#frostyspace

-

When you see the new advertisement in the paper about the mermaid, you are far from impressed – so far from impressed, in fact, you flick past the page with hardly a bat of your eye.

But when various sources from around your neighborhood, from gossip you overhear at school to exclamations of old woman at the local coffee shop, you soon realize that the ad had not been lying. That indeed, there was a true, living mermaid swimming within the aquarium’s doors, not some woman dressing up as one and being paid handsomely for doing so.

You are curious, no, you are intrigued by this turn of events. So on a Friday after school, once you’d reassured your drunk mother that you weren’t going to be kidnapped, raped, or wasting time, you sling your white and fuchsia messenger bag over one shoulder and depart to visit the fabled myth no longer.

The doors are not as packed as you expected, most likely due to the fact you had read the ad over two weeks ago and people are no longer as interested. Indeed, after purchasing a ticket to the ‘special exhibit’ for an additional two dollars, you realize the place of clear walls and languid swimming is almost completely empty. And when you arrive at the actual exhibit, you are the only one there.

You draw close to the glass walls, watching without watching for a glimpse of the mermaid everyone so spoke of. You have no idea what she looks like, nor of where she is hiding; you aren’t worried, however, as biding your time has never been an issue for you. Instead, you sit back on a viewing bench, slip a thin novel out of your bag, and find your page before reading.

You are not sure how much time passes, as you read in the quietly humming room with huge amounts of water surrounding you. You do not, in all honesty, care. You keep track of the words you read with a slim index finger, smiling to yourself as the events you predicted far earlier come to fruition, and it’s only when a new sound occurs, tapping on a glass, that you look up.

Facing you is a girl. She is in the tank.

You panic for a few brief moments, shoving the novel unceremoniously into your bag and darting forward in fear. Then you see the brilliant green scales of a fishtail, and as she pulls back with an impish smile you see that you are looking at exactly what you’d come to see. You feel yourself burn with embarrassment, but only for moment before wonder makes your jaw slacken and your eyes widen.

“What a beautiful tail,” you murmur, observing the girl. Her eyes are a brilliant, bright green, so light in color it seems inhuman, which makes sense seeing as she isn’t; her hair is long and black and curly, flowing every which way in the water’s currents. The tail in question is largely jade in color but sparkles in the light in the water, shining with a rainbow of greens and traces of blues.

“Are you really a mermaid?” you ask in wonderment, and the girl laughs as she flicks the end of her tail and flips almost lazily in the water. Air bubbles escape her mouth, and while you burn to know how she breaths when you can see no gills, she looks at you with those bright, bright eyes and nods in answer to your query.

You realize belatedly it is fairly obvious you would not get a verbal response. Some part of you had been expecting nothing, given the thickness of the glass; but then, humans knew nothing about mermaids, and it wasn’t a stretch to think they had better hearing. “Fascinating,” you say to her, and her smile’s radiance fades a few notches when you continue, “And depressing.” Her face asks the question to know why, so you say, “What is a creature like you doing in a tank?”

She shrugs and this time looks away, her dance-like movements in the water slowing to what would be plodding steps were she human. You say half to yourself, half to her, “Trapped within a small glass castle, with an entire reliance on your captors for survival. That is no way for anyone to live.”

She says and does little, and you know you’ve hit the mark. You sigh and step back to the viewing bench, sitting down so you can look at her. Her breasts have been bound by what looks to be plastic seashells and thin, clear elastic, but you can tell by the way she carefully avoids touching it that the last time she took it off, consequences followed.

“This is awful,” you tell her, and she looks over at you with that brilliant green stare, questioning. Unsure. “Whoever put you in here was twisted of heart and warped of mind.”

For a while she’s not sure how to react. You can tell by how she hesitates in her slow moments, instead floating still in the water she swam in. But then she gives you a slight nod, a deep sadness shining in her eyes even as she forces a smile on her face, and something in you breaks. You can’t allow this. You can’t. It’s not fair to her, and it’s not just, and it’s just not okay. It’s not okay at all.

You know the feeling of being trapped, and you never want to experience it again.

“I am going to get you out,” you tell her, and at her incredulous glance you say more forcefully, more urgently, “I will. I don’t know how, and I don’t know when. But I will do it. I will.”

She mouths something to you, and while you’ve never been too good at reading lips, you focus as she repeats it multiple times. It’s impossible, and you clench your fists, perfectly manicured nails digging into your palm, and tell her, “No. It’s not. I’m going to do it.

I promise.”

-

You enlist the help of your twin brother and your father. They live halfway across the country, but you figure, since you’ve convinced your mother onto your side, it couldn’t be too difficult. And it is, you can always set Roxy Lalonde on them.

TG: i dunno rose this seems all kinds of sketchy TG: like a kindergartner crayon doodle with the mermaid bullshit TG: gotta get the pretty white lady on top with the green fish tail on the bottom and bam shes bee you tee ful TG: everyone wants to be her because omg she can swim and breath underwater and seduce a prince TG: its like look mommy its ariel with her red hair and green tail and purple shells covering her boobs TG: like seriously how is disney still rated g that shit is practically porn for toddlers TG: but theyre too young for that arent they TG: oh hell do you think there are creepy dudes who masturbate to that wait no what am i saying of course there is TG: rose are you listening to this i have just had an epiphany i wish id never had TG: men jerking off to animated disney movies rose that is hella messed up like holy shit TT: Dave. TG: im just saying TT: Dave. Stop. TG: okay okay cool your jets TG: but for real rose TG: like this is really an actual mermaid TT: Yes. TG: are you sure TT: I have never been surer in my life. TG: if you say so sis i mean youve been pretty sure about a lot of things and ended up being wrong TT: Dave, please. There is not time for this foolishness. TT: On any other occasion I would banter along with you, but for this task it is imperative that you remain focused. TG: aight i get it chill TG: ill talk to bro but uh TG: no promises k TT: You are an angel, Dave. TG: youre telling me TG: im gonna get my ass kicked into the concrete of the roof you better appreciate this

Later, you learn that Dirk had originally strifed the hell out of Dave only to be justly scolded and scorned by Roxy. In the end, the Striders have two tickets to the East Coast with an arrival time of tomorrow at noon.

TG: and rose TT: Yes? TG: dont tell bro i said this TG: but its gonna be really nice to see you again

Dave might be an odd brother to have, but you wouldn’t trade him for the world.

TT: Likewise. TT: See you soon. <3 TG: ugh fine lets be sappy TG: <3

-

You’ve been visiting the aquarium every day after school. You’ve been coming so often, in fact, the ticket seller slips you a premium pass with no extra charge. “You’re the only regular customer we have,” the woman whispers to you as she does so, and you remember that even though the aquarium is your enemy, not all of its ranks are against you.

The mermaid tells you her name the third day, when you talk to her about nothing at all but also about everything. Jade, she mouths, and then she giggles when you tell it back to her and nods happily when you say it again. You tell her your name is Rose, and she trips over the word, having never seen a rose and, therefore, having never known what it was. If she were human, you think to yourself as you laugh with her as she tries to say your name, you would probably have been friends with her.

When you bring Dave on the fifth, after warning her on the fourth, she is immediately fascinated by him, pressing her nose against the glass and gesturing at the lenses covering his eyes. He, meanwhile, is intimidated but hides it expertly behind unruffled feathers.

“’Sup,” he tells her. “I’m Dave.” She says his name and giggles.

The longer Dave stays with her, the more you see he doesn’t want her stuck in there, either. In fact, when you leave the building, he turns towards you and whispers, “That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen, and I’ve seen some pretty demented stuff.”

“That’s why we have to help her,” you say, and Dave nods in agreement.

-

Dirk and Roxy, with their superpower genius brains, have come up with a plan. It involves the indoor pool in your house, gallons of salt water from the ocean, some super sneaky ninja stealth, and a bathtub on wheels.

Fortunately, with your mother’s reputation as an eccentric, rich and intelligent scientist, carting salt water from the ocean a few miles away isn’t seen as much more than a strange experiment in the making. Even Dirk is impressed with the lack of questioning and press, and you know from experience he is a tough man to please.

Meanwhile, Dave is teaching you how to strife more effectively, which is usually the case on the few times he gets to visit. It’s a little improvisational, given he is bladekind and you are needlekind, but the two of you figure out tactics that both complement each other’s skills, should you fight together, and how to use your weapons individually in the most efficient manner possible. It’s all in good fun, and when you come down snickering and sniping at each other, you swear you see Dirk and Roxy smile.

The day draws near and you continue to visit Jade, sometimes with Dave, sometimes not, sometimes with one of your parents, sometimes not. It’s relaxing, to just sit there and read while she swims around and hums a song you can’t hear; other times, you talk to her about your life and what you do, and you’ve become better at reading lips as she tells you about hers.

“Mermaids have communities, sort of,” you tell your parents and brother later, when you are all eating dinner at the same time in the most unironic way possible. “Like cities, but smaller. Villages, if you will. And oftentimes, the mermaids are not related by blood but have close ties nonetheless.”

“Did you figure out where Jade’s from?” Dave asks you, and you hesitate, because she’d described an area and not quite a place.

“From what she has told me, I believe her community is a few miles from the shoreline somewhere in Maine,” you say slowly. “At least, that’s where they should be at the moment, if they haven’t moved on already, which is possible but not probable.”

“So we have a deadline,” Roxy says, her words only slightly slurred, and at your nod she pushes her plate away, only half-finished, and gets to her feet. “Well, then, let’s get down to business.”

Both Bro and Dave echo with ‘to defeat the Huns’as your mother finishes, “Tonight, we’re breaking her out.”

From there, plans accelerate. Roxy obtains a map of the entire aquarium with her quote mad hacking skillz unquote, and Bro gives Dave a rundown of the Plan, as they’d be doing the main sneaking in/sneaking out portion. Your mother is in charge of disabling the security systems; you are in charge of directing the Strider brothers away from security guards, and would be communicating with them with a mic. A quick practice is done in the enormous mansion you call home, and by the time ten o’clock nears, all the equipment is being quietly shifted over to the targeted location via suspicious white windowless van.

Roxy sets up the computer for you, one that maps the paths of security guards, and you do the rest by setting up some live feeds of security cameras while looping feeds for the security guard watching them (you’re not nearly as good as hacking as your mother, but let it never be said that you are thusly incompetent with tech). As soon as the first guard has passed, you tell Bro and Dave to go and then they are in, stealthy ninjas they are.

None of you know whether Jade can breathe in air. The mindset is that you’ll get her to the bathtub in the van before she drowns, if it happens that she can’t. You wish you’d told her today was the day, but then, what good would that have done besides heighten her excitement and anxiety? You’d best see this through and apologize later.

You continue to inform both Bro and Dave of guards’ whereabouts, as the two have since separated and much be directed individually. It goes smoothly up until Dave has to pick the lock that leads to her tank, and in the end, when it’s taking him too long with his picks, he simply breaks it with a shitty sword and, unfortunately, leaves a trace of the hit-and-run, as it were. Your voice rises in urgency as a security guard tromps past and, by some streak of misfortune, notices the disfiguration of the lock; Dave hurries his way to the tank while Bro suddenly appears at the scene, knocking the guard unconscious and dragging his body to the locked door before going after Dave.

When they appear with a wide-eyed Jade, who is held in Bro’s hand bridal-style with her arms clutched tightly around her shoulder, you tell them security has been alerted by the first guard and they need to hurry. You direct them accordingly, avoiding all of the guards based on camera feeds, and when they slip out the entrance, you and Roxy are waiting.

Jade is placed in the bathtub, uncharacteristically silent, and you and Dave pile besides her while Roxy folds up all her equipment and Bro takes the wheel. Then the van awakens with a roar and rubber screeches as you speed off into the night.

None of you say anything for a while.

Then Bro says in an accusing tone, “Dave, we need to work on your lock-picking skills.”

And you can’t help it, you start laughing and so do Dave and Roxy because hell, you’d done it. You’d committed a crime, broken a shit ton of laws, and put everyone at risk, but you’d succeeded in doing what you had to do, and when Jade realizes what’s going on she starts laughing with you, splashing in her shallow tub with her tail and her voice intertwining with everyone else’s.

It’s then you realize she can finally reply to your words and speak, and the smile on your face lingers even as the laughter slowly fades away.

-

The next morning, bright and early, you go to the pool and there she is, sleeping quietly in the water. No doubt yesterday’s excitement tired her, you think as you sit at the poolside, gently dipping your feet into the water, and you watch her as she stirs when the ripples from your movement lap against her bare shoulder. She is still wearing the plastic shells on her chest, and you can see marks where the elastic has dug itself into her skin. You make a mental note to see to the injuries posthaste.

Her eyes open, brilliant green, and she looks around in confusion before spotting you. When she does, a huge grin comes upon her face and she swims over, laughing and laughing. You smile at her happiness, say “Jade,” and she immediately looks over to you, still high on her liberation from her glass-walled trap. “We need to know where you live.”