Inspired By The Holidailies Prompt: That gift you always wanted (and did you get it?)

 

The Fiji Mermaid

was just a hoax, she wasn’t real so quit asking for her

for Christmas, your birthday and for Halloween my Mom used to tell me

when those times of the year rolled around and the question of gifts was called.

 

But I wanted that little Mermaid and I was so convinced that

she was real that I had a place set aside in my room near the window  for the day  that

somebody  in my family would finally see sense and give me the Princess of The Seas

for either Christmas, my birthday or Halloween.

 

One day, tired of my foolishness,  my  Dad told me  the Fiji Mermaid was part monkey,

part fish she wasn’t real she was just a bunch of dead animal parts stitched together

she was just a prop, as a joke to take money off of gullible people like me, my Dad said with disgust.

 

But one day I read that the Circus that held a Fiji Mermaid captive

and I was convinced she was a captive

and probably did not give her the respect that a Princess of The Seas deserved

burned to the ground in 1865.

 

At the same exact time, in another part of the world

there was another Fiji Mermaid held captive under glass

near the Sea, I think it was a museum but I’m not sure.

Wouldn’t you know it? That museum burned down too.

 

After I learned the stories about the Fiji Mermaids

and how they escaped from their cages

and left a forest of flames behind them, from that point forward

I no longer asked for or wanted a Fiji Mermaid.

Since then I’ve asked for two Fiji Mermaids

 

I’ve been asking for them since I was a child

for Christmas, my birthday or Halloween

there is  a place for them near a window in my home , a place of honor

set aside specially for a Princess and a Queen who really like fire

and hate being pushed around and made a mockery of

just

like

me.