Spoiler! :
From out of their grottoes at evenings beam,
The mermaids swim with locks agleam
Walter de la Mare
I peered out over the side of the ship, my fiery red locks waving in the wind. The familiar smell of salt water hit my nostrils, greeting me like an old friend. I closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. The sea was my love. It had always been. It always would be. After setting sail from Barbados on one of my father's insane hunts for treasure and feeling the salty wind in my hair, I felt like I never wanted to set foot on land again.
My father was shouting orders to the other crew members on deck that the knots were tied poorly or the deck wasn't spotless enough. “Scrub faster!” he hollered. “Riches don' just appear outta thin air. You have to work for 'em.” As he paced around, the heels of his boots clanking loudly, his beady black eyes scoured the ship for any flaws that they could find. I rolled my eyes. I'd never understand what my mother had seen in him before she died. The only reason I tolerated him was that he held the power of the ship. He was my way onto the ocean.
When my father caught sight of me at the stern, he smiled fondly at me and strode in my direction. “If it isn't my beautiful Gracie,” he said with a booming voice. He put his rough, hardened hand on my shoulder. Forcing a smile, I turned to look at my father. He was tall and had a gut from eating the best food he could get his hands on. His salt and pepper beard and hair hung in scraggy strands on his head and face and the top part of his head was covered by a large black hat. The shape of his nose had been forever altered by a fight he'd gotten into two years earlier and it was squashed up against his face. “You look just like yer mother.”
My mother, a fair skinned Irish woman who had been named Ciara, died when I was just sixteen from a sickness. Mother had gone blind and was in pain for her final days. I had never been more devastated in my life.
“Thank you, Captain,” I said, nodding my head slightly. Refusing to call him 'Father' on board drove him mad. Every time I did, he would begin to yell, but I couldn't help myself. I had grown used to the habit and I didn't want the rest of the crew thinking that I somehow loved my father. He was a drunken monster and I was almost positive that he was the cause of my mother's illness.
His face became red with rage. “How man' times must I tell ya, Gracie? Call me 'father!'”
I bent my head and bit my tongue, trying to contain the words that wanted to come out of my mouth. “I'm sorry,” I mumbled, purposely not saying a title at the end. His face deflated from looking like it might burst and he let out a sharp bark of a laugh.
“Eh,” he started. “Be on the main deck in twenty minutes. I'll be discussin' the journey.” He planted a kiss on my head and I did my best not to shake him off.
***
“Listen, ya worthless sons o' pigs!” the captain bellowed. The main deck fell silent and the crew looked up at him with fearful expressions on their faces. One false move or action would land them overboard. I stood stiffly next to my father as he addressed my fellow shipmates. “There's treasure to be foun' where we're goin'!” Cheers filled the ship and I smiled, raising my voice too to join in the joy. “Riches beyon' yer small imaginations thinkin' levels.” Still the crew and I continued cheering despite his insults. “Gold, jewels!” His voice grew more serious. “Howeve', the journey there will be treacherous. We'll be enterin' magical territory, where only the things yer dream o' exist. I'm speakin' o' mermaids and curses.”
The whoops and hollers quieted as we all listened. No pirate who had ever seen a mermaid had lived to tell about it. It had always been my dream to see one. They were said to possess magic that was more powerful than anyone could imagine. The mermaids were immortal, beautiful creatures. My mother had told me the legends that existed and as a girl I would lay in my bed and dream of the mermaids' songs and their tails and their magic.
“We all know 'bout the mermaids,” he continued with a slow smile. Sailors nodded from the deck. “Beautiful, magical, temptresses of the waves. They sing to sailors, they lure us in, an' they kill us. But, yer all under my comman',” he added pompously. “And when we en'er those mermaid waters, we ar' going to kill them. No mercy will be given to any siren we meet 'cause they will show ye no mercy back.” The ship hollered even more and my father used his hand to quiet them. “We reach the mermaids in two days. After that, we get our treasure!” The whoops were so deafening and my father grinned toothily at them.
That evening as me and some of the crew were sitting down to eat a light supper, the talk of the legends began. I tipped my jug of water to my lips and listened.
“There's a Scottish legend that tells the story of a man that was walkin' along,” the man on my right said. “An' outta nowhere, the mermaid just up and grabs him. Takes 'im prisoner. Says she's gonna keep him there til he dies. But the man, he had this big black beast of a dog and 'is wife sends the dog out to look for him. Well, when he finds 'is master, the mermaid tries to keep 'er prisoner wit 'er, an' the dog has to kill 'er! But the mermaid had done so much damage to the dog, that 'e died. Poor chap 'ad to walk 'ome alone and mourn for 'is dog.”
Another one scoffed at the tale. “The real tale is that of the mermaid wife. She's a deceivin' creature. She was cast out of the sea and then made a man fall in love with 'er. He loved is wife, but she felt no need to return it. They had several children and then, one day, one o' the kids found somethin'. He shows it to 'is mother and she leaves! Transforms right there, into a seal! She leaves 'er husband and children an' makes off for the sea.” He shook his head again. “That be all the merfolk care for- the water.”
As the men continued with their legends, I sipped her water. Yes, she had heard the stories that they were talking about. But I had also heard the ones about the mermaids who helped people, who gave their knowledge of magic to help heal people in need. “And what of the legend of the kind mermaid?” I asked, glancing over at them with a smile. “The legends of the mermaids who help us humans?” I stood up and paced around the cabin area. “There are also legends that say that mermaids help us with their magic. That they are healers.
“But I guess it's up to us to decide which ones are the real legends.”
One of the men raised his eyebrows at me. “Are you sayin' that we shouldn't kill 'em?”
“I'm saying that we should think about it,” I mused, twirling a piece of hair on my finger.
“Yer sayin' that we should defy your father's orders, that's what yer sayin',” one of them laughed. “I'm all fer that, Gracie. Or at least I'd be all fer it if yer father wasn't captain.” They all laughed at that, including me. “He'd throw us all over board an' leave us.”
I knew that what they were saying was right. My father believed so much in the finding of treasure to be the best thing for him. Even I could not change his mind. But I could not bear the thought of killing creatures that were more beautiful than any amount of treasure. They were graceful creatures and they were part of the world we lived in. I couldn't bear the thought of killing something that was so pure and that had never harmed anyone other than in legends. And legends were something that I tried very hard to ignore.
"We shall see," I murmured softly so that few could hear me.
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