After the celebration ends, I swim through the crowd of mermaids to find my brother. He was onstage earlier with the rest of the band, so I imagine he’ll still be with them somewhere. Unless you’re up really close, it can be quite difficult to recognise faces through the swishing tails and the bubbles floating in the water. And that’s coming from someone who has never really had the best eyesight to begin with.
In my haste to locate him, I almost run straight into a boat wrap that a middle-aged mermaid is taking down from a coral stack. He turns to me with a face full of fury, and I spin away in apology. How am I supposed to find my brother in this chaos? My parents aren’t at the celebration today – they’re working in the underground sand mines – so it’s up to me to get him home by curfew. As time continues to pass and I still haven’t found him, I begin to get a little bit nervous. The crowd of thousands has mostly dispersed, leaving a few hundred mermaids behind. But they’re mostly taking down the remaining decorations. Bits of colourful fish boat decal float around the fields, with curious fish nibbling on the edges.
I’m about to scout the northern reaches of the fields, where the food stalls were, when I hear a scream. I tilt sideways, hair swinging into my face like a whip. Someone charges into the back of me and I am pushed forwards into an aluminium totem pole. Salt water rushes up my nose as I struggle to right myself. Still, more screams come. Mermaid after mermaid joins into the cacophony as I turn wildly around, trying to spot the source of the fear. Finally, a massive shadow passes over me, casting darkness onto my stretch of the coral fields. I look up and my fins buckle. Sailing just above my head is a human ship with a giant squid painted on its belly.