The Herb-Woman could not stop her incessant perspiring. She felt like she was detoxing bad meat, but she hadn’t had meat since the last community circle and that was days ago. She was tired and the roof of her mouth hurt, however that was her own doing. The hot tea had burned her more than she’d liked to admit.

  The Herb-Woman needed to wash the bad smells off her body before Emadi returned with the Man-of-Medicine, but then she decided against it. She didn’t want to erase the very symptoms that held the answers to her cure before he could diagnose her. Still, she made herself get out of bed anyway. She should at least wash between her legs before seeing him.

  As she watched the kettle come to a boil, she thought about their last meeting. She studied the memory watching the man’s face the entire time. She had missed his eyebrow raise slightly on the left side of his face when she mentioned the young girl’s toes growing back together. She watched again as his mouth curled upward in a shy grin of satisfaction when she recounted what the mermaid child did to the alien boy. Why did that awful story make him smile? “Yes, I see,” she said to herself. Then she giggled and turned around four times in a circle.

  “Well, you seem to be feeling better,” said Emadi upon entering the room. She was surprised to see her mother dancing in her nightgown in the kitchen. Her mother would have had her hide for a handbag if she’d found her doing the same thing. She would have been afraid that she’d knock over one of her medicine jars or that she’d stir up spirits in the house, or some other nonsense.

  Emadi renewed her vow to never get married and have children. She wanted to be free. She was going to get herself a little storefront and do hair, but naturally. She was going to bring back all the old designs of braids or knots and sculpting her ancestors had worn. She decided as soon as she saved enough money for her license she was off to the city.

  “I was just trying to release the shape of the pillow from my back,” her mother said. She was lying. It was true she needed a pillow to hold the space between her rear end and the bed. Her butt was so big it made a gap between her and the mattress, so she shoved a pillow in between to fill the space. She had been sleeping that way for years and she always woke up right as rain. That was not the reason she was doing pirouettes in the kitchen.

  Emadi was confused. Why was the medicine man pretending to be well when he clearly was not, and her mother pretended to be sick when she clearly was well? Something was going on. She made a mental note to watch the Man-of-Medicine and her mother very closely. If something was the matter, then she needed to know how dismal the matter truly was. Maybe her mother was having romantic feelings for the old shaman. Emadi reached into the cupboard and got a mug and two teacups for her mother and the medicine man.

  “Are you staying?” her mother asked and immediately she wished she hadn’t said it. She could see her daughter was suspicious. She

  had just found her dancing in the kitchen. Now she would never get rid of her.

  “Why of course, Mma. I’m your daughter and I live here. And I wouldn’t want to leave you unattended with a man. What would people think?” she said with a slight tinge of sarcasm.

  “Oh, I see. Thank you, Daughter. ‘Cause this ole widow would hate to have . . .” But the Herb-Woman would have to wait to cap her daughter’s sarcasm, because the Man-of-Medicine was headed for their door. “Oh, I must get a gown on,” she said. The roots woman was nervous.

  “Mma, you are already wearing your gown,” Emadi said.

  “Are you going to keep trying every nerve in this old body, chile” quipped the Herb-Woman. Then a knock was heard, saving the women from saying something they would later regret.

  Emadi happily escaped her mother’s last remark by quickly rushing to the door. When she returned with the Man-of-Medicine, she noticed her mother had grabbed her nicest shawl and had thrown it over her shoulders. She was bewildered by the old woman’s behavior. Her mother was already sweating like a pig so why drape herself in a heavy, hand woven shawl? Maybe she was planning on using it as a towel. Emadi continued rationalizing her mother’s behavior as she pulled out a chair for their guest. “Greetings, Uncle, here she is. Here, sit please,” she said.

  Emadi was nervous being in the same room with her mother and the medicine man. She knew of their ongoing rivalry. She had heard her mother’s true feelings on many occasions. The air being sucked through her teeth and then exhaled with an audible “Hhump” always expressed them best.

  Emadi decided to prepare the tea for their meeting. It gave her something to do. As the tea steeped she presented the shaman with their nicest teacup and set their best honey on the table and then she gracefully stomped out of the house. She grabbed the nearest chair in the yard and positioned it to the side of the door so she could see into the kitchen. Then she plopped herself down.

  “Well it seems I am not the only one feeling badly today,” said the Herb-Woman apologetically and just loud enough for it to carry outside to her daughter’s ears.

  “Please sit and rest, Mma. I am here now,” said the Man-of-Medicine. He continued speaking in his most soothing tone. He was trying to smooth the ruffled feathers in the hen house. Two grown but single women living together was always a recipe for disaster. The thought made him smile.

  “Yes, Bba, I should sit down. I am tired,” said the Herb-Woman before making a great display of slowly lowering herself into her armchair.

  “Please, here. Sit here so I can examine you easier,” he said.

  As the Herb-Woman moved to a stool closer to the medicine man, she peered out the door at her daughter who quickly looked away.

  The medicine man was having a hard time concentrating. He was still nauseous from the night before and the smell of a menstruating woman and an aging menopausal one was not helping in the least. No wonder these women didn’t feel well. If he had a hormone revolution in his house he would be feeling like cow pies too.

  “You are fine, mother. What made you believe you were sick?” he asked with complete neutrality.

  The Herb-Woman thought he would have made a great diplomat or politician. “I cannot stop perspiring and my tongue feels like ash,” she sweetly said.

  The Herb-Woman’s voice was so intimate in nature that it shocked her eavesdropping daughter. Emadi nearly fell out of her chair, so she repositioned it so they could not see her through the screen door.

  “Open your mouth,” said the shaman. “Yes, I see,” he sighed. “You must stop drinking your tea so hot. Cool it off a little first,” he said. “Blow on it,” he added.

  “Yes, I know how to cool tea, Bba, but what about this sweating,” she firmly said.

  “Yes, you are becoming a wise crone now. It is an honor. Congratulations are in order,” he firmly said.

  But the Herb-Woman was not to be dismissed and especially by a man who had just inferred she was old. “What of this rash, Bba,” she said and she pulled back her nightshirt and exposed her chest.

  When the Man-of-Medicine saw the woman’s chest he let out an audible, “Oh my Amma!” There on the Herb-Woman’s chest was the exact design he had drawn in the earthen floor of his granary.

  “You see! I told you. Now even you don’t feel well!” the Herb-Woman intently said. The roots woman was happy. She had made the Man-of-Medicine gasp. She finally had his attention. Her body recorded the changes of life and all nature’s changes. She was not a hysterical woman. She was a roots woman in alignment with great Amma. She was the one she chose to deliver Creator’s message. She was the winner!

  Chapter Fifteen

  “So are you going to tell me?” asked Equoo.

  “Tell you what?” replied Sedina.

  “What your nightmare was about,” said Equoo.

  “Oh, that,” sighed the mermaid. “It was awful.”

  “Go on,” coaxed Equoo.

  The mermaid began recounting last night’s dream, the dream that nearly killed them both. It started out as all her dreams did, in a peaceful radiant blue light that usually went to white at the end. But this dream went black after the blue and the seas rose like cement walls and the walls formed a round room and in the room was a long black man that turned into a jackal. Around the jackal-man was a fire circle that danced until the fire froze. Then the fire flared opened and stood up like a paper fan and an orange dragon appeared. The dragon danced around the fire while the jackal-man spit water into the wind.

  “What does it mean?” Equoo asked.

  “That’s not the worse part,” said Sedina. “During the dream that seemed to go on forever, I heard Mianshe crying!”

  “Oh, no, Sedina!” said Equoo.

  Equoo never called the mermaid by her name. She was far too regal of a lineage to talk to in such a casual manner. Granted he could be himself around her, but he never forgot who she was. She was always going to be a Mer princess.

  “It gets worse. She was crying out the Life Song and it was filled with so much pain, Equoo,” cried the mermaid.

  “Oh, please don’t cry, dear friend. Please don’t,” he whispered. “It was only a dream.”

  “But dreams come true, Equoo. And this was no ordinary dream. I traveled to see this!” she shouted and then she began to sob.

  “So that was why we were moving so fast,” said Equoo. He was trying to make sense of it all, but his good sense told him it was a warning. “How did it end?” he sadly asked.

  “I don’t know. I woke up and the rest you know,” she calmly said.

  Equoo stared into the mermaid’s eyes for a good long moment. “Well it ends with beautiful music,” he finally said.

  “Yes and we will learn to adapt,” Sedina said. She was smiling again.

  Equoo loved how easily the mermaid recovered. No matter how stressed or how desperate things got, she always found something in it to smile about. “You are amazing,” he said. “When I grow up I want to be just like you.” He was trying to make the mermaid laugh, but she did not find his little pun very funny.

  “Mianshe is in trouble, of this I am certain, but I don’t know how to help her,” she softly said. “And I couldn’t help her even if I wanted to.”

  “Why?” Equoo asked.

  “Because we must never intervene upon someone’s path without being asked. We could ruin their flow and set them back in life,” she affirmed.

  “No, that would not be good,” said a thoughtful Equoo. “That would be very bad indeed.” Then the seahorse had an idea. “What if we ask Dolph to listen in and let us know what is happening on land? It was no coincidence that ugly pod of humpbacks showed up. And I say that with the greatest awe,” he humbly said.

  “What a perfect idea, Equoo!” cried the mermaid with delight. “Now you are thinking like a Mer-one,” she gleefully said. “Except for the

  ugly remark, we would never have said that,” she said with a smile in her eyes.

  “Oh, that, well, yeah. At least I’m truthful,” he said. Of course it was a gross rationalization. Even Equoo knew that.

  “Yes, that you are,” replied the mermaid.

  “You know, I almost thought you were going to let that remark slip by,” he added.

  “Equoo, you must erase the word ugly from your vocabulary. Okay?” And then Sedina rose up before him and waited for his reply.

  Equoo loved when she used all of her body to express herself. If he had her immensely beautiful body, he would have done the same thing.

  “Okay, you’re on, my beautiful mermaid. And the unattractive know who they are anyway,” he said and then he gave her a wink.

  Sedina laughed. She had no idea what Creator was thinking when creating the male species, but she liked them. She liked them a lot.

  Sedina never let on to Equoo that she was still upset by her dream. She did not go through the porthole home like in a normal dream. She went beyond the familiar to witness this. She went beyond the ocean, beyond the universe even. She went beyond space to somewhere else. It was somewhere before any of this mattered. Even more bizarre was the only presence that felt familiar, was the jackal-man. It felt as if they had been traveling together for a long time. But where had they known each other, and when had they met? Was it in this life or another? The only thing Sedina did know was she did not trust this animal-man. Truth be told, she feared him. Not because of any powers he may have, or because he chose a horrible beast to emulate, she feared the jackal-man because he wanted to hurt her daughter. He wanted to possess Mianshe.

  Sedina remembered hearing the horrible mewls of her kinsmer when caught in a fisherman’s trap and it was the exact sound her daughter made in her dream. It was the cry of someone desperate and in excruciating pain and tired of being that way. It was like someone had been siphoning her daughter’s life force and had left her with little more than agony.

  Sedina had never veered from universal law. She had always gone with the flow that encouraged life. She could never harm anyone or anything, ever, but if she caught a jackal, especially a cruel one harming a child—her child, she would put it in a lobster crate and take it to the lowest point in the sea, and then she would sweetly sing the Life Song until it was blue in the face.

  “Okay, we must go now,” she quickly said.

  “What? Where to?” Equoo asked with surprise.

  “To find my elders,” she answered. “I am not well,” she said, as she tucked Equoo safely away in her pouch.

  “Is it the bump on your head? Do you have a concussion?” asked a concerned Equoo. “Being part Hu-man is weird, eh?” he asked. Equoo could never stop talking when he was nervous.

  “No I am having bad thoughts,” she said. Then she darted out into deep waters.

  “But you have no idea where your family is. Stop, please! Let’s think about this a moment,” pleaded Equoo. “Here we go again,” he mumbled.

  Sedina stopped and sat down on a rock. “You’re right. I am moving faster than my heart. Let me get still then I will summon Dolph and have him find my family.”

  “Okay,” said Equoo with resolve before saying nothing more.

  Sedina hummed herself into a trance and toned a note to Dolph.

  Dearest kind Dolph of true beauty through

  Please help me protect my dear one who

  Is a young innocent from my seed

  She is a mer-girl called Mianshe

  Listen to those who say that name

  For there are those who wish to gain

  From harming her and nature’s reign

  To end the world for private gain

  Thank you grand being of music and light

  True protector of our watery rights

  May your lovely sound purge worry and fear

  We are humbly grateful for you, Dolph dear!

  When Sedina finished her toned plea she opened her eyes. “We should forage some food for our journey,” she said.

  “You didn’t ask him about your family,” the seahorse said.

  “One favor at a time, Equoo. I don’t want to impose myself on the very being that saved us only hours ago,” she replied.

  “Then I will ask,” Equoo haughtily replied.

  “Please, Equoo, I must know that Mianshe is okay first,” begged the mermaid.

  And as the pair bickered over the etiquette of sea favors, a huge ripple of water made its way toward them like a mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb. The strange liquid was as quiet as a shark and as inspiring as a bubble in a quartz crystal. It silently engulfed them like an embryonic sac until they were caught inside it like snowflakes in a snow globe.

  Sedina immediately grabbed Equoo and placed him in the hidden slot inside her sack. She collected the little sprigs of seaweed and krill and other live matter floating around her and quickly put it in her bag and snapped it shut. As the wave circled her, she closed her eyes and tried to ground herself into the earth underneath the sea floor. She visualized her tail extending to the center of the planet and she anchored herself there.

  The mermaid didn’t like being in closed spaces. She grew up in the open seas with nothing in her peripheral but sky or water, so boundaries truly addled her. After calming herself Sedina started to hum. She was hoping she could penetrate the jelly-like shield of water, but to her amazement, the water began receding on its own until it became a beach ball sized bubble. Then it began to spin and the sweetest sound emanated from it.

  Oooh la da la oooh

  Oooh la da la oooh

  Dearest Sedina we’ve heard your pleas

  Floating so sweetly over the seas

  We have listened and watched and have found

  Many wish Mianshe buried in the ground

  They are plotting dreadful things to come

  They are smart and won’t let us see anyone

  But don’t worry I’ve informed your Mer-family

  And they are coming to you now on calm seas.

  Then the bubble burst, and so did Sedina. She cried so long that all the water around her appeared opalescent.

  “This is very bad news about your daughter,” Equoo said. “But it’s very good news about your family,” he quietly sighed. Equoo was worried. He knew how cruel Hu-men could be but he also knew how snobbish Mer-ones were. Would his mermaid throw him away like a fish skeleton when her family came? Would they mock him and call him little and treat him like a child? He was old, so old he couldn’t remember how long he had lived in the sea. He was one of the few seahorses to escape being eaten or crushed by a whale’s tail or any one of a myriad of things that can happen to one so small in a place so large. Equoo knew he had to stop this line of thinking and trust what was to come, because these sad thoughts were making him miserable. If he were to be happy he had to have hope.

  “Yes,” contemplated the mermaid. She was still listening to Dolph’s message about the jackal-man wishing to harm her daughter. She hadn’t heard Equoo’s musings, however his anxious sound finally made its way to her ears.

 

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