Carmelia and the Mermaid
By: Bailey Reimer

 

The door slowly opened.  A girl, about thirteen, peeked in room number 217 at the Easder Academy.  A man named Susheel, although he would be known as Headmaster later, told the girl that this was going to be her new room at the academy.  The girl seemed calm as if she didn’t care about his statement, but deep down she was really nervous.  She had left all of her old friends at her old school, and she did not want to make a fresh start.  That girl’s name was Carmelia.  That was one year ago.

 

“Hey, wake up!” a girl screamed from the hall.  Carmelia sat up and groan-ed.  She glanced at her watch, almost expecting it to be three in the morning and that this was a dream.  Upon noticing that it was really nearly six, she jumped out of her bedpod, because her next class started in only a half-hour.

 

“Rise and shine!” the girl screamed again.  Carmelia knew her to be Umbrella, the only friend she had made in the long twelve months she had been at the academy.  Umbrella opened room 217’s door with the key Carmelia had given her only a week before, and started going through her closet to choose what she was going to wear for the day.  She slowly stumbled out of her bedpod and proceeded to brush her teeth with her Wally the Whale toothbrush, a Christmas present from her little sister, Carrya.  Oh, how she wished that she were at home with her right now.  She got dressed, strapped on her airpack, (a device in which a special plant grew that produced numerous quantities of oxygen, so that the user could breathe although they were underwater) and headed out the door.

 

Carmelia trudged into class at 6:43, only thirteen minutes late.  The teacher didn’t bother to scold her, because it had happened so many times before.  At the time, Teacher Marnie was passing out last week’s pop quiz.

 

“Corrections on this quiz will be due on Tuesday.  I am afraid that many of you will be severely disappointed with your grades.  By the way, Caroline, congratulations on being the only one in this class to get an A.” 

 

Carmelia wasn’t expecting a good or even passing grade on this quiz, but  the large red F on her quiz surprised her.  She had tried her best, but she was afraid that her parents would be very disappointed with her.  At her old school they never would have even found out, but here her parents got weekly updates on her grades.  One more thing she hated about her new school.
The day seemed as if it would never end.  Once she even threw her watch at a wall to make sure that it was working correctly.  By the time the day was over, she was absolutely sure that she would never like the academy again.

 That night, she threw herself onto her bedpod and was grateful she would not have to face a teacher for two whole days.  She fell into her bedpod after finishing her homework and fell asleep almost instantly.

 

The next morning, she received a call from her parents.  She expected the call; they called nearly every Saturday to discuss her grades.  What she did not expect is what they told her.

 

“Honey, we’re getting you a tutor.  I know that you think you’re doing just fine without help, but it can’t hurt.  It’s just an extra boost.  Besides, Mitchal- um, Dad, - agrees with me.  You’ll start not this Thursday, but the next with Lindly,” she said.  She tried to make it sound sincere, but if you were listening you would be able to tell that she was very worried about her daughter.

 

“Mom, no! I refuse to be taught by any other person just because you thought that I couldn’t handle boarding school in the first place.”

 

“Carmelia, this will work out.  Trust us.”

 

This went on for an hour or so.  They discussed possible alternatives, but this seemed to Carmelia’s parents to be the only thing that would work.  It had seemed that the week could not get any more awful, but somehow it had.  Even Umbrella hadn’t been able to comfort her, although she normally could.  The headmaster either noticed her sadness, or Umbrella had told him, but either way, he came to talk to her.  He was not much help either.

 

On Sunday, she decided to move on.  She couldn’t stay in her room hating herself forever.  Besides, she was just overreacting.  Was it even that big of deal? she asked herself.  She finally forced herself to get over it. She got out of her  bedpod, and went to visit Umbrella.  Her best friend of one year was extremely surprised to see her out of her gloomy state.  Umbrella muted the television program that was on as she walked into the room.

 

 As Carmelia walked into the room, Umbrella said, “Glad to see that you’re up!  I thought you would never get out of that slump.  Come watch this documentary with me- I think we’ll have to watch one for science soon so I’m taking notes.”  Then, suddenly a notice popped up on the television.

 

“We interrupt this broadcast to alert you of an event that is important.  Please stand by,” the computer voice from the television said.

 

“I hate these,” Umbrella said to Carmelia, but her friend wasn’t listening.  She was already mesmerized by the television broadcast that had just come on.  It seemed uninteresting to Umbrella, but to Carmelia, it seemed fascinating.

 

The broadcast was on mermaids.  Not actual mermaids, but the possibility of mermaids living in the area of Easder.  Experts said that it was impossible, but there recently had been “sightings” of mermaid-like creatures around the Easder diamond mines.

 

Carmelia watched with interest.  Umbrella studied her friend.  “What is so interesting about a news report on ocean creatures?”  Umbrella asked suspiciously.

“Nothing,” Carmelia replied.  She was lying, or course, she found it very interesting indeed.  But now was not the time to describe why she felt this way to her friend.  She had more important things to do.  “I-I gotta go,” she said, right before she ran out the door of room 216.

 

It took her no time to get back to her own room, even though she didn’t run.  She knew exactly what she needed to do.  Well, she didn’t need to do this, it just felt right.  Sometimes things were like that to her; they just felt like they needed to be done, and she couldn’t explain it.  She nearly jumped onto her Complab computer and immediately brought the Internet up.  It took her  no time at all to start researching everything there was to know about the new creature.

 

*                       *                       *

 

            Before Carmelia knew it, Wednesday was here.  Was it a good thing or a bad thing?  She could not decide.  It was good, because, well, she was past the whole parent confrontation incident, and she no longer felt bad about it.  It was also a bad thing, because it meant there was only one more day before the dreaded tutor meeting, which she could not bear to think about.  It would be torture, no doubt about that.  She was still debating whether or not she should even go.

 

            On Wednesday morning, she dragged herself out of her bedpod, just like she always did.  She brushed her teeth.  She got dressed.  She stuffed her homework in her backpack, not even stopping to care that she had almost ripped her math worksheet in half.  She was afraid that she was going to be late again, not that it really mattered.  She met Umbrella outside in the hall right on time, surprisingly.  On the way to their first class, which they shared, they talked about their names.  Carmelia had always wondered about Umbrella’s  name.

 

            “Well,” Umbrella said, “I think I was born at about, oh, 11:30 at night.  The name list hadn’t been updated yet, and my mom always tells me that it was either Umbrella or Houdini, so I should be grateful.”

 

            The naming process in their country of Pacifica was very interesting.  The supercomputer, found in the capitol of Pacifica, compiled a list of all the names not taken at 12:00am each day. There were no two people with the same name in all of Pacifica.  Every time a person died, their name would be put on a list that would be put on the supercomputer at 12:00 that day. Whenever a baby was born in a hospital, a list of names would pop up on the screen, and the parents would hurry and pick one before the good ones were taken.  Therefore, babies born in the day had a great advantage over the ones born at night.

 

            “I hate my name,” Carmelia said.   “It doesn’t fit me at all, and it sounds like something a little kid would name their dog.  It’s stupid.”

 

            “Well, be grateful you aren’t called Umbrella or something equally as pointless!”

 

            At this point, both friends started laughing.  They walked into class giggling, and the teacher, Teacher Marnie, wasn’t upset.  In fact, she was glad that Carmelia was happy, since she still felt guilty for some odd reason about the whole test ordeal.  Carmelia took her seat next to Caroline and prepared herself for a long day of learning.

 

            The day went smoothly, which was a first for this month.  She received no bad grades, and in one of her classes, a teacher even used her as an example of how a student should act in class.  Carmelia felt very proud of herself, and, since she was in a good mood, decided to go to the tutor and explain that she was just in a bad mood that day and was really not in need of a tutor.  But when her parents called late that night, she completely changed her mind.

 

            “Hi, honey!” said the voice on the phone.  She was grateful for the new technology that allowed all the messages to be displayed on a computer screen, as well as a video of the caller.  This time was excited to see that it was her dad, instead of her mom that always called.

 

            “Looking forward to your tutor meeting tomorrow?  Don’t worry; it’s going to be just fun and educational!  Remember your old babysitter, Macline?

 

            “Sure,” she told her father.  Truthfully, she had no idea what he was talking about, and thought that it had no relevance to the subject.

 

            “Well, Macline’s daughter is your tutor!  Isn’t that just swell?  Do you remember her?  She was the best helper for you!  Well, you’ll have a dandy time! Bye!”

 

            Her dad hung up, and his picture disappeared from her computer screen.  That was just like her dad; be overexcited and then hang up before she could say bye.  At least he wasn’t like her mom who could tell if she was paying attention from a hundred miles away, and that was about how far the boarding school was from her home.  She started to research the mermaid creature that she had been so interested in, but gave up after she found out that she was too tired to even type what to search for.  She decided that none of this even mattered enough to think about tonight when s she was so exhausted, she fell into her bedpod to sleep.

 

            The next morning was like any other morning; she woke up late (due to excessive pressing of the snooze button) got dressed quickly, and met Umbrella in the hall.  This morning Carmelia was unusually quiet, but she just had other things on her mind.  She could not stop thinking about the tutor meeting after school that day.

 

            School went smoothly again, and Carmelia thought that something strange must have been going on since she had had two good days of school in a row.  That never happened.  But as the day wore on after school, it got progressively worse.  When she got home, she flipped on the television built into her computer and saw another news report on that strange creature.  Although she had been doing research on it, she had not found anything useful.  It seemed that no one while in the world lived above the ocean had discovered anything about it, and no one while living in the ocean had ever actually seen one until now.

 

            The news report was about another sighting.  Some feeble old man had been out goochyfishing, even though it was illegal to hunt this jellyfish-like creature, and had seen something glittery off in the distance.  He had gone and inspected it, and found it to be the creature, or mermaid as they were calling it now.  He had run to the DOOC (Department Of Ocean Creatures), but not after snapping away about fifty photos of the “mermaid”.  Carmelia was questioning that this was not intentional.  Who carried a camera into the area the mermaid was sighted without intending to take pictures of it?

 

            Then, suddenly, there was an update on the story.  It was the queen’s reaction.  Normally Carmelia wouldn’t have cared at all about what their queen said, but this was different.

 

            “Well, I don’t really believe any of this nonsense,” Queen Aveline said, “but if this ‘mermaid’ creature is really out there, I intend to kill it.  It seems extremely dangerous, since it is human-like.  There is no reason for keeping it in existence.”

 

            Carmelia was furious.  No reason to keep it in existence?!  What does that mean?  It was an innocent mermaid, or whatever it was.  How could she help it, since she had her tutor meeting tonight?  She surprised herself when she saw that she had intended to go to it all along.  She didn’t have to go, right?  Another news report came on, saying that it was near Easder’s diamond mines, and search parties would go out in the morning. She was furious, but now she knew what she had to do: she had to go find it.

 

            Twenty minutes later, but still only an hour before she was supposed to be at the meeting with Lindly, she was sitting on her bedpod going over what she needed.  She had her airpack, because she couldn’t forget that; without it the ocean water could choke her in five minutes.  She wondered how the mermaid survived without air.  She had pulled her light brown hair back in a ponytail, to keep it out of her eyes so she could see clearly.  She had brought a camera, because if she saw the mermaid she would want to take pictures.  She didn’t bring a map, because once she had to walk to the mines, and knew the way very well.  And she had brought food, because she had no idea how long she would be there. 

 

            She finally left.

 

*                       *                       *

 

            An hour and a half later, she arrived at the mines.  She found, to her dismay, that it was locked up.  She would have to climb the fence.  She, for the first time in her life, was grateful for the fact that in physical education you had to learn rock climbing.  She had never thought that it would be useful.  She quickly scurried up the fence, but got a cut on her leg.  It stung terribly, but she continued.  It wasn’t deep, anyway.  She got to the other side of the fence and proceeded into the darkness beyond the mine.

 

            She took out her flashlight and about fifteen minutes into her expedition, a she realized she could be within five feet of the mermaid and not see it.  It was so dark.  She felt a twinge of fear and almost turned back, but remembered that however afraid she felt it would not compare to how scared the mermaid was, and that made her continue on.  It seemed that it took forever to get anywhere.  She was confused and kept going in circles.  About three hours after she arrived at the mine, she ate some of her food.  She continued for another few hours, but then had to take another break.  Exhaustion overwhelmed her, and at about 12AM, a whole five hours after she left, she sat down and fell asleep.

 

            Carmelia woke up before it was light out again.  She realized that before long, she would not be the only one searching for the mermaid, and realized she had to turn back.  It was sad that she wouldn’t find it.  She slowly stood up, but found that something was wrapped around her leg.  She looked, but she could not make out what it was in the dark.  She grabbed for her flashlight.   While staring at her legs, she turned  it on and pointed it at her leg, and gasped in horror.  Clutching onto her leg was undoubtedly what was supposed to be the mermaid, but it was really a young girl that looked almost a frightened as she was.

 

            “Ahhhh!” they both screamed at the same time.  Apparently, when the young girl had fallen asleep, she had not known that Carmelia was there.

 

            “Who-who are you?” the young girl stammered.

 

            “No, who are you?” Carmelia asked.

 

            “Sumara, I’m Sumara.”

 

            “Well, I’m Carmelia.”  There was an awkward silence, as if neither of them knew what to say to one another.  Finally, Carmelia spoke.

 

            “We have to get out of here.  There are out to get you, seriously.  They think you are some kind of creature; a mermaid, I think, and you have to come with me so you can be safe.  Trust me, we aren’t even supposed to be in here.  We have to get out of her right now.”     

 

            The little girl, called Sumara, yawned and tilted her head to the side.  She shook her head slowly and then slowly lowered herself back onto the ground and proceeded to doze off.  It took Carmelia a second to comprehend what Sumara meant by shaking her head, but then she realized it: she didn’t want to go back.

 

            “You have to go!” Carmelia practically screamed in protest.  “There’s no reason not to.  Wake up.  Come on.  If we hurry, we can probably get back to my school in two hours or so.  If you get tired, I can carry you.”  Sumara reluctantly agreed.  Two hours later, like she had promised, they were back in room 217 at Easder Academy. 

 

            Carmelia laughed out loud.  If she really wanted to, she still could make it to class!  But she knew that she couldn’t go.  She would have to leave soon, because if she waited much longer to leave again, she would encounter Umbrella in the hall, waiting for her to go to school with her.  This would definitely not be a good idea, especially with Sumara.  She could not risk having anyone see her, because with her air mask on, it would be obvious that she was going outside rather than to class.  They had to set out again right now, but this time she was going to visit the queen.

 

            Carmelia was especially glad she had done her research.  She knew that the queen did not allow visitors, but she was hoping that she could be an exception.  She did have something very interesting to show her, after all.  She also knew that the queen would go outside for her morning walk at exactly 6:00 AM, so if she left now, she might make it before she got back.  That would give them a giant advantage, she realized.  She outside and on her way before she truly realized what she was doing.

 

            “What are we doing?”  Carmelia said to herself.  She was hoping that she just wasn’t leading Sumara to her death, because then it would be all her fault.  Before she knew it, they were in front of the queen’s capeta, or castle, and she was walking up the doorsteps.

 

 

 

 

 

*                       *                       *

 

            Not so long after, a man named Susheel saw a young girl with a friend exit the building.  He thought he recognized them, but thought that it must have been his imagination or his dwindling eyesight.  “No”, he thought, “it wouldn’t be her.  She would be in school.”  He soon realized that something was wrong, as the older girl seemed to be crying, and the younger one seemed to have absolutely no idea what was going on.  Susheel put it all behind him and decided to continue his duties as headmaster of Easder Academy.

 

*                       *                       *

 

            Carmelia opened the door to the beautiful capeta.  From the maps she had studied, the queen’s quarters would be on the right, unless they had changed in the last several months.  She seriously doubted that.  Once she walked in, she realized that her task would not be easy.  The building was beautiful, but not very well laid out.  There were many intricate carpets ornamenting the floor with complex designs, making the building look even more confusing.  She turned to the right and started up the nearest staircase, hoping that the guards did not think anything of it.

 

            Once she reached a stunning door with a diamond doorknob, Carmelia removed her airpack and placed it on the airpack-hanger near the door.  She was incredibly nervous, and it took her a moment to muster enough courage to knock on the attractive door.  At first, she thought that the queen had not heard her, and so she decided that she needed to knock again, but as she reached out to knock again, the door opened.  Upon seeing that it was the queen, she dropped to the floor and bowed.  When Sumara saw that Carmelia had bowed, she dropped to the floor and proceeded to do the same.

 

            “And who desires to have my attention?” the queen said in a harsh voice.

 

            “I do, your majesty Queen Aveline.  May I speak to you about the mermaid sightings?”

 

            “Well, if you must, I suppose that I could spare a moment of my precious time discussing that.  Come on in, but leave the younger girl outside, because she does not seem to respect me fully.”

 

            “Thank you very much, your majesty.   I am extremely sorry about her disrespectfulness, but this is her first time,” Carmelia paused,” in this area. I heard that you sent out a search party to the mine to hunt for the creature?”

 

            “Yes.  And I really should not be talking about this quite yet, but I have found the creature.”

 

            Carmelia was astonished.  Was Sumara not the real mermaid?  Had she just found some little lost girl?  Was this all just a part of her imagination?

 

            “What did you do to the creature?” Carmelia questioned.

 

            “We have released it.  We did not find anything wrong with the creature, and it seemed that it was not at all like the pictures we had seen, or how we imagined it.”

 

            Carmelia sighted a sigh of relief.  Sumara was what they had been looking for, and the queen had given up her search for the mermaid.  She could leave.  “Thank you very much for your time,” Carmelia said, and before she could respond she headed out the door to go home.

 

            As she left the capeta, she started crying for what she thought was no reason.  But then she realized: she was happy.  Her friend did not have to be locked up-or worse, killed.  Then she had a new question: what was Sumara going to do once she got back to school?  But the answer was fairly simple, after all. 

 

*                       *                       *

 

            For the second time today, Carmelia approached a door.  For the second time today, she extremely nervous.  For the second time today, the decision on the other side of the door’s decision could affect her life forever.  The only difference she could detect, and this was a minor one, was that the doorknob was made out of glass instead of diamond.  The nameplate on this door did not say Queen Aveline, but Headmaster Susheel.

 

            This time, Carmelia had Sumara knock for her.  She was too overwhelmed by this day that she did not know if she would be able to bring herself to knock.  When the door opened, no harsh voice followed, but instead the voice was concerned and shocked.  Yet, he only said one sentence, “Where have you been?”

 

            “Well…”

           

            “Never mind, I already know.  Umbrella was shocked this morning when she entered your room and realized that you weren’t there, but she assumed that you had left early.  None of your teachers saw you anywhere, and so when I saw a girl that looked like you at the queen’s capeta, I realized that it must be you.”

 

            “Since you know-can she stay here?”

 

            “Of course.  I can’t deny you of that after you have been working so hard for what you believed in.  Now go back to your studies, both of you,  at least back to your dorm, room 217.

 

            Sumara turned around and walked out the door, but Carmelia couldn’t leave yet, with so many things left unanswered.  She remained with her feet firmly planted on the floor, much to the Headmaster’s surprise.  “I said go back to your studies,” Carmelia heard Headmaster say.

 

            “What do you know about Sumara that I don’t?  That you can’t tell me?   Please, I really want to know!” she said.

 

            “I guess you have a right to know, after going through all of this.  What a surprise it must have been, seeing Sumara.  No one has seen her in many years.  An old friend of mine, Atriena, had a daughter that was kidnapped at a very young age.  They gave up hope on finding her after a day or so, since the satellites couldn’t pick her up.  They never explained it to their only other daughter who was just one year older than her.  They thought that it wouldn’t do any good.  Once she reentered the country, the satellites picked her up once again, I knew that she must be back in the country, but no one could know exactly where she was.  Kidnapping is so unusual now days, and that is why they invented the mermaid story.  They knew that society couldn’t accept it if they knew that there were still criminals living among us.  Also, Sumara will most definitely be going to the academy, and she could share a room with you, if you would like.”

 

            “Sumara…she’s…she’s…”

 

            “Your sister,” Headmaster finished for her.

 

            Carmelia knew that it was now time to leave.

 

            On the way to her Pacific History class, she wondered why Susheel knew all of that, about kidnapping and everything.  But she decided that it didn’t really matter, and she just needed to focus on school.  She remembered that her parents would not be pleased that she skipped her tutor meeting, but oh well.  She could get better grades and regain her parents’ trust.  Anyway, her parents couldn’t really be mad at her if she had rescued their daughter, could they?  Even if they still were mad, she could just try to start over.  Yes, she decided, that would be the best idea.

 

            Sumara met with her after school in the cafeteria.  She was so sweet, Carmelia thought.  She hoped that she enjoyed her new school, but most importantly, her new friend.  While Carmelia lead Sumara to her dorm room, she thought about just how lucky she was.  There was only one more thing on her agenda to do before everything was straightened out- she wanted to hear Sumara’s side of the story.

 

            The door of her dorm room creaked as she opened it, and she peeked inside.  She saw Sumara sitting on her bed, staring blankly at the wall.  Sumara saw the look on Carmelia’s face and immediately knew that she knew everything that she had known for so long.

 

            “They-the kidnappers-took me away to Scotasia, the neighbor country, when I was very little, too little to remember any of this.  When I was old enough, they told me I had a real sister named Carmelia, and a real mother, and a real father somewhere, but they didn’t love me anymore.  I knew that they did for some reason, so I knew that I must escape.  I left one day and went back into the country of Pacifica, and hid by the mines.  The authorities knew I was there, of course, and it was just a matter of time ‘til they took me home.  The queen immediately knew who I was, so she quickly made up the story about finding the creature, and that is what she’ll tell everyone on the news sometime soon.”

 

            Carmelia stared in awe at Sumara, thinking about her amazing story.  She thought that she had it hard!  They both just seemed to think about this for a minute, until finally Sumara spoke, ”Let’s go eat lunch.”

           

            “Great idea!” Carmelia said.

 

*                       *                       *

 

            Nearly two months had passed since that strange Friday, but not everything was quite back to normal, and she was not sure that it would ever be.  Sumara was now going to Easder Academy along with Carmelia, and she shared a room with her.  Sumara was taking classes with the kinderteens, or the fifth year of school in Easder. Carmelia had many friends now that she had no trouble keeping, but she knew that Sumara and Umbrella were true friends that had started it all.  Without them, well, she didn’t even want to think about what would have happened.  It was a great feeling to be appreciated.   Six weeks had passed since Carmelia had gotten a bad grade on a paper, and her parents were extremely proud.  She crawled into her bedpod one Thursday night, and was surprised by the fact that it was two months ago that she had rescued Sumara.  She fell fast asleep.

 

            The next morning she got out of her bedpod, but this time she wasn’t late, nor was she dreading school.  She thought about waking up Sumara, but decided to let her sleep in for another five or ten minutes.  Report cards were coming out today, but she wasn’t nervous like she would normally be.  She went to the window and watched the faint glow of the sun above the ocean rise up, and she was eager for the day to start.  For the first time in a long time, she realized, she was truly happy.