Kellie Ross had led her old friend, and now boyfriend and confidante, Dakota, to the riverbank.  “This is the spot,” she said.

Dakota looked around.  “I’m surprised this isn’t more developed,” he said.  “Riverfront property is so valuable.”

“It’s the position of the road,” Kellie said.  “It’s too close to the old canal that runs right alongside the river, and there’s just not enough room to build in here, so it’s been left as green space.”

“So, is this what you wanted to show me?” Dakota asked.

“Not quite,” Kellie said.  “It’s down there.”  She pointed to a small cave along the steep walls of the riverbank.

Dakota smiled bemusedly.  “That was Elevator Girl’s first headquarters?”

Kellie nodded, chuckling.  “Yeah, at least until my mom figured out who I was,” she said.

“How’d she do that?” Dakota asked.  “No, wait; let me guess.  She saw you in … the pink costume.”

Kellie put her arms akimbo.  “Kota!  How did you know that?”

“Easy,” Dakota said.  “I half recognized you in the pink outfit.  Remember?  I told Elevator Girl on our date that I thought that outfit looks more like her than the leather getup.”

Kellie laughed, glancing around to make sure they were alone.  “I remember,” she said.  “You wanna see the cave?”

Dakota nodded.  “Only I don’t think I can get down there,” he said.  “I’m most of the way back from last round of chemo, but I’m still a little weak.”  His battle with lymphoma was going well for the moment, but still ongoing.

“That’s not an issue,”  Kellie said.  As she stepped off the high bank, she hit the controls on the bracelet her grandfather gave her just before he died, the one he made for her.  She grew to giant size and held her hand, as big across as a small car, out at ground level for Dakota.  “This is one time I get to live up to my name.  Going down?”

Dakota smiled and climbed onboard the hand.  Kellie lowered him to the cave entrance, then brought herself down to her normal height.  They walked into the cave.

Dakota looked around.  “It isn’t much, is it, for such a big heroine to have started here?”

Kellie hugged his arm.  “Everything has to start somewhere,” she said.

“Where did we start, Kel?”  Dakota asked, turning toward her and slipping his arms around her waist.

“In some ways, when we met when we were kids,” Kellie said.  “In other ways, when I picked you up -- literally -- for that date with Elevator Girl.  And then there’s when we started in the hall, when you asked me to the Halloween dance, and realized who I was just by looking into my eyes.”

Dakota brushed back Kellie’s hair.  “Speaking of the dance, do you know what costume you’re going to wear?’

Kellie shook her head.  “Every time I’ve tried to think about it, I’ve been called out as Elevator Girl.”

“She’s the hot costume this year, you know, for either of her outfits,” Dakota said.  “You could just wear one of your actual costumes.”

Kellie shook her head.  “Too big a risk to the secret identity,” she said.  “What are you going as?”

“It’s a surprise,” he said.

“But I want us to be all matchy,” Kellie said.  “How can I do that if I don’t know how you’re going to dress?”

Dakota hugged her.  “Come as Elevator Girl, or as Alice in Wonderland or some other size-changer from fiction like her,” he said.  “You’ll see.”

Just then they heard some loud splashing from the mouth of the cave.  Kellie looked up at Dakota, her brow furrowed.  She gestured toward the front of the cave, and they moved in that direction.

Dakota was so startled at what he saw in the water that he took a step backward.  There, floating in the water, were two merpeople; a mermaid and a merboy.  The boy looked to be only about two years old.

The mermaid smiled on seeing the teens, especially Kellie.  “Hello!” she said.  “Are you Kellie Ross?”

“I am,” said Kellie, and I’ve seen your picture.  You worked with my grandpa’s old team, the Super 6!”

“Not directly, but yes,”  the mermaid said.  “I was the assistant to Super Scuba.”

Kellie chuckled.  “I always thought that name was funny when I was a kid.”

The mermaid looked puzzled.

“’Super Scuba’ sounds kinda clunky in English,” Kellie said.

“Oh.  I didn’t know that,” said the mermaid.  She looked to the merboy.  “Did you know that, honey?”

The merboy shrugged.

“So, how is Super Scuba?” Kellie asked.

“He died recently,” the mermaid said, “but he’s here.”

Now it was Kellie’s turn to look confused.  “I don’t understand,” she said.

The mermaid smiled.  “The man who was Super Scuba died a natural death, living among my people with his advanced SCUBA gear,” she said.  “But, because of his love of us, and of me, I was able to use mermaid magic to reincarnate him as one of us.”

Kellie’s jaw dropped.  She pointed at the merboy.  “You mean this --”

The mermaid nodded.

Kellie turned toward the merboy, grinning broadly.  “Oh, I’m so glad to meet you!  There’s so much I want to ask you!”

“That will have to wait a while, I’m afraid,”  the mermaid said.  “You see, he has all his memories from his past life, but his vocal apparatus hasn’t developed enough yet to speak in the air.  It’ll be the better part of a year before he can talk to you that way.  He understands every word you say;  he just can’t talk back.”

Kellie bit her lip.  She knelt by the water’s edge.  “Then you look for me when you can talk, and visit any time you want to in the meantime,” she said.  “OK?”

The merboy grinned and nodded.  He swam to the water’s edge and hugged Kellie.  Then he swam out and came back with what looked like a small jetback made of Kevlar.  He handed it up to Kellie.

“What’s this?” Kellie asked.

“It’s the last gear Super Scuba designed,” the mermaid said.  “He made it when he heard about your grandpa’s gift to you.  It’s a special breathing apparatus to allow you to breathe in a variety of environments.  It could come in very useful at extremely small size.”

Kellie held it with tears in her eyes.  “My first special situation gear,” she said.  “Thank you!”  She hugged the merboy again.

Dakota was staring at the mermaid, but had managed to venture up next to Kellie.

“Who’s this?”  asked the mermaid.  “Is he the reincarnation of your grandfather?”

Dakota chuckled, covering his mouth.

Kellie turned toward him with an eyebrow raised, then turned back to the merpeople.  “No, this is my boyfriend, Dakota -- and he knows who I am,” she said.

“Oh,” said the mermaid.  “Well, we need to get back to salt water, for my little Scuba’s sake.  We’ll be back to visit again!”

“I’ll look forward to it!  Thanks!” said Kellie, waving.

After they had left, Dakota said, “That was really a mermaid.”

Kellie nodded, smiling.

“I just met a real mermaid,” Dakota said.

“And you can’t tell anyone about it -- well, except me and my mom,”  Kellie said.

“Yeah,” said Dakota.  “But it’s still cool.”

“Yeah, it is,” said Kellie.  Then she raised an eyebrow again.  “What was that laugh for, when she suggested you were my grandpa reincarnated?”


Dakota smiled knowingly.  “You’ll see,” he said.  “You know what they say about mermaids being so beautiful and all?”

“Yeah,” said Kellie.  “What about it?”

Dakota slipped his arms around Kellie’s waist again.  “Well, they’re kind of right,” he said.  “She was the second most beautiful lady around the river this afternoon.”

Kellie caressed Dakota’s cheek.  “I’m glad you feel that way,” she said.  “Shall I show you how I feel?”

“Let’s show each other,” Dakota said.

He leaned down and kissed her as she craned up and kissed him.  That continued for some time, until they noticed the light was beginning to change due to the setting of the sun.  Then Kellie elevated Dakota back out of the bank area, and they walked back toward her house, his arm around her shoulders and hers around his waist.