Mermaid Tales: Screaming Underwater

If you’re new to Straight From Hel (thank you for stopping by and following), you probably don’t know about the Mermaid Tales. Every random once in a while, I tell a tale from my years of swimming as a mermaid in an underwater show at Aquarena Springs. Today, it’s summer shows, winter shows and screaming underwater.

Aquarena Springs was open 364 days a year. The only day we were closed was Christmas day. In the summer, there were probably 5 or 6 shows. Each show had three mermaids performing, sometimes four. The submarine would be packed for each show, probably a hundred or a hundred and fifty people. In the winter, the crowds naturally slacked off, so we didn’t schedule as many shows and there were usually only two mermaids, occasionally only one.

Summer: more people, more swimmers, tighter schedule. Winter: smaller audiences, less rush, fewer mermaids per show.

As you might guess, that led to some antics in the winter shows. One thing we mermaids liked to do was sit on our lily pads during picnic and talk to each other. Of course, the lily pads weren’t close together. They were spaced apart so that no matter where someone sat in the submarine, they could see at least one mermaid picnicking.

So…we didn’t actually “talk.” We screamed at each other.

I imagine the audience thought we were nuts. But, come on, the water was 76 degrees. It was winter and we were freezing our tails off for ten people. So we yelled back and forth.

I’d take a breath of air, yell something like, “Are you going to the keg party tonight?”

Ronina would yell back, “Which one?”

Me: “DU.”

R: “DU, as in, We do, do you?”

Me: “Yes.”

R: “Not gonna hang with a bunch of frat boys.”

Me: “Where you going then?”

R: “Party at the Hillside.”

What? You thought maybe we would be exchanging formulas for science class?