My best friend is a mermaid

Can life imitate art?

I grew up watching the film The Incredible Mr. Limpet with Don Knots who loved the sea so much he actually turned into a fish. As an adult, I know that no one believes this is possible but as I gaze at the beautiful aquamarine, blue-green, and green-blue colors of the water in the local Marina Aquarium I have a secret that I have kept for years.

I recall episodes of The Twilight Zone where people who were dissatisfied left their current life to live in a different reality. In one show a man was fascinated with a woman in a doll house in a museum. He was convinced that she was real and that he was in love with her. One day when a guard looks inside the showcase window he realizes the man is now inside the big dollhouse living his dream life but he never tells anyone.

In another episode, an aging movie star watches her decades-old films day after day and wishes she could go back in time. One afternoon her maid and her good friend realize that she is now actually on the screen in the last movie she had been watching.

Depression leads to a fixation

On this day as I gaze into the aquarium, I think of The Little Mermaid who changed into a human and thought to myself that no one would believe me that a human could actually become a mermaid. I've held this truth so long that now I must get it off my chest even if everyone believes I am crazy.

My friend Sherry had been absolutely captivated by the sea from childhood. She learned to swim early but I did not. She joined the swim team in high school and won several competitions. She was always at the lake, the beach, or anywhere she could find water and would stand for hours fixated on the fish swimming at the giant local aquarium.

After a miscarriage and a divorce, Sherry seemed to give up on life and spent a lot of time at the aquarium gazing into the water. One day she actually told me that the sea was calling to her through that Aquarium and she would soon be a part of it.

A new direction takes an interesting turn

I encouraged my friend to seek mental health therapy but this only angered her. I also tried to get her into other activities to keep her away from the aquarium but the water world is where she found her solace. Sherry called me one day and was ecstatic as she shared that the local aquarium was hiring women to portray mermaids. She was hired and began swimming all day among the fishes as they floated by.

Sherry told me this was her dream job but her destiny and how she was one with the water and the sea creatures. She began telling me that one day she would make this sea world her permanent home and I became worried. Sherry was an only child and her parents were deceased. She had an aging aunt in another state and was not really close with anyone from her former job or her church.

I could not convince her to seek medical help and there was no one to tell as she did not get along with her former spouse or inlaws. Sherry had been working at the aquarium for three months along with two other women who alternated as the mermaid when one day everything changed. I was heading to work and found a note on my vehicle from my friend.

Fantasy becomes reality

Sherry told me she had been investigating black magic, witchcraft, and voodoo on the internet and met a man who said he was a shaman and could make her dream come true. She said that after paying money and going through certain rituals she would turn into a real mermaid. I knew my friend had lost her mind and needed help.

I called my job and told them I had a family emergency and raced to the aquarium because it was Sherry's day to work. When I arrived I was told she had called in and another woman took her place. Sherry never went back to her apartment or her job and no one knew what had happened to her. I filed a missing person report but deep down I knew it would do no good.

Sherry had been messing with the dark arts and one of two things had taken place. Either she was murdered or like Mr. Limpett and the two characters on the Twilight Zone she had gotten her wish. I began to dream that Sherry was calling out to me and I wondered if it were from the grave or the sea. The closest ocean was three hours away and what I was thinking was too fantastical until something happened a week later.

Sherry gained her dream world but did she lose her soul?

The news said there that people visiting the beach had begun reporting seeing a mermaid and I knew what I had to do. I planned a trip to the beach with my husband and children on my next weekend off and while they were all playing in the sand I went closer to the water. I made sure no one else was around me and I began calling out to Sherry. I waited about two minutes when I saw a ripple in the ocean waves about 20 feet away.

it was not long before I recognized Sherry's face and her long brown hair pop up about 5 feet from shore. I was stunned and could not believe what I was seeing but there she was. My childhood friend had been changed into a mermaid and I knew no one would believe me. She recognized me, waved her hand and dove back into the sea.

I have kept this secret for 10 years now and on trips to the beach I often sneak off away from my family and call out to my childhood pal. She always surfaces long enough to acknowledge me then back she goes to live her dream life. I wonder however at what real cost did Sherry obtain her fantasy and if it will require her mortal soul.