Test The Waters

Chapter Three: Throwback To The Day Coralia Met The Sea Witch

Jellyfish swarmed around the sea witch, following her like bees. Her dreadlocks were the white of dying coral, and her tail was sleek, grey, and scaleless; the tail of a shark. Around her waist she wore a belt of found things; plastic bags and a child's doll and even a crushed can of Coca-Cola. She was terrifying. And she was beautiful.

"Bonjou," Coralia said as she swam into through the doorway. The sea witch lived in a sunken ship at the end of town, and she had done a fairly good job renovating the place. Glass bottles hung from the half-rotted mast, and they rattled when the tide changed. The vibrant coral gave the inside of the ship a warm, dreamlike quality, and a rainbow of fish swam in and out of the open windows.

"You better not be wasting my time," the sea witch said, her back to Coralia. She was bent over some sort of brew in a rusted cooking pan. "I don't need you meddling."

"I'm not meddling," Coralia said, careful to sound polite. "I would like to become a temporary human, please."

Now the sea witch did turn around. The weight of a thousand years wrinkled her face, and she had earrings made from plastic rings. "Ay, you Miranda's sister?"

Coralia swallowed. "Yes."

"She came to me with the same request. Allyuh little girls with too-big dreams. Isn't once a year enough to satisfy you?"

Every year, all of the young Mer in the village would turn human on the week of Carnival to join the festivities. Coralia wasn't lured in by the lights and music; she went only to hear her older sister sing calypso in that sweet, powerful voice that sounded like the waves. Miranda had left the sea three years from now for the love of a man named Jean Miguel, and her abscense still made Coralia burn.

"No. I mean, yes. I mean." Coralia squeezed her eyes shut. "I want to go to college." The truth was, she wanted everything. The wind on her face, the taste of barra on her tongue, socks and airplanes and soca music. The whole wide world, and college was a way to reach it.

The sea witch barked a laugh. "That's something you don't hear every day. Are you sure it's not for the love of some prince? Sure you're not sick with love over some handsome rascal who doesn't know your name?"

"Look, you going to help me, awa?" Coralia was beginning to lose her cool. She hadn't come here to be laughed at. "They call you a witch, you know. A fight broke out when I told my family I was going to seek you out. But through all of it, I believed in you. I believed you could make me human. I believed someone like you would understand want."

The sea witch knit her eyebrows together."Have you ever had your tongue stolen?" She inquired softly.

"No," Coralia confessed, confused. Where was the sea witch going with this?
"Have you ever had every step you take feel like you are walking on shards of broken glass? And have you ever bore that pain just so you could catch a glimpse of the man you loved?"

"I don't understand--"

"Then you can't ever understand want," the sea witch said, her voice like a tempest.

Here is what Coralia didn't say:

I'm not a baby. I understand more than you seem to think I do.

I should not be punished for wanting even though yours ended in broken glass and stolen voices.

I want this beautiful, messy world. I want to see the sunrise, and I want to drink coffee, and I want to be remembered long after I am claimed by the ocean, and you say I don't understand.

Here is what she did say:

"Make me human and I will give you my voice. And many sand dollars."

"Don't be stupid," the sea witch said with a wave of her hand. "Just give me the sand dollars. How are you going to go to college if you can't speak? Do you know sign language?"

"No," Coralia admitted. She took fifty sand dollars from the pocket of her dress. She had come prepared for any bargain the sea witch might offer. "Anything I should know about being human?"

The sea witch considered this. "Stay hydrated, but stay away from water. Fifty sand dollars is enough to buy you a complete school year. You're going to have to give me something more valuable if you want to stay on land."

"Fair. Is there some kind of potion I have to drink?" Coralia toyed worriedly with a strand of seaweed. "Some kind of necklace I have to wear?" She sincerely hoped it was the latter.

"No," the sea witch said softly, and Coralia breathed a sigh of relief. "It's something much more painful."