Panic swelled in Jon's chest and her mind, and she froze in place, only holding steady in the water with her silvery fish tail. The crowd kept waving at her, happy and excited at that such a pretty creature graced them with her presence.
The woman who led the group, though, realized that Jon wasn't feeling well. "Aww, Princess is just a bit shy right now. That's ok, she's still very new to her enclosure and is still adapting to life in the park. As I mentioned before, Princess was found washed up on the beach after a storm. She had some scrapes and bruises, and was in a panic. Once we got her calmed down and checked out, it was determined she would be safest here with us. Since then, we have learned a great deal about mermaids. But there is a great deal we don't know.
Jon listened, now enthralled by the woman explaining her new history. She, of course, had no recollection of these events. But the stone had apparently made this the truth the world knew. There was no more Jon Maddison; only Princess the Mermaid, an aquarium curiosity.
"Now, would anyone care to guess: are mermaids fish or mammals?"
A girl in her early teens in a sparkly mermaid shirt put up her hand quickly, "They're mammals, right?"
"Actually, we think that mermaids have more in common with fish than with mammals. Her breasts, though we haven't determined their purpose, aren't actually mammaries, and her hair is actually quite different than mammal hair. While we're unsure of mermaids reproductive habits, as we haven't found a merman to breed her with, we believe she will lay soft shelled eggs like fish. And, we do know that she's cold blooded."
"So she's just a stupid fish?" A burly boy asked, as a dozen female eyes turned on him for insulting Princess.
"She's actually quite intelligent for a fish. Nowhere near human intelligence, of course, but about on par with dolphins or other apes."
That cause Jon's eyebrows to shoot up. Was that true? No way, she thought to herself, that's not true. She's just exaggerating.
"For instance, we've determined Princess can do simple math. Watch." The woman reached around and pulled out a stack of large cardboard sheets. She held two of these up, each with sparkly dots on each card. Princess' eyes suddenly focused in on the light bouncing and dancing off the dots, like she was attracted to the sparkling.
"Princess," the woman said, in a slow and firm voice, "Can you show us what three plus four equal?"
Princess was panicked now. very inch of her body, from her forehead to the tip of her tail tingled and wanted nothing more than to flee. But she forced herself to stay here. She had to answer this question, if only to prove to herself that she wasn't just a dumb fish. Her eyes darted over the dots over and over, trying to count them up.
"Princess, what do three and four equal?" The woman said again.
The mermaid held up her fingers, and she showed the crowd. . .
