Free Girl at the Bottom of the Sea by Michelle Tea

shake the tale of the mermaid’s sister from her mind. “Please, tell me about Griet. Was she beautiful?”
    â€œOh, ya, so beautiful,” Syrena answered. “The fishes swim up and kiss her pretty cheeks and seahorses comb her long hair with their tails. She wear necklace of diamond and pearl and dolphin always clean her so never the sea mud make her dirty.”
    Sophie listened, waiting for the mermaid to continue with the enchanting story. Instead, laughter bubbles rolled from Syrena’s mouth like a school of jellyfish.
    â€œOh, you still such girl ,” the mermaid said. “You think everything, what you call, fairy story!”
    â€œWell, yeah!” Sophie snapped defensively. “I mean, that’s what fairy tales are. Mermaids and stuff. Pardon me for being a human.”
    â€œGriet very pretty,” Syrena said, her tone slightly teasing. “All mermaid pretty. But also—she have fangs.”
    â€œFangs?”
    â€œYa, like these,” the mermaid opened her mouth and tapped her own long canines. “But more, longer than normal. They poke out, make her funny looking. Her hair, because so light, show more algae, look more like slime. Her tail very wonderful, sort of pink, but very hurt too, from war, and sharks.”
    â€œSharks?”
    â€œYa.” For the first time, the mermaid sounded tired. “When we swim away from our village, through the ships and the fighting, there be many sharks. Drawn to the fighting, all the blood. We fight them off, we dodge ships, we dodge cannons, even the dying sailors.” Syrena twisted her tail, bringing Sophie’s attention to a long, raised scar alongits back. “This from anchor chain. The chain cracked, rough, and I become tangled. I thought I would stay forever. Griet help me. Like I help her with shark.”
    â€œWhat did you do?”
    â€œKill shark,” Syrena smiled. “Kill shark and eat shark and swim good and healthy out from the sea and all the fighting.”
    Sophie knew that Griet didn’t look like a Barbie princess mermaid doll any more than Syrena did, but she also knew that the mermaid must have been beautiful, just like the one in front of her. “And then what?” she asked. Syrena’s face grew dark at Sophie’s insistence, darker and suddenly older. Still beautiful, always beautiful, but it was a beauty that Sophie didn’t completely understand. A beauty that scared her a little.
    â€œTime for sleep now,” Syrena said sternly. “No more ‘this-is-mermaid-life.’ Tomorrow we reach the Swilkie. Last time in Swilkie, almost lost fin!” The mermaid fingered the delicate scales of her hip fin gingerly. “Very athletic, Swilkie. Rest up.”
    â€œI have a sister too,” Sophie surprised herself by saying. It was the first time she had spoken the truth out loud. I have a sister. “A twin.”
    Syrena spun her head to gaze at the girl, her hair following slowly, rotating like a big, black cloud above her. “Oh, no,” she said. “You say there two of you?”
    Sophie nodded.
    â€œWhat her name?” Syrena asked. “Is she beautiful?” Sophie realized the mermaid was teasing her.
    â€œShe’s—she’s captured. Or something. By Kishka. She lives in Kishka’s trailer at the dump.”
    â€œWhat ‘trailer’?”
    â€œIt’s like a really little space, on wheels. But it’s so weird. From the outside, the space is little, but then inside it’s big. Like, magic-big. And there’s a garden there, but there’s something wrong with it. Like the leaves are poison. When I went inside, it was like I couldn’t breathe, like the plants were stealing my breath. She’s trapped in there—she’s been living there, inside all the plants and trees. She’s so small. I think there’s something really wrong with her.” The memory of it made her feel