Of Pearls and the Shape of the Arm

Of Pearls and the Shape of the Arm

Based on the folktale “The Little Mermaid”, by Hans Christian Anderson

It was time.

On each occasion of the coming of age of the Sea King’s daughters, they had been presented with a crown of water lilies, and in the center of each was a pearl. Seven lilies, and seven daughters, and a pearl to represent each. Yet, there were no longer seven. Only the youngest daughter was left to the Sea King, though they still kept the other lilies on the crown in memory of their lost loved ones. Much time had passed, but now the youngest decided she was ready.

When her sisters had ascended, and peeked their heads out of the water, they were taken with the sights of the human world. Their cities had a unique beauty to them: tall, shining buildings glittered like mother of pearl in the sun, and at night they would light up like the fish in the deepest parts of their kingdom. There was so much opportunity for them, each thought. And while each had stopped and admired the coast, each was struck down, the crowns pulled from their heads. No bodies were to be found for quite some time. When they did, they were horrified with what they saw; though their upper halves were still fairly intact, from the waist down their bodies had been cut away.

They had known that man ate their fish. But to eat the flesh of the mermaids was a high crime, one which they were to pay for with their lives. They would not tolerate them anymore.

It began slowly enough.

There were no more humans about on the sea anymore. They had learnt their lesson quickly.

Now, finally, they felt it would be safe for the last and youngest daughter to surface and see the wonders of the human world. For even if they were horrid creatures, their land was quite beautiful to the people of the sea, and foreign in a way they could never actually quite reach.

The occasion was a grand thing. They had crafted their finest crown yet, following the same design of her sisters’ crowns. Yet their seemed something grander in this one, and the way it looked on the head of the only remaining daughter. Her face was pale and light, like the full, lazing moon. And when she sang for the court, her voice was something quite otherworldly- a melody like a swift and clear breeze through the grass of the humans’ fields. It was with no small amount of worry she swam upward toward the surface. And when her face broke through the seeming barrier between the two worlds, she saw something quite amazing.

And she knew, then, that she had to become one of them.

She descended again and told her father about what she had seen. Her voice was kept soft and she made sure to watch her words. She omitted what she knew he would dislike hearing and smiled, brightly, sincerely. Then, she excused herself and went off to sleep.

In the middle of the night, when the entire palace was asleep except for the night watchmen, who stood firmly at their positions in the halls, she snuck out and went to the only person in the entire kingdom who would be able to help her.

She had heard of the stories from other kingdoms, of the princesses who gave up their fins to join the humans, chasing after their chosen love. At the time she had thought it ridiculous, and a little disgusting. She had seen what the humans could do, she thought. She had seen. And yet she was going to a sea witch for just the same purpose. She wanted to be human. She wanted legs so that she could go out onto the land without being killed, like her sisters. And as the daughter of the Sea King, she always got what she wanted. It would only take a little price that she would be willing to pay, if the result was that she could go up there. Sea witches were always up to doing such things, as their sense of humour, sadistic as it was, was sufficiently satisfied by the thing.

The process took just a few minutes. The deal had been made, and the results delivered, however quickly that was. And by the end of it she was one arm short of a life on land. The only thing she had to do now was reach the surface before drowning. And once she got there, she clung to some floating driftwood, and allowed herself to be washed up on shore, waiting for somebody to find her.
It happened fairly quickly, as it was.

They took her into some sort of moving land-ship. It was quite frightening, really, but she managed to keep herself calm in front of them and tried not to let her disgust show. They asked her how she lost her arm. Though she was not particularly in the mood for conversation, she replied: “A shark bit it off.” That silenced them, and the rest of the time was silent except for the chattering on the little box attached to the ship.
As for the rest, she simply couldn’t remember. From there, all she could see was darkness.


Being a princess of the kingdom of the people of the water, she had spent an extended amount of time simply attending the schooling her father scheduled for her, and tending to her gardens. The King had never let her go out into their cities. It wasn’t proper for a young princess to go out amongst the common folk. He had never warned her about how they worked, or the things they did. All he expected of her was that she be a good little princess and eventually be married of to a prince of another kingdom. Though, she should have seen it coming. Humans, after all, were evil to her, plain and simple.

And that naivety that her father prized was what got the youngest daughter of the Sea King, the heir to his throne and all of his land, his last hope for prolonging the reign of the royal family, sold into the underground slave trade.

What she saw, the simple twirling of swing dancers in a coastal park, lit up by the lights of the city, and shadowed by their heights, was never again seen by her.

She cried every night until the last day of her life was brought to an end.