Free Girl at the Bottom of the Sea by Michelle Tea Page B

glowed, majestic and ghostly.
    Griet! Sophie thought again of Syrena’s sister, not that the creature had really left her mind. In fact, wasn’t she somehow seeking Griet in her solo outing? With the mysterious mermaid haunting her mind, didn’t she set out to find something—some proof of her left behind in this, her undersea queendom? And here it was, a giant ball of beauty in the plush body of the huge oyster. It was for this thing that Syrena’s sister had been named; such a creature had to be dazzling. What must it be like to have a sister lovely as a pearl?
    For lovely as a pearl Sophie’s sister was not. Dumb as a plant, more like, stuck inside her grandmother’s trailer, the toxic greenery binding her like roots clutching soil. Sophie shook the thought from her mind. The memory of that glimpse of her sister was truly haunting—spooky. All alone in the dark, she’d much rather imagine Syrena’s sister, the beautiful Griet.
    Sophie swam toward the pearl. She could gather it in her arms and carry it back to Syrena and perhaps it would comfort her. Not that the mermaid needed comfort, exactly—she seemed beyond it. But maybe in the giant pearl Syrena would see an unusual beauty, and understand for a moment the way her stories had captured Sophie’s heart.
    As Sophie approached its lip, it was as if the oyster inhaled, took a deep and terrible breath, pulling Sophie into its shell, sliding her across the smooth surface of the giant pearl. Sophie tried to swim against the strong current, but she was pulled completely inside the giant oyster almost immediately. And then the shell slammed shut.

Chapter 9
    S ophie had never even eaten an oyster, so she didn’t understand what this particular enormous one could have against her. Inside the chamber of its clamped shell, lit blue with the glow of her talisman, she tried not to panic. Which was hard, because not only was she trapped, but the oyster itself, its phlegmy body, was sticking to her in a rather disgusting way. It was like its goo was trying to cuddle with her. Wherever Sophie’s body was in contact with the gooey bivalve it began sliming itself up her. It felt like living glue, impossible to peel away. She struggled against it, the groans of her effort echoing off the shell.
    â€œSyrena!” she cried to the mermaid. Surely Syrena wouldn’t be scared of a deranged oyster, even a supersized one. Syrena had battled sharks! She would rescue her. “Syrena!” she cried again—and the oyster slid a stretch of slime into her mouth, grasping and steadying her tongue.

    â€œNo use hollering,” Kishka said. “You’re just going to give me a headache. The acoustics in this place, oy vey.”
    Sophie struggled to raise her head, and she could just make out the outline of her grandmother. Kishka ashed her cigarette from atop her perch on the great pearl. Sophie grasped the terrible tentacle that was lassoing her tongue, and with all her might she tugged it free. She gagged on the taste the thing left behind, alarmed at how quickly the oyster had wrapped itself around her wrists, binding them.
    â€œNana!” Sophie gasped.
    â€œOh, don’t ‘Nana’ me,” Kishka snapped. The oyster shell was filling with the smoke from her cigarette, and Sophie choked a little on it.
    â€œYou had your chance to be a granddaughter,” Kishka continued, taking a long drag off the long cigarette. In the smoky haze, Sophie squinted. The cigarette looked like it was half a foot long. Half a foot long and growing by the second. With every inhalation, the evil thing stretched further toward Sophie. Its nauseous stink and glowing orange tip slid so close Sophie could feel its heat on her face.
    â€œOh, you had your chance,” Kishka half sang. “You could have been my little duckling, my little helper. You could have been just a sweet girl who minded her own business. Or you could