A Merman's Tale 5

Chapter 5: New Friends, New Plans



   Steve arrived at what had become our lakeside rendezvous point Tuesday morning. He had indeed driven all but nonstop from New Jersey, pausing for little except seven hours of sleep at a North Carolina motel on his way down to Orlando. When he arrived at the checkpoint he had no problem getting in: After identifying himself and telling the guardsmen who he was there to see, they simply waved him on in. He never had to show his ID - my message must have been powerful indeed.

   Steve was very much taken aback when he first saw me, but quickly recovered and began asking me questions about my transformation, how I had come to be at the Kubla Con in the first place, and so forth. I was glad to answer him, and the others present (Janice, Debbie, Sally, and some of my new mermaid friends) had more to tell him as well.

   Eventually Steve asked me if I really could breathe underwater. For an answer I submerged, then rolled onto my back so my face was about a foot below the surface, and pointed to my rib area. When my brother noticed my gills opening and closing his eyes opened wide in disbelief. Seeing my gills got to him like nothing else had; even more than my pointed ears, tail, or the news of my green blood.

   Finally, I asked Steve if he would like us to put on a show for him; he did. With that Janice, me, Diane, Gizella, Yuki, and Ariel swam further out into deeper water and began jumping. We did spins, backflips, and every other jumping trick we could think of. Sometimes we just slapped the surface with our fins, sending up impressive splashes. Finally we treated him to a display of 'tail dancing'. Only our fins and lower tails were below the surface, it took some vigorous 'churning' of the water to keep ourselves upright.

   It was early afternoon when Steve asked if he could excuse himself so he could look for a room at one of the neighboring hotels. He did not want to stay at the Xanadu Center's hotel; some of the transformees he had already seen had left him somewhat creeped out.

   "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to" I told him. "Just tell them you want a room at another hotel and they will find a room for you. I heard they're giving priority to relatives of survivors and the missing."



   Shortly after Steve left, Janice told me she, Debbie, and Sally would be checking out that afternoon. She asked me if I wanted to stay at her apartment for a while, or if I preferred to stay at Lake Xanadu for the time being.

   "I'll stay here for now Jan" I said. "I'm afraid the pool is too small for me now, plus I have already made some good new friends here...and I don't have a chair of my own yet. I can crawl well enough, but it is still a rather slow and awkward way to get around..."

   Janice now clapped a hand to her forehead "And I forgot! The pool is scheduled to be closed this week for maintenance. I guess I'll come back here each day to swim in the meantime".



   I woke up Wednesday morning even earlier than usual, but feeling as if I were in some kind of emotional letdown. I felt no desire to swim or eat, so I just floated along with my thoughts. All of us Flying Penguins had been accounted for and family reunions were beginning, so I tried to contemplate my future, since it appeared my merman transformation was indeed permanent. No luck, my brain just was not ready for any serious thinking that morning. I didn't want to think of myself as being handicapped, but now that I had a tail instead of legs, it was clear I would never again be truly at home on land. Some of us new Mers were already thinking about the sea, but none of us as yet had any idea what living in the sea would be like...

   'Harry, it's too soon to be worrying like that. Let's just have breakfast and go for a swim'. That was Diane; I hadn't noticed her triangular fin brushing againt mine, so I hadn't really tried to keep my thoughts to myself. After breakfasting on fish, heads, tails, and all, we slowly cruised around the lake, neither seeking nor avoiding socializing with other Mers along the way; some of them felt much as I had. By the time we returned to our underwater 'campsite' Gizella and Yuki had been awake for some time and had finished their own breakfasts.

   "Where have you two been?" they asked us after we had surfaced.

   "We needed to take a quiet early swim, it was much more relaxing than trying to do any serious thinking". The others said they felt much as we did, so the four of us decided to swim around the lake again.

   We were on the return leg of our third lap when we saw a blue haired mermaid hovering underwater, face in her hands, clearly very upset. Gizella swam over and hugged her, for which she seemed thankful, but when Gizella motioned for them to surface, she gave the thumbs-down. Gizella then waved for me to join them so they could 'talk' underwater. Once introductions were made, I was strictly an enabler. The other mermaid, who said her name was Jackie (Thereafter we usually thought of her as Jackie Blue to distinguish her from at least two other mermaids also named Jackie), had had a heated exchange with her mother and father shortly before we came upon her. Ever since her parents had joined a fundamentalist church a few years before, while she was still in high school, relations within the family had been strained, especially with her father. Jackie told Gizella he was a rather humorless person who considered costuming a form of devil worship and even refused to open their home to trick-or-treaters at Halloween. During their recent exchange he had said to her "you're not our daughter, you're a crippled freak who worships the devil..."

   'This is what can happen when you take something you believe in too seriously' I thought as we swam in to shore so Jackie Blue could borrow one of our cell phones to call a friend; she was already very thankful for the moral support we had given her.



   Janice arrived back at Lake Xanadu that afternoon. We frolicked around, but we could soon tell she was having her own ups and downs; I turned out to be the chief cause of her unease. Not only had she persuaded me to join the Flying Penguins for the Kubla Con, she had first proposed (while I was making a brief visit to the men's room that Wednesday before the convention) initiating me into the group by having me swim as a merman. Now she felt personally responsible for what had happened to me.

   'Don't blame yourself' I finally told her. We had split off from the others and were 'talking' in a secluded cove. 'As soon as Marlon brought out that tail the other day, I was ready to do this, remember?'

   Janice nodded in agreement, but still had regrets about having gotten me involved, and said 'I'm sorry, If I had been able to forsee this happening, I would never have asked you to come'.

   'You don't have to apologize. I can't imagine anybody ever thought something like this would actually happen. I never did, that's for sure'. I could now think of many worse fates than needing to use a wheelchair while on land. I thought not only of my attackers but of a creepy-looking group of what I later learned were Orcs being taken into custody by a mixed squad of Vulcans and new style Klingons shortly after I had seen Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

   Hearing each other out proved to be a tonic for both of us, but what we really needed was 'swim therapy' as other Mers were already calling it. Janice and I started swimming leisurely around the lake. At the moment none of the other mermaids who had congregated around me the last few days were with us. Emily, Sara, and Dee Dee had already left Xanadu, and the others had continued on when the two of us decided to have our private talk. Nonetheless, it wasn't long before Diane, Gizella, and Yuki met up with us again.



   Steve arrived back at the lake in the late afternoon. After apologizing for his tardiness, he explained that catching up on his work via his laptop and a subsequent conference call had both taken him longer than he had anticipated. He promised to be back early the following afternoon, and asked if he could go swimming with us.

   "Be our guest" I told him. "And bring flippers with you...and a snorkel too".



   I again felt somewhat blah emotionally when I woke up Thursday morning (Where is that Vulcan stoicism when I could use some?). Even so I was soon in a mood to eat, and before long I was munching on my fish breakfast, as were Diane, Gizella, and Yuki. For four individuals with strong independent streaks (Even Yuki, by Japanese standards), we were already valuing each others' companionship. That had helped us largely avoid the emotional peaks and valleys some other Xanadu survivors were experiencing.

   We ended up talking among ourselves and with passing Mers until Janice arrived later that morning; then the five of us started swimming around the lake. It was about noon when we saw a sight that brought smiles to all our faces: Jackie Blue was sitting on a lakeside log, talking and laughing with two men. We waited a ways offshore until she noticed us and waved at us to come on in. We swam up, exchanged greetings, and learned they were a high school classmate and friend and his younger brother. Both were in the process of transferring to UCF and had just put down a deposit on an apartment in the same complex where Janice and Marlon lived. It was not long before we were confident Jackie Blue was in good hands; they in turn were appreciative that 'moral support' would be close at hand. Unfortunately the apartment would not be available until December 11th, so Jackie decided to stay in the lake for the time being.



   We split up for a while after parting company with Jackie Blue and her friends. Several of us were expecting calls or visits from family that afternoon. Sure enough, a few minutes after I reached shore my cell phone went off; it was Steve saying he would be arriving in about an hour.

   Diane met back up with Janice and I shortly afterward. She told us that Yuki's brother had just arrived from Charlotte where he was temporarily working, and that one of Gizella's brothers should be arriving any time as well. She led us across the lake toward where she had seen Yuki and her brother. We could see them at the shoreline, talking. We waited offshore at a respectful distance until Yuki saw us and waved at us to come on in. We then swam up and introduced ourselves. Yuki's brother waded out up to his waist to greet us, then embraced Janice, Diane, and myself - a lake was not the place for bowing.

   Having heard his sister's story, Takeo now heard ours. Needless to say we had much to tell and ask as well. He was surprised when I told him I had heard of their hometown of Kure, and that the Yamato had been built there. Indeed, their family had a longtime tradition of service in the Imperial Japanese Navy before switching to railways in the postwar years. Upon learning of my own interest in trains, Takeo said he would give me a dvd on the shinkansen bullet trains (He kept his promise). By now Gizella and her brother Dan, as well as Steve had joined our gathering. We swam for a while (Dan and Takeo came ready to swim also), then Janice returned home and the rest of us started up talking again until our stomachs started demanding some attention of their own. We Mers decided not to gross out our 'guests' by eating raw fish in their presence, so the walkers were dispatched up the trail for meals and beverages. When they returned we put on a show for the newcomers' entertainment. We then beached ourselves on the shore and began munching. Steve, Takeo, and Dan gathered up firewood and soon had a healthy campfire going. The atmosphere was positively relaxing, almost romantic. It felt wonderful to be able to half forget why we were all there in the first place. It was well after ten when we finally called it a night. We Mers doused the fire with several finfuls of lake, a couple of the walkers stirred the ashes to make sure no embers were still burning, then we headed for our chosen sleeping places; those of us with tails for the lake, those of us with legs for various hotel rooms.



   I woke up Friday morning feeling fully refreshed mentally. Without surfacing, I swam out toward the middle of the lake, caught a fish and was just starting to eat it when Diane swam up with a fish in her own mouth. We joined our free arms together so we could 'talk' as we ate. I asked when someone from her family was going to make it to Orlando to check on her. She shook her head, then told me 'I don't know. The day after we took that train ride Jill's husband got appendicitis, then two days after he was discharged their daughter Lexie got sick too. Same thing. Can you believe it, two appendectomies in the family in less than a week? Same surgeon too, he even asked who was going to be next!' The sisters had been keeping in touch by phone at least twice a day since Sunday.

   By then Yuki and Gizella had shown up with their own catches, so we finished our breakfast on the surface. We were about to swim around the lake when we noticed activity at the trailhead; we swam in to see what was going on. We heard that Eric Winters had arrainged with a medical supply business in Orlando to bring a truckload of wheelchairs for any interested Mers to choose from; to our surprise not all were interested. The truck was in the parking lot, we were driven up from the lake in golf carts; it was the first time I had been more than a few yards 'inland' since Sunday. The four of us went with the first group, we were all feeling a bit 'antsy', none of us are used to being cooped up in one place for very long. The trip was kind of eerie, most everything looked as it had before, but it felt so different too, I didn't know what to think. Once we got to the truck, it didn't take us long to choose our mounts: nothing fancy, just strong, light, and easy to maneuver.

   We were about to wheel back to the lake when I saw Marlon and Sally heading our way and waving for us to stop. More tears of joy were shed as we embraced one another, not the easiest feat when one is new to being in a wheelchair. More introductions followed, none of my new mer friends had met any of the Flying Penguins before. Eventually Marlon pulled some things out of one of his pockets and presented them to me, including my wallet (intact), my car keys, and my pocket digital camera with 197 Kubla Con photos (I had deleted a few others for one reason or another). I had scarcely thought of them since Saturday afternoon.

   "We're starting to clean up our area, we found these in your pants pockets, we figured you would want to have them back".

   "Thank you" I paused, then went on. "I guess I should check on my car while I'm up here". We had already noticed many of the cars in the parking lot were damaged, Gizella and Diane seconded my sentiment. As things turned out, our cars were parked close together, but the news was otherwise mixed. My car was OK, but Diane's looked like something had tried to eat it, while Gizella's had a unicorn horn thrust not only through the windshield but the driver's seat as well (Yuki had come with a friend, the friend went home after Takeo's arrival). I opened the driver's door of my car, locked my wheels, pondered briefly how to get from chair to seat without ending up on the pavement instead, then hopped over smoothly.

   "It worked!" I said with some amazement.

   "You did make it look easy" Sally said.

   "I wasn't sure what I should do". I then turned the key in the ignition, the engine started right up, then settled into a smooth idle. After shutting the engine off I said "My car should be fine to drive if I can get it fitted with hand controls. I guess the trickiest part would be learning to get the chair in and out of the back seat".

   I now called Janice, just as she was about to leave for her daily Lake Xanadu swim. After hearing what I had to say, she said she would check things out and call me back later. After I hung up, Marlon and Sally asked if I could help with clean up at our booth. I said yes, I was a member of the group now after all. After bidding a 'fond farewell for now' to Diane, Gizella, and Yuki, we headed for the building while they wheeled themselves on down to the lake.

   When we entered the building I saw that cleanup was well underway but the place still looked like well, a disaster area. As we made our way to what had been our booth, Marlon explained that he and Sally had been doing all the work themselves, the rest of us had been unable to come for various reasons.

   We had been only been at work for a short time when Marlon's cell phone went off. After listening and talking for a few minutes, he hung up, clearly excited: his daughter was in labor with his first grandchild. We offered our congratulations to all concerned, then Sally told him "If you want to go, go. We can work on this mess by ourselves while you are gone". Sally knew the hospital where the birth was planned to take place was just a few miles away. Marlon was hesitant to go however. He wasn't sure leaving a guy who couldn't walk and a woman there on our own was the wisest thing to do.

  "Don't worry so much" Sally told him. "We Vulcans are stronger than the average Human, we know a thing or two about defending ourselves".

   "And I could probably deliver a mean tail-slap if I have to" I added.

   Marlon finally consented to go after we promised we would be careful and vigilant.



   Soon after he left Sally placed her hand on my face, said 'It's time', then switched to speaking Vulcan; I then made the switch myself without missing a beat. For the next few hours we spoke nothing else unless a passing non-Vulcan had something to say to us.

   Eventually our Vulcan chatter attracted attention. Our backs were turned when a familiar voice asked if he could help. We turned and successfully hid our surprise at seeing Mr Spock. After exchanging proper Vulcan greetings and accepting his offer, we got back to work. Although we had sold much of our merchandise Friday and Saturday before the Change had occured and Marlon and Sally had already done some clean up, there was still much to do. After Sally showed Spock where our rental truck was located, she and I concentrated on cleaning up our area, while he shuttled what we had salvaged out to the truck. By late afternoon we were finally done. Only then did Spock let his scientific curiousity about me come to the fore. I gave him permission to scan me, and when he was  done, Spock was clearly impressed.

   "Fascinating...very fascinating...", he was as amazed by my physiology as Serak, Bones, and T'Kring had been.  He then told me there were at least three other Vulcan-Humans with the same internal arrangement of organs that I had, except they were bipeds and not Mers.

   Shortly after we parted with a proper Vulcan blessing 'Dif-tor heh smusma' Sally's communicator queeped. When she answered we learned Marlon was the proud grandfather of of a brand new baby girl. More congratulations were passed before Sally told him our clean up was now completed.

   Marlon sounded astonished "You did all that by yourselves?"

   "Oh we had some help. We have the photos to prove it too!"

  "Really?"

  "Yes, really. Mr Spock helped us."

  It was true. While the three of us were busy cleaning up what had been the Flying Penguins booth, someone snapped some photos of us at work, then later returned and left a packet of photos for each of us. We never saw or learned who it was.



   By the time we had had supper and parted (Sally in the truck, me in my new set of wheels) dusk was falling, but I had no difficulty navigating my way back to the lake. By the time I got to the shore my consorts were waiting with loaded fins, I was soaked even before I found a place to park. I locked, leaned, and catapulted myself in. A series of chases ensued. First the others led me toward the center of the lake, then abruptly reversed. I dove deeper to avoid the tackle and kept going, forcing the others to chase after me. I finally did a one-eighty and let Diane, Gizella and Yuki 'capture' me. By then we were all rather winded, so we hovered there, gills flaring, until we regained  our breaths and headed back at a more leisurely pace. We spoke for a little while with the brothers who were present, then we all called it an evening.



   Saturday was both a milestone and a turning point for us. A week after our unexpected transformations, we began plotting our 'escape' from Xanadu and wondering where we might go. For four people with such diverse backgrounds who had never met until recently we had already become close friends. Even without the events of the past week we were amazed at how much we already did have in common and the interests we shared, not least of which was a strong spirit of adventure that was to buoy us well in the future. All of us loved to travel and had done so extensively. We were also possessed of great curiousity and an interest in things that were less-than-commonplace. None of us were 'attached' or had homes that could really be adapted to wheelchairs (None had water access either!), so our decision to make our next home together was that much easier. Much to our relief and somewhat to our surprise, all our families pledged their full support when we told them of our wishes. Knowing we had this kind of support made the task of ajusting to our new lives a much lighter burden to bear.

   It was Dan who offered a solution to our where-do-we-mers-live-now question. He and his wife owned waterfront property near Beaufort, North Carolina and had just built a new home, so their old house was now vacant and available. It had all the key things we Mers needed: single level, open enough for several chairs to easily maneuver around in, within yards of an estuary, and far enough off the beaten path we could maintain our privacy there.

   Indeed, moving to the area made sense for all of us. Steve and his family occasionally vacationed on the Outer Banks, Charlotte was about a five hour drive away for Takeo, and Diane and Jill lived near the Great Smokies National Park in the western part of the state. Gizella was from Colorado where she and her brothers had grown up, but she was familiar with the area as well: her brothers had fallen in love with the North Carolina coast, and a couple local girls, when they had been stationed in the area during their stints in the Coast Guard.

   All this was a major boost to our spirits. For the first time we felt some excitement about where our future lives might take us.



   With help from Eric Winters' office, Janice was soon able to obtain the equipment needed to fit my car with hand controls; she then spent part of Sunday helping me install the gear. I then spent time practicing in a section of the parking lot that had been set aside for that purpose. Not only did I have to get used to doing everything with my hands, it took some time before I stopped reaching for the pedals with my fin!

   After Janice and I were satisfied with my driving, we put Diane, Gizella, and Yuki through their paces as well. All impressed the rest of us with how quickly they mastered the new (for us four) driving skill. Not only did it mean we would be able to share driving responsibilities on our way up to North Carolina, it assured us more mobility freedom on land as well.

   Just before we headed back to the lake, Gizella and Dan took a call from their brother Brian: he would be arriving in town Tuesday afternoon so he could share driving duties on the northbound trip with Dan (His car was not modified). Janice invited us Mers to spend that night at her apartment, while Brian would sack out in Dan's hotel room. Yuki and I told our brothers they could head back home now, and invited them to come visit us when we got settled into our new home.



   Monday was intended to be a somewhat quiet day. My mermaid consorts had already stashed most of their stuff in my car or Dan's, the rest we kept in tote bags we now slung from our chairs. Debbie came down from St Augustine to spend the day with us; few other changable Mers spent much time at the lake at all. As we swam around the lake we got a good look at her latest tail: it was silver with a few splotches of purple. The tailfin was swallow-tail shaped and orange in color.

   "I'm never the same twice" she told us. "I also seem to be different in salt water from how I am in fresh water. Both times I've been in the ocean so far I had a vertical tailfin and a side to side swimstroke. I have never had it here". Lake Xanadu was fresh water.

   We told Debbie about our pending move to North Carolina, she was excited for us and wished us well. She also told us about her own plans. For the first time since graduating high school two and a half years before she would be able to go to college.

   "I just got a full scholarship from UCF, I'm enrolling for spring semester. I am majoring in marine science". Not only was the school not put off by her change, two of the professors she would be studying under had already told her her change would actually be a major asset for her.

   "That is wonderful news!" I said. While we were setting up Thursday afternoon, Janice had told me Debbie had previously been unable to go to college for financial reasons.

   "Don't you think your classmates might get jealous because you can do things they can't?" Gizella wondered.

   "Maybe, I don't know. I hadn't thought about that yet. I won't need scuba gear or even a wetsuit, but I will need a hairdryer. Otherwise it takes an hour for me to dry off enough to get my legs back, and it's a lot harder for me to crawl with a vertical tailfin than a horizontal one like yours".

   "Any idea why you are a changable and we're not?" Diane asked.

   "I have no idea. Even Doctor McCoy has not been able to figure that out yet, and he has scanned me both when I had legs and when I've had a tail".

   Debbie also talked about how the 'clothing curse' affected her.

   "I can't wear anything but skirts" she said with a mixture of bemusement and mild consternation. "At least I'm not limited to long skirts like I thought I was at first, and the style of the pants and shorts I try to wear seem to determine what kind of skirt I wind up wearing".

   "Doesn't that bother you?" Yuki now asked.

   Debbie shrugged, then said "I'm starting to get used to it, I guess it could have been worse. A couple days ago I met a woman who was wearing an Alice in Wonderland costume when the Change happened. Now anything she tries to put on turns into that dress..."



   When we finally arrived back at the landing where we had parked our chairs, we heard news that nearly set my blood boiling: several mermaids had been abducted a few days earlier by kidnappers who had intended to sell them overseas as trophies. We were especially shocked to learn the first abduction was on the trail leading from the lake; we couldn't figure out how we never heard anything. All the victims had soon escaped and were now safe, but their experience reinforced our decision to leave Xanadu and stick together for mutual support when dealing with the greater world at large. We also vowed to keep in touch with other Mers as well - we already appreciated the value of 'moral support', as did the others.