It's getting better all the ti-i-i-i-ime....
There was another set of eyes watching him as he passed Suzy's enclosure. Two eyes watching him from underneath the large Orka just out of sight where nobody would look. The young killer whale had been so obliging when she'd dove into the water. As the human disappeared off through the large double doors, the girl fish let go of her cover, sliding away to press up against the glass wall to make sure nobody else was out there. The coast was clear. Such a strange thing to do, the orka was asking. The girl fish turned, dipping around the large black and white body, making grateful noises. They answered with the equivalent of, you're quite welcome, and moved off through the water to continue their rounds of exercise before sleep. Not that Suzy slept much but tonight had been slightly different than most nights. She usually didn't get visitors.
The girl surfaced silently, reaching her slightly webbed hands up to grab the top of the wall and pull herself up out of the water. She dripped a bit as she carefully let herself down the other side to the floor, keeping a wary eye around as she breathed shallowly. She had small lungs for breathing out of the water, but they wouldn't sustain her for too very long. And she could hear some friends nearby that she wanted to see. There was a small square off to the side with wheels underneath it. Some janitor had left it out after transporting some rather heavy drums and never returned it. The mermaid looked at it curiously, reaching out a slim finger to touch it and give it an experimental push. It moved... quite easily. Such a strange idea she had... she got her body settled on the wooden square and pushed against the ground, wheeling herself along. Somehow this idea seemed familiar, but she had no idea where she'd gotten it. The main thing was it was working. She was nearing the familiar cries of her friends, the dolphins. When she hit into the wall around the enclosure, she flopped off the makeshift skateboard and tried to pull herself up. The top of the wall was harder to reach than the first one. "Anyone out there," one of the dolphins squeaked. "A friend," the mermaid made a similar noise back. "I'm coming in if I can manage it. There's a high wall here."
"Yes we know," the dolphin giggled back. "Almost like someone wanted to keep us in here... or maybe it's just to keep the water in. There's a few theories."
"Later maybe I'll hear them, just let me get in first," she said, looking around as she lay on the tiles that covered the ground, trying to find a way up. The sides were smooth with the top leaning inward towards the water surface it was overhanging. She just couldn't reach up high enough, her tail wouldn't give her enough height. Her lungs were starting to bother her too, she was getting a bit too dry. Sliding around the circular wall, she felt along in the dark with eyes that were used to seeing better underwater. Suddenly, her hand found a vertical steel bar. She grabbed the ladder with both hands, pulling herself up. There was a break in the sharp top of the wall so the staff could get into the water if needed. This was a break for her. It took all the strength she had, but finally she had pulled herself up and was sitting on the notch in the wall with her tail dipping into the water. Oh, it felt so good and cool. The dolphin who had spoken earlier surfaced with a greeting, "What took so long?" But she knew he was only kidding. The mermaid gave herself a slight push forward and she slipped underneath the surface of the water with barely a sound.
Frank didn't notice a thing as he came around again. The dolphins sounded the same as they always had when he was here at night. Though it was curious that the moving wheels were out, the janitor must have forgotten about them... maybe they rolled to where they are now. Frank picked them up to put them away, not suspecting the newcomer in the tank was listening to his footsteps as he left.
The girl fish hung in the water, watching up above. She couldn't see but she could hear what was going on. The stars were dimmer overhead, this definitely wasn't the ocean. She moved slick in the water to sidle up next to the dolphin who she had spoken to before. "Name?" she asked, as this was the traditional greeting between unknown friends. At least that's what her friend Dre was always saying, and he was older and wiser than the others. "Kee," the dolphin answered. He was a male and sounded a bit sarcastic when he vocalized. "You're new."
"I am," she said, matching his swimming pattern alongside. "Are you to sleep now?"
"No," he tossed his head slightly. "Not for awhile. You have questions I believe. Newcomers usually do... and all the same questions. So annoying." The girl swerved underneath him as they went under the darker bridge and over the tunnel of glass that bulged out up from the floor. "I apologize then for being annoying," the girl seemed to smile as she said this, a residual from her human side. Kee nosed against her, pleased. "You are not as annoying as the others. You are a bit different I should think."
"Yes, not like you. Though if you ask for my story, I am afraid I do not have one. No parents to remember." They crisscrossed a group of sleeping dolphins.
"None at all? That is unusual," Kee agreed. Before she could ask him further, he cut in with a shrill squeak of amusement. "First question is where are you, second question is how to get out, third question is where is the fish. I am right, I know I am."
The girl fish twirled in a circle, giggling. It was funny, those were her first questions. "How did you get so right?" she asked, darting across to dive upwards to jump slightly and dive back down.
"I'm always right," he said facietiously. If dolphins were not already grinning, he would have been at that moment. "I am more right than any of the others, you will see." There were a few whistles from opposite sides of the tank that equated to groans and sighs. The mermaid didn't mind, he seemed like an interesting individual. "Friend," she told him, swimming underneath him to touch against one of his front flippers with her hand, the sign of friendship among dolphins. She'd just marked him as a friend in her opinion. "Friend indeed," he agreed, repeating the gesture. Then he launched into his explanation. "This here is where the other creatures have put us to be seen. You know these others?" The girl told him yes, "I am familiar with them, though not for very long."
"When the sun is up, they come and look at us. Some do keep us fed with fish, that will come later. If you do certain tricks, you get more fish. It is strange but it's not intolerable."
The girl mused. "Not the ocean either."
"No, not quite," Kee said as they rounded a corner. "Just different. There doesn't appear to be a way out. None have found one. I am surprised you found a way in on your own." He paused as if considering her with his black eyes. "But it may make sense. You have a similar shape to the others... perhaps you are one of them?" The mermaid shrugged. "It is possible but I do not know if it is so. I have not said hello to them yet, though I did see one before coming here out of the ocean. They had a funny face... like something on the front of it."
"Hm, yes, all very curious and no answers conclusive," Kee hummed his way up the side of the wall and did a showy backflip. The girl fish could tell he was one who was quite full of himself, but she liked him just the same. It was good to have a friend in these strange places. "What did you see before coming in here?" he asked curiously.
"There are other places of water, smaller ones with smaller fish in them. Perhaps they keep them to look at as well. A place to match the size of the fish?"
"Sounds right to me," Kee agreed with a whistle.
"It was too dry though, I could not stay out for long."
"Bah," he tossed his head. "One should not stay out for too long, everyone knows that. It's not healthy." She poked him with a finger. "Yes, I know this but I was tied up. You want me to be tied up?" That quieted the joshing by her new dolphin friend, he felt rather like he'd put his tail in his mouth. He made a decisive move to surface and dive. "Sleep is now, I have my turn."
"I will assist till daylight," she told him, taking up position next to him again. "Then I will sleep." Who knew what would happen in the morning, she might as well make the best of it. "Yes, good friend. Name?" he asked.
That was the one thing she couldn't answer. After a pause of swimming next to him, she finally said. "No name. Just friend." She couldn't remember ever having a name. Just... breaking free one day and she was there. In the ocean... on her own.
"We will find a name for you," Kee told her jauntily, rubbing against her as if to say, it will be alright. Another human like smile broke out on the girl's face. "Because you are always right, I should listen to that."
"Exactly," he giggled, making a little dip as he swam. She followed along, keeping pace with him as he fell asleep. Waiting for morning as she guided her new friend up and down in the water.
The next day, Tony was just being let in at the gate. He skateboarded his way through the outdoor part of the aquarium, his music turned up on his Ipod that had the earbuds stuck in his ears. He made right for the main building, picking up his skateboard in one hand and opening the door with the other. When he made it to the back room, he found Mitch fast asleep in his chair... pretty much where he thought he would find him. With a smirk, Tony walked over to set his stuff down with a clang next to his own equipment. That woke Mitch with a start and he scrambled, knocking over papers off his desk, blearily trying to see what had happened. "G'morning, boss," Tony said, pulling off his shirt to change into his wetsuit. "Sleep well?"
Mitch made an annoyed groaning sound as he tried to sit up, rubbing his back. "No... not at all really."
"Wait... where's... ?" Tony's eyes had caught sight of the empty infirmary tank. He ran his half dressed self over to peek inside. "She's gone?!" Mitch actually was happy to hear his surprised exclamation. That meant he hadn't dreamed the whole bringing a mermaid back to base part yesterday.
"Yes, gone and escaped." He stood up, rubbing his face, trying to wake up from the long night's ordeal. "I've been searching the grounds but it's difficult in the dark. Listen, we've got to get out there before the tourists set foot in this place and figure out where she's got to. We couldn't even find a body last night." He picked up a coffee mug, filling it with yesterdays coffee... which Tony took from him and tossed away as he made a fresh pot. "I was beginning to think I made up the whole thing."
"No, I definitely was the one who helped bring her back here with you yesterday," Tony said, handing Mitch a fresh cup of coffee and finishing getting his wetsuit on. "I'll start looking with the new watch of security guards."
"Right," Mitch sipped his coffee gratefully. "And I'll go see Linda and see if we can delay our opening time today. Pass the word to all the staff to look for anything... unusual... and to report to me."
"Unusual, huh? Like a rogue mermaid?" Tony grinned but his smile was short lived. Mitch was quite serious when he said, "We cannot allow this to get out. Either we'll be the laughing stock of the community or they'll try to take away this discovery before we can understand it. And things won't go well either way, I can tell you that." He indicated with his head, "Go, off with you then."
"Right, b-... Mitch." Tony slapped his ID on his wrist and hurried off into the park. Mitch waited till the caffiene was in his system before contacting Linda, their dispatcher and secretary, telling her that the opening was going to be delayed for about a half hour today. She took it in stride, she got paid either way for being there.
Mitch took a shower, got some clean clothes, and felt a little more awake. Soon he was out with Tony, scouring the bushes and crannies around the aquarium to find out where she'd gotten to. When their extra half hour was up, they met regrouped at the front of the main building. All of the rest of the staff was there. "Anything, Linda?" Mitch asked into his headset. "Nothing to report, everything seems normal," she reported back. "Though we do have a couple of unhappy customers forming a line at the gate. What should I tell the guards?" Mitch sighed, looking over at Tony who shrugged. "If we couldn't find her..."
"Stranger things have happened," Mitch retorted back. He rubbed his eyes, there wasn't anything else they could do. They'd already done it. "Fine, Linda. Let them in. But everyone keep on the alert. I'll be on channel 3 all day."
"Yes, sir."
Mitch watched the main gates open and the tourists start to file in... with their cameras and their oohs and aahs at the different wildlife enclosures. "Where could she have got to so fast?" he asked aloud. Tony shook his head sympathetically, his arms crossed, looking out where Mitch was looking.
Mitch gave him a frown and a look. A look that said, are you still here?
"....oh! Right, Suzy! I'm gone." Tony took off for the arena to prepare for his show with the orka. "I'll tell her you said hi!" he called over his shoulder. Mitch smiled to himself thinking, someday she's gonna learn I'm not her type.
The girl had fallen asleep in a small dark corner of the tank way off to the side. Unlike her dolphin friends, she did not have to surface while sleeping. Though her new friend Kee offered to assist, she managed to explain that it wouldn't be necessary. Opening her eyes, she could see the dolphins dispersing, a bit more active. A few were singing about the new day, another small group was challenging each other to see who could jump the farthest with someone volunteering to be referee... even though there was no way of measuring who would jump farther. But it was a game and they liked games. Uncurling herself from the corner, she played out her senses along the water, listening carefully. There was more activity, not just the dolphins. She could just make out the glass bump that housed the indoor tunnel. There was movement going on inside of it. Very suspicious looking movement. The girl didn't really care much for the sound, the dolphins sounded much better to her. She slipped along the wall, trying to stay away from the noise as she angled her body towards the surface. Before she could get there, she could see something looking down. It was the other creatures, they were indeed looking in at the dolphins. Kee had been right. "Always right," he said as he passed, echoing what she had been thinking. She gave him a light tap on the back in a gesture that meant about the same as someone poking another for being silly.
She didn't want to surface. There was quite a crowd up there. The dolphins didn't seem to have any trouble with surfacing, they'd done this dance before. There were happy noises coming from the other creatures... though the girl wasn't exactly noticing that she could understand the difference between the happy sounds made by the others and the happy sounds made by her friends. Floating freely beneath the surface, she only looked like another grey blob to onlookers. Just another dolphin, nothing more. She was in a slightly shadowed area of the large tank. Even the people inside the tunnel on the tour couldn't see her really, she was an ambiguous shadow far off near the wall of the tank, hunkering down near the coral like floor. Besides, there were more interesting dolphin antics to look at that were going on.
The tour had just passed through. A small girl was having trouble keeping up, she wanted to stay in the tunnel and watch the dolphins for the rest of the day. Right now she was waving as they passed overhead. Her mother was herding her two older brothers on to the next exhibit. It wasn't till she looked down at her side that she realized her little girl was gone. And she had to go back for her.
Patsy was standing in front of the glass wall that bent around joining to the other side of the walkway, her little hands up against the glass even though it said not to. She was too young to read the small print sign anyway. A few dolphins passed very close, they seemed to like having an audience. Patsy watched, enthralled as one of them jumped up through the surface and dove back down into the water. Oh, how she'd like to be able to do that. Or to get in there with them.
Her attention got diverted, there was something else in the tank. It was coming closer, going through the milling dolphins. Patsy gave a little girl gasp, putting her hands over her mouth. There was a mermaid! Just like on her movies! The girl fish was headed right for her. Wide eyed, Patsy stayed still, watching the large fish approach and hover right in front of her. She looked a bit scarier than the one in the movies, but Patsy told herself to be brave. She took a step over, trying to see better, and put a hand up on the glass, stretching as tall as she could to reach. The mermaid tilted her head slightly as if looking right through her.
Her mom came up then right behind her. "I told you to stay with the group!"
"Momma! Momma! Look!" But the lady fish had swum away quite fast, when her mom lifted her head to look, she was gone. Patsy was being dragged away but she resisted. "No, no, Momma there's a lady in there!" She pulled her mom back, who was hesitant to tell her daughter the lady was probably just a staff member. "There was a mermaid, I saw-d it!" Patsy was looking around, pressed up against the glass. Her mom gave a cursory look around. "I don't see a lady... perhaps she was one of the workers."
"No!" Patsy was quite adamant and sullen. She dropped her hands from the window sadly. "I did see a mermaid, I did." Her mom gave her a hug and a sympathetic smile. "Oh, it's ok, maybe you just imagined it, dear. We all see things from t-..." Her sentence died in her throat. As she had been kneeling down to care for her girl, there was something crawling along the top of the tunnel. Something half human and half fish staring down at them with inhuman eyes. The mother let out a yell, pointing up at the creature. The tour guide came running fearing the worst. They stopped mid stride with a gaping mouth looking up at the unbelievable. Patsy chimed in, "I knew I saw a mermaid!" She waved at her "friend" as the mermaid darted away from all the noise being made that was coming towards her. Off to hide in a corner again, she didn't like all this attention. Didn't feel right.
...to be continued.