The Magic on the Island #Onceuponnow

Part 3: Finale

I jump a mile out of my skin. I spin and see the woman from my dream sitting on the water's edge, with her tail. It shimmers as the sun reflects off her scales. Is this, my mother? She matches Daniel's description, but this is the first time I've her face besides in my dream. She smiles a warm inviting smile at me.

"You must be Autumn. I've been waiting so long to meet you. I'm your mother, my name is Arya." Her brown eyes were so alight and happy that my first dream of her seems unreal. I can't ever imagine seeing this woman-mermaid cry. If she's my mom she must have been crying for me, but what happened?

"Hi. Umm, sorry if I can't process what you saw well, I'm still hung up on the fact that mermaids are real." She looks at me and starts to laugh.

"Well let's just get that out of the way then. I, Arya, am both your mother and a mermaid. I also brought you back to your father after you fell down here yesterday, you should be more careful " She smiles and splashes me with water. I'm still a sort of hallowed out shell, as if I've turned into a vegetable in a matter of minutes.

"Come on, silly. Let's go find your dad so we can explain." She pulls her tail out of the pool which turns into a pair of legs. I avert my eyes because after her tail is gone she's naked, then after a moment she grabs my hand and pulls me towards the rope ladder. She starts to climb and I follow. I'm slowly making my way out of the rabbit whole and climbing towards the truth.

After Arya got Daniel to stop being flabbergasted that I snuck out and ran into my mom we sat on the couch to talk.

"Autumn, I know that you have been seeking the truth for a long time. Today's the day, there's no more reason for you to not know." I'm ready, I've been waiting for so long, but it seems like I should have some popcorn because my life actually is a fairytale retelling, I didn't see that coming.

"So I'll start with the basics. Your mom and I met on the beach when I was visiting here to take pictures for National Geographic. I was walking and saw your mom bleeding on the beach." Arya piped in to say how she was trying to escape a shark and got cut by coral, then came ashore where she stole some random towel on the beach.

"I helped your mom and we kept seeing each other more, we fell in love. It didn't matter that she had a tail. Then eventually we had you." I watch as they intertwine their fingers and look lovingly at one another.

"We loved you to the moon and back Autumn." I look at Arya my mermaid mother and smile. Daniel's face starts to fall.

"But my co-worker stumbled along when Arya and I were in an area we thought to be secluded on the beach and he got a picture of her in tail form." They both start looking upset and I know what happens next is going to be depressing.

"Arya got away, but he went back to HQ with his picture and after a bit of speculation they sent people to look into it, word spread to tourists too. The sea was full of divers and the land full of people and thousands of cell-phones. Arya and I met in her cave to make a decision on what to do." Arya turned to me a sad look in her brown eyes.

"Since my face was in the picture, I was going to go away for a long time so people could forget. But you, being half mer needed the land to survive. So I couldn't take you with me and Daniel couldn't pop up around his friends and family with a baby and no mother without a reasonable cause. So we put you up for adoption, hoping to give you a good life until it was safe to be together."

"All the mermaid stuff died down within months. So we were going to fix our mistake and get you back." A tear ran down Arya's face, and Daniel pulled her into his arms as she spoke.

"My tribe was not pleased that I had fallen for a human, so they took me away by force and it was years before I got back to Daniel. They locked me away and once we were far from here they freed me. By then, I was on along the coasts of Africa and even when I did swim away it took over a year to get back." Daniel turned towards me.

"I looked for Arya all around the island, on and off shore, but I never found her. You weren't alone in your pain Autumn, all those years you were alone so was I." I wasn't alone, I can't blame him or her for everything that happened to me when they were struggling and hurting too. Tings just got out of their control, I forgive them. The ice has melted and I'm out of the rabbit hole. Daniel and Arya hug, they were just reunited too, after all this time.

"I'm going to sit out back and process everything." Before waiting for an answer I walk out the back door and sit on the beach in deep thought. Those feelings of hate and blame leave me all this time I was part of a struggle I was unaware of, a struggle for family.

"Is is okay if I sit with you?" I look up and see Arya.

"Sure." She looks the sea then turns to me.

"I'm going to tell you why we named you Autumn. It was mainly me who chose it but your father loved it too. Since I'm a mermaid, there are limitations, I can't be away from the ocean or inland very long, I've never seen what winter and fall look like. I saw pictures Daniel had taken but knew I could never experience such a beautiful thing. When mermaids stay away from water for too long they die or loose their tails at best. So I decided to name you, someone I would have forever after something I could never have." I just look at her, I never knew my name had such a beautiful background.

"I just wanted to let you know that we never forgot about you. Whenever I lost hope on my journey back I would think of you and Daniel waiting for me." A tear slips down my face and I hug her for all the lost time. She wipes my tear away with her thumb.

"Now let's go back inside, we've had enough sadness today." She stands and holds her hand out to me pulling me to my feet. I walk with my mom into a new life, to my new family.