I’m finding it hard to make heads or tails of it all.”
“Heads or tails ?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
“Oh, ha!” Dad returned to the table and sat down with a satisfied smile. “I can be quite clever when I’m not trying.”
I took another bite of grilled cheese and flipped through to the middle section with the photos and illustrations, but the pictures were hand drawn in pen and ink and were really weird looking.
“Is this what people think mers look like?” Snake-like hair, three pronged spear thingies, and webbed hands? Sheesh. One merman looked like he was throwing a sailboat across the water. A mermaid seemed to be luring a human into the water. I leafed through the rest of the book but stopped when a chapter heading made my breath catch short. “Oh!”
“What?”
I pointed to the words: The Webbed Ones.
“Like what Mom told you about?” Dad pulled his chair closer.
I nodded and began to read the page-long excerpt.
“There is a large body of evidence suggesting that humans descended from pre-historic aquatic mammals or Pesco-sapiens.”
“See?” Dad tapped the page. “There’s that word again. I don’t just make this stuff up, you know.”
I smiled and continued reading.
“The human body supports this theory. Human hair is found in lesser quantities than that of their ape counterparts and is arranged toward the midline of the body. This works to reduce aquatic drag. Humans also have a descended larynx like that of a seal, making it possible to regulate breathing while diving and surfacing…”
I turned to Dad.
“It all kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Dad wiped his hand on a napkin and pulled the book toward himself to read on. There was a part about how some of the pre-historic Pesco-sapiens may have kept evolving in the water while humans evolved on land.
“It says that small populations of aquatic Pesco-sapiens are believed to exist throughout the world.”
“But how do they know all this?” I asked.
“Wait a sec.” Dad brought a spoonful of cereal to his mouth and mumbled as he scanned the page. “Here’s a medical report of a Webbed One from the Liverpool Psychiatric Hospital. It’s dated 1908.” He pointed, farther down the page.
I read the passage aloud.
“A 38 year-old male, rescued from a near-fatal cliff dive, insisted he was attempting to ‘return to the sea.’ The patient identified himself as a ‘Webbed One’ claiming his webbed third and fourth toes were proof that he had transformed from a ‘merman’ to a human. The subject required restraint to prevent further harm to his person. After extensive psychiatric evaluation, he continued to maintain his story, elaborating that the transformation had taken many weeks of breathing a combination of air and water in a magical tidal pool. The patient could not pinpoint the location of the tidal pool, citing amnesia. After extensive shock and drug therapy, the patient spent his remaining days in a catatonic state.”
I turned to Dad.
“They just locked him up like he was crazy, didn’t they?” I said quietly.
Dad nodded and covered my hand with his. “His story was pretty unbelievable, when you think of it.”
“But we know it’s true. The same thing happened to Mom! All of it is true.” I fanned through the pages. Then I caught another sight of the webbed hands and the airborne boats. “Well, maybe not all of it.”
Dad rose and took our dishes to the sink. He ran the faucet and squirted a stream of dish soap into the steaming water. “I’m getting the feeling the title says it all.”
I slammed the book shut. Mermaidia: Fact or Fiction?
“So they just jammed a bunch of mermish trivia together and we’re left to figure out what’s real and what’s fake?”
“It probably took years to compile all this data, but it would be impossible to verify it in any substantial scientific way.” Dad took a scrub brush to the frying pan.
“If only they had actual proof in here. Something
“Heads or tails ?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
“Oh, ha!” Dad returned to the table and sat down with a satisfied smile. “I can be quite clever when I’m not trying.”
I took another bite of grilled cheese and flipped through to the middle section with the photos and illustrations, but the pictures were hand drawn in pen and ink and were really weird looking.
“Is this what people think mers look like?” Snake-like hair, three pronged spear thingies, and webbed hands? Sheesh. One merman looked like he was throwing a sailboat across the water. A mermaid seemed to be luring a human into the water. I leafed through the rest of the book but stopped when a chapter heading made my breath catch short. “Oh!”
“What?”
I pointed to the words: The Webbed Ones.
“Like what Mom told you about?” Dad pulled his chair closer.
I nodded and began to read the page-long excerpt.
“There is a large body of evidence suggesting that humans descended from pre-historic aquatic mammals or Pesco-sapiens.”
“See?” Dad tapped the page. “There’s that word again. I don’t just make this stuff up, you know.”
I smiled and continued reading.
“The human body supports this theory. Human hair is found in lesser quantities than that of their ape counterparts and is arranged toward the midline of the body. This works to reduce aquatic drag. Humans also have a descended larynx like that of a seal, making it possible to regulate breathing while diving and surfacing…”
I turned to Dad.
“It all kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Dad wiped his hand on a napkin and pulled the book toward himself to read on. There was a part about how some of the pre-historic Pesco-sapiens may have kept evolving in the water while humans evolved on land.
“It says that small populations of aquatic Pesco-sapiens are believed to exist throughout the world.”
“But how do they know all this?” I asked.
“Wait a sec.” Dad brought a spoonful of cereal to his mouth and mumbled as he scanned the page. “Here’s a medical report of a Webbed One from the Liverpool Psychiatric Hospital. It’s dated 1908.” He pointed, farther down the page.
I read the passage aloud.
“A 38 year-old male, rescued from a near-fatal cliff dive, insisted he was attempting to ‘return to the sea.’ The patient identified himself as a ‘Webbed One’ claiming his webbed third and fourth toes were proof that he had transformed from a ‘merman’ to a human. The subject required restraint to prevent further harm to his person. After extensive psychiatric evaluation, he continued to maintain his story, elaborating that the transformation had taken many weeks of breathing a combination of air and water in a magical tidal pool. The patient could not pinpoint the location of the tidal pool, citing amnesia. After extensive shock and drug therapy, the patient spent his remaining days in a catatonic state.”
I turned to Dad.
“They just locked him up like he was crazy, didn’t they?” I said quietly.
Dad nodded and covered my hand with his. “His story was pretty unbelievable, when you think of it.”
“But we know it’s true. The same thing happened to Mom! All of it is true.” I fanned through the pages. Then I caught another sight of the webbed hands and the airborne boats. “Well, maybe not all of it.”
Dad rose and took our dishes to the sink. He ran the faucet and squirted a stream of dish soap into the steaming water. “I’m getting the feeling the title says it all.”
I slammed the book shut. Mermaidia: Fact or Fiction?
“So they just jammed a bunch of mermish trivia together and we’re left to figure out what’s real and what’s fake?”
“It probably took years to compile all this data, but it would be impossible to verify it in any substantial scientific way.” Dad took a scrub brush to the frying pan.
“If only they had actual proof in here. Something
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