A Trip to the Aquarium

“I wanna see the sharks!”

“Yeah! Sharks!”

A set of squealing voices accompanied by the squeak of sneakers on linoleum cut into the buzz of aquarium patrons. No one even glanced at the wandering quartet- two hopping, skipping boys trailed by two chatting moms. The lively group followed blue signage marking the way to the exhibit declared to be their next destination. The closer they got to Shark Alley the more times Leah had to remind Caleb to walk,

“Honey, please, I don’t want you to fall on your face.”

Caleb said nothing to indicate he was listening but he did stop running; Though it turned his gait into a stiff-legged shuffle. It was Leo who first pointed out that their group had arrived at the exhibit as his friend was distracted by the effort of not running. The two moms and their sons paused in the entrance of the exhibit for a long moment. They took in the sprawling length of glass enclosed water.

“It’s a little eerie, isn't it?” Heather, Leo’s mom, scanned the room with raised brows, “All I can think about is that there’s just that glass separating us from 225,000 gallons of water and shark, but it seems like this is a pretty popular exhibit.”

Leah, looked at Heather, a little bemused, “225,000 gallons of water, huh?” Heather laughed and held up the welcome pamphlet they received upon entering the museum,

“That’s what the museum says anyway, that ‘Shark Alley’ is a 225,000 gallon exhibit with three featured sharks and two stingrays.”

Leo and Caleb had been listening intently as they stared in awe at their surroundings.

“C’mon! Let’s go find the biggest shark!”

“Boys, boys, boys!” Leah held them with her voice before they could dash off and pointed to a nearby bench. “We are going to be over there, come over to us or shout if it’s an emergency.”

With that Caleb and Leo left their moms to walk to the bench, trotting to the nearest expanse of glass. Leo pressed his face to the glass, breath creating fog, “Oh oh, is that a shark over there?”

Caleb joined Leo in pressing hands and face against the glass, staring into the depths of the water.

“Woah!” Caleb leapt back from the tank as a large form tore past them, cutting through water. Leo and Caleb looked at eachother, shaky smiles replacing purely startled expressions. Leo was the first to speak again, “That was kinda scary!” Caleb nodded in agreement and returned to pressing as close as possible to the aquarium glass. When Leo spoke again, he didn’t turn towards his friend, eyes drowning in the man-made abyss. “Caleb, you don’t think the glass will break, do you?” Caleb looked at Leo in his periphery and felt an unease scritch at him like a shirt tag itching at the back of his neck, slowly filling his whole body with uncomfortable awareness. His mind and body seemed to produce the response he was looking for without his instinct seeming to have much say in the matter. Just as he had seen one of his moms do so often at home, he made a fist, gently rapped on the thick glass, and said, “Nah, it’s solid.” Then, feeling once more in control of his body, he playfully bumped shoulders with Leo, “C’mon, let’s see what we can see from over here.” The two boys left their spot to trot to the furthest edge of the Shark Alley tank and peer, once again, into the salty depths. Leo, excitement replacing worry, pointed eagerly at a slowly drifting form.

“Oh oh, Caleb, look! It’s a stingray!” Caleb saw the stingray and was impressed, but he found his eyes automatically drawn to another drifting shape in the water. It drifted closer but his mind struggled to process what he was seeing.

“Leo…” He whispered, “Do you see that, behind the stingray?” Leo squinted, then gasped.

“A girl!?” He cried out loudly enough to draw the amused attention of some adults around them. Startlement and confusion sounding much like betrayal and disgust to those not privy to the boys' conversation.

“Shush!” Caleb hissed, eyes reflecting the oceanic re-creation before them, “She’s coming closer.” The boys watched as the lithe girl swam ever nearer. Once she was close enough for them to take in details, the boys noticed first, that she seemed to be the same age as them. Next, they noticed her hair- similar looking to the seaweed or grass species growing from the tank’s jagged reefs and just past her shoulders. The third thing they noticed were her large green eyes, pupils blown and inky black. She was right up against the glass as they were, treading water between the boys’ frozen bodies. Her hands pressed to glass and she tilted her head, pink lips parting in some sort of exclamation. Bubbles came from the side of her neck, pushing past crescent shaped flaps and swirling up to the water’s surface.

Leo looked as if he were becoming somewhat ill, “Do you think she fell in…?” Caleb, eyes roaming the girl’s upper body, found he couldn’t shake his head. “No… no, she looks like she belongs in there…” His downwards peripheral vision provided him with a suggestion of an image his brain rejected for processing.

“Look, Caleb, on her jaw! And on her neck! Her chest too!” Leo’s voice called Caleb’s swirling mind to focus on the girl’s upper body only. Glittering gray, blue with hints of green speckled the areas Leo had pointed out. Both boys saw how the patches of color present contained a myriad of small identical upside down arcs.

“Scales,” Caleb breathed, “hundreds.”

As the boys had been examining the girl, she had been doing the same. Now, though, they saw her look over her shoulder, hair floating in the current around her as opposed to simply moving when she moved.

“SHARK!” Leo slammed his palms on the tank, panic making his knees feel weak.

“Go, go, go!” With the last ‘go’ Caleb shoved Leo in the direction of their parents. “Get our moms!” Like a cat crossing the road, Leo was off and Caleb was turning back towards the tank, stomach clenching.

Leo raced towards Caleb and his moms, oblivious to the disapproval emanating from the adult museum goers around him. He stopped in front of the bench breathless.

“Oh! Leo, hun,” Leah had looked up first, “You startled me.” She chuckled and nudged Heather who had been rummaging in an overpacked purse. Heather looked up, instantly taking Leo’s hands in hers, “Kiddo, what’s wrong?”

“Shark,” Leo gasped. “We saw a girl! In the water! And there are sharks!”

Heather nodded, brows furrowed. “Okay, well, that must have been pretty startling to see… I’m pretty sure there are only mermaid performers in the porpoise tanks though…” She looked to Leah for backup, who nodded with raised eyebrows but then proceeded to quickly flip through the aquarium pamphlet.

Leo shook his head in frustration and growled, “No, come and see!” He grabbed at their shirt sleeves and the two women shuffled hastily behind him.

Caleb turns from the tank as soon as he hears the familiar sound of his mom’s footsteps. Leo comes up beside him and searches the water, expression knitting into a frown.

“Where is she?!” Leo demanded. Caleb shrugged, lips held in a queasy grimace, “She swam away.”

Their moms looked between the two boys, into the water, then at each other. Leah spoke first, giving Caleb’s head a rub, “Alright, Bug…Leo,” she looked at Leo, who was now staring into the water, “Don’t forget to come get some water and a snack soon, you two are looking a little parched and ‘low-blood sugary.’”

Heather spoke next, directing her words towards Leah, “Let’s sit back down, I left the snack bag on the bench!” Caleb grabbed his mom’s hand before the two left, saying, “she’ll probably be back, you both have to come as soon as we tell you she’s back! Promise!” The boy’s mothers’ promise, leaving them to study the enclosed ocean.

Caleb and Leo were no longer looking at sharks, stingray, or coral reefs. Instead, they stared anxiously into the depths of the tank. The boy’s sense of time not being fully developed yet, could not tell how much or how little time had passed. They stood, sentry-like, until a now more familiar form glided towards them. The mermaid girl had return, but she had an adult with her. A woman similar in appearance to her.

“I wonder if that’s her mom… ”Leo murmured. The girl held hands with the woman and was looking at her, speaking. Bubbles, once again, didn't really come from out of her mouth or nose, but from the sides of her neck- where the skirts of gills could be seen, deep red, pink. The girl’s mother smiled at the two boys. They saw the woman’s elongated teeth at and flanking her top and bottom canines. The girl’s mom also waved, fingers spread. Caleb and Leo saw that her hands were almost completely webbed, except for an inch from the fingertips. The women’s eyes were identical to her daughters. Still staring at the tank, Leo opened his dry mouth, “Caleb,” he rasped. “Get our moms?” His knees were too weak to move from the spot he was in currently and Caleb seemed to sense that, racing off without any hesitation. Caleb returned more swiftly than Leo had, dragging his mom by her purse and jacket edge, causing a minor scene.

“Look,” Leo and Caleb whispered in unison. Their moms looked into the tank and the boys can see them lock eyes with the mermaid mother. They are still for a long moment, then all of a sudden they turn to one another, shrugging before turning towards the boys. “I dunno what to say Kiddos, I don’t see anyone.” Caleb’s mother said first.

Heather pipes in, “Maybe, the performers are taking a break. We can always come back again to see them.” Leah, who had spoken first, noticed the boys looked a little off, as both of them were still staring into the tank, expressions shocked and drawn. From the boys perspective the aquatic mother, daughter duo were still right in front of the quartet, bubbles coming from the sides of both of their necks- they were both saying something to each other.

“Hey ho, earth is calling!” Leah says, gently touching each of the boys’ mid back. “Oh, Caleb, your shirt is all wet.” and “Leo, you’re burning up…Heather, feel them..” Heather touches each of the boys foreheads with the back of her hand, “.. you both look kinda green around the edges too…”

“You know what,” Leah said with gentle firmness, “I think it’s time we headed home anyway,” Eyeing Heather conspiratorially. Heather nodded in agreement and both moms made a quick check of their pockets and purses. The energy between the children was tense, and the mothers’ could feel it. Leah spoke again, “This has been a long and exciting day, I’m sure you two are exhausted.” Without leaving room for disagreement, their moms steered the boys out of Shark Alley. They urged the boys forward with gentle hands at each of their backs. Despite the strange comfort at the idea of leaving the aquarium, Caleb and Leo couldn’t help but keep their gazes fixed over their shoulders as they were guided farther from the tank of sharks. The boys watched the girl and her mother watch them leave. The green of those eyes watching them imprinting themselves in their memory.