Green Tea

“Look what Jini brought,” Thalia says as she and Jini march into the kitchen, setting on the table a pink-and-green aluminum can, while they grab three glasses and fill them with ice from the fridge. In bold letters on the can is the label “Nixie.” Further, I read that it is pomegranate green tea sparkling water.

“Courtesy of my cousin in America. This is his favorite drink,” Jini explains. “Well, non-alcoholic.”

Thalia giggles.

“Fitting,” I say, “naming a drink after a water spirit.”

We all take a sip. Pleasant. Sweet, but not too sweet.

“This is a little serendipitous, you know,” says Thalia. “Last night I read The Girl-Fish.”

“Oh?” Jini and I chorus. That’s all the encouragement Thalia needs to relate the tale.

There was a willful girl—pretty—but willful. Though dearly loved by her parents, she would do nothing to try to please them. Until, one day, her mother was so weary that even the girl could not ignore it, asked what she might do to help, and was sent down to the river to mend her father’s fishing net. She no sooner finished the repairs when she heard a fish splashing in the water. She cast the net and caught it.

However, the fish warned her, if she ate it, she would turn into a fish herself. The girl’s willfulness returned, and thinking that the fish held no power over her, she had her mother cook the fish for her. As predicted, she turned into a fish and managed to flop into the river.

Carried downstream to the sea, she met other once-human fish who took her to their queen. The fish-queen’s story was that she had once been an earthly queen, but soon after her son was born, a giant seized her crown as well as herself and her ladies-in-waiting, replacing them with his daughter and her minions, and placed a glamour upon the interlopers so that the king would never notice.

In despair, the real queen and her ladies threw themselves into the sea and transformed into fish. That was many years ago. Since then, the false queen died, returning the crown to her father, the giant. If the crown could be regained, they all could return to  their human form. The queen gave the girl-fish the ability to transform herself into any creature she called for to aid in getting the crown from the giant’s castle on a high mountain.

The first transformation was into a deer so that she could travel quickly. However, a prince was out hunting and cornered her. She pled with him, in her human voice, to spare her. Dumbfounded, he let her escape, and, belatedly, decided she must have been an enchanted maid and that he would marry no one else.

By turns, transforming into an ant, a monkey, and a parrot, she gained access to the giant’s castle and demanded the return of the crown. The giant bargained with her and requested a collar made up of precious blue stones from the Arch of St. Martin. This she achieved in the form of an eagle with a strong beak. Not contented, the giant asked for a crown made of stars in exchange for the fish-queen’s crown.

In the form of a frog, she collected the light of the stars reflected in a pond and wove the reflected light into a crown. The giant accepted this crown, fearing the girl’s powers might be greater than his own. With the queen’s crown returned, all the fish-people took on their human form.

They returned to the queen’s earthly home but found much had changed. The queen’s husband had also died, and their son was now king. The new king was delighted to find his real mother still lived, but she sensed in him a great sadness. He revealed to her that he was hopelessly in love with an enchanted maid in the form of a deer. With the queen’s help, the new king and the girl-fish were soon married.

“Wow, what a story,” Jini grins.

Thalia fingers the label of the sparkling-water can. “I’m thinking of asking our nixie about this tale.”

Jini’s eyes widen. “You have a nixie?”

“In the Magic Forest,” Thalia nods.

“Does she drown young men?”

“I hope not.” Thalia looks concerned.

“Maybe,” I say.

Fairy Tale of the Month: July 2024 The Girl-Fish – Part Two

More Popcorn

I have armed the girls with a paper bag of popcorn. I can’t recall when I realized the nixie loves popcorn, but it has been a staple in my interactions with her ever since. I sit high on the bank and toss popped kernels to her down below. I am safe from being dragged down into the water by her, and the popcorn is an incentive for her to entertain my presence.

However, today, as we enter the Magic Forest and come near the nixie’s pond, a siren song is carried on the air.

“Oh, how pretty!” Thalia exclaims.

“Pretty” is not the word for it.

I feel it pulling at my soul.

When we come into view of the pond, there is Melissa sitting at the water’s edge, not three feet from the nixie, whose serenading has just ended, releasing me from its spell.

“Oh, how lovely,” says Melissa, then, looking up, sees the girls and smilingly motions them to come and sit beside her. The girls prance down the bank, settling themselves on either side of her.

What have I done?

When the nixie glances curiously at Jini, the girl hands over the bag of popcorn, which the nixie takes with delight.

No! That’s not how it’s done.”

I collapse to the ground, high up on the bank, out of reach.

“I have a story.” Thalia’s tone is formal, infused with respect for the nixie. “About which I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

The nixie nods, lying back into the water until only her face, haloed by floating green hair, and her hands, holding the popcorn bag, are above the surface. As Thalia tells the tale, the nixie lazily drops the treats into her mouth. I have never before noticed how sharp her teeth appear.

“I do remember her,” the nixie says when Thalia ends the tale. “Why she didn’t want to remain queen of the fishes, I don’t understand. What is this attraction to the land? Some of the mermaids have it. I don’t see what lures them.”

“Well,” says Thalia, “the fish-queen and girl-fish were born on land. I guess that’s a bond hard to break. One’s first home, I mean.”

The nixie nods her consent as Jini picks up the thread of the discussion. “But what of the girl-fish’s willfulness? Ultimately, she is rewarded. Why should willfulness be rewarded?”

The nixie rises from the water, half her length, trying to contain her laughter. It, nonetheless, comes out as a frightening cackle. “Willful? She? Oh, you mortals do not grasp willfulness. We immortals are willful by our existence. Seldom do you who die retain your willfulness much beyond infancy. No, for me, this is a story of a girl losing hers.

“She starts out having her way. Then, for a moment, she has pity for her mother. After that, all is lost.”

“But didn’t her willful nature lead her to ignore the fish’s warning?” Jini points out.

“You might wish to see it that way,” the nixie responds. “But I can’t see becoming a fish as tragic as the story implies. The tragedy comes in the girl-fish falling into subservience to the queen, and all traces of her precious willfulness disappear.”

“Well,” Melissa suggests, “she does get to marry a prince.”

“All the more subservient,” the nixie pouts, settling back into the water and her popcorn.

Fairy Tale of the Month: July 2024 The Girl-Fish – Part Three

Popcorn Bag

“I see this as a story of transitions.” Melissa taps a finger on her chin. “The heroine is first changed into a fish, against her will. Then she is given the ability to transform into whatever she calls for to reach her goals.”

“Oh, the frog,” says Jini. “That was my favorite. In that form, she collects starlight to make a crown. So cool.”

“That was my favorite as well,” says the nixie. “Collecting reflected starlight; I am going to have to try that. Probably on winter solstice when the night is longest.”

“I like the deer,” Thalia chimes in. “Deer are so elegant looking. I can just see her leaping away from the prince, his mouth hanging open.”

“My admiration,” Melissa smiles, “goes to her choice of becoming an ant to scale the giant’s castle wall.”

Both Jini and Thalia nod their agreement, and Melissa continues. “But the ultimate transformation, or more correctly transition, is the heroine’s change from the person she was at the start of the story to the person she becomes by the end.” Melissa turns to the nixie and adds, “For better or for worse.”

The girls giggle. The nixie rolls her eyes.

“What about the giant?” Jini asks. “I thought his ideas for the tasks were odd. He wanted jewelry. What giant wears precious stones and a starry crown?”

“And only two tasks,” adds Thalia, “not three.”

“Never liked that giant,” the nixie sniffs. “Not bright, but most giants usually aren’t.”

“Could be,” Melissa contemplates, “he was trying to think of difficult or impossible tasks. The first task wasn’t all that hard, but by the time she returned, he had come up with, what he thought to be, an impossible one.”

“But why not a third task?” Thalia presses.

“Because,” Melissa conjectures, “when he realized she could do the impossible, he became afraid of her power and surrendered the queen’s crown as he had promised.”

“Well,” says the nixie, “he is a coward, and, although he has had his moments, usually he can’t come up with more than two thoughts.”

There is another round of giggles from the girls.

The evening is coming on, and I don’t think it wise to be in the Magic Forest by nightfall.

“We should be going soon,” I call down the suggestion to them.

“OK,” the girls say together, then turn their attention back to the nixie. The nixie glances up and gives me an evil smile.

I know the nixie has the reputation for drowning young men, and while I am not youthful, she is immortal, which makes me look comparatively young. I creep a few more feet up the bank.

Now I can no longer hear what they are talking about. It goes on far too long for me, but eventually they stir; Melissa, Thalia, and Jini rising to their feet. The girls give the nixie an enthusiastic hand-waving, then turn to climb up the bank toward me.

What a relief. I am trying not to be obvious that I think this is an escape as I usher them down the path toward home, when I realize Melissa is not with us.

Turning around, I see her kneeling beside the pond’s edge. The long, slender fingers of her pale hand touch the tips of the nixie’s green, webbed fingers. The nixie speaks to her, then slips beneath the water’s surface. Melissa retrieves the floating, empty popcorn bag. I know her body language. She is deep in thought.

Your thoughts?