Written by Baby Rucelle Cogal
I was so immersed in the manga I was reading when I heard someone knocking on my door.
“Stacy?”
“Oh, yes, Auntie Rei?”, I answered as I opened the door.
“Are you busy? Uh, can we leave Rina to you for a while? I did not expect to have an emergency meeting today and your Uncle Jin is also busy at the office, so there’s no other one who can look after her.”
“Hi, Ate Stacy~” Rina beamed and approached me with a hug.
I just giggled and lifted her. “Hi, little Rina.”
I turned to Auntie Rei. “Oh, it's okay Auntie. I don’t have anything to do today anyway so it's fine.”
“Oh my god, thank you Stacy! I’ll be back and fetch her at 5pm.”
“Sure, Auntie.”
“Rina, say goodbye to your mommy.”
“Bye bye, mommy” she said cutely as she kissed her mom’s cheek.
“Bye, baby. I’ll fetch you back later so play with Ate Stacy for a while, okay? Don’t be a bad girl.”
“Yes, mommy.”
------
After an hour and half of playing outside with the other children, we got tired and decided to go back to my room.
“Ate Stacy, what’s this book?”
“Oh, it’s a compilation of folklore and fables.”
“Oh, read it to me Ate!” I smiled and pinched her cheeks. Really, a child is always hyper and curious.
“What story do you want?”
“This mermaid one because she’s so pretty.”
“Are you sure? Rina, it is kind of creepy for you though?”
“But I want to hear that story, Ate” and there she goes with her puppy eyes. Sighs.
“Fine, but don’t blame me if you get scared okay?”
“I won’t be scared, it's just folklore.” She giggled as I just shook my head. This child really.
“In a faraway place near the shore, the people believed that there were mermaids in the ocean. Just recently, there has been a rumor about this one mermaid who frequently goes near the shore.
“That’s cool!” Rina commented excitedly.
“According to the people who saw the mermaid, she had some sort of stitches in her face and body, but she was very dazzling and beautiful. They said she complements the blueness of the ocean with her blue hair, blue eyes and blue tail.”
“I love blue! I want a blue tail too.” I smiled at her and continued the story.
“The people there believed that mermaids are sacred and protected their place, so they do not harm mermaids. They believed that if you hurt one of them, the queen would be angry and drown you.”
“Scary.” Rina commented as she yawned. Oh, she’s getting sleepy.
“But of course, although many believe that adore their beauty and consider them sacred, there are also some who want to catch and sell them because they believed they would get a lot of money.”
“One night, one fisherman said that he spotted the beautiful mermaid with blue tails near the shore and called the others. When the others arrived, they said that they are lucky to have a glimpse of the mermaid’s blue tail.”
“Unluckily, the rumors spread outside the village which piques the interest of other people. On a calm night, a group of people from the other villages went near the shore to catch the mermaid. Because the villagers there were so determined to protect the mermaids, they fought back which led to a bloodbath because the visitors had their guns. One of the villagers was shot so the other people got scared to stop the visitors.”
“And so, the visitors successfully arrived near the shore, but they found nothing. The leader is so angry and is scolding the other for being so useless. As they are planning to go back as they thought they were scammed, a splash of water was heard.”
“T-the mermaid!” one of them shouted.
“There, they saw the mermaid and got dazzled with its beauty. As some of them were staring in awe, the leader shouted “What are you all doing? Get that mermaid!”.
“The others got back in their senses and aimed their guns. The mermaid seems to notice them, so it was said that it plans to get away and swim but one of them is able to shoot its arm.”
“A weird noise was heard from the mermaid before they heard a splash in the water and when they tried to swim after it while holding a net, the mermaid got away. The visitors then leave after. “
“When the morning came, the villagers rushed to the shore and they saw a green liquid which seemed to be the mermaid’s blood from the gunshot. It was said that after the incident, the villagers never saw a glimpse of even one mermaid in the ocean.”
“And the end.”
I looked back at Rina and noticed she was sleeping already.
“Oops, she was asleep already.” I chuckled as I covered her with a blanket.
“This child really, does it seem like I was reading her a bedtime story?” I whispered while putting the book back on the shelf.
Comentarios