The Mermaid Who was Afraid of the Air

Once there was a mermaid named Leonora. Now, one difference between mermaids and humans is that mermaids can breathe in both air and water. However, for them, breathing in water comes as naturally as breathing air for humans, but breathing in air is a skill which requires practice for mermaid. Most merparents think it´s very important for merchildren to learn how to breathe above water, lest they one day drown, so as soon as Leonora was big enough, her parents signed her up for breathing lessons taught by the very prestigious Madame Sea Turtle.

¨All right, Ladies,¨ said Madame Sea Turtle blowing on her conch whistle. ¨The secret to breathing air is to use those two things beneath your chest called lungs. Inhale and Exhale. Let the oxygen pass through and circulate. You´ll find that if you breathe deeply, the air flows better.¨

¨Madame,¨ called out an excited mermaid named Loreli. ¨Will we meet any humans if we go up to the surface today?¨

¨Possibly,¨ said Madame Sea Turtle.

¨And is it true that a human can breathe underwater if one of us kisses him.¨

Madame Sea Turtle rolled her eyes because she had been teaching mermaids for quite some time and had come to expect this. ¨It is true. A mermaid´s kiss can make a human breathe underwater for a minute or two, but if you want him (or her) to stay under longer then that, you have to kiss him more times.¨ Not that mermaids have a problem with that, she thought to herself. ¨Now, if there are no more questions, we can go to the surface. Octavio!¨

Octavio was Madame´s assistant Octopus. When Madame called for him he wrapped a tentacle around each of the young mermaids including Leonora, who didn´t like the way that felt at all. In fact, she now was feeling quite nervous.

¨On the count of three, Octavio will put your heads above water. One. . .Two. . .Three.¨

Leonora sputtered as she felt her body being pushed out of the water. Most of the other mermaids sputtered too. But soon they got used to it and when they did, Octavio released them so that they could swim and play But near the surface.

Leonora didn´t get used to it. She cried. ¨Please. . .Please. . .¨until Madame finally allowed Octavio to pull her down.

¨I´m afraid your parents are going to get a bad report,¨ said Madame Sea-Turtle.

Indeed, Leonora´s merparents were not happy when they heard about this. Her mermama fretted and wondered what to do. Her merpapa offered to buy her a new clam-shell necklace if she learned to put her head in the air, but that just made Leonora feel worse.

Actually, her parents weren´t the worst of it. Pretty soon the whole school knew that Leonora was afraid of the air. Some of her friends tried to help her by telling her about the wonderful things they saw on the surface and the fun humans that they met. But most of her friends just made fun of her and called her names like minnow.

One day, Leonora was out swimming by herself when she saw someone struggling in the water. She drew closer and saw that it was a human boy about her age. He looked like he was drowning. Luckily, Leonora remembered what she had been told about humans. She swam over and kissed him on the cheek.

¨Help. Help,¨ he cried. ¨I can´t swim.¨

¨I just kissed you. You should be able to breathe under water for a few minutes.¨

¨Oh,¨ said the boy as if suddenly realizing that this was true. ¨Thank you.¨

¨Can you swim to the nearest shore?¨

¨I told you I can´t swim,¨ said more ashamed, this time, then alarmed.

Leonora sighed. ¨I´ll see if I can push you to the shore.¨ Luckily, he didn´t weigh much in the water, so she could. When they reached the shallow water, she took a deep breath and gave him a push onto dry land. ¨You really should learn to swim,¨ she said ruefully.

The boy looked at the ground in shame. ¨You sound like my parents. They´re trying to make me learn to swim.¨

¨Well, why don´t you?¨

¨I don´t like putting my head underwater. It´s scary.¨

Now Leonora couldn´t help laughing. ¨That´s a silly thing to be afraid of.¨

The boy looked even sadder. ¨I know. Everyone at school makes fun of me and calls me names.¨

That made Leonora feel a little guilty. After all, she had been afraid of putting her head above water.

And thinking about that made Leonora realize something else. She had been above water for a good five minutes already and she didn´t mind it. In fact, the more she thought of the air passing through her lungs, the more she liked it. That made her feel different about the boy. ¨Hey,¨ she said putting an arm around the boy. ¨I´ll bet you´d like being underwater, if you just got used to it. I have an idea. I can kiss you so that you can breathe underwater. Then, you can try dunking or even swimming.¨

The boy still looked nervous about the idea, but Leonora convinced him.

Pretty soon, the boy was putting his head underwater by himself and even swimming.

Leonora felt pretty good about that. She went back to see this boy often. And once when she was visiting him at the shore, she noticed a familiar sea turtle and octopus watching her. The sea-turtle rolled her eyes and said to the Octopus. ¨I should have known this would do it.¨