The Girl Who Pulls the Tides - ONC 2021

chapter 4

A STUDY OF SEA SPIRITS 

Introduction

When Isleen Webb and Jona Miller met in 1989, it was love at first sight. Isleen was a marine researcher, Jona was a fisherman. They both shared an all-encompassing love for the sea. After they married in 1992, the couple moved to an island smack-dab in the middle of the North Atlantic called Norholm, where Jona could keep on fishing and Isleen could continue her research, and they could raise a family and be in love by the sea.

Isleen was a natural investigator. Always curious, always questioning, on a never-ending quest for more knowledge. And one day, this quest for knowledge led to the mysterious sea spirits who dwelled in the waters near Norholm. So she rigged up the family sailboat and set off with her husband to discover the secrets of the North Atlantic sea. It was a nice day, perfect for sailing; the wind was tame, only at eight knots, the waves were steady, the skies were blue. But something happened that day—not a storm, as the weather estimator was all clear, and not a technical or navigational error, as both Jona and Isleen were experienced sailors. But something happened, and the couple didn't return.

Nereids, people whispered at their funeral. It must've been the Nereids. What else?

The day afterward, the headline of the Norholm Newspaper read: Couple Killed in Nereid Attack.

The story of Isleen and Jona Miller—my parents—became a sort of cautionary tale on Norholm. In many people's minds, it proved the island-wide, generations-long theory that if we leave Nereids alone, they'll leave us alone. But if you go looking for trouble, it'll find you.

I know I should hate the Nereids more than anyone else. Everyone says that they're responsible for taking my parents from me. But then again, the Nereids are blamed for everything bad that happens in the waters of Norholm; they say that Nereids are responsible for bad lobstering seasons and spring cyclones and delaying the importing ship that comes each month. They say that Nereids drown sailors and pull the tides, and damage fishing boats by battering them with unrelenting waves and mercurial currents.

But when I watched the Nereids celebrating beneath the blue moon last night, singing their song and dancing in the waves, I didn't see a mob of murderous spirits who haunt our shores and feast on the flesh of fishermen. I saw a blank page waiting to be written.

So with this dissertation, I hope to fill that blank page. I want to learn about the Nereids. I want to talk to one. I want to see one up-close, to see the colors of their eyes (if they have eyes?) and the length of their hair. I want to know how they breathe and what they eat; why they live near Norholm, how they pull the tides, and why they celebrate the blue moon. I want to know if they killed my parents. And, if so, I want to know why.

With this end-of-year project, I plan to go looking for trouble. Hopefully, it'll find me.