THE MERMAID'S TALE

by Mary Lou Birmingham

She was the most beautiful little girl ever born on the Island.  Her name was Aileen.  She was never like the other children and her mother never understood her love for the Island and the water.

If ever she didn't answer her mother's call, she could always be found at the water's edge playing with tadpoles or calling to the fish in the sea.  Mother always teased her that one day a huge fish would come and carry her out to sea never to be seen again.

Aileen loved the story of Jonah and the Whale.  "I could set up a tea party in the belly of a whale", Aileen told her sisters. "It would be so much fun to invite all the little fishies to come to my humble abode for tea cakes".  So she sat in the sand and talked to the shells and asked them where they had been and if they had ever seen the whale inside which Jonah had lived.

Often the Dolphins came close to Aileen.  Her dream was to one day hitch a ride and swim to the deepest currents of the ocean and visit with the tadpoles she had watched evolve from tiny pollywogs to great swimmers.

The day of opportunity finally arrived when the most beautiful of all the huge fish ever seen came close to shore.  This dolphin was like no other of its species.  He was simply beautiful like Aileen but wait!!! he was different than the others.

Yes!  This dolphin could speak and when he spoke to Aileen in his guppy wonderful way, the oceans stood still.  Aileen was in a trance - or was she?  Unlike anything Aileen had ever dreamed or imagined,  Dolphus  swam to her toes and immediately took what Aileen thought was the most graceful bow she had ever seen.

His fins reached out to her and lovingly beckoned her to come with him exploring, just for a day, then he would bring her back to the Island of love, a promise he knew would be impossible to keep.

As Aileen climbed aboard something awesome happened to her entire being, no longer was she a little girl developing into a beautiful woman, she was princess of the sea and Dolphus was carrying her to the deepest and swiftest currents of the ocean.

As she traveled deeper and deeper on the ocean bed, she knew there would never be a return to the parents she had never quite felt at home with.  But how could she ever survive without the gills and fins the fish were born with and Dolphus seemed not to notice she had not had a breath of fresh air for all too long.

Finally after what seemed to be hours of the most wonderful rush of water cleansing Aileen from the inside out, there was a bath of fresh air.  When Aileen filled her lungs with spirit waters of the down under she was transformed.  No longer was she the little girl who walked on the sandy shores.  No, Aileen was a creature of pure beauty the like of which none of the dolphins had ever seen and as she swam and swam with her huge tailfin and the beautiful fins that extended into infinity, even the dolphins and whales came to see the magnificent being invading their space.

Aileen never wanted to return. This had to be her home ever after and she begged Dolphus to let her stay but Dolphus made a promise and Aileen must accept that a promise given was a promise kept by the schools of family surrounding them.

And that is the way it was with all the dolphins, they knew something so beautiful could only come for a season and be gone just as the tadpoles before them. The visit was something they could share with all the fish of the sea but they all wondered if Jonah would believe them because Jonah was on another mission and he did not see the merry maid they would all talk about with awe and celebrate.

When the time came and Aileen began her journey back to the Island, she could hear her mother calling her name, "Aileeeeeeeen, Aileeeeeeen".  When she appeared far out in the ocean on what seemed to be a surf board, she could hear the shouts of the people.  But wait, what about the tailfin?  What would they think about her now and would they accept her? Where did she belong now?  The fish had only promised a day and what if Mother didn't accept her half fish and half something else.

But mothers are not like that, Aileen.  They see beauty from within and will never notice if we have a peg leg, a tailfin or even if we can swim.  Mothers are like the fish in the sea, it doesn't matter who laid the egg, if there is but one of the fish in need there you can always find a mother to help you live happily ever after.

Written by Mary Lou Birmingham

Our Lady of the Grand Lake o' the Cherokees