(Mermaid)
“Every footstep felt as if she were walking on the blades and points of sharp knives, just as the witch had foretold, but she gladly endured it.”
~~Hans Christian Andersen, ‘The Little Mermaid’
A warm and thick fluid affection poured down her cheeks welling up from somewhere deep inside the soft dark cavities, veins and fine arterial vessels. Licking behind her eyelids, almost like love. A shimmering orange and green and peacock blue light, an iridescent and throbbing pinpoint of light from behind the globular eyeball , enlarging slowly in the soft cobwebby darkness. Downy and enveloping, moving and changing colors – in a multitudinous layered green wave after wave, surging up , and sinking again. (Mermaid)
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And then, there it was : a searing pain on the soles of her feet wracked her whole slender frame, tore her nerves apart, and left her whimpering in pain.
“Feet?“
“But I don’t want feet!!” her scream echoed silently in her head. “Where’s my lovely tail covered in shiny scales and silvery fins?!”
“Legs and feet belong to those strange creatures I see leaning over the rails of those huge, ugly wooden bowls floating in the waves that sometimes come sailing up to my gleaming pearly windows, bobbing up and down.
AND I DON’T WANT FEET! NO. NO!!!”
“But it’s too late now, my dear!” a tinkling laughter caressed her face and floated up close to her ears, as a swirl of green-gold hair lashed her eyes. The owner of the voice seemed to read her thoughts, because she had not uttered a single syllable. (Mermaid)
It was the voice of the Witch of the Emerald Cave, which was hidden deep beneath the deadly coral grove guarded by a thick forest of enchanted Neptune grass at the farthest edge of the Ocean King’s empire. No sea creature dared step foot inside the cave unless they were ready to pay whatever price she demanded to grant their wish.
“Feet you wished for, my darling, and feet you shall have. Yes!”
“NO!! I won’t,” she screamed again silently. (Mermaid)
“So, it is a dream. No, this isn’t real. She had imagined this often, but it is not true; he cannot speak to her, and she cannot possibly understand. His tongue is human.”
“Yes, you will! Don’t you see what wonderful things they are, my dearest ? Now you can run to your heart’s desire ,fly into the arms of that handsome land creature,” softly the voice went on. “And you can dance with him , your twinkling little toes and pink ankles glimmering and tripping; the polished marbles of the dance floor kissing your soles !
The chandeliers overhead are lighting up the vast hall like a thousand glorious suns! Just imagine! You are dancing , whirling round and round , to dizzying heights! No looking back, no looking down.”
“But now you must rest. Sleep now my dearest!” and the lilting voice floated away in the waves. “you’re sinking slowly softly into a deep and dark and restful slumber.” (Mermaid)
And now she is speeding away down dark winding lanes, swimming through swirling misty greys, away to faery oceanic glades, perhaps . No light except the oblique purple, and pink and green rays of the rising sun just beneath the horizon splintering into a million slivers, filtering in through the deep turquoise waters, between the leaves of the sea anemones and weeds floating and waving on the shadowy blue and yellow rocks and sands of the ocean bed.
All over her head, and eyes and ears the light wove dark melodies to charm away all black fears , until at last the fast-fading dawn crept about the lattices and mazes of soft, yellow cortical matter with its pale pointed fingers dipped in the dewy blood-red drops of the morning sun. (Mermaid)
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A sudden deafening roar crashing and thundering around her head , sent her flying through the air higher than the falcon and down the next instant, landing her on the rocks. A blinding pain shattered her spine and gurgled up her silent throat in a vice-like grip.
“Do I wake or sleep?” she wondered. (Mermaid)
“Open your eyes, my love!“ Is it a whisper in her brain? Is that the face, the face she has dreamt of ever since she saw him on his ship? The raging tempest, the head she had held above the water to keep him from sinking. Oh! the excruciating pain, when he had opened his eyes amongst his own people and smiled at them and never knew her who had saved him! She had sung to him, but he had only stared back at her, not following a single word. She closed her eyes tight to shut off that pain.
“Open your eyes my love and look at me. Speak to me, I am with you,” he whispered again. (Mermaid)
So, it is a dream. No, this isn’t real. She had imagined this often, but it is not true; he cannot speak to her, and she cannot possibly understand. His tongue is human.
“Oh! my love”, she moaned aloud but her lips could form no word. Instead, a horrible cackling screech escaped her throat, like that of a sea bird caught in a trap, for her tongue she had paid as the price for her feet, to the Witch of the Emerald Cave. The crippling pain stabbed up her feet and legs again and crushed her spine. (Mermaid)
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Thin coral-pink eyelids parted softly, the blue veins stood out as her fluttering lashes lifted up to his face. Trembling all over, her blue-green eyes scanned his familiar face, travelled down to his shoulders, his strong arms, and marble chest and then below his waist … “What are those?” her mind filled with terror. “Are they scales? Fins… a tail? Is he…?”
“But Your Royal Highness, such creatures as mermaids and sirens do not exist, they are stories made up to scare sailors. It was just a dream!” exclaimed the Lord Chamberlain of the Palace.
(“Yes, I know , it was a dream, yes , of course! And yet how I wish it were true!” he sighed to himself. A strange despair, an abysmal sense of loss gripped his heart. “Maybe in another life!”)
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Prateeti is an English Lierature major from Presidency University Kolkata who took up the technology challenge without an Engineering degree in 1993 and embarked on a full-fledged technical career, becoming a RDBMS expert. She worked as the CoE Manager for Sybase products, platforms and technologies at SAP Labs India Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore. She is a great admirer of Augusta Ada King and Marie Curie.
She is also the author of ‘Green Rose Wild Earth’ a collection of poems published by StoryMirror Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
