Alison the mermaid lived near the beach in New York City with her mermaid friends and her pet dolphin, Candy. She liked to play catch with Candy using blue and pink seashells. Alison loved to eat fish, especially salmon. She was happy.
But she wanted another friend, a special friend… a human friend. But she was really scared to find one. She was afraid that they were going to tell everyone in the city that they saw a mermaid. She thought they might take off the rainbow scales on her tail and sell them so they could get rich!
One day in spring, she felt brave and confident that she would find one, so she started looking on the beach. And then, she was going to go somewhere off the beach, but she didn’t know which way because there were so many paths going to different places. Then, she knew which way to go to because the other paths had sand, but there was one stone path. In stories she read, humans lived in cities where the roads were made of stone.
She was really light, so the wind picked her up and took her over the path. She had to steer the wind to go the way she wanted, which was one of her mermaid powers.
She met animals along the way. She met a seagull. Her second power was that she knew how to talk to animals, so she said, “Do you know where New York City is?”
The seagull said, “Just keep on following the stone path!”
And Alison kept on following the stone path. But it stopped at the end of the road. Then, she saw a path, but it had lots of dirt. And she knew if she went on that path, she would be going the right way, because New York City has a lot of dirt! She was a little tired, but she followed the dirt path.
On the way, she met a blue butterfly! She said, “Do you know where New York City is?”
The butterfly said, “Just keep on following the dirt path!”
And Alison followed the dirt path. Then, she stopped because she saw a big hole in the ground. The wind suddenly stopped carrying her because it was now sunny like summer, and she was too far from the ocean, so her powers dried up!
She fell into the hole, but there was water at the bottom! She tried to swim back up, but she couldn’t because the hole was too deep. But then, it started raining! The hole filled up with water, and it carried the little mermaid all the way to the top. And then, when it was up to the top, the rain stopped, and the hole filled up with dirt. It was because she had good luck!
Then, when she got up, the wind started carrying her again since there was moisture from the rain.
Then, Alison found the city. It had big towers and glass buildings and some houses. But it was kind of far away. So she had to go faster. She put her hands forward and used her breast strokes to swim through the air. She wasn’t tired, so she got to the city.
But then, she had to hide because lots of people would see her. She needed a way to get to a school, where she could start finding a friend her own age that wouldn’t be scared of her.
She brought her favorite mermaid doll, and she finally got an idea to test it out to see if a child would see the doll and think if it was a real mermaid and get scared.
Alison tested it by throwing the doll outside the school. When school was over, a little human girl with long, black hair wearing a long, puffy dress found it. She was kind and was not scared. The girl took the doll home, so Alison followed her, and the girl even pretended that the doll was real and it was her best friend.
Alison felt really happy that she finally found one friend. She jumped out and looked at the girl and saw that she wasn’t frightened.
“I know you are not afraid of me,” Alison said. “So can you be my best friend?”
The little girl’s face turned red because she was about to scream out of happiness. She said, “Yes, but only on days that I have school because my mom and dad are not here! I’m so excited I get to be friends with a real mermaid! My name is Rose!”
“Well, I’m really glad to see you!” said Alison. “And my name is Alison.”
When they were done playing with the toys, Rose’s mom and dad came home. They called Rose.
“I have to go home, but don’t tell your parents,” Alison said.
She went home. When Alison got home, she was so happy she found a friend. She bet that Rose was a good friend, and that tomorrow she would be a good day again.
In the morning, Alison’s mother made her a special breakfast celebration for Alison at Breakfast Cafe. It was Alison’s birthday! Alison had chocolate covered waffles, orange juice, and french toast. And then she swam back home. Then she took a bath, splashing around thinking about how lonely she was. When she was done taking a bath, she did a puzzle. She felt sad that she was doing it all alone. The puzzle was a picture of herself in the rain. This made her feel even more sad, but she tried not to think about it.
“Each time your birthday comes, you will get powers,” said Alison’s mom. “Since you are ten, I am giving you extra powers.” It got really bright, and then it turned dark again. Alison felt powerful. The first power she got was changing from a mermaid to human, and then the second power her mom gave her was when Allison wished to get something, she got it right away.
Then she had lunch. She had salmon. This made her miss playing with her friends in the ocean. Then she wanted to go the aquarium, so she turned into a human. When she got there, she wanted to look at the fish first. She wanted to see the angel fish. Ted, Marly, and Happy were her friends from when she lived in the ocean.
“Hello,” Alison said to the fish. They didn’t recognize her at first, but when they heard her voice, they remembered who she was.
“Hi Alison!” They sang.
“What are you doing?” Asked Alison.
“We’re trying to get out of here,” said the fish. “The food here is terrible and we miss all of our friends. Our tanks are so small. We miss being able to swim in the ocean.” Then Alison gave a slight smile.
“In the night, I will come and open the tank,” whispered Alison. The fish screamed with excitement.
Alison went back home and started collecting the things that she needed: a paperclip to unlock the doors, salt water, and a bag to bring the fish back in so they didn’t die. Then, when it was night, she went to the aquarium and locked the door. Then she ran to the tank where the angel fish lived. But there were two guards in front of the angel fish. Then, Alison had an idea to be a policeman. She used her magical powers to turn into a policeman, and then she said, “Hello. Can I unlock the angel fish please?”
The guards thought it was their buddy policeman, so they said, “Sure!”
She put Ted, Marly, and Happy in the bag and brought them to the nearest beach. Then, she put them carefully into the water.
They said, “Thank you Alison!”
She felt really proud because she saved her friends, and the fish were really excited to be back in the water.
Alison the mermaid was once really lonely, but she saved her fish friends and now she had a human friend too!
The End