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Chapter 18: Sara's Choice, And Debbie's Announcement

~So, what is up, Sara?~ I asked after the three of us had finished a group hug, and she had rubbed Diane's belly.

~I'm joining the Coast Guard!~

~Really?~ Diane asked, sounding somewhat astonished despite our early experience in North Carolina.

~Yes, really. I'm reporting the twenty forth of July.~

~Cool. Just what will you be doing?~

~I'll be a 'specialist swimmer'~ (Why they did not simply classify her as a 'mermaid swimmer' was a bit of a mystery to me. Bureaucratic blarney?). They are looking forward to employing me in stormy weather rescues where it might be far riskier for even the best 'normal' human rescue swimmers, or when I might have to wait a while for another helicopter to come to help finish a rescue, especially in colder water.~ Like all the other Mers, Sara could take in stride water temperatures that could rapidly induce life threatening hypothermia in most humans.

Even now, almost eight months after the Xanadu event, even we Mers continued to be amazed at the number and variety of jobs we could do better or more easily than 'mundanes.' Maybe that amazement was why the Coast Guard leadership seemed so slow to officially embrace the idea of employing Mers for many jobs now being done by human swimmers and divers. My thoughts went back to the 'Perfect Storm' of some years ago, when a rescue chopper had to ditch after running out of fuel. Most of the crew was saved but a rescue swimmer was lost. Had Mers existed then and one had been on the ill-fated flight, he, or she, could have simply waited out the storm twenty or thirty fathoms down and then surfaced again when conditions improved. Sara seconded my thoughts, then went on ~I told them that you cannot drown a Mer~ apparently forgetting or unaware that at least one Xanadu mermaid could not breathe water, although she could hold her breath for about half an hour at a time. In a sense, she was a human-dolphin hybrid instead of a human-fish hybrid as almost all of us Mers were.

~What if you need to go on board a ship?~

~Well...there are some jobs where it would be better to have legs instead of a tail...I might actually spend more of my time helping with salvage or investigations, expecially in deeper coastal waters. No need for a diver to suit up for a forty or so fathom dive, or get an ROV and operator. Pretty much all I would need to do is splash in and swim on down!~

~Can you wear any kind of uniform?~ I now wondered, remembering Sara's futile attempts to wear clothing when she had first come ti live with us near Beaufort.

~No, nothing at all, not even a uniform cap~ she answered after a brief pause. ~You should have seen their jaws drop when I put it on and it fell apart right away!~

~Did it bother them much?~ Diane asked.

~Not really. Louis and the others had told them earlier about me. I can wear a tool belt of real leather or kelp twine (her favorite, I would later learn), nothing synthetic, so I can carry things like a camera, shark repellant, a waterproof handheld, or whatever I might need for a particular dive.~

~ How did this all get started?~ Jackie Blue now asked. She, together with Leanne and Natalie, had joined the conversation shortly after Sara had found us.

~Two days after the seven of you had left, we got an email from the commandant of the Coast Guard asking if any of us might be interested in joining. I thought of the early work we did with them and decided I migt want to. My brother is already serving, so when I emailed him about it, he was very encouraging and said it could be a good career for me.~

~I wonder why~ Natalie now said with a smile and a flurry of her fingers.

~Well, I'm now much better suited for working in the water than on land!~

~Have any other Mers enlisted yet?~ Sonia asked.

~I don't know for sure. I seemed to be the first, or one of the first, to express interest. The flew me and a couple others to where recruits do their basic training. They showed us some of the facilities and recruits going through their training (It really goes without saying Sara and the other Mers were not asked if they already knew how to swim!), and wondered if any more of us might be interested in joining.~

~Sounds like you really made an impression on them~ I said.

~We did!~ Sara answered with a smile ~They even joked they would sign all of us up if they could!~

~I'm afraid they might have to wait for a while~ Diane said with a smile of her own ~Some of us already have found new careers, some of us are pregnant (Rubbing her belly at that point), a few of us are retired, and quite a few of us are still too young, I think.~

~I told them that too. They said that was OK, they would welcome any of us who do choose to enlist when they are eligable.~

~What of the two who went with you?~

~They are both under the minimum age to enlist, but I think they both to join when they are old enough. They were as interested as I was, and liked the idea of someday becoming rescue swimmers and such...~

~Good for them!~ Diane said in response.

Natalie, Leanne, and Jackie Blue listened thoughtfully to what Sara had to say, though none said they might sign up. Natalie was much fascinated, but also appreciated how her inability to breathe air would likely be a major potential obstacle if she were needed somewhere on short notice. Leanne remained fully convinced oceanography was her calling, while Jackie had her own reservations, although she did not elaborate on them and the rest of us did not ask her what they might be.

Sara's announcement was the latest of many momentous, or at least thought-provoking, occasions visited upon us Mers since last November. Being suddenly and unexpectedly transformed into a previously unknown life form and having to adapt to and create a way of life which had never (as far as we knew) existed before on Earth seems to have a way of doing that. Those occasions ran the gamut from truly frightening to all manner of lighter subject matter. Foremost among the former were a mass kidnapping of mermaids soon after the Xanadu event and the attempt on me a couple months later. To this day many Mers remain reticent about mingling with the general public. Diane and I count ourselves among them to a degree, despite our largely positive experience in Beaufort. We also continued to take our guardianship of Natalie seriously.

Toward the other end of the spectrum of our experience was discovering early on that although we could no longer walk, there were many things a Mer could do that a mundane could not, including: swimming with an effortlessness and power we never could before, leap completely out of the water with seemingly a single fick of out tail (not quite true, we do need some time and distance to build up the neccessary speed), and breathe both air and water (with just a few exceptions). More than a few biped divers found themselves openly envious of the speed and grace with which we could now swim. Many mermaids in turn found themselves wishing some of the male divers would volunteer to be turned into mermen so they might have a husband with whom they could truly share a life together.

Although I had not been sought out lately by anyone seeking to be transformed into a Mer via a combination of Mer-magic and the Vulcan mind-meld, I did get a semi first-hand exposure to a different kind of Mer-magic. Two days after Sara's announcement and another day partly devoted to catching up on local news, Debbie splashed in not only with some interesting news of her own, but an unfamiliar merman as well. Both had vertical tailfins (hers was always so when in salt water) and orange tails splotched with white and a little black, somewhat like clownfish. As she sometimes had before when we had met, she was wearing shells. Once we had linked up I started to asked him questions, out of curiousity.

[Who are you? Where have you been?]

[This is Rick. I've told you about him before, remember?] Debbie said.

[And she has told me about you]he said in turn, as he looked at me and Diane.

[When did you becoma a merman?] I asked, wondering if or why Debbie had neglected to tell us that Rick was a Mer, or why none of the rest of us could recall having seen him before. Could he have been a changable Mer, yet another who only discovered how they had been affected by the Change when they got home and tried to take a bath or shower, and found themselves unexpectedly exchanging their legs for a tail, albeit only temporarily. Debbie herself had had such an experience after returning to her room in the convention center's hotel the evening of the Xanadu event. Unlike her, few changables spent any, or much, time at the center's lake at all.

My initial thoughts, though, all turned out to be wrong.

[Rick became a Mer just a couple weeks ago] Debbie now said.

[What happened then?] I asked, but before either Debbie or Rick could answer, Diane asked what might have been my alternative first question.

[Are you a permanent Mer, or a changable?]

[I'm a changable] Rick answered with a smile [Just like her.]

[Yeah] Debbie now said [Whenever he takes a shower or bath or goes for a swim. He even has a horizontal tailfin in fresh water and a vertical one in salt water, like me.]

[And when I try to crawl on land out of the sea I seem to go sideways more than I go forward.]

[How did this all come about?]

Neither Debbie nor Rick answered that latest question, at least right away. Instead they smiled broadly at the rest of us, squeezed each other's hand, then raised their left hands. That was when Diane and I finally noticed the rings on their fingers.

[Really?!] Diane asked.

[Yes, really] the newly engaged couple answered together. With that, the four of us then shared a group hug, before going back to holding hands in a semi-circle and hearing more of their story.

[We had just got back to my place from a day of diving with some of our friends from the diving club, and were getting stuff out for supper] Debbie said [ Rick had got down on his knees and I thought he was getting something out of a bottom cabinet...then he pulled something out of a shirt pocket and said 'Debbie, I love you, I really do. You're a great friend...will you marry me?]

{And you said...]

[Yes!]

Following another round of congratulations, we got back to hearing more of the new couple's story. Diane and I especially wanted to hear just how Rickk had come to be a changable Mer, and eventually our curiousity was satisfied.

[Well, after I said 'yes' he wondered if I could turn him into a merman, a changable if I could. I had to tell him I had never heard of a mermaid being able to do such a transformation, and that all the stories I had heard said he would have to drown first, and any guys thus changed were all permanent Mers.]

Despite that bit of disappointing news, Rick still saw the bright side of their future relationship.

[Not many guys will be able to say their wife is a mermaid!]

Perhaps because both had the next day off, and they were in the mood for a little private celebrating, they decided to indulge in a gallon jug of wine that she had on hand, along with a couple beers for each of them.

[I think we were both well under the influence when some pirate movie came on on the TV] Debbie now said [Somewhere along the way we decided to sing that song 'A Pirate's Life For Me.' We sang it a couple times I think, then I decided to change the lyrics and make it 'A Mermaid's Life For Me.'

[Did you sing along with her then?] I asked Rick.

[Sort of] he answered as his face turned slightly red ['A Merman's Life For Me!]

Debbie gave an underwater giggle as Rick related his side of that little incident, then he went on [I think we did our version at least a couple times before we fell asleep on the couch. For whatever we did not feel at all hung over, so I went back to my place in the morning. When I took a shower that evening, well...that was when I got a surprise!]

[Did you have a soft landing, or a hard landing?] Diane asked [When I changed I fell flat on my face and broke my nose. Ouch!]

[It was a soft landing. As soon as I turned on the shower I felt kind of funny, so I thought I'd better sit down. Good idea, because the next thing I remember I had a tail instead of legs...]

[So, when did you tell her?] Now Diane had a twinkle in her eyes.

[Not right away. I actually felt so comfortable I just lay there for a while in the tub before crawling out...I sat on the couch for a while, wet tail and all, then after about an hour my tail suddenly got itchy for a few moments...when I looked back down my legs were back. I was glad I had the window shades down because I was totally naked!]

At that point Rick paused briefly as his face turned red, but he soon recovered and continued [...once I did get dressed again I called Debbie and told her what had just happened to me...]

[I thought he was pulling my leg...tail, at first, until I checked my email and found the selfie he had sent, tail and all.]

Somehow, that got all four of us laughing. When we did regain our composure Debbie asked if we had a computer available where she could log on and show us Rick's first photo as a (changable) merman. We told her there indeed was, and before long the four of us, plus Natalie, were admiring his photo.

[How did you manage to get all of you in the picture first try?] Diane wondered.

[I would pose in that corner sometimes in some of my costumes before] he said [I set the camera on delay so I would have time to get into position. I was still off center a bit, so I cropped the photo before I sent it to her...]

Once we had all taken a look at Rick's photo, Debbie clicked a few more buttons, then a photo of her as a biped came up. She was wearing a long casual orange skirt (any jeans, pants, or shorts she tried to wear would swiftly transform into skirts, thanks to a Xanadu clothing curse) with thin horizontal dark stripes, and a cropped top with long puffy sleeves. She looked down at her forearms, which were covered in bracelets from her wrists to halfway to her elbows.

[Anytime I'm wearing long sleeves when I turn into a mermaid, this happens] she thought with some bemusement in her mind's voice. [They are impossible to take off as long as I am a mermaid. I didn't like that at first, I've never been much into wearing a lot of jewellery, but now I actually enjoy the look. And it seems the puffier the sleeves, the more colorful they are!]

[Have you ever thought of wearing anklets so you might have something wrapped around the base of your tail?] Diane now asked.

[Believe it or not, I had never thought of doing that!]

[Try it, you might like it. Quite a few of us mermaids are wearing them now...] She waved at a passing mermaid who wore a kelp-and-pearls anklet wrapped around the base of her tail. Following introductions, she told Debbie and Rick how she had fashioned her bit of personal ornamentation, and seconded Diane's suggestion that she try it herself. Debbie nodded in agreement, then asked if the other mermaid could show her how to make such an anklet of her own.

[Gladly! Follow me.] With that she, and Debbie and Rick, swam toward a kelp forest astern of the Sutherland. Though neither knew much more than diver's hand signals, somehow Diane and I sensed communication would not be a major problem in this instance - fashion can sometimes be a universal language in its own right!

Once word of Debbie's engagement to Rick, and his transformation into a changable Mer, began to spread through the Mer colony, most everyone was quick to offer their congratulations to the husband-and-wife-to-be. If any mermaids felt any disappointment at losing out on Rick, they concealed it well. It was probably also safe for them to assume that Debbie was no longer 'looking.'

Possibly it was the Vulcan side of me exerting its influence, but I felt no disappointment that some or even most would-be Mers might choose to be transformed by singing the siren song instead of relying on a combination of the Vulcan mind-meld and Mer-magic. A mind-meld can be a rather intense experience and many non-Vulcans are not at all comfortable with even the idea of allowing someone to enter the inner recesses of their minds. A mind-meld requires willingness and cooperation from both participants, and if any of the requisits are absent, nothing will happen.

Of course, not everyone is equally endowed when it comes to singing, some guys in particular might have even less singing talent than I felt I had had prior to my own transformation, and a fair number of conventioneers had for various reasons lost the power of human speech altogether in the wake of the Xanadu event.

Once again we were reminded solving our merman shortage was not likely to be an easy or brief quest.

Description
Chapter 18: Sara's Choice, And Debbie's Announcement

~So, what is up, Sara?~ I asked after the three of us had finished a group hug, and she had rubbed Diane's belly.

~I'm joining the Coast Guard!~

~Really?~ Diane asked, sounding somewhat astonished despite our early experience in North Carolina.

~Yes, really. I'm reporting the twenty forth of July.~

~Cool. Just what will you be doing?~

~I'll be a 'specialist swimmer'~ (Why they did not simply classify her as a 'mermaid swimmer' was a bit of a mystery to me. Bureaucratic blarney?). They are looking forward to employing me in stormy weather rescues where it might be far riskier for even the best 'normal' human rescue swimmers, or when I might have to wait a while for another helicopter to come to help finish a rescue, especially in colder water.~ Like all the other Mers, Sara could take in stride water temperatures that could rapidly induce life threatening hypothermia in most humans.

Even now, almost eight months after the Xanadu event, even we Mers continued to be amazed at the number and variety of jobs we could do better or more easily than 'mundanes.' Maybe that amazement was why the Coast Guard leadership seemed so slow to officially embrace the idea of employing Mers for many jobs now being done by human swimmers and divers. My thoughts went back to the 'Perfect Storm' of some years ago, when a rescue chopper had to ditch after running out of fuel. Most of the crew was saved but a rescue swimmer was lost. Had Mers existed then and one had been on the ill-fated flight, he, or she, could have simply waited out the storm twenty or thirty fathoms down and then surfaced again when conditions improved. Sara seconded my thoughts, then went on ~I told them that you cannot drown a Mer~ apparently forgetting or unaware that at least one Xanadu mermaid could not breathe water, although she could hold her breath for about half an hour at a time. In a sense, she was a human-dolphin hybrid instead of a human-fish hybrid as almost all of us Mers were.

~What if you need to go on board a ship?~

~Well...there are some jobs where it would be better to have legs instead of a tail...I might actually spend more of my time helping with salvage or investigations, expecially in deeper coastal waters. No need for a diver to suit up for a forty or so fathom dive, or get an ROV and operator. Pretty much all I would need to do is splash in and swim on down!~

~Can you wear any kind of uniform?~ I now wondered, remembering Sara's futile attempts to wear clothing when she had first come ti live with us near Beaufort.

~No, nothing at all, not even a uniform cap~ she answered after a brief pause. ~You should have seen their jaws drop when I put it on and it fell apart right away!~

~Did it bother them much?~ Diane asked.

~Not really. Louis and the others had told them earlier about me. I can wear a tool belt of real leather or kelp twine (her favorite, I would later learn), nothing synthetic, so I can carry things like a camera, shark repellant, a waterproof handheld, or whatever I might need for a particular dive.~

~ How did this all get started?~ Jackie Blue now asked. She, together with Leanne and Natalie, had joined the conversation shortly after Sara had found us.

~Two days after the seven of you had left, we got an email from the commandant of the Coast Guard asking if any of us might be interested in joining. I thought of the early work we did with them and decided I migt want to. My brother is already serving, so when I emailed him about it, he was very encouraging and said it could be a good career for me.~

~I wonder why~ Natalie now said with a smile and a flurry of her fingers.

~Well, I'm now much better suited for working in the water than on land!~

~Have any other Mers enlisted yet?~ Sonia asked.

~I don't know for sure. I seemed to be the first, or one of the first, to express interest. The flew me and a couple others to where recruits do their basic training. They showed us some of the facilities and recruits going through their training (It really goes without saying Sara and the other Mers were not asked if they already knew how to swim!), and wondered if any more of us might be interested in joining.~

~Sounds like you really made an impression on them~ I said.

~We did!~ Sara answered with a smile ~They even joked they would sign all of us up if they could!~

~I'm afraid they might have to wait for a while~ Diane said with a smile of her own ~Some of us already have found new careers, some of us are pregnant (Rubbing her belly at that point), a few of us are retired, and quite a few of us are still too young, I think.~

~I told them that too. They said that was OK, they would welcome any of us who do choose to enlist when they are eligable.~

~What of the two who went with you?~

~They are both under the minimum age to enlist, but I think they both to join when they are old enough. They were as interested as I was, and liked the idea of someday becoming rescue swimmers and such...~

~Good for them!~ Diane said in response.

Natalie, Leanne, and Jackie Blue listened thoughtfully to what Sara had to say, though none said they might sign up. Natalie was much fascinated, but also appreciated how her inability to breathe air would likely be a major potential obstacle if she were needed somewhere on short notice. Leanne remained fully convinced oceanography was her calling, while Jackie had her own reservations, although she did not elaborate on them and the rest of us did not ask her what they might be.

Sara's announcement was the latest of many momentous, or at least thought-provoking, occasions visited upon us Mers since last November. Being suddenly and unexpectedly transformed into a previously unknown life form and having to adapt to and create a way of life which had never (as far as we knew) existed before on Earth seems to have a way of doing that. Those occasions ran the gamut from truly frightening to all manner of lighter subject matter. Foremost among the former were a mass kidnapping of mermaids soon after the Xanadu event and the attempt on me a couple months later. To this day many Mers remain reticent about mingling with the general public. Diane and I count ourselves among them to a degree, despite our largely positive experience in Beaufort. We also continued to take our guardianship of Natalie seriously.

Toward the other end of the spectrum of our experience was discovering early on that although we could no longer walk, there were many things a Mer could do that a mundane could not, including: swimming with an effortlessness and power we never could before, leap completely out of the water with seemingly a single fick of out tail (not quite true, we do need some time and distance to build up the neccessary speed), and breathe both air and water (with just a few exceptions). More than a few biped divers found themselves openly envious of the speed and grace with which we could now swim. Many mermaids in turn found themselves wishing some of the male divers would volunteer to be turned into mermen so they might have a husband with whom they could truly share a life together.

Although I had not been sought out lately by anyone seeking to be transformed into a Mer via a combination of Mer-magic and the Vulcan mind-meld, I did get a semi first-hand exposure to a different kind of Mer-magic. Two days after Sara's announcement and another day partly devoted to catching up on local news, Debbie splashed in not only with some interesting news of her own, but an unfamiliar merman as well. Both had vertical tailfins (hers was always so when in salt water) and orange tails splotched with white and a little black, somewhat like clownfish. As she sometimes had before when we had met, she was wearing shells. Once we had linked up I started to asked him questions, out of curiousity.

[Who are you? Where have you been?]

[This is Rick. I've told you about him before, remember?] Debbie said.

[And she has told me about you]he said in turn, as he looked at me and Diane.

[When did you becoma a merman?] I asked, wondering if or why Debbie had neglected to tell us that Rick was a Mer, or why none of the rest of us could recall having seen him before. Could he have been a changable Mer, yet another who only discovered how they had been affected by the Change when they got home and tried to take a bath or shower, and found themselves unexpectedly exchanging their legs for a tail, albeit only temporarily. Debbie herself had had such an experience after returning to her room in the convention center's hotel the evening of the Xanadu event. Unlike her, few changables spent any, or much, time at the center's lake at all.

My initial thoughts, though, all turned out to be wrong.

[Rick became a Mer just a couple weeks ago] Debbie now said.

[What happened then?] I asked, but before either Debbie or Rick could answer, Diane asked what might have been my alternative first question.

[Are you a permanent Mer, or a changable?]

[I'm a changable] Rick answered with a smile [Just like her.]

[Yeah] Debbie now said [Whenever he takes a shower or bath or goes for a swim. He even has a horizontal tailfin in fresh water and a vertical one in salt water, like me.]

[And when I try to crawl on land out of the sea I seem to go sideways more than I go forward.]

[How did this all come about?]

Neither Debbie nor Rick answered that latest question, at least right away. Instead they smiled broadly at the rest of us, squeezed each other's hand, then raised their left hands. That was when Diane and I finally noticed the rings on their fingers.

[Really?!] Diane asked.

[Yes, really] the newly engaged couple answered together. With that, the four of us then shared a group hug, before going back to holding hands in a semi-circle and hearing more of their story.

[We had just got back to my place from a day of diving with some of our friends from the diving club, and were getting stuff out for supper] Debbie said [ Rick had got down on his knees and I thought he was getting something out of a bottom cabinet...then he pulled something out of a shirt pocket and said 'Debbie, I love you, I really do. You're a great friend...will you marry me?]

{And you said...]

[Yes!]

Following another round of congratulations, we got back to hearing more of the new couple's story. Diane and I especially wanted to hear just how Rickk had come to be a changable Mer, and eventually our curiousity was satisfied.

[Well, after I said 'yes' he wondered if I could turn him into a merman, a changable if I could. I had to tell him I had never heard of a mermaid being able to do such a transformation, and that all the stories I had heard said he would have to drown first, and any guys thus changed were all permanent Mers.]

Despite that bit of disappointing news, Rick still saw the bright side of their future relationship.

[Not many guys will be able to say their wife is a mermaid!]

Perhaps because both had the next day off, and they were in the mood for a little private celebrating, they decided to indulge in a gallon jug of wine that she had on hand, along with a couple beers for each of them.

[I think we were both well under the influence when some pirate movie came on on the TV] Debbie now said [Somewhere along the way we decided to sing that song 'A Pirate's Life For Me.' We sang it a couple times I think, then I decided to change the lyrics and make it 'A Mermaid's Life For Me.'

[Did you sing along with her then?] I asked Rick.

[Sort of] he answered as his face turned slightly red ['A Merman's Life For Me!]

Debbie gave an underwater giggle as Rick related his side of that little incident, then he went on [I think we did our version at least a couple times before we fell asleep on the couch. For whatever we did not feel at all hung over, so I went back to my place in the morning. When I took a shower that evening, well...that was when I got a surprise!]

[Did you have a soft landing, or a hard landing?] Diane asked [When I changed I fell flat on my face and broke my nose. Ouch!]

[It was a soft landing. As soon as I turned on the shower I felt kind of funny, so I thought I'd better sit down. Good idea, because the next thing I remember I had a tail instead of legs...]

[So, when did you tell her?] Now Diane had a twinkle in her eyes.

[Not right away. I actually felt so comfortable I just lay there for a while in the tub before crawling out...I sat on the couch for a while, wet tail and all, then after about an hour my tail suddenly got itchy for a few moments...when I looked back down my legs were back. I was glad I had the window shades down because I was totally naked!]

At that point Rick paused briefly as his face turned red, but he soon recovered and continued [...once I did get dressed again I called Debbie and told her what had just happened to me...]

[I thought he was pulling my leg...tail, at first, until I checked my email and found the selfie he had sent, tail and all.]

Somehow, that got all four of us laughing. When we did regain our composure Debbie asked if we had a computer available where she could log on and show us Rick's first photo as a (changable) merman. We told her there indeed was, and before long the four of us, plus Natalie, were admiring his photo.

[How did you manage to get all of you in the picture first try?] Diane wondered.

[I would pose in that corner sometimes in some of my costumes before] he said [I set the camera on delay so I would have time to get into position. I was still off center a bit, so I cropped the photo before I sent it to her...]

Once we had all taken a look at Rick's photo, Debbie clicked a few more buttons, then a photo of her as a biped came up. She was wearing a long casual orange skirt (any jeans, pants, or shorts she tried to wear would swiftly transform into skirts, thanks to a Xanadu clothing curse) with thin horizontal dark stripes, and a cropped top with long puffy sleeves. She looked down at her forearms, which were covered in bracelets from her wrists to halfway to her elbows.

[Anytime I'm wearing long sleeves when I turn into a mermaid, this happens] she thought with some bemusement in her mind's voice. [They are impossible to take off as long as I am a mermaid. I didn't like that at first, I've never been much into wearing a lot of jewellery, but now I actually enjoy the look. And it seems the puffier the sleeves, the more colorful they are!]

[Have you ever thought of wearing anklets so you might have something wrapped around the base of your tail?] Diane now asked.

[Believe it or not, I had never thought of doing that!]

[Try it, you might like it. Quite a few of us mermaids are wearing them now...] She waved at a passing mermaid who wore a kelp-and-pearls anklet wrapped around the base of her tail. Following introductions, she told Debbie and Rick how she had fashioned her bit of personal ornamentation, and seconded Diane's suggestion that she try it herself. Debbie nodded in agreement, then asked if the other mermaid could show her how to make such an anklet of her own.

[Gladly! Follow me.] With that she, and Debbie and Rick, swam toward a kelp forest astern of the Sutherland. Though neither knew much more than diver's hand signals, somehow Diane and I sensed communication would not be a major problem in this instance - fashion can sometimes be a universal language in its own right!

Once word of Debbie's engagement to Rick, and his transformation into a changable Mer, began to spread through the Mer colony, most everyone was quick to offer their congratulations to the husband-and-wife-to-be. If any mermaids felt any disappointment at losing out on Rick, they concealed it well. It was probably also safe for them to assume that Debbie was no longer 'looking.'

Possibly it was the Vulcan side of me exerting its influence, but I felt no disappointment that some or even most would-be Mers might choose to be transformed by singing the siren song instead of relying on a combination of the Vulcan mind-meld and Mer-magic. A mind-meld can be a rather intense experience and many non-Vulcans are not at all comfortable with even the idea of allowing someone to enter the inner recesses of their minds. A mind-meld requires willingness and cooperation from both participants, and if any of the requisits are absent, nothing will happen.

Of course, not everyone is equally endowed when it comes to singing, some guys in particular might have even less singing talent than I felt I had had prior to my own transformation, and a fair number of conventioneers had for various reasons lost the power of human speech altogether in the wake of the Xanadu event.

Once again we were reminded solving our merman shortage was not likely to be an easy or brief quest.