the sea dwellers (chapter 4)

June 12, 2010

    I wake up to a swirl of water. I am still on that chair. I couldn't get a good sleep because  the hut had a large and slimy jellyfish in it, which was distracting me and waking me up a lot. Nora and Melanie are in the same situation.
    There are two adults, one man and one woman, on chairs next to us. One resembles Mom, while the other looks like Dad. Melanie wasn't kidding when she said that she'd take us to our parents.
    ''Hi, Mom and Dad! What's with the fins?'' I ask.
     ''Don't you know?'' says Dad. We are now all sea dwellers.
     ''Like mermaids?'' asks Nora.
      Melanie explains that mermaids are not as smart as sea dwellers, so they work for us under our command. Mermaids were such fools that they let themselves be discovered by the land-people before sea dwellers. Land-people, or humans, destroyed their environment and made them famous,and we still live by ourselves in the Sea of Secrets, which is where I am.
       ''But why were we land-people and you, Mom, and Dad are sea dwellers?''I ask. Melanie tells us how we were kidnapped by a witch. Our ''parents'' on land were clones of our real parents. We got claimed back when we swam in the Sea of Secrets.
        Dad asks us if we would like to go to a concert today. He has tickets, and he promises us that it will be totally worth it. We agree, then swim in to the ''Seafarer'' which is like a car underwater. It doesn't take us long to get to the concert hall. Once we get there, we swim inside. Fishes are all over the place. So are other sea dwellers, who Dad says I'll know better when I go to school here. The stage is in the middle of the audience, with runways coming out. I find a seat near a runway and a girl who says that her name is Rosemarie. She has red hair and dark eyes, and is a bit shorter than I am. She seems to like me, and I know that she is my first friend who is my age. She also has high grades in school while her classmates don't.
      The lights dim. The audience stops talking loudly and starts whispering. Rosemarie whispers that next year she will be going to a school for gifted sea dwellers. I sneak over do Mom and ask if I could go to that school and if Rosemarie can come over. She says yes.
      A handsome looking sea dweller swims up to the stage.
''Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the annual Summer Fest Concert! I hope you enjoy yourselves,'' he says. ''Please turn off your cell phones and don't use flash photography. First up, let's hear it for Lulu Cuckoldry!"
       Lulu Cuckoldry swims on the stage. She is singing a song which is familiar to me. She goes on the runway which Rosemarie and I are next to and drags us on to the stage. We are clueless about what to do next.  I see Dad in the audience. He is staring at Lulu really hard. Lulu ignores him. We try to sing something. Luckily, Rosemarie also knows that song, and she has an excellent voice, so I can just mouth the words.
      Lulu stares at us, as if she wants to burn us. We don't do anything. I see Rosemarie and Nora flickering like an old movie, and wonder if it is because of the piercing stare.
     Dad is muttering something. I can't hear what it is, but his voice sounds angry. Suddenly, there is a deafening explosionand we all turn away and cover our ears. Lulu looks much uglier after the explosion. She looks like a witch! A thought pops into my head. Could Lulu be the witch that kidnapped Nora and me? What business would she have kidnapping two ordinary children? Why can't she kidnap a princess instead and hold her for a huge ransom?
      As I keep thinking this, Dad's stare at Lulu the witch is growing harder. It is still having no effect. I think that he is trying to burn her. Thinking quickly, I spy our Seafarer outside the window of the concert hall. I go in it and try to drive. It isn't as easy as it looks, but in only 10 minutes I get to our hut. I look around and find two lockets. One of them has an "A'' on it, and the other has an ''N''.  I take both of them and drive the Seafarer to the concert hall. The rest of the audience has left, including Rosemarie. I shove one locket into Nora's hands, and I keep the other one, making sure that mine has an "A'' on the back.
     I open my locket and take out a pinch of the dust inside. Unsure what else to do, I give the dust to a little fish, who sprinkles it on Lulu. She screams, as if she is bring killed. I see her shrinking. She is now as tall as the fingernail on my little finger. Then, she disappears.
     I go to our Seafarer and hop in the driver's seat. ''Anna, aren't you a little young to drive?'' asks Mom. I don't say anything. Driving is pretty fun, even if I'm way too young. I drive us to our hut, where we spend the rest of the day.