understands.

Sure enough, he says, "Wow, so you came all the way up here and risked all of that because of Lee? You must really like him, huh?" He nudges her, a playful grin on his face, and her blush deepens as she quickly writes.

Don't tease me!

"Sorry, sorry, but you did walk into that, I hope you realize," he says with a nod. "No, really, though, I don't think it's funny or anything. I think it's amazing you did all that for him and he doesn't even know. I'm not going to tell him, so don't worry about that, but...that's the kind of stuff he likes! Bravery! Risk taking! It's too bad we can't tell him, because he'd probably fall head over heels, especially since you already saved his life and all."

She wants to ask him why he's said "we," and wants to ask him if he really thinks that Leon would fall for her because of her bravery, but before she can write either, Hop has begun speaking again. "Of course, I'm going to help you, since you trusted me. If you're being honest, then you took a big risk on trusting me! And if it turns out that you're just insane, it still sounds like it could be a lot of fun!"

Deciding to ignore the dig at her, she writes, You really mean that? You want to help me?

"Well, yeah," he says, as if it should already be obvious to her. "Like I said, it means a lot to me that you've trusted me with it, and I know we've only known each other for a little while, but you're a really good friend, Gloria. I want to help you. Plus, we may have only known each other for a little while, but you don't have a lot of time before you have to make it happen, so you need all the help you can get. And since I know Lee better than anyone, I'm the best person to help you out!"

There are no words to express her gratitude to him, no way to tell him just how much she appreciates his willingness to believe her crazy tale straight away, and to even sign himself up for her cause. There is a part of her that already thinks about what might happen in the worst case scenario, if she fails and loses everything, and she knows that she will at least consider herself lucky to have made a friend like Hop.

But having a good friend like him only makes her more determined to make sure she never has to go back home. She doesn't want to lose him anymore than she wants to lose the other experiences she has on land, and she wants to have her voice back so that she can truly talk to him. Gloria wants to be able to stay his friend forever, and if she messes this up, she won't have that chance again.

It means a lot that Hop cares enough about her to help her with this, and she supposes it must have something to do with Leon as well. That only makes it more exciting that he wants to help her, because that must mean that he thinks she and Leon would make a good match. She hopes that that is the case, and hopes that whatever ideas Hop has end up working. More than anything, she wants to believe that having him on her side will guarantee her success.