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Modern Mermaid Tale
10 years ago
General
Hello!
I wrote this story and I posted it but, I don't know how to post literature on here so I'm going to have it in this journal. Please tell me what you think. The assignment was to retell a fairy tale in modern time. I went with Disney's Littler Mermaid.
I wrote this story and I posted it but, I don't know how to post literature on here so I'm going to have it in this journal. Please tell me what you think. The assignment was to retell a fairy tale in modern time. I went with Disney's Littler Mermaid.
Modern Little Mermaid Tale:
Star was born with her legs joined together by skin and muscle. Her parents were immigrants with no health insurance. They feared the potential threat of debt and deportation if they allowed the doctor to separate her limbs. Arial grew up using her arms to walk, weather it was dragging her body across the carpet or pushing herself along on her wheelchair. At 10, her parents had officially become US citizens and began applying for health insurance. She longed to walk like the rest of the population in her city. She wanted to be able to dance, jump, run, leap, everything that can be done with legs. Despite her disability she was able to swim, she mastered the mermaid stroke, which earned her the nickname “mermaid” among her acquaintances at the YMCA, school, and friends of her parents. She despised that name. Mermaids were beautiful, majestic, whimsical, and deadly, she wasn’t either of those things. She wasn’t a mermaid. In her eyes she saw herself as disabled; a freak.
Pants weren’t a part of her wardrobe. Star settled for long skirts. She usually had them in various colors and prints. Try to bring brightness into her life as her mother usually said. Star kept her brown hair at a constant 16 inches and never wore make-up. Middle school wasn’t pleasant but then again it’s hell for every teenager in America, the clique forming, bullies ascending, the all-around trying to fit in. For Star middle school was worse than it was for most kids. She was still called “mermaid” but in a mocking tone.
In her sophomore year in high school, Star was 16 and began to save money for the surgery she one day planned to have. She was an exceptional artist, specializing in realism. All those years drawing herself and others with functional legs paid off. With her talent she offered to draw students, teachers, and anything upon request for a fee. She would sometimes sit in her wheelchair with a small sign at the few Farmer’s Markets hosted in her city. In red her sign reads, “Will Draw You in My Style.” There were always a few curious spectators, sometimes to look at her legs and not her art.
Her nickname stayed with her during high school. Whenever she rolled into her classroom or was eating lunch from her lap she would hear it leaving someone’s mouth. “Hey it’s the mermaid,” “How’s it goin’ mermaid?” or “People call you mermaid, right?” were a few ways she would hear that awful nickname aimed at her. Of course high school was better than middle school. She was able to acquire two friends who didn’t look at her as disabled. Sebastian and Franklin; were the only gay boys in her high school. Despite living in a state where gay marriage was legal, they still suffered prejudices from their fellow classmates. They gravitated to Star, seeing as she was different, in a different sense. They were close and enjoyed each other’s company. And what is high school without a few crushes. Star had a crush on a boy named Eric. She was his prince. He wasn’t the quarterback or the soccer ace. He was a G.A.T.E student. He attended extra curriculum classes, along with being the president of the model ships class. Just a dot on the spectrum compared to other students, however, there was no doubt he was one of the best looking guys in her school. What a lot of people didn’t know was he was on a rowing team. The team represented their city and completed in competitions. She discovered this by sitting by the river behind her home. He was practicing his rowing with two other boys. She waits by the river at the same spot every day with her homework, a book, or with Sebastian and Franklin.
One day in her Junior year, she was waiting at her usual spot by the river. It had been raining for the past week and the river had risen. She was sketching herself running along a beach side in a one piece. The sketch was rough. Eric rowed into sight. He only noticed her sitting there a handful of times. He didn’t notice her this time. Her heart pounded in her chest and the butterflies in her stomach fluttered out of their cocoons. He was alone. She watched tie rope to some weights. Star inched forward; she wanted to see what he was doing. She never saw him alone. He dangled his legs over the side of his boat and leaned forward. He followed with throwing the weights into the river; the rope attached to the weights was tied to his legs. He was pulled into the water. Star screamed his name. she threw herself off her wheel chair. She splashed forward into the river, after taking off her TOMS. Franticly swimming to the solitary row boat, she couldn’t see through the surface of the murky river. Star took a deep breath and submerged herself into the river. She couldn’t open her eyes in the dirty water. There was thrashing around her, a hand hit her face. Arms extended she felt Eric struggling to free himself. Star’s hands traveled down his body, patting him down for the rope’s grasp. Her air supply was diminishing quickly as she was sure Eric’s was as well. Once the knot at his ankles was found, her hands became her eyes. She could feel the way it was entwined with itself. She started tugging on a piece she felt would loosen the knot. She tugged on it violently. It didn’t work. She pulled on other parts of the knot. Finally she got it loose enough to pry the loop apart. Eric had stopped moving seconds as she finished. Star wrapped her arms around Eric’s chest and pulled him to the surface of the water. She gasped and pulled him to shore. She screamed for help, her voice was cracked with panic. Her vision was impaired by her long hair. Her legs struggled to keep them both afloat. She splashed her arm. Star was desperate to get him to safety. “MA! PA!” She screamed, finding her voice finally. She was able to feel the ground under the water, once closer to the fiver bank she used splashing arm to grab at the dirt. “MA! PA!” she screamed again. She pulled herself and Eric out of the water with one arm. “MAMI!! PAPI!!” she cried.
Eric laid unconscious at her side. She wasn’t certified to preform CPR, but she knew the premise. She listened for his heart beat, it was steady. She put her ears by his mouth and watched if his chest rose up and down. “¿que pasó?” she heard her father say running up. “Pa! Estaba ahogando” she told him. Her father pulled Eric toward him. He performed CPR.
An ambulance came for him. Star and her family followed the vehicle to the hospital. There she met his mother, just his mother. According to his mother, his actions were caused by his father’s death. Eric’s father was a fisherman; he went out to sea for months to bring back large hauls of marine life. He was thrown overboard by a wave and couldn’t be saved until it was too late. Eric’s mother thanked Star and her family.
Eric regularly spoke to her after she rescued him. Their casual talks were off and on. It was almost a dream come true. They continued through the rest of her high school years. Finally at the beginning of her Senior year, Eric obtained a girlfriend. He stopped talking to her by her locker and occasionally walked her to her class. Star came to the conclusion that he didn’t want her because she couldn’t walk. The search for a surgeon protruded her daily life at home. She had saved 784 dollars. She talked to Sebastian and Franklin about finding a female surgeon on craigslist. They told her it was a horrible idea and way to dangerous. Her desperation got the better of her. Star set an appointment with a woman named, Ursula.
After school on a Wednesday, she rode the public bus to an animal hospital. She understood the danger more clearly once she had arrived but, she wanted to walk. She wanted to walk with her family, her friends, and with Eric. She’s waited 17 years. It was time to walk toward the future. She wheeled into the building. No one was in the waiting room or at the front desk. She rang a service bell. A fat woman with white gelled hair emerged. She greeted star with a toothy grin. Ursula led her to a small dark room. “Let’s take some quick x-rays,” Ursula cooed. After the quick shots of radiation, Star was waiting on an operating table. Ursula returned with a face mask and scrubs. She put on rubber gloves and pulled out two needles from a drawer. Star began to feel sleepy. Ursula discarded the two empty needles.
Star’s parents became extremely worried once they realized she hadn’t returned home. Her father called Sebastian and her mother called Franklin. Both boys told them of what star was planning and that she was able to find a surgeon, they just didn’t know where at. Star’s mother being the more tech savvy one, looked at Star’s browser history and e-mails. She was able to obtain an address while her husband called 911. They took off to get their daughter back.
Eric’s mother was a patrol officer and was the first one at the scene. Star was still under anesthesia. Ursula had separated her legs rather professionally but, had removed one of Star’s kidneys. Ursula was wanted for arrest.
Star awoke at a hospital with her parents sobbing at her side. They were relieved to see her awake and well but, that didn’t stop them from yelling and lecturing her. A nurse got wind of their commotion and sent in Star’s doctor. He calmed down her parents and spoke to her about her actions. Tears dripped from Star’s brown eyes. They glittered with regret and pain. The doctor explained that her legs were successfully separated but would need to be re-stitched.
After a day from her second surgery Star was told to give a description of Ursula. Her arrest occurred when Eric saw her slinking around inside a wal-mart. He had seen the sketch from her mother. He quickly informed his mother through text, she was in another isle. Eric had kept a close eye on Ursula and when she got wind of him watching her she was able to run. Eric held onto her arm until his mother showed up and arrested her. She was trailed and sentenced to prison. Star was going to physical therapy and was slowly gaining the ability to walk. Eric began to speak with her again. It turns out her rival for Eric’s affection was using him for her own educational gain.
A week from graduation day, Eric asked Star on a date. It was a romantic date on his new row boat at the river she saved him from. He explained to her how stupid he felt for his actions and how he never noticed her as a potential partner in life. Star could only smile and tell him the truth. She’s always dreamt about him as her prince. They shared a kiss.
Kisa will forever have scars down her legs. Those scars didn’t matter. They didn’t remind her of her lost kidney. The scars singled her new found happiness.
The End
