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Recording.
“I was born on the 17th of November. It was unusually warm that late in the year, and my mother said I was the smallest child of all her children. But that’s not why my birthday was special. A lot of people in my city didn’t care nor celebrated birthdays. The only reason I mentioned it, was because that was the day my city was founded centuries ago. It was always a big celebration on that day. Lots of festive activities and parades. People dressed up, and the Royal family would make an appearance and give a speech, talk about what a great nation we were.
Sorry if my English isn’t well. Always had a hard time learning it. I barely remember my first language. It’s extinct now, no more speakers. If I don’t know a word in English and can’t remember what it is in mine, it’s like I don’t know how to speak at all.
My name? My name was . . . Darya. That’s not the name I go by now, because they made me change it to a name I hate, to something more ‘normal.’ I don’t know what that means. My mother gave me that name because she thought it fitted me perfectly.
I lived with my parents, sisters, and brothers. We shared a home, a big living space, with two other families. Yes, we had homes big enough to fit two or three families. Only the wealthy had single family homes, and the Royal family was the only wealthy ones.
The whole city was my backyard, my play area. I had a pet named Delta . . . silver, silky skin and dark eyes. She was a fast creature, but she died because of poison. They poisoned her food.
My mother used to tell me stories of her Old Life—how our city, our people, used to be before the Others came along, and poisoned everything. By the time I was born, it was different from my mother’s previous life. Still, I had the ocean at my hands. I felt freer than any of you do now. You don’t know true beauty and freedom.
I think everyone knew They would eventually take us over. Overthrow the Royal family. They did it to the previous cities, yes, there was more of us. We were the last to go. My city became polluted, corrupted . . . my home was vanishing, the creatures dying. Because of Others, who used to be nothing, who our women would drown and kiss for fun. They suddenly became more powerful. They killed off everyone. First the Royal family, than regular people. If someone wasn’t killed they died of food poisoning . . . Then They captured the rest. They wanted to change us, experiment on, to look more like Them.
My Old Life, my family, and friends, we had no names for ourselves. We just were. It was only when They took us did I learn that They had names for those like us: mermaids, sirens, water nymphs. . . .
I used to be beautiful, and the ocean used to be my home. I had a gorgeous, bright blue tail, and I was the fastest swimmer there was. My name meant ‘sea,’ it only seemed fitting for me to be that way. But I couldn’t swim fast enough to get away from Them. There was nowhere to swim to. They dried up the ocean and made a waste land of it. No one lives there anymore, just buildings and trash.
My family has been gone a long time . . . I know I’m the last one of my kind. I’m dying, that’s the only reason you’re talking to me. You thought I’d tell you a happy story? How grateful I am Humans rescued me and gave me legs? They kept me in a small tank, forced needles into me, cut me opened . . . They gave me legs that are painful, that don’t work. I never learned to walk right on them. The only thing that hasn’t been altered on me is the webbing between my fingers, and the dried up gills on my neck I can’t use anymore. I had to learn how to breathe like a Human. I can’t breathe underwater anymore.
I’m glad I’m dying. I haven’t been okay since my Old Life was destroyed. I feel sorry for you, in this Life. Every day your civilization gets worse. Soon you and Them will be Nothing. You’ll be Nothing. How unfortunate is that?
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