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continued. “They were really cracking down on mersecurity and they worried your mom may lose consciousness some day, since her underwater breathing had become so compromised. They couldn’t risk her getting washed up on shore again and being discovered, so they allowed her to become human.”
    “They kicked her out of the ocean?” Thoughts swamaround in my head, like the white flecks in a just-shaken snow globe.
    “I’m a bit unclear on the details.” Dad took off his glasses. He began to clean them with a handkerchief from his pocket and shook his head as he rubbed. “Your mom didn’t like to talk about it much; I suspect it may have been some sort of Mermish Code of Silence. What I do know is that the transformation from mermaid to human was very long and difficult for her.”
    “But how can a human…and a mermaid even…?”
    He put his glasses back on. “There was obviously a stray branch on the evolutionary tree.”
    “But I can’t live like this! What about school? My friends?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “Then we have to find this Mermish Committee or Council or whatever and fix this! We can fix this, can’t we?”
    Dad stood and stared out the window. That’s when I realized, he didn’t know that either.
    The heat from the tail wafted up from beneath the blankets and filled the air around me, making it hard to breathe. Or maybe my lungs had changed when I slipped underwater in the bathtub, just like Mom’s had when she got washed ashore. Did I now have gills I didn’t know about?
    “Something’s wrong.” I pulled back the blankets to let the heat escape. The scales on the tail glowed like the orangey-red shade of a blazing sunset.
    “What is it?” Dad turned and read my tortured expression. He ran to my side.
    “Ah!” A rush of adrenaline shot through my body, putting all of my cells on red alert. Searing pain pierced through the tail as one by one, the scales shifted and morphed into a shiny film.
    “It looks like the scales are turning back into skin,” Dad whispered.
    “It hurts!” I pulled myself up on my elbows. As each scale morphed into skin, it left a stab of pain in its place. I gasped for breath, as the throbbing took over. A crease deepened along the length of the tail.
    “What can I do? Jade, just tell me…”
    “Make it stop!” I looked up into Dad’s face, tears blurring my eyes.
    “I’m not sure what to do…” Dad’s face crumpled as he arranged and rearranged the pillows around me. Finally, he gave up and pulled me into his arms. “Just breathe, honey, breathe.”
    My whole body wracked with pain as the tip of the tail split. I collapsed against Dad’s chest but couldn’t tear my eyes away from what was happening. The separation made its way up the deepening crease, dividing the tail in two. The scales had merged into a solid surface and now shone pink like the color of sunburned skin.
    “I think you’re changing back!” Dad rocked me back and forth and stroked my hair. But nothing could distract me from the unbelievable agony.
    “Look!” Horror and relief swept over me as the tips of the tail fin curled onto themselves and divided into tenbits, reforming my toes. Jolts of energy spread through the two divided sections of the tail, shaping my feet, my knees, my thighs, and finally, my hips and torso.
    “It’s okay, honey. Breathe,” Dad whispered into my hair.
    I gave in to the agony and moaned as the last bits of my former mermaid self dissolved into my skin. In moments, the change was complete.
    I fell back against my pillows, exhausted. Goose bumps rose along my damp skin.
    “You’re human again,” Dad whispered. He pulled the wet towels and blankets onto the floor and draped Gran’s afghan over me.
    “How?” I tried to pull the clues of what just happened together, but nothing made sense. “Why now? Why today?”
    “Maybe…” Dad paused “…I don’t know.”
    For once in his life, he didn’t seem to have an answer. No amount of