Dangerous Waters Unexpected Love

Not Paying Attention

Chapter 4

Calissa’s POV

That was why, when I met my uncle on the pier, I just didn’t believe him. Why now, after all this time? Why was anyone from that side of the family just now popping up? It didn’t make any sense to me at all. I had had absolutely no contact at all with anyone from my father’s side of the family for almost eighteen years. Not one present, not one birthday card or letter had ever come to me in the mail. Nothing at all, just radio silence. Each birthday that went by, my mother doubled down on her allegations that I was the reason he left her. It was the sole reason that she lost the love of her life, and believe me, she hated me for it.

I was so caught up in my memories, that I had failed to see a dark shadow ahead as I headed north to the next flag. I was supposed to be gathering some little flags that my uncle had put out. I had found a total of three of them and was heading to find the fourth one at this time. There were a total of 5 of them, and I needed all five of them to be able to pass this test. I guess I was so caught up in my thoughts that I wasn’t paying proper attention. I was so thankful for my enhanced eyesight, it tipped me off just in time. The shark was about 60 feet away from me. My hearing and my eyesight have both greatly improved and increased since I turned eighteen.

Despite the great white being absolutely silent as it approached, I managed to get my thoughts together. I tamped down my fear, as I knew what I needed to do to evade a predator. With an almost silent flip of my tail, I headed directly down to the seabed. Entering into the kelp fields for cover from the shark. I had stayed above the kelp field earlier. I knew that both horn and leopard sharks like to patrol the sandy floor around the kelp beds for both seals and fish. Seals like to feed on some of the fish, squid, and mollusks that they find in the kelp beds.

Using the kelp as cover, I went to find a rock to hide myself against. I found a perfect place in the crevice created by two large boulder-sized rocks that were side by side. I pushed back in as far as I could go at the base between the two rocks. I have lost some weight since I turned into a mermaid, but I am still a little thick right now. I am only back about a foot and a half inside my hiding place. I am hoping that the shark's face will be too large to be able to reach me where I am. I wound my tail up behind me to protect it, and to allow me to push forward quickly from my hiding place if I needed to leave quickly. I stayed silent and waited. Watchful and silent while I looked for the shark. I am even more thankful now for the coloring that I received the day I became a mermaid. It is perfect camouflage right now, as I wait to see what the shark does next.

I tried to calm myself down by thinking about some positive memories as I hid from the shark. It was only last week that I turned into a mermaid. I know that it will be a memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit when I entered the water at the pier, with my uncle Ronan. I was scared to death that night.

He wanted to wait until there were fewer people around to see us, so the dark covered us pretty well. A lot of people don’t swim at night. It is a known fact that sharks hunt at night. I was nervous about that and the fact that I didn’t know what to do to become a mermaid. Uncle Ronan patiently explained that I just needed to calm down and allow myself to float in the water.

“You have to settle down, Callie, and be peaceful. You need to focus on thinking about your mermaid form. You need to allow your tail to come forward. It will not hurt you at all. It will cover your body. I believe that you are a gifted hybrid, so you are slightly different from a normal mermaid. Only a very small percentage of us can be out of the water for longer than twenty-four hours at a time. A regular mermaid can only be out of the water for even less time, usually about twelve hours maximum before they are forced to come back into the water. Your tail will come up to about your waist, and it will come over your swimsuit. I promise that getting your tail will not hurt. Just relax and think of your legs as being one unit. Just focus on what color you think your tail will be,” my uncle Ronan told me.

One minute, I am lying there with my arms out, calm and relaxed. I was looking up at the stars above, thinking about how lucky I was to now have a family that cared for me. I then started thinking about what color my tail was going to be. I couldn’t see my Uncle Ronan’s tail. It was underwater, as I am sure that once we got deep enough, and further away from the shore, he changed into a Merman. The next thing I heard was my uncle's comment, “Excellent job, Callie”. I sat up to look at my legs, but they were now underwater. When I sat up to look at my tail, it became submerged. So I can’t see it right now.

“I can see that Kano was right. You have been blessed more than either of us thought you were. I am so happy to be one of your teachers on your journey. We are now going to swim underwater. Do not panic, Callie. I am right here with you. I will not allow anything bad to happen to you. You are a mermaid, so you will be able to breathe normally underwater, and your body will know what to do. You just need to stay calm. You will have to relax to be able to do this. You need to trust me here. You were born to be a mermaid,” my Uncle Ronan told me quietly. I know that he didn’t want anyone to overhear what he said, as voices carry over water.

I took a deep breath and then went underwater with him. I gasped at seeing that I did indeed have a tail now, which in retrospect wasn't the best idea. The weird thing is that I don’t feel physically different right now. I guess I still doubted becoming a mermaid in the back of my mind. In the dark water, it was hard to see what color my tail was. I originally had been planning to try to hold my breath as long as I could while I was underwater. I found out that I couldn’t do it for very long at all. My uncle mouthed to me, “Stay calm” and I did try to relax. I wanted to go back up to the surface to get another lungful of air, but he held my hand in his. Holding me there. I was five feet under the water, and I was starting to panic. I knew that he was waiting for me to have to take my first breath.

I guess he knew when we went under the water what I had been planning to do. I took in my first breath underwater and as much as I knew I was going to drown right then, I didn’t. I was able to breathe just fine. I turned my stunned face towards my uncle. He couldn’t stop his bark of laughter at the look on my face. He knew I was completely surprised by this. Each time something new happened, I got a new perspective about what was actually happening to me.

The thought of me being a mermaid was mind-blowing. Getting into the water, and being able to become one with the water, involved a great deal of trust on my part. I would not have been able to do something like this if it had involved my mother or grandmother. The last few weeks with my uncle have been great. After I lost my grandfather, Teddy, I thought that until I found a husband, I would never find someone to love me for me. But in such a short time, just two short weeks, I now have an uncle and cousins who love me wholeheartedly. It made me happier than I have ever been in my life to know I had people who would stand up for me.

I was still stunned that I was able to breathe underwater. I had some small gills, three of them, on either side of my neck. I didn’t know how that was even possible, but I could breathe underwater. That let me know that this was real. Everything I thought I knew now had a great deal of gray area in it. If mermaids were indeed real, then what about other supernatural beings? Could they be real too? Werewolves? Vampires? Dragons? Fairies? How in the world was this possible? Have I been blind to it all? Or was I just not accepting of the fact that there are things that could exist in our plane of existence? Things that I honestly didn’t think about before because they seemed to be too far-fetched.

I was able to see even in this murky water. I have been wearing glasses since childhood. My eyesight was very poor. I can remember my mother complaining about having to buy me glasses. When I got tested in school, they told my mother to take me to an optometrist, that I needed glasses. I can still remember her complaining about having to do it. I can still hear her telling me, “There had better be something wrong with your eyes, or you are going to be sorry”. There was something wrong with them, and I only got a new pair when she had to do it. Like when my head physically outgrows the frames.

So, every three years I get a new pair. The cheapest, and I am guessing the ugliest, pair that she could find. She never liked to do anything for me at all. Only the basics, and only when she was made to do it. Read that as her receiving a letter from the school. When they had to tell her that I needed more school supplies or a new pair of glasses.