Mermaid Sightings!

"Mermaid Sightings: Catfish Got Your Tongue."
(2/17/2009)

I often attract attention at the pool when I am swimming. How can I not with a large black and silver tail being where my legs should be. I have learned to smile and be sweet to those giving comments or asking questions. It is much like having long hair, you answer one set of questions, you answer them all, but people think theirs are the most unique and different, so they ask anyways :

• Oooh! Look! A mermaid!
• Mom! There is a mermaid!
• I like your tail!
• Where did you get it?
• Can you make me one?
• Can I watch you swim?
• Can we swim with you?
• Can I touch the tail?

On one swim, a man with a little girl no older than three came to me and he smiled and struck up a conversation. His daughter had so many questions but was too shy herself to ask me. Every time I smiled at her, she would give me a little shy smile (something like these three faces combined: ) then hide her face in her father's neck. Here is how our little conversation went.

• Him: Excuse me?
• Me: Yes?
• Him: My daughter here would like to know something about mermaids.
• Me: -Giggle- Alright.
• Him: She wants to know why a mermaid is in the pool and not at the ocean.
• Me: Well, it is far to cold to be in the ocean right now, so I have to come to places like this where it is warmer.
• Him(to his daughter): Ah, see? It's warmer in here than in the sea. (to me) She also wants to know why you are wearing goggles since she has never seen mermaids need to wear them before.
• Me: I don't need to when I am swimming in the ocean (isn't playing a character fun?) but this is pool water and the chemicals are very hard on my eyes, just like they would be on yours.
• Him(to his daughter): Ah, see? They protect her eyes like they protect yours! (His daughter smiles and hides again from me.)

He thanked me for my time and the two of them went back to the shallow end of the pool to rejoin their family with whom I am sure they shared their information on their mermaid encounter. For the rest of my time there, I noticed the little girl staring at me and I really hope I made it out of the pool and into the locker room before she could see me walking around with legs and no tail.


"Mermaid Sightings: A Free Ride"
(2/18/2009)

Another day at the pool and another story blossoms. As mentioned in the previous Mermaid Tales post, I am used to handling questions and the attention I get with my tail. The thing about the attention though is that it is usually they are forthcoming or I notice it right away. This time, I didn't.

As I cruised around the part of the pool where the bottom slants down so shallow can become deep, I noticed a little hand out of the corner of my eye. Looking back, I saw a little girl reaching for the end of my fluke (the silver part of the tail). At first I thought I had been in her way and I dove further down to move out of her way.

When I came back up for air, there she was! Hand reaching for my tail again. Pretending I didn't see her, since people usually -ask- first to touch the tail, I dove down and made for the deep water. I remained down there a while until I figured she had lost interest, and made my back back to the middle ground.

I had only ten minutes or less of time to myself before there she was! Little rainbow swimsuit, big pink goggles, and little pale hand reaching for my tail. It was at this point I figured out what she was trying to do. She was attempted to grab the little ends of my fluke [the part that is just fabric] so she could hold on and get a free ride! I felt like a dolphin stuck in a show tank!

I rolled my eyes to myself then returned to the solitude of the bottom of the deep end. My only wish is that I could hold my breath for more than 25 seconds at a time.


"Mermaid Sightings: Mermaid Photographed! News at 10."
(3/6/2009)

A new pool opened up that was not closer to my house, but it was nicer so my membership switched over to the new facility. The parking was better, the pool was warmer, and the locker rooms had more space.

When I got into the pool, I stayed over in the lap swim area for the first 45 minutes. I worked on my kick and I think I got less of a knee bend, but without my fiancé to film me so I can really see it, I don't know.

After a while, one of the lifeguards came over to me. Word of a mermaid in the pool had spread among them and she was the only one brave enough to come talk to me. (Because you all know, I bite. ) She talked to me about the tail for a while, asking the top five questions:

• Are you a mermaid?/Is that a mermaid tail?
• Where did you get that?
• Is it hard to swim in?
• How does it work?
• What is it made of?

She then told me that I should try it in the current channel, if the people in there cleared out a little more. I looked over and thought that might be a neat thing to try. After a little more time, and watching the channel to pick up on the pattern and where the gaps were most likely to form. I hopped in and Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!! The tail in the channel was great. I did swim a little when I had the room and boy was it faster! In the center of the channel is a whirlpool and when it was void of people, I slipped in and went in circles.

There an older woman saw me and struck up a conversation. She asked the 5 Questions, then asked one I had never gotten before, "Can I take a picture of you? We are mermaid fanatics at home." I blinked, but smiled and told her sure. We managed to get out of the whirlpool and I moved to where the water is only about 1 foot. I sat there in the water and did a typical mermaid pose (reclined a bit at a 3/4 angle with a hand on my hip and my hair down) and she took a picture. She then asked for another with her grand daughter and a little girl no older than 3 hopped into the pool with me and giggling, she hugged me and posed for a picture.

I should have caught them in the locker room and asked for her to email me a copy of the pictures, but I wanted to make sure the little girl didn't see me without a tail so the illusion would not be ruined.


"Mermaid Sightings: Seeing is Believing"
( 3/20/2009)

Out on a short swim at the new pool, a man inquired about the tail. No biggie, I am used to this. He then called over his daughter to see my tail, and that I am used to as well. She didn't believe that I was a mermaid, though she could see the tail through the clear water. I just smiled and figured she was "too old" to believe (though I don't think you are ever to old to!).

She dashed off to get her swimming goggles, came back, hopped into my swimming lane, and ducked under for a peek. Here is when I expected her to pop up and mention the zipper, or the scales that have fallen off, or some of the other problems with my tail. Instead, she pops up, excited, and says, "You really ARE a mermaid!" I smiled and her dad said, "Of course! She swam up here through the Columbia River from the ocean just to meet you!" And at that point the girl, who had to be six or seven, looked even happier. Kids are so sweet.


"Mermaid Sightings: "Yeah... right..." "
(9/6/2009)

The fiancé and I went to the pool Friday afternoon. We had a lovely time and enjoyed a rare moment where the pool was nearly free of other community center patrons. Eventually, the pool for more crowded as people realized that the deeper pool was now open and they didn't have to just stay in the leisure pool.

We had the usual people asking about the tails (at least it's usual for me, I think he is still getting used to it), people telling their friends as though we couldn't hear them, and children putting on their goggles and dunking their faces in the water to see the merpeople.

One little girl was calling to her dad/guardian "There is a mermaid in the pool! There is a mermaid in the pool!" The dad sat down, literally 5 feet from where I was in the pool, on a bench and told the daughter, "Mermaid? Yeah... right..." She replied with "There IS! I swear!" He told her he didn't believe her and he looked away to check on someone else. If only he had looked a little to the left instead of around to the right...