The Little Lesbian Mermaid

Part 1: Under the Sea

The analogies that could be made about the ocean run deep. It's swirls and eddies and its crystalline waters that sometimes run red after sharks feed. Down there, where the coral shines orange and myths dance with the fish, there exists a palace. It's made of conch shells, coral, shipwreck hulls, discarded glass and everything in between and it is gorgeous. The queen lives there, wearing her crown made of rubies, plastic, and titanium. It shines over all that she rules.

Her son, the king, had lost his beautiful wife many years ago. She had been trying to save a human girl, but was instead hit with a plank of wood, and a whole cabinet full of china. The salt from his tears tainted the ocean for months after, and the water was colder for years. But the mother, who wore the ruby, plastic, and titanium crown took care of the kingdom. Under her rule, the merpeople flourished and the depths regained their temperature. The king was still bitter, but he took delight in his seven daughters, beautiful young maidens, who despite his sadness always made sure the palace windows were open. Their grandmother raised them to be intelligent and caring and not to hesitate to save humans, even though their mother had been killed that way.Their father objected and attempted to pull them from her grasp, but it never condensed into any real authority over the matter. Following like a school of fish, the grandmother and her granddaughters were a sight to see as their red, blue and purple, green and orange tails flicked behind them like a rainbow under the ocean. Of course none of them knew what a rainbow was. Their hair, was always braided delicately with small sea flowers, coral, or with seaweed, except for the youngest mermaid. She always wore her brilliant ginger hair down, and let it flow behind her, contrasting with the lapis lazuli and cerulean and cobalts of the ocean, prettier than any painter could capture. She was apt with her studies, but found the compassion her grandmother always taught her somewhat cumbersome.

While all of her sisters went and gossiped about, and revealed and courted young men, the youngest mermaid would spin out further, bringing with her a small leather pouch to collect shiny fallen objects.

One day, the grandmother gathered them close and told them with a smile larger than even a blue whale that she had a gift for each of them. Now, the youngest mermaid was only 8 at the time, but it would form one of her most vivid memories.

The grandmother told them about how when she was younger, before she had been given a merman in her womb, she was allowed to go up and gaze at what it was like to be above the bounding liquid of the ocean.

For weeks, the sisters would come gather at their grandmothers feet, listening attentively to all of the tales that their wise old grandmother had of what lay above them. Who could survive without good tuna, sand strewn floors and a glinting palace made of treasure, they wondered.

But as their anticipation grew, the youngest mermaid could feel her gills constricting. All of the things she had found from the human world, seemed to be made of death, and horror. Knives, and broken glass, and a piece of metal with "Tines." that she had deemed a dinglehopper.

Why did they wish to partake in such violence when all was calm in the depths, that were riddled with warm crevices and dolphins squeaks?

But her sisters didn't relent, and to the youths shock, when the oldest mermaid turned 15, she would be allowed to go above the sea line and observe for herself all of the things her lineage had taught her.

When the day came, the youngest asked, "Oldest sister, why are you choosing to immerse yourself in their violence?""

The oldest sister replied, a smile lighting her lips," My curiosity of green trees and the and apples that are brighter red than any coral overcomes whatever misgivings go on up there. "

And so, upon the dismal face of the youngest sister, whose ginger hair deflateed with morose, the oldest sister ascended to the land.

The day the next sister went, a year later, the youngest asked the same question,

And the second oldest sister admitted that, "Oh, the violence and hatefulness that occurs up there are all worth it for love. Grandmother says the men up there are handsome and have cheeks of rosey abundance, unlike the pale cheeks of all the suitors down here. Besides, our older sister will obtain the best match at her age ceremony. I am the second youngest, so it doesn't matter. "

And so, leaving the youngest sister to stare on in puzzlement, the second oldest sister pumped her cobalt tail to the surface.

Upon coming back she gushed about all the handsome men she had taunted and how funny it was to watch them drown as she played with them.

The violence was permeating the world under the sea, and the youngest could do nothing to solve it.

So, asked the third youngest sister, a year later the same question, "Third oldest sister, why do you choose to divulge in the violence that happens up above, just for the sake of curiosity?" The question had been altered so as to hopefully not receive a counter argument.

"Oh, I am not curious myself. I simply wish to fit in with my sisters. I want to see the red gold apple, and the green trees, and play with the men."

And so, the youngest, stared up as her golden locked sister disappeared above the waves, still just as confused as the last time.