"Peppermint Lake" Part 1

Sometimes what seems like the blessing can actually be a curse, and the other way around. Allyssa had learned that the hard way. She was 5 years old at the time that she made her wish, her wish to become a mermaid. And she had just finished watching a movie with her family about a red-headed mermaid who wanted to be a human.

Why would a mermaid want to become a human, instead of the other way around? Allyssa thought. I want to become a mermaid!

This became her obsession from then on, and over holidays and birthday gifts she redecorated her bedroom. From plain pink bed sheets to bed sheets with mermaids on them, a mermaid bedspread, mermaid pillowcases, rugs and curtains. Her backpack had a mermaid on it, and so did her pencil pouch and lunch pack. Her kitchen plates had mermaids, her toothbrush; everything was mermaid. And, on this, her eleventh birthday party, a mermaid themed birthday at the town pool, she made the same wish as she did every year. “I wish to become a mermaid,” and then blew out the candles.

In a few weeks, her dad would be off work and her family would take their annual camping trip to Lake Peppermint, which she always thought was a funny name for a lake. But there was green and white algae that floated along the shallow end of the lake, along with some tall red and white flowers, and that’s where it gained its name. One of the owners saw the lake as having a number of “peppermints” floating along its surface.

Once her dad parked and the family unloaded the minivan, Allyssa ran up to her room, the room with the mermaid on the wall, shut the door and tossed her backpack on the bed. She unzipped the outer pocket where her swimsuit was and quickly changed into it. She grabbed a towel from the bathroom down the hall and ran through the kitchen.

“Bye, mom! Going swimming!” she said and slammed the sliding glass and screen door hard behind her.

It was only a quick sprint down to the lake and the docks from the back patio, but she was eager to see her friends who would probably be at the beach by now. She ran along the side of the house and down the driveway and down the quiet road a little bit to where the beach was.

There, up ahead, the dark green lake glistened in the sunshine in front of her. Oh, how she missed it. Her bathtub at home never fully satisfied her, the water never went over her knees.

Even the big Jacuzzi tub in mom’s bathroom never did it for her. Sure, she could cover her knees and her head, and she could even hold her breath and slide her entire body under the bubbles, but she couldn’t move much to swim.

When her toes hit the lake water, Allyssa dove under. It was just a few more kicks before she’d reach the docks, there out in center, where the water was even deeper. Her head popped up as she noticed a group of boys that looked to be about her age. Paying no mind, she again dove under and she let herself do a dolphin kick in a circle around them. When she again came back up for air, the boys teased her.

“We saw you swimming, what do you think you are, a fish?”

One of the boys sucked in his cheeks to imitate a fish mouth.

Allyssa rolled her eyes, then dove under again, and did the same thing: she swam around the boys in a circle again, and came up to the surface, this time, slipping as her legs slipped along the ladder that would bring her onto the dock.

“Ha! You can’t even swim right!” another boy called.

“I swim fine!” Allyssa called back. “I’m a mermaid.”

Typical boys, they ignored what she said but she took it as a battle cry, of a sort. A proclamation. I’m a mermaid.

They surrounded her, splashing water at her face and snapping her bathing suit strap.

“Ouch!” She cried. “That hurt! Leave me alone!” She splashed water back in one boy’s face, and turned to swim away. This time, one of the boys grabbed at both of her legs and she inhaled water. Choking, she kicked hard. The boys grabbed her shoulders. “Help!” She shouted. The boys laughed but wouldn’t let her go.

“A mermaid tale would be strong enough to kick the crap out of us,” one of the boys said to the other.

“What are you talking about?” The other boy asked, loosening his grip on Allyssa.

“She SAID she’s a MERM–” Just then, bam! A swift kick to his head and she was free.

Allyssa dove under, she had to go deep enough so the boys couldn’t see where she was going. Adrenalin propelled her down deeper, and farther out from the docks, past the buoys that marked the safe swimming area, but she didn’t care. She was a mermaid, and mermaids could swim as far out as they wanted, couldn’t they?

When she came up again to the surface, she looked around. She was amazed how far she did swim! The boys and the dock were small in her sight compared to just a few minutes ago. She could hear a soft rumbling, maybe a jet ski in the distance, but it seemed far away.

Allyssa looked around. She really was a long way away and the water around her was dark, darker than she remembered; black. She bobbed up and down treading water, but all the surrounding water was still. She couldn’t see under the surface at all and realizing this and being so far away from the beach, even the docks, made her feel a little uneasy.

Just then she turned to head back in the direction of the docks, determined to swim back, and BAM- out of nowhere, something hit her head.

Everything went black, and the last sensation she felt was the cool black water enveloping her, her limbs limp, her head felt heavy as her body sunk, the weight of water making her body heavy and more apt to sink deeper, deeper, farther and farther down.