Milly opens the blue door, steps inside and S-P-L-A-S-H she finds herself drowning in clear blue water. Then W-H-O-O-S-H, she’s soaring up towards the surface. Milly closes her eyes, afraid to look as she parts the surface, and begins gulping fresh air, which makes her cough. When her coughing subsides, Milly slowly reaches down and touches the shimmering surface she is lying on. It feels smooth, leathery, firm and wet. She looks carefully around her. The ceiling in this room is painted the same as in the jungle room, but the floor is blue and very wet. The lump she is resting on is nestled against the bed. It has a greyish cover thrown over it to give the impression of a rock. Milly notices that two people are sitting upon the bed, and one of them is holding out his hand to her.
“I’m sure you’d be more comfortable up here,” he says.
Milly takes the outstretched hand and climbs upon the bed. It’s much softer than it looks and Milly sinks into it. She looks at her two companions and notices that they have flippers instead of legs. Sid flies in and sits on Milly’s shoulder.
“I told you it was damp in here,” he squawks.
“Who’s your friend, Sid?” asks the shiny surface that Milly had been sitting upon a moment earlier.
“Ketos, this is Milly.” Sid does the introduction. “Milly I’d like to introduce the great Ketos.”
The shiny surface raises itself from the water and Milly comes face to face with Ketos, the whale. He raises a flipper and Milly shakes it.
She then turns to the people on the rock.
“Well, I suppose you must be Mer-people?” she says with a smile.
“Of course they are.” Sid says.” This is Riff and Nina.”
Milly shakes their hands, “Another first for today.”
“You should learn to swim,” Nina laughs.
“When I’m in the swimming pool I can swim quite well, thank you. I just wasn’t expecting to go swimming in a bedroom, that’s all,” protests Milly.
“What’s a bedroom?” asks Riff.
“I don’t know why I bother, I really don’t. I swear you people never listen to me. We covered this in human studies just last week. A bedroom is where humans sleep,” snaps Ketos.
“Perhaps, Sir, you need to make your lessons more fun,” suggests Milly.
“Fun, young lady, is for the ocean not my classroom,” thunders Ketos as he splashes his tail up and down in the water.
“You’ve done it now,” says Riff, “He’ll be in a bad mood all day now.”
“All I meant was that you can have fun and learn at the same time, it makes the learning easier,” explains Milly.
Ketos stops his splashing and looks at her.
“Go on, child,” he commands.
“Well, you could ask the Mer-people to collect shells, rocks, pebbles - anything they find interesting - and bring them into class. Then you name them and use them for counting, sorting, dividing and grouping. They will enjoy using these objects and they will still be learning.
Perhaps you could teach them about the ocean and their ancestors instead of trying to teach them about humans. After all, how many humans will they meet?”
Milly stops and looks at Ketos.
“I shall think about your suggestions, but you may be wrong about them not meeting humans. After all, isn’t that what you are?” laughs Ketos.
Before Milly can answer she hears the front door ring.
“I wonder who that can be? We don’t get many visitors out here,” flaps Sid.
“I’d better go and se,” says Milly.
“I’ll see you to the door,” offers Ketos turning his back to her so that she can climb on.
Milly rides to the door in silence. When she steps off onto the landing she is surprised to find she is completely dry.
“Thank you, Ketos. May I visit again?” she asks.
Ketos nods and swims back to the rock. Milly closes the door and heads for the top of the stairs.
Her Aunt has also heard the doorbell. She crosses the hall and opens the front door to find three men standing on her step.
Patsy notices that Carl and Eric look almost like brothers with their black hair, though Eric looks younger in Jeans and T-shirt than Carl in his flared trousers and checked shirt. The third man, Harry, has ginger hair and winks at Patsy. She glares back at them all.
“Can I help you?” she asks.
The first man speaks.
“My name is Harry and I represent a local business man who is interested in buying this splendid property, Madam,” he says with a grin.
“You’ve had a wasted journey. My home is not for sale,” she replies.
Eric steps forward and glares at her. “Look, lady, the Captain w-wants this place and w-we’re h-here to see he gets it.”
Patsy takes a step forward and almost knocks Eric off the step.
Harry also steps forward and comes between the furious Eric and Patsy. “What Eric is trying to say is, that the Captain will pay quite handsomely for this property at the moment. You would be wise to sell now because his offers go down as time goes on. ” He winks again.
“Tell your Captain I am not selling my home, now or ever,” she says and closes the door.
Milly rushes down the stairs and clings to her Aunt.
“He’ll make us leave here, just like he made us leave the flat,” she sobs.
Aunt Patsy scoops Milly up in her arms and hugs her.
“Now you listen to me, Milly. This is one property the Captain will never get his hands on. Now don’t you go worrying yourself about it. I need to talk to your mother. Have you chosen a room yet?”
“No, not yet, Aunty. I was in the blue room when I heard the knock on the door.”
“Well, that’s a nice room. Would you like to stay in that one, dear?”
“It’s a little damp for me. Can I look in the other rooms first?” Milly asks.
“Of course you can, dear,” smiles Aunt Patsy. “Now you run along and I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”
Patsy returns to the sitting room and her sister. Milly goes back upstairs and puts her ear to the blue door. She can hear lots of splashing and laughing so she carefully opens the door and peers inside. The Mer-people have lots of shells and pebbles lined up on the rock.
“How many shells will you have, Riff, if Nina takes two of yours away?” asks Ketos.
“I’ll have six and Nina will be crying,” Riff replies.
“And why would I be crying?” Nina asks
“Because I would knock you on your back for pinching, that’s why,” jeers Riff.
The two start fighting and Ketos has to splash them with water to split them up.
Milly calls over to them from the doorway.
“Hello there, having fun?”
Ketos swims to her and offers her his back. Milly climbs on and they glide over to the rock. Milly then notices that two more Mer-people have joined Riff and Nina.
Riff helps Milly climb onto the rock then he introduces his friends.
“Milly these are Candice and Dizzy.”
Milly watches the two new Mer-people. Candice is stringing shells onto seaweed and Dizzy is sitting very still with his eyes tight shut.
“Don’t worry about them,” says Nina. “Candice is a little shy of strangers and Dizzy is afraid of heights.”
“I don’t mind heights, but the Captain and his men scare me.” Milly sighs.
“Who?” Ketos asks.
“Captain Cow and his men, they force people from their homes. Then they knock down the homes and build steak houses to sell fast food. They tell stories to the neighbours about you, write nasty letters and put bricks through your window.” She sobs.
“Didn’t you tell, what do you call them again, yeas that’s it the police. Why didn’t you tell the police?” Ketos asks.
“Captain Cow is a very rich man, we told the police but he said he knew nothing about it and they believed him. He made my and me leave our home, and now he wants to buy this place,” she sobs again.
“They won’t take our home away from us, will they, Ketos?” asks Dizzy clinging to the rock.
“Of course not. Now don’t panic yourselves, Bengi and the others won’t allow anything to happen to our home,” Ketos assures them.
“What can they do?” Milly asks through her tears.
“Well, Bengi could eat them,” laughs Riff.
“If you can’t say anything useful then please stay silent,” Ketos tells him as he gives Milly a ride back to the door.
“Don’t worry, dear, the Captain won’t take this place from us. It’s far too special.” He smiles and swims back to his pupils.
Milly wonders whether she should open the black door but then she crosses the hall and looks in a second yellow door. This is one of the two bathrooms. At first glance it appears to be like the jungle room. The same sky coloured ceiling and meadow like floor, except there are less trees on the wall. They are covered instead with a more meadow like effect similar to the floor and a beautiful waterfall is cascading down one end of the wall into the bath. At the far end of the bath Milly spots two otters preening themselves at the waters edge. They pay no attention to her and continue to preen and play.
After a few moments they slip into the water and disappear behind some floating leaves and twigs. Milly leaves the bathroom and turns left. As she approaches the grey door she feels a cold breeze blasting from under it. When she clasps the handle it feels like ice. Milly shivers and wonders what could possibly be behind this door.
© Tina O'Neill, 2008
