A handful of pearls. That was all Nerissa had. Oh, she’d grown up in Poseidon’s Grotto, with abalone combs and aquamarine and moonstone gems, but when she’d left the great ocean to marry a land-walker, she’d forfeit her jewels and pirate’s treasure hoards and kept only the handful of her nameday pearls.
And it was nearly Christmas.
It had been a fair price to pay. Many people believed that mermaids had to give up their voices to walk on land, but that was only true in fairy tales. In the actual world of the sea, merfolk could transform from fins to feet and back at will, but they had to dip their toes in the water at least once a week.
This was no trouble for Nerissa since her land-walker husband worked on the sea. Her Stavros was a fisherman with strong arms and a kind smile, eyes the color of the perfect wave, and dimples you could fill with a tide pool. He was also the owner of a wooden boat – the Sea Witch – inherited from his father’s father’s father, and the original glass floats that helped him find his nets once they were cast. The floats were very old and very valuable, for such things were no longer made, and only the oldest fisherfamilies still used them. They were also beautiful, as iridescent as opals and as delicate as bubbles if not handled carefully.
Nerissa loved helping on the boat. She and Stavros sang sea shanties, and she helped re-weave the nets when they frayed and ensured no sea creatures were accidentally ensnared. Stavros would cast the nets and drag in the catch, laying it in layers of ice. Whenever one of the other fishermen needed an extra hand, Stavros was the first to offer aid, and whenever anyone fell from a boat, Nerissa would be there to swim them to safety.
But every minute Stavros gave to others was time he wasn’t fishing. Then, too, the water had been overwarm this last season, and the catch had been smaller than usual, and Nerissa wanted so much to help her husband succeed… she knew that if she visited her many-times grand-mermother Amphitrite, the old woman would be able to help.
Decision made, Nerissa gathered her precious pearls and ran down to the beach. The water was cold on her bare legs, but once she’d shifted back to her birth-form, the chill didn’t bother her. She descended to the sandy bottom of the sea then swam out beyond the buoys that marked the channel, to where the water was deep blue, and the kelp forests surrounded the grottos where the finfolk lived.
Amphitrite welcomed her with open arms, chiding her for going so long between visits. “Stay for the solstice celebration, child,” the old merwoman said. “And take home a gift from me. Your father would not see you go without. He loves you, though he shows it poorly.”
Stavros, Nerissa knew, would be spending the evening at the Fisherman’s Roost, sharing drinks and stories with his friends. He never drank to get drunk, but just as she had her friends in the water, he needed to maintain his friendships on land. “I’ll stay,” agreed. “But I need your help.”
With luminescent tears pooling in her eyes, then dripping down her face, the younger mermaid told the older one about her two-footed husband, and his total acceptance of her needs. “He works so hard to take care of the Sea Witch, and to take care of me and….” Nerissa paused, placing her hand just below the point where skin turned into scales. “We are to have a child a few moons after the turning of the year..”
“And you want to share the grace of Glaucos with him,” the old merwoman said. “What gift would you bestow upon your human lover, child?”
“I wish to give him one of Glaucos’s nets,” Nerissa answered. “I would offer my voice, if it were a fair bargain.”
“The sea would prefer your voice remain where you can use it to sing songs and speak words of curse or comfort,” Amphitrite answered. “What else can you share?”
“I would offer my hair, if it were a fair bargain.”
“Your beautiful blue hair does far more good on your head, then lost to the waves, my dear,” the many-times great-grandmermother said. “I’m so sorry.”
“Then, I would offer my nameday pearls,” Nerissa said, “if it were a fair bargain.”
“Your nameday pearls carry the magic of your mother’s love, child. It is a fair bargain, and I will give you Glaucos’s nets, that your lover…”
“ – husband—”
“…husband, then, may never have a catch that isn’t bountiful.”
The bargain maid, Nerissa enjoyed the music and dancing of the merfolk, and the parade of phosphorescence that brought in the solstice and the change of seasons. When she left, two young mermen escorted her back to the Sea Witch, leaving the nets in a pile on the deck.
On Christmas morning, Stavros watched Nerissa frolic in the waves for an hour, joining her at the end, then lifting her into his arms and carrying her back to their cottage on the cliff. He had fashioned a Christmas tree from pieces of driftwood draped with pine boughs and decorated it with lights and seashells and fishing lures. At the top, one of his old foul-weather hats gleamed yellow and bright.
And under the tree were two packages. A large lumpy one, wrapped in sailcloth, and a wee box with a blue-green ribbon that almost matched Nerissa’s hair.
“Stavros, this is lovely!,” Nerissa said.
“I wanted our tree to reflect us,” he said. “Shall we brew a pot of strong tea and sip it while we open our presents?”
Nerissa made the tea, and Stavros sliced some ginger cake, and they sipped and nibbled and talked about her solstice celebration and his evening with his friends, and then they turned toward the gifts, one for each of them.
Nerissa opened the box first, and when she saw what was nestled within, she began to cry great salty tears.
“What’s wrong, lass. Do you not like it?” Stavros asked. “I know it’s plain, but I thought you could string your pearls on it. You never wear them.”
“It’s beautiful,” Nerissa said, lifting the fine gold chain and letting it hang from her long fingers. “But I’ll have to string it with shells for now, because I traded my pearls to acquire your gift. Open it, please?”
Stavros did as he was bidden, and untied the sailcloth bundle to find new fishnets that gleamed almost as golden as the chain his wife was clutching and radiating a sort of power he couldn’t identify. “These are brand new,” he said.
“They are imbued with the grace of Glaucos,” Nerissa explained. “He’s the protector of fishermen and will guarantee a bountiful catch with every use.”
“It’s a generous gift, my love, but…”
“But what?”
“I sold my floats to buy your chain,” Stavros said. “I have cork floats, but I don’t think they’re buoyant enough to support this net.”
For a long moment, both were silent. Then Nerissa spoke. “It would appear the Mergi are smiling upon us this year.”
“The… Mergi?”
“Yes. In your land-walker tradition you have stories of the magi – the wise men who brought gifts to the holy child when he was born. In the Ways of the Water, we have the Mergi – wise ones who guide our hands and hearts away from selfishness and greed. In our efforts to give to each other unselfishly, we gave up our greatest treasures, and for that, the Mergi smile.
In fairy tales, there is always a happy ending, but Nerissa and Stavros live in the real world. Still, they were respected and loved by their separate communities. When the couple arrived at the harbormaster’s cottage for the annual holiday toast, each of Stavros’s friends brought a single glass float to give to him. Combined, they were just enough to support the new net.
Days later, at the first tide of the new year, Nerissa and Stavros returned to the Sea Witch and found a cradle waiting there, piled high with sweet saltgrass. Nestled in the center was a small chest, and inside that was a single pearl, a fistful of pirate’s gold, and a note from Amphitrite to “bring your daughter to meet me, when she is born.”
Nerissa and Stavros lived, and fished, for many decades, and every year on their daughter’s nameday, they would bring their daughter Pearl to visit Poseidon’s Grotto and hear stories from her many-times great-grandmermother.
