My Little Mermaid

Juliette stood stock still on the grassy cliff. Pebbles of all colors, but most were gray, tumbled down from the edge. Hitting the water with a small splash. She stood there, just staring at the ocean. The usually calm blue water that had a way of clearing her mind. Of thoughts and feelings she didn't want. The waves, small and rolling, ebbed from the shore. They disappeared back into the calmer waters of the deep. The sky, at this time of day, was always gray. The clouds were long and stretched to try and cover the whole the sky, looked a dull and lifeless white. Everything looked lifeless now. Even the people. Everyone didn't find joy in things any more. They feared most things. They didn't want to find out what would happen if nature decided to unleash her furry.

Juliette wasn't trying to be like them. Not on the inside. She dreamed of learning everything that had happened to cause this. She wanted to see the creatures that were described in myths and legends, in books and in stories. On the outside, she was like them. She showed she didn't care about most things. She was just like them. Juliette didn't show her true self.

A large splash startled her back from her daze. She stepped back, surprised. Looking around for the source, Juliette turned her gaze down. She found it. There in the water was a man. Someone not too much older than her. That she could tell from his looks. He had the darkest black hair she had ever seen. It was slicked back from being wet. Juliette leaned forward, crouching down with her hands gripping the edge. Her hazel eyes scanned the surface, wondering where he could have come from. He continued to just swim lazily around. Only once in a great while did he use a strong stroke of his arms to go back to his spot. He seemed to want to stay in there. And she didn't know why. At least not yet.

She didn’t know what to think of him. He was a human, swimming in the water; a place no one should be. The water was dangerous. That had been drilled into every child since birth. Juliette watched him, amazed he was going against all rules set out for them. “He must be rebelling,” she mumbled, laying down on her stomach to watch him more comfortably. She admired him for going against the rules and his parents. She never had the courage. If she did, Juliette would go swimming in the ocean. Everything would be within her grasp. She would be free to do what she wanted, when she wanted.

A loud and sharp smack, sounding like something hit the water, brought her back to reality. In reality, she was to follow all rules placed on her. In reality, she was restricted to never go near the ocean. The cliff was as close as she could get.

That’s when she saw it. A sleek, reflective blue tail. It looked slippery as if made of something beside scales like most fish. It looked like skin extended into a tail. The fin was large with spines lining the length of it. The color blue was dark, almost a navy blue, but it reflected a lighter blue. She gasped, realizing the tail was part of the man. He arched his back slightly as the tail raised above the surface. Juliette crawled farther out over the edge, staring at the merman as he swam around, relaxing in the blue waves. He didn’t even seem to realize she was watching him. How? Why? What is he doing here? Questions ran through her mind like the wind, zipping pass.

She dug her nails into the dirt, not noticing a few bits of dirt and pebbles that rolled down and landed in the water. But the merman did. He snapped up, lowering himself within the waves. His eyes, blue in color as well, scanned the area, looking for the intruder. Juliette furrowed her brow, not knowing what caused him to change from lazy to attentive. She leaned forward, trying to see if there was something underneath her that she didn’t see before.

The ground gave way, causing her to tumble down. Screams. Her screams echoed as she rolled along the side before she landed in the water with a kerplunk! No one knew how to swim any more, her included. She struggled, wiggling her limbs about as if that would help. Tears came from the corner of her eyes as the salt in the water stung. Her cries went unheard as she tried to break the surface. Trying to get the air.

Something grabbed her wrist, scaring her. She thrashed about, trying to get whatever it is off of her. The thing held on, pulling her. Juliette didn’t know if it was bringing her to the surface or not. But when she breathed in air, she forgot about the thing holding her. Taking large gulps of air, she felt something solid under her hand and knees. Her clothes were soaked and clinging to every curve of her body which wasn’t that much. She’s never had curves, not like Leah Moccasin. She was made of curves, and all the boys of the village wanted her. Juliette was wanted by no one. Not since the label of “Dreamer” was put on her. It was a polite term for crazy, losing their mind to the waters.

Water came up with each cough as they wrack her body. Her limbs trembled, barely holding her up. She collapsed on the sand, rolling onto her back. Her eyes were closed. Her chest heaved as she sucked in air by gulps. The burning in her lungs started to subside. The sky was blue now, seemingly happy with the day. But Juliette glared at it. She didn’t like that it was so happy, not when she almost died.

Placing a hand to her chest, she sucked one last gulp of air before sitting up. Juliette looked at the ocean, still feeling an urge to swim, but the fear had overrode that urge. She feared the water. It was all the elders said it was in those stories. The water would kill her if given the chance. It almost did.

After she got her feet beneath her, she stood at the edge of the ebb of the waves. Her hair, tangled and blond, blew away from her face. The wind caressed her face for a moment before it roared against her skin. She cringed, covering her face and turning away, fearing the wind now. Juliette cried, crouching down. The wind and water had no sympathy for her. They beat against her. The sky still looked at her, happy and waiting. Bright rays shined down on the world, warming it, but she didn’t care. She scurried away, heading farther inland. She passed rolling hills of grass. The greenery waving gently in the breeze. Past those hills are fields upon fields of food. From corn to wheat. All of it was there.

It wasn’t long before she was out of the wind and away from the sea. The dirt, brown and littered with pebbles, kicked up as a gust blew through. Grass grew on either side of the path that she walked, but she didn’t care. She wanted to get home and change. The wet, sticky clothes were rubbing where they shouldn’t be. The dark emerald green blouse stuck to her front, accenting the lines of her small breasts. Juliette wiped her eyes, trying to get the tears to stop. They kept falling even though she was no longer in danger.

After awhile she began to wonder if the tears were just from the near death experience or something more. She started to think that her tears were also from the knowledge no one would believe her. Another label would be put on when she told them the story. She didn’t need nor want that. A label that would destroy her. She had no friends. Her family treated her like she wasn't related. She had nothing. If another label was put on, she would become the laughing stock of the village. No one would speak to her again. Juliette would want to disappear.

No. She wasn’t going to tell anyone what happened. Her story would be that she fell into the water, the shallows, and was lucky enough to get out. She agreed that that would be for the best. For her survival.

She walked into the village, keeping her head low and gaze to the ground as she fingered a strand of light blond, nearly the color of snow, hair behind her ear. People stopped what they were doing to gaze at her as she walked past. Her hands tangled themselves in the loose brown trousers, not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes. They would look at her with disdain. It wasn’t something she wanted to see. She got enough of it at home.

The village was just a bunch of small houses made of wood with dried mud filling in the cracks. The roofs were thatched with shingles and hay. Pets, cats and dogs, loved to get up in the attics, being warm. Juliette walked slowly to her own home, one that was just a bit larger than the others. Her father was on the council. That was why her being labeled “dreamer” was a disgrace to the family. Even her brothers and sister hated her for “lying” and just wanting attention.

Wind turbines swirled in the distance, giving them the needed electricity to run their heating and cooling systems. They refused to use it for anything else. Lights were mostly fires with some light bulbs. It was a world nothing like before.

When the decent sized home appeared in the distance, she hung her head, not wanting to be there. She just wanted to be loved, to be accepted in some form. Her hand pushed the door open before heading back to her room. She shared it with her sister Maria.

Luckily for her, Maria wasn’t in. Juliette flopped down on the small bed—a mattress on a wooden frame. Nothing fancy nor expensive. Maria had the bigger bed, being the older sister. Juliette had two older siblings, one sister and one brother, and a younger brother. She was the middle child.

She started to take off her wet, slowly drying clothes and changed into clean, dry ones. While digging through her clothes to find things to go on the bottom half, she found only skirts and no trousers. Again and again, she tried to find pants, but came up empty every time. A groan left her lips as she look at a skirt, annoyed. Shoving her legs through, Juliette pulled the skirt onto her waist, straightening any wrinkles. She turned to the mirror, looking at herself. An average height girl stood there, mirroring her movements. The girl was in the last part of the stage before becoming a full adult, at eighteen years old. Everything had grown and matured, but she needed to catch up mentally.

Juliette ran a hand through her tangled hair. Her nose and cheeks were tinted pink from the exertion of nearly drowning and the wind. Her eyes, hazel in color, were round and not as almond in shape as Maria’s. Maria was considered pretty. Juliette was average. She was stuck in between pretty and ugly.

Her nose was pointed with a slight bump just under the bridge. It came from her father’s genes. Everyone said she looked like her father more than her mother. The only thing on her that appeared to be from her mother was her eyes, the shape at least. That was it. Her family had blue and hazel eyes. Maria had to-die-for blue eyes, large and perfected. Everyone compared Juliette to her sister. Even she did it. Comparing herself all the time to Maria. But Juliette had been a disappointment since seven years of age. Ever since she saw that creature. No one ever talked to her seriously again. She was the village freak; the dreamer that no one took seriously.

Shaking her head, she turned away, feeling a mix of emotions; disappointment being the most prominent one. Tears threatened to fall, but she forced them back, not wanting to cry now. She had worked too hard to fail now. Juliette promised herself after several years of teasing and ridicule, she would never cry. Crying just made the villagers ridicule her more. They would laugh in her face and shout obscenities at her.

“Juliette!” her mother’s screech startled her enough to jump. Once her feet landed, she turned to the door, staring at it. Waiting semi-patiently, she watched the brass handle as it turned down. “Did you hear me?” an older woman asked, lines of age marring her once perfect image. Her blue eyes were exactly like Maria’s. This woman was her mother, Helen.

“Yes. I did.” Helen raised a brow, incredulous. “What do you need?” Juliette avoided her eyes, looking down at the floor boards instead. She didn’t want to talk with her mother, knowing it will just come to Helen pointing out she was a failure. It always did.

Helen brushed back her brown hair, coffee brown, as she glanced around the small room. “Dinner is ready.” The daughter nodded, not saying anything as Helen stepped into the bedroom, looking around. “I think it’s time to give Maria her own room,” her mother whispered. She spun on her heel, walking back out. Juliette stood there a moment longer before following.

Her two brothers walked out, rough-housing down the hall. She avoided them with just a step back. They punched and kicked each other, all while laughing. Once they disappeared to the dinning room, she headed back to the kitchen to grab her plate. She wasn’t allowed to eat at the table with the rest of them. Taking one glance at the family, her family, she felt her heart sink low into her stomach. She wasn’t apart of that any more. She probably never will be.

The meat and potatoes were under cooked, but not enough to make her sick. Her parents just didn't really care about her any more. If they could, they would have locked her in the basement to never be seen again. The only reason that kept her from that fate was she was of marriageable age. They could marry her off to a boy in another village and that would give them more resources. Maria wasn’t married even though she was older by a two years, but she was set to marry another councilman’s son, Joseph.

Staring at her nearly empty plate, Juliette sighed. Dishes were her duty tonight. She needed to get the water from the well outside. They only had plumbing for the toilet. Everything else was outside in the water shed. The well was out there, under the shed. They used pipes to bring the water up, so all one had to do was turn the faucet on. But after the Great War, which many people don’t know much about any more, technology had become a thing of hate.

She walked to the dinning room, gathering all the dirty plates, not saying a word as everyone talked around her as if she wasn’t there. To them she wasn’t. She was just a girl living with them until they could find a suitor for her.

Lugging all the dirty dishes out to the water shed, she kicked open the door, placing the tub in the long metal sink. A drain sat at the bottom, ready to take any amount of water. Juliette wiped her brow before getting to work. Washing dish after dish.

It took long into the night for her to finish. Her family always had a feast when she did the dishes. It was their punishment for her, even though they never said it to her face. She carried the clean platters, silverware, cups, and plates back in the house. “Hey,” her brother, the older one, Adrian, started. He smiled at her, being the nicest one out of her family towards her. He was only nice when no one was around. “let me help.” It was a blessing and a curse; to have someone be nice to you one moment and then the next be mean. She took what she could get. Adrian being the only communication she had besides her mother and sister when they wanted something.

“That’s fine. I can do it myself,” Juliette whispered, taking away a plate he had in his hand. “Don’t you have some work to do?” Adrian shrugged, being the laziest of the males in the family.

“It can wait. Besides, two people doing this will get you in bed sooner,” he pointed out, taking the plate back and putting it away. Juliette didn’t complain after that, knowing his statement to be true. It was already creeping up on one in the morning.

“Good night,” he said softly, finished with his share of the dishes. She nodded, putting back the last few forks before heading back to her bed. Yawning, Juliette walked into the room and silently closed the door before falling into bed, not caring she needed to wash her hair before it harden and turned green as the elders said. She just wanted to sleep and forget about yesterday.