Once upon a time,
There lived a beautiful mermaid in a blue lagoon of crystal clear water.
Although the mermaid loved her lagoon,
She longed to return to her home on the deep ocean floor where she had grown up alongside her sisters and her mother,
The queen.
However,
A plague had swept over their beloved kingdom,
Causing the coral reef to slowly decay.
The Queen had therefore sent each of her daughters on a very important task.
To find a cure for their dying reef.
Each daughter had ventured to the furthest corner of the seven seas in their search.
All equipped with a magical seashell.
That would begin to glow blue in the presence of a cure.
The blue seashell would then signal to the rest of the seashells to glow yellow,
Letting the remaining sisters know that it was finally time to return home.
A rather helpful kind of magic.
That their mother wielded with ease.
And yet.
Finding said cure had been anything but easy.
Three years had gone by.
And the mermaid had eventually settled into this blue lagoon after searching the entire ocean to no avail.
She thought that if the cure was not to be found in the waters,
Then she might have more luck on land.
However,
Seeing as she was a mermaid,
She had encountered some difficulty in exploring the land thus far.
Instead,
She would sit on a stone jutting out from the clear waters and sing her sweet siren song and wait for land to come to her.
Many lovesick fools would then stumble onto the beach of the lagoon and beg for her hand in marriage.
The mermaid would watch the humans wade out into the water towards her,
One by one.
But to her dismay,
The seashell never once glowed blue.
At night,
She would gaze up at the round silver moon and ask it the same thing,
Please let my family know how much I miss them,
And please let us find a cure soon so that we can all be reunited once more.
The moon never answered.
Which he had found rather rude on her first night at the lagoon.
But since then,
She had come to realize that There were many things on land and in the sky.
That chose to remain silent.
No matter how much one might speak to them.
And some things would only let out strange,
Nonsensical noises in response.
It was a great relief then that she could simply duck underwater whenever she felt like having a chat with her favorite starfish,
Melinda.
Who actually understood how to hold an engaging conversation.
One evening as the last rays of the sun painted the sky in a velvet hue.
The mermaid sat upon her rock.
Singing an especially mournful tune.
When a young woman appeared on the beach.
The woman sat down in the sand and simply listened,
Closing her eyes and turning her face toward the gentle ocean breeze.
She did not seem startled or surprised in the least to have stumbled upon a singing mermaid in the lagoon.
The waves continued to roll in as the sun quietly gave way to the rising moon.
And all became quiet and still.
The mermaid watched the young woman with mounting curiosity.
Reaching for the seashell around her neck.
To check for any sign of a blue glow.
But it remained its ordinary color.
Perhaps if she got closer to the human,
She thought.
Perhaps if she could just ask her about the various herbs or potions and magical objects upon land.
Maybe then she could get one step closer to the cure that she so desperately sought.
So,
When she finished her song,
And the human finally opened her eyes,
She motioned for her to come closer.
Which he did without hesitation.
The mermaid explained her dilemma to the human and proceeded to ask her every question she could think of.
Which the human,
In turn,
Answered thoughtfully and meticulously with kindness in her eyes.
All the while,
The mermaid kept checking her seashell for any magical blue glow.
But it remains stubbornly plain and ordinary.
She was beginning to wonder if it really was a magical seashell after all.
Or simply another hurdle on the seemingly impossible task that she and her sisters had been set.
But she found herself enjoying the human woman's company nonetheless.
And that was a welcome surprise.
The next evening,
The human returned to the lagoon again,
And a friendship quickly began to blossom between the two of them.
The human woman would sit on the beach as the sun set and listen to the mermaid song until the moon rose over the lagoon.
And they would then proceed to trade stories of their two very different worlds.
Learning over time.
That they perhaps were not so different after all.
They shared many similar stories of love and joy,
Of heartbreak and illness.
Of family and friendship,
And so many more things,
Big and small.
This became their very own ritual every evening,
And they both came to look forward to it in equal measure.
But one evening when the human woman walked onto the beach at sunset.
The mermaid was nowhere to be seen in the Blue Lagoon.
So she sat down in the sand and began to hum a melody of her own as she waited.
It was a melody from her childhood that always evoked fond memories of being held and feeling safe in a warm embrace.
The mermaid appeared eventually,
After being delayed underwater by a particularly long conversation with Melinda the starfish.
As soon as she broke the surface of the water.
Her ears were filled with the sweet melody of the human woman's voice.
She had never thought a human capable of such singing.
And she had certainly never heard it before.
It sounded almost like.
.
.
A mermaid.
How very strange indeed,
She thought.
But she continued listening and was almost about to close her eyes.
When she noticed the blue glow at the edge of her sight.
Looking down,
She quickly realized that it was the seashell around her neck.
It had finally recognized the cure.
In the soothing melody of the human woman song.
Later that night.
She proceeded to ask the human where she had learned this melody.
And the human explained that it was a song her mother had sung to her.
When she was very little.
Or at least so she had been told.
You see,
Her mother had left her under the most mysterious circumstances before she had turned but one year old.
And this melody was the only piece of her that remained.
It was very curious indeed.
That it should be the same melody that would potentially save the mermaid's dying reef.
But nonetheless,
She was excited for her friend to finally be able to return home.
Even though she knew that she would miss her dearly.
So,
After teaching the mermaid her beloved childhood melody,
The two friends embraced in a bittersweet farewell.
With a heavy heart,
The mermaid promised her friend that she would never forget her.
And that if she could.
She would one day return.
But soon the mermaid found herself joyful once more,
Upon reuniting with her sisters and mother in their home on the deep ocean floor.
She could hardly believe that so much time had passed,
When it felt as if it were only yesterday that they had all departed.
In search of the ever-elusive cure.
And now she finally had it.
As she sang the soft melody that the human woman had taught her,
She watched as the coral reef returned to its former splendor of rich colors and vibrant life.
All her sisters rejoiced and danced and twirled in the water.
But when her eyes fell upon her mother,
She saw there in her face a deep grief and sorrow she had never known to be there before.
Little did she know that the melody that had cured the reef was the very same one their mother had once sung to her firstborn child.
The one she had been forced to leave on land before turning back into a mermaid many years ago.
But that is a long and complicated story about an evil sea witch and handsome prince and a controlling father.
A story that the mermaid and her sisters would one day come to know.
Just as they would all come to know their very own long-lost sister.
Who would be waiting for them at the Blue Lagoon.
Singing her soothing melody whilst watching the sun set over the crystal clear waters.
You you you you Who am I really to you?
She would sit there as the moon traded places with the sun.
Letting her eyes closed.
Feeling the breeze upon her face.
She would let her shoulders soften.
The space between her eyebrows.
Relaxing her jaw.
Letting the tongue drop from the roof of her mouth.
Whilst listening to the sound of the waves.
Breathing in and out.
Alongside that calm rhythm.
Feeling at peace.
As if things were now magically falling into place.
A wave rolling gently toward the shore and slowly drifting back out to sea.
Everything as it should be.
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
For now,
She could simply sit beside the blue lagoon.
And let herself be held by the evening.
By the warm sand beneath her.
The soft breeze against her skin.
The steady rhythm of the water.
Listening to the waves as they roll toward the shore.
And drift back out again.
N.
And out.
In and out.
Breathing softly.
Melting into the sand smooth against her skin.
And somewhere beneath the moonlit water.
Coral reef glow softly in the darkness.
Restored,
Peaceful,
Alive.
The mermaids are home.
The lagoon is quiet.
And for tonight,
There is nothing left to search for.
Nothing left to do.
Only the waves.
The moonlight.
And the soft rhythm of breathing.
And a soothing melody.
Mmmmm.
Mmm.
You you Mmmmmmm resting beside the blue lagoon.
Safe beneath the silver moon.
Listening as the waves grow softer.
And softer.
Until even the story begins to drift away.
