I slip through the water like a porsche speeding down the highway, barely seen; here then gone. But since I am not a car nor a human driving the car I slip quickly through the water like I always do when I swim. I use my tail to push me down into the depths. I use the curve of my body to make me slide through the big blue ocean as I swim. I am a fish. I am a human. I am a mermaid.

I love the ocean and it loves me. I am part of the ocean and always will be. I was born not to survive as my mother sank and my father cried. I was born to die and not to live. I was born in the ocean to drown with my mother when an angel appeared and gave me the gift of life; she rose with me to the surface where I took my first breath. And she took me to her home and raised me to the age of 13 then she told me, as she drifted off, that I would grow no more. I would age not a day and transform from my human shape into a mermaid when I wanted to.
         
I sat alone for days thinking of my forever future. I had nowhere to go; no place I needed to be. So, I continued my school year then left the town and state and upper world for good.

I live in the ocean, now, alone with fish who speak my language and I speak theirs. We spend all day playing and losing track of time. We must hurry home after dark for that’s when the sharks come out. I have only talked to one shark before, but he was in a hurry to move to warmer waters and couldn’t stay to chat. Some days life can be boring, but if you are all alone sometimes you must deal with it. I think to myself sometimes 'Lanai, if you lived up there then you would always have to move or someone would find out that you never aged.' That thought always picks me up and I go out to collect seaweed to make my dinner or I find my friends and we go treasure hunting together. My best friend, Fredrick, is a stingray. He is very large and everyone makes fun of him, except me.

One day, while Frederick and I were hanging out I had a thought and said it out loud. "Maybe I should ask someone the year."
Fredrick freaked out. "No! That would be up-surd! They might think you’re a lunatic if you don’t know the year or the day or the month. They would ask you all sorts of crazy questions!"
"Oh! Fredrick, you’re being silly,” I said. “It will only take me 15 minutes. I'll be right back. I promise."
"Well, alright, but if you want to stay longer at least tell me, ok? Here, don’t forget your shell phone." Fredrick was always watching out for me.
"Yay! I'll be back soon, unless the world has changed a lot, then I must explore. I’m going now. Bye!" I swam away from my old friend.

"Bye, Lanai! Hurry back!" he called.
"Ok, ok! Bye!" I shouted as I rose to the surface.

I rose to surface behind rocks so the humans wouldn’t see me. The world was very bright. The sand was white, and the people were extremely noisy. Living under water for I don’t know how many years was full of blissful silence. Now, my ears hurt. I got out of the water and transformed into a human immediately. Legs! I had forgotten what it was like to walk. I approached the person nearest me and asked them the date, “June 15, 2012” the woman said and with a funny look, but she didn’t ask any questions. Two hundred and fourteen years I had been under the sea and not once had I tried to keep track of the date. I called Fredrick and hastily told him I was staying here until morning. Then I went off to explore my old yet new world.

Later that evening, I met a boy named Darren. He offered me a place to stay for the night. “Why not?”, I thought. “You can stay in the guest room tonight. My parents won’t care; they never care. They won’t even notice when we walk in the door.” “Darren, thanks a lot for letting me stay here tonight, I really appreciate it.” We walked into his house and he showed me to the guest room. I had nothing to put down so he went into the kitchen and told his parents I was staying the night. All they did was brush him off. The way he was treated was terrible. We left and went outside.

“Do your parents always treat you like that?”, I asked.
“Yes, they don’t care about me. They look at me like I’m a mistake. They never listen.”
“Darren, can I share a secret with you?”
“Um, yeah. Sure, go ahead.”
“I’m different. I don’t have parents. They drowned when I was a baby. I’m a mermaid and if you want to leave this life you live, you can come with me. Think about it. If you want to come and live with me, meet me at those rocks right down there tomorrow at 2:00” I pointed to the rocks, then I walked down to the shore and dove in.
?The next day, I rose to the surface about five feet from the rocks; I was guessing it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. There on the rock closest to the water sat Darren. I waved to him, and he smiled and waved back. I nodded my head in a questioned manor, he nodded back.
“Are you ready?” I asked Darren.
“Yes. I’m sick of my parents nagging on me; I want to come with you,” he said.
“Okay, close your eyes,” I instructed him.
He closed his and I closed my eyes. I transferred my energy to him. The last thing I remembered was Darren diving in and then I blacked out. Five minutes later when I hit the ocean floor I woke up to Darren staring at his tail.
“Ha ha! Takes a bit of getting used to,” I said. “Come on; I will take you home.”
We swam to the reef, then into my home. We have surfaced every day since Darren came to live with me just to satisfy our curiosity about what the humans are doing.