The fish was floating a few inches above my bathroom countertop. She was my fish, that was understood in the dream logic of it, but my fish wasn’t a calico koi betta. The reached out my hand toward the fish and it fell onto the countertop gasping. I grabbed the nearest container, filled it with water and tried to scoop the fish into it. Before I could get it back into the water it rose and began to swim through the air again. I stared in awe until it fell again. Again I tried to scoop it up, again flicked out of my reach. I threw down the cup in frustration.

And then I woke up. I couldn’t feel my legs. They wouldn’t move or at least not in any way I was used to. I threw off my sheets and promptly lost all my senses. I didn’t have any legs. What I had was a mermaid’s tail. I tried moving it, just a little the way I might have wiggled my toes. The fan shaped end of my fin flicked back and forth. I was a mermaid.

“Luuuuuuuke,” I yelled. I grabbed my phone and called Connie. “Luke! I need help!” Maybe it was a prank by my roommates, we’d had a bit of a rager the night before. They could have borrowed a costume mermaid tail and put it on me while I was passed out. I gingerly touched the scaly surface, it was slick like a fish. Not a prop then. Connie’s phone went to voice mail.

“Coooooonieeeeee!” I wailed. “Luke! Help!”

Finally the door opened and Luke entered rubbing his eyes.

“Dude, why are you being so loud?” He stopped as soon as he saw me. Then he laughed. “Aw, good one!”

“No, Luke,” I said. “ Not a good one!”

Connie came in then holding her phone. “Girl, why’re you callin me on the phone when I right…what the hell is goin on here?!”

I was starting to feel light headed like I do when I haven’t had enough water.

“I think I need to take a shower,” I tried to heave the tail out of bed and sit up. I almost succeed but the tail was more awkward then I thought and I fell out of bed.

“Anna, don’t move,” Connie commanded. “I’m going to make you a bath. Luke, you’re going to have to cary her.”

“On it,” Luke jogged over, putting one hand behind my back and gingerly sliding the other under my fin, roughly where my knees would be. “Oof, man, no offense but this feels kinda gross.”

“Thanks a lot,” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be sure to remember that the next time I decide to wake up as half an animal!”

“That’s what’s up,” Luke said cheerfully as he carried me to the main bathroom and gently set me down in the lukewarm bath Connie was drawing up. While I sat and stared at how my tail shimmered under the water, Connie brought me my phone, which I’d dropped falling out of bed, before she went to work.

“I’ll do some research in my free time,” she said. “You’ll want to call out of work.” I nodded. Luke brought me a breakfast smoothy and sat by me while drank them.

“What’s it like?” He asked.

“It feels freakin weird.” We were quiet for a bit.

“You wanna watch something? I can bring my computer in and put it on the toilet.”

“Ok,” I nodded. We were fifteen minutes into Spirited Away when Connie called and told Luke to go over to our neighbor’s house, the one who had all the tropical fish and see if he could borrow some aquarium salt for my bath. Luke did as Connie commanded. I wasn’t alone long before my phone rang.

“Hey, Mom,” I sighed.

“Hey, Hon,” Mom said chipperly. “How are you? Do you have a few minutes to chat?”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I had to call out sick today.”

“Oh no, What’s the matter?”

“I woke up with a fish tail. Kinda hard to drive with fins.”

Mom laughed. “Well, you always wanted to be a mermaid when you grew up! Remember when you told your father and I your real parents were sharks?” I laughed. If only she saw me now.

“Well, I’ll let you rest then,” Mom said. “Do you need me to come by with anything?”

Just then Luke came in. He had a box of donuts balanced on top of a jar of aquarium salt on one arm and Connie giving him orders on his phone in the other hand. He rolled his eyes at me “Ok, Connie, I got it!”

I smiled. “Thanks mom, I think I’m all set.”