The despondent mermaid stayed in her shelter for the rest of the evening, venturing out only to gather another random stone before retreating for another twenty minutes or so. Thankfully, the day had pretty much come to an end. In a couple of hours, the aquarium had ushered its last visitors out and closed its doors. Sometime after that, the lights dimmed and a few personnel set about cleaning up.
Suddenly, Princess detected something in the water around her. A scent or flavor. Perhaps both. She concentrated on the sensation and soon realized what it meant. Food! Her stomach clenched at the thought. How long had it been since she ate?
Guided by the "smell," she made her way upward. Overhead, bits of sardine and squid dropped into the water in scattered showers, mere crumbs barely worth her notice. Those tidbits were rapidly snapped up by the growing cloud of fish swarming around the mermaid, brushing up against her sides and arms in their frenzy. Princess ignored them all. The real prize dangled a few inches over the surface. A good-sized mackerel waved about, tempting her forward with more urgency every second.
Finally, her hand broke the surface to grab the fish. To her surprise, the fish was pulled out of reach, though still kept within her sight. Instinctively, Princess flicked her wide caudal fin to give herself an additional burst of speed. With a great splash, her entire upper body shot into the air, and her long fingers snagged her prize. She had the morsel in her teeth before she even landed back down with another splash.
"Whoa! Watch it, you stupid fish!"
The voice, as well as those two hated words, snapped Princess out of her bliss. Looking over, she nearly dropped her meal. There on a platform overlooking the giant tank knelt the burly kid, half drenched with sea water. In his hand, he carried a bucket of mackerel. Slowly, he got up and surveyed his dripping clothing. "Ugh, you got me good."
Then, he shrugged and straightened his t-shirt. Kneeling back down, he brought another mackerel from his bucket and held it out to Princess. "Here ya' go."
Princess eyed the offered fish. Her gaze then moved to the one clenched in her mouth. In another moment, her brain made the connection. Deliberately, she let the fish fall and sink out of sight. Glaring at the boy, she drifted backwards away from him.
The boy looked a bit annoyed. "C'mon, fish girl, you wanna eat or not? Mom's punishing me for ruining her presentation earlier. I get no allowance for a week, and I gotta give you your dinner for a month. Just my luck you happen to have your own feeding schedule. Don't know what the big deal was. She was just showing off for a bunch of parents and their kids. Not like I interrupted a huge meeting with her scientist friends." He shook the fish impatiently, trying to coax the mermaid to take it. "Hurry up, girl. Eat so I can get out of here. It's cold."
Pointedly disregarding his request, Princess scanned the room. It looked like a rather complex facility. Concrete walls and ceiling, a maze of pipes crisscrossing everywhere, and a series of platforms, catwalks, and observational decks filled the area. Off to the side, a giant metal roller bobbed up and down, creating waves and a gentle sideways movement in the water to simulate the normal ebbs and flows of the tide.
The sound of a door opening made both boy and mermaid look up. It was the boy's sister approaching. "Mom says to finish up. We have to go home to get our own dinner."
"I know, I know." The boy growled, pointing an accusatory mackerel at the mermaid. "But this dumb fish isn't eating."
In reaction to being insulted yet again, Princess shot forward. Wrenching the fish from his grasp, she hurled it with deadly accuracy at his face. With a smack, it bounced off his forehead, leaving a smear of fish slime on his skin.
"Hey!" He yelped as he staggered backwards, wiping his face with his shirt.
His sister doubled over with laughter. "Serves you right, Brad. She's not a dumb fish."
"Then, why doesn't she eat? She almost did before, but she took one look at me and stopped."
The girl considered this. "Here, let me try." She picked up the rejected fish from the floor and held it out. Immediately, Princess swam up and accepted it. For a while, brother and sister watched her tear away at the cold, pale flesh as she retreated back a short distance. "Yep, thought so," the sister nodded. "It's you. She just doesn't like you."
"Why not?"
"You did say some mean things about her."
"But mom said she doesn't understand human speech. Are you saying the scientists got it wrong?"
The girl lifted her hands helplessly. "How should I know? She did seem upset when you called her stupid."
Brad glanced back at the mermaid now licking her fingers clean. "Hm."
"Why'd you do it anyway? I thought you liked her. When you found out mom was gonna be on the research team, you couldn't wait to tell everyone at school."
"Yeah, well, that's before Derrick Milton and the others called me 'Bradley Bubbles, the mermaid boy' and dunked my head in the school fountain."
His sister's eyes widened. "Oh, that was you?"
Brad nodded. "But you'd better not tell anybody, 'specially mom. I don't want her to worry."
That got a sideways look from his sibling. "Way to go with that, big bro."
"Shut up, squirt. Just go tell mom I'll be done in a minute, okay? Go on." Brad gave Mel a half-gentle shove towards the door. In response, she stuck her tongue out at him and turned away before he could retaliate. She did pause, though, when her brother called out, "Hey, Mel. Make sure you wash your hands before talking to mom. Don't want her lecturing you about fish germs."
"I will." Then, she was gone.
Once she left, Brad sighed to himself. Slowly, he sat down on the floor with the bucket beside him. Taking out another mackerel, he turned it over in his hand. "Look, if you can understand me, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you stupid. That was pretty mean of me, and I shouldn't have done it. Could we start over?" He presented the fish. "How 'bout it, girl uh, Princess. Peace?"
Princess's glare softened somewhat, but she kept her distance. The boy, however, stayed still and kept his gaze averted to seem more non-threatening. He tried not to shiver from his wet clothes, but the quiver of his hand indicated he was less than successful. After another minute, the mermaid inched forward.
Rather than taking the offering, she moved into his view until she had his full attention. Holding his gaze, she lifted her hands out of the water. She had seven fingers up. Apparently, she had figured out the right answer after all.
"Right," Brad said with a chuckle. "You got it. And you're not stupid. Are are we okay now?"
Princess narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. Then, she gave a small, curt nod. Before the stunned Brad could react to the fact that she had both comprehended and answered his question, she deftly slipped the mackerel from his hand and snatched the entire bucket. With a final triumphant splash, she disappeared below the surface.
"Ah, hey! Wait!" Brad called, but he knew she would not return. "At least, bring back the bucket," he added lamely. "Crud."
Princess carried her prize back to her shelter, grinning the whole way. She did it! She was more than some stupid fish, after all. Reentering the alcove, she flattened out the small mound of stones she had accumulated and created a nice place to put the bucket. Once she had feasted in celebration, she threw the few fish she could not finish out for the scavengers. Then, she stretched languidly on the sea floor to sleep.
As she lay there on the soft sands, she stared at her rocky collection. Despite having taken back her pride as a mermaid, she knew that there was something wrong with her situation. The stones - that is, one specific stone - held the secret. But how? That question swirled around in her mind as she drifted off into unconsciousness.
