Hannah's Tale

After talking to Alex, my fiance, I returned to the Darknight booths to take Beth's place at the register while she went on break. Todd's instincts about this year's Kubla Con had been right. The line of people waiting to buy stuff was quite long. I expected to be busy.

I'd only been at it for a few minutes however, when Randal tapped me on the shoulder. "Todd wants to see you. He's with Amy. I think it's time for you to change," he said.

He was trying to supress a grin. Todd has a reputation as a joker, so I got suspicious. "All right, what's he up to this time?"

"I can't say, but it has to do with you hating sushi."

"Oh Lord." I rolled my eyes. I would have grilled Randal further, but I didn't want to keep the customers waiting. Todd had made a fuss some time ago about me not liking sushi, and didn't seem to want to drop it. Well, one doesn't introduce a girl (or anyone else for that matter) to something new by plopping a tentacle down on her plate. If he had started with a Calafornia roll or something like that, I might have tried it, but I don't eat Cthulu, especially not raw.

When I got to Amy's booth, she was working on Todd's new costume. He had been a ringwraith all morning, and at six foot five, the effect had been quite awsome. Now he was being done-up as a Hobbit. Yes, a Hobbit. At least he wasn't afraid of poking fun at himself as well as others. Todd's not a bad guy, in fact he's a pretty good boss, once you get past the practical jokes. He's honest, fair and, sometimes, even considerate. His business instincts are also good. He had built his publishing firm up from nothing. And, after less than four years, it was now one of the top five producers of fantasy and sci-fi books and games in the country.

Being on Darknight's back doorstep, Kubla Con always played an important part in Todd's plans. This year, with all the additional resources plowed into it by Eric Winters, the Con was going to be much grander and Todd was prepared to go all out to match. We rented space for ten tables and brought books and materials to fill them all twice over. Some of that space had been given over to Amy. Todd decided, almost at the last minute, to hire Amy to create costumes and make-up for him and all the Darknight employees in honor of this Con's costume theme. Beth, for example, was Arwen from the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films, Randal was a Star Fleet medical officer from the early Trek, I was made up as a female Vulcan officer from Wrath of Khan, with the red jacket and everything. Amy was a real pro, she had actually worked for Universal before she went free lance. In other words, we looked great.

She was working on Todd's hairy prosthetic feet blending them in to the flesh of his ankles. It was fascinating, I had to pull up a chair and watch. In fact, there was almost as big a crowd watching her as there was buying stuff. A lot of her business cards were being picked up and passed around as well. Todd was just as absobed as everyone else, watching her work, but he finally turned to me and grinned. "Ready for your next role?" There was more than a little mischief in his voice and look.

"Um-huh," I nodded, still watching the feet being done.

Amy pointed to one of the tables with her brush. "It's under there, in the cardboard box."

I reached over and picked it up. On top, written in black sharpie was the word 'mermaid'. Todd giggled like a school girl.

"You're kidding, right?" I pulled it open, fully intending to take the tail and strangle him with it. I was already preparing my defense, justifiable homicide. The costume was pretty though, no, I take that back, it was gorgeous. I couldn't help but, "Oooh" when I pulled it out of the box. The scales were translucent tourquoise and silver in alternating bands. The fin was large, delicate and lacey, with violet and gold veins. "This took a lot of work!" I said.

"Yes, it did," Amy beamed. "It was actually made for someone else, but Todd happened to see it and said it would be perfect for you. I have to agree."

"You don't say."

"Let us know when you're ready," Todd grinned even more evilly. "We'll carry you out and put you on a table. With some ginger and wasabe."

I gave him an "I'll kill you later" look, but said, "OK, I'll wear it." I did look pretty good in a swim suit. And if I couldn't take my eyes off it, how would Alex react? I was already imagining him drooling all over his Jedi outfit.

I took the box into the curtained off part of the booth and set to work. I removed the dark Vulcan wig and got my hair into some semblance of order, then stripped down to underwear and teeshirt. The tail was a tight fit, evidently made for a slightly smaller person than myself. It just barely reached my hips. I feared it wouldn't zip, but it did. At that moment, there was a 'pop'. It was more something in my head than a sound, but it got my attention. It must have gotten everyone else's attention too, because it got very quiet for a few moments. Then, all Hell broke loose.

There were screams, bellows, shouts, curses, roars and other less definable noises. There were also a few crashes. Something bad was happening and I wanted to face it mobile. I tried to unzip, but there was nothing to unzip. I struggled to roll the edge down, but I couldn't get a grip on it. There were more crashes and I heard Amy scream. Something bumped hard against the curtain just above my head. One way or another, it was time to move. I noticed a small space between two crates of books. I rolled off the chair I was sitting on and crawled/wriggled my way into it.

That was all that I needed for me to realize what had happened to me. No one with legs could move like I just had. I felt a scream comming on, but used both hands to stop it. Revealing where I was just when I couldn't run away seemed like a bad idea. The curtains fell and blocked the light. I heard the crashing of bookselves being knocked over. It all felt and sounded like a mine cave-in. I made myself as small as possible and waited.

I had no idea what had happened to the World outside my little dressing room/hiding place, but judging by what had happened to me, it couldn't be good. I waited until the noise slackened off a little, then, with considerable difficulty, I dragged myself out from under the tangled curtains, books and splintered shelves, and looked around. The first thing I noticed was that my fingers were webbed together at the first knuckle. That did not improve my disposition. I calmed myself down again, then really looked around. There were still a lot of people about, wandering around singly or in small groups. There was a woman in teeshirt and jeans tugging at foot-long antlers that sprouted from her head. An impossibly-large tabby cat zipped by yowling, "Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!". A normal-looking woman was wandering about shouting, "Jimmy! Jimmy!". Many people had solidly attached additions that looked suspiciously like the novelty nose and ear coverings that had been universally popular this weekend. It didn't take long to figure out that, as with me, people became the costumes they wore when that pop occured.

"Now what?" I thought to myself. No one had yet noticed the mermaid sitting among the ruined book-stalls wearing the faded Orlando Magic teeshirt. Which should give one an idea of just how weird the whole scene was. My natural inclination was to just sit there and wait until Alex found me, but I rejected that. Partly, because it didn't seem safe here, but mostly, I just didn't want Alex to see me like this. I knew him well enough to know that he would be all noble and such, but how would he really feel when he found out that the woman he intended to marry wasn't quite human anymore? If this wasn't permanent, everything would be alright, eventually. But what if it was...? I really didn't want to deal with that just then. Until I knew for sure, I wanted to put off any encounter with him.

How do I get out of here? I examined my new 'situation'. My range of motion at the hips was about the same as it had been. The tail, my tail, was, however, almost disturbingly flexible. Despite the fishy scales, my tailfin was horizontal, like a dolphin or other sea mammal's, not vertical, like a fish's. I had more side to side motion than I did with legs, however. My muscles throughout the tail were very firm, considerably stronger than those on my legs had been. No doubt about it, I was built to swim, not walk. I found though that if I bent forward at the hips and arched my tail back, I could do a kind of tripedal hop-crawl. "Not too good on loose debris," I thought. "But, it's the best I can do."

At that moment, I heard a cellphone, my cellphone, with Alex's ringtone. I froze for a moment, then started frantically hunting for it. I flopped, slid, skidded and dug about, but couldn't tell where the sound was comming from. After about a dozen rings it stopped. I growled and pounded the ground in frustration. He has to be on his way now, but he mustn't see me! I had to go. I began making my way toward the exits.

I had gotten about two-thirds of the way there, about thirty yards, when I heard a very loud hiss. I froze and slowly tried to look around. In my current posture, with nothing to tie it back, my hair was like blinders. I was feeling very vulnerable. Finally, I saw it, a big tawny cat, a mountain lion, looking at me very intently. Was it a person? I couldn't tell, it didn't look at all anthropomorphic. I tried to remember if anyone had brought any big cats to the convention. Person or not, I couldn't help but feel that it was sizing me up for a meal. I really could become sushi. I tried talking to it. "Go away! I don't feel like chatting right now. Just leave me alone!" It laid its ears back, hissed again and crept closer. Too close for me! I screamed, rolled over on my side and gave it as hard a tail-slap as I could manage. What followed was rather surprising. The big cat tumbled backwards, shook its head and ran off screaming. I lay on my side panting for a few moments, then got up and resumed my hop-crawl for the doors. I didn't feel quite so vulnerable any more.

The door to the breeze-way was difficult. I pinched my tailfin in it. It hurt like hell, but didn't seem to be damaged. A nice bear-man opened the ouside door for me. There were hundreds of people scattered over the grounds in various states of distress, or not. A few, though shocked, were not entirely unhappy. It was a very strange weekend. I spotted an open place in the shade of a tree and made for it. I needed to rest and think. I settled in next to a woman with red, weepy eyes and an elephant's trunk who was trying to nurse a baby. The baby, who seemed just fine, kept playing with the trunk. I wrapped my tail about me as tightly as I could, I was afraid of being stepped on.

Like everyone else around me, I was mostly self-absorbed. I sat there wondering what I was going to do with my life, how I was going to deal with the changes. I noticed that I had skinned my arm during my encounter with the cougar. It oozed a little bit of blood, green blood. In a panic, I felt my ears. They were pointed. Even my human half was not really human! That was too much, I started to sob. I cried until I hiccuped and my nose ran. I hadn't carried on like that since I was eight. I ached for Alex but felt hopeless. All I could imagine was him recoiling from his alien fiancee in horror. I would rather he think me dead.

It took some time, but I finally got it out of my system and could think clearly again. What's next? I needed water. I wasn't desperate for it, so far as I knew, I could stay out of water indefinitely. But I felt a longing to be immersed, to swim free, to not have land under me. I remembered looking over the hotel pool when I first arrived, last Thursday night. I knew the general direction and that it was about a hundred yards away from where I was, a long tiring crawl. I thought about waiting where I was. I could see lights from emergency vehicles in the parking lot. It might take a long time, however, for the EMT's to work their way to me, and I knew they had more urgent things to do than carry mermaids around anyway, so I started out.