Lee Mayers opened his eyes partially hoping his parents were asleep in their cozy bed. He pulled back his covers, revealing warm street clothes. Hoping not to wake them up, he quietly raced down the stairs and out the door.
It was late fall in Blackwater Bay, a town off the Atlantic coast of Maine. Biting cold was brushing past him in the dark night. Almost wishing he wasn’t running away right now in the middle of the night, Lee rushed forward to the harbor.
His parents thought they could control his life. Asking permission before doing ANYTHING, having a strict (early!!) bedtime, and no school dances weren’t any rules for a fifteen year old! Ugh! It was like they were treating him like a little kid! Fleeing away seemed like the only way to get away from this.
Finally he spotted his getaway, a small boat that looked like it had seen its better days. Rushing down the dock, he went over to it and slowly lowered himself aboard the boat and rowed out the bay and into the Atlantic. Noticing that this wasn’t as easy as it looked, Lee huffed and puffed and huffed some more. After several minutes of laborious work, he finally stopped. Whew, that was hard work! Stopping to check his watch, it said 2:45am. Gosh, it was early! Oh well, it was better to get an early start. “I should rest for a while, but only for a short time,” he thought out loud. Listening to the quiet of the soft rippling of the many waves, he closed his tired eyes.
A seagull screeched its morning call. The teenage boy rose up stiffly. “Mental note: Ask my mother and father for a more comfortable mattress instead of this one. It’s as hard as a rock! I can’t believe I haven’t…” Lee was saying until he noticed where he was and what was next to the boat.
What looked like a young woman was staring at him with large eyes. Except it (or she) had a greenish tint to her skin. Her hair was light, no dark; it seemed like all the colors there could be were in her hair! With eyes as blue as afternoon skies she seemed to be examining him questioningly. Looking behind her, he saw a fin protruding from the water. She was a mermaid! Some strange thought, like she was speaking telepathically to him, made him realize that she could not speak. Living underwater would probably make it hard to speak anyway. Motioning that he should follow her, she went underwater. When she returned, he noticed gills on the sides of her neck, and he tried to tell her (in some way) that he could not breathe underwater. Looking like she understood, she sunk into the water again. Later returning (yet again), she gave him a jellylike substance. Touching her nose and pointing at the goo, Lee realized that she wanted him to put it on his nose. How weird, but it might help him some way. Again she motioned that he should follow her, so they dived below the waves.
Breathing surprisingly, Lee looked all about him. Wow, he thought. There were bright colors all around him. Thousands of fish of all shapes and sizes floated around as if they were flying in midair. Mermaid (what he is calling her from now on) was smiling at him like he was a child just discovering a new thing, while she was a parent already used to it yet smiling anyway. Suddenly he noticed dolphins swimming beside them. They looked like they were happy to be with each other being a family. That made Lee think. The dolphins also playfully pushed and prodded Mermaid like she was one of them.
As they were coming toward a rock, Lee thought he heard a faint humming noise, or maybe it was his imagination. Now around the rock he noticed many holes in what looked like the side of a wall. Long shapes were darting to and from them. One of those shapes came toward them, and it was a merman! Embracing Mermaid, he saw feelings of love and respect in their eyes, and Lee concluded that he was her father.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Rising up, Lee looked around at his surroundings. Oh my, he was back in his own comfortable bed! Out the window he saw the sunrise in shades of pink and purple. Thinking for a while, Lee decided that he would talk to his parents about the way he feels and be more respectful to them like the merpeople were to each other. Was this all a dream? “Where is a pen or pencil; I need to write this down if I can remember it all!” he said.