I grew up in what all my friends called a Disney Family, anytime we could do something to incorporate something Disney into our everyday lives, my mom would incorporate that something. My dad went along with it because it made my mom not nag him so much about having no magic.
Fall break one year, my mom and dad surprised me with a trip to Walt Disney World! As a small child, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement, when the day came to fly out to Florida, I was actually the first one up and ready to go to the airport.
When we landed in Orlando, the transpiration clerk of the airport told us the bad news that the freeways had been shut down due to the storm that was currently raging. My dad asked about the taxis that were stacked that were stacked up waiting for passengers, and if they couldn’t take some back way in. The woman at the counter noticed me, and hailed us a taxi cab.
The driver took us down a little path that sliced through the backwoods, a part of Florida I had never seen before. We passed a little cafe looking thing called Mermaid Lagoon, a place my mom wanted to stop at as they had a small version of Skull Rock, but we kept going until the driver stopped, a massive tree had fallen in the road.
I complained that I was hungry, and my dad told the driver to take us back to Mermaid Lagoon. My dad seemed frustrated with the idea, but I was happy I was going to eat and my mom was super happy about it, after all, Skull Rock was from a Disney movie, and the Mermaid Lagoon had to be better than McDonald’s right?
We walked inside and the place was unusual to say the least, like no place I had ever seen before. It seemed like any Florida tourist trap, but rather than use gators to get tourists to stop, it seemed to use mermaids.
Not even Disney was this tacky, and Disney had - even back then - become pretty fucking tacky. But some places can pull of tacky rather gracefully - as weird as that is to type out. Mermaid Lagoon reminded me of that Neptune’s Inn from a Goofy Movie, everything that stood still looked like it was underwater. In the back of the place they had a small pond - which was probably a dammed off section of swamp. Our waitress slash tour guide told us that it was a special sort of swamp that was dying all around the state of Florida. I wanted outside, but I was told it was forbidden.
My father hated it when I was told about anything, and he demanded to know why I couldn’t go out there. My mom tried to calm my dad down; telling him Mermaid Lagoon was probably dealing with the Brain Eating Amoeba. My attention immediately turned from a silly little swampy lagoon to the Brain Eating Amoeba, it sounded like 100 times cooler!
Now, if I’m smitten and content with the actuality of a Brain Eating Amoeba, how is this a scary true story? Well, my mom was obsessed with mermaids, forcing the Little Mermaid down my throat nearly daily.
My mom wasn’t only obsessed with Ariel, in fact she preferred the mermaids from Peter Pan. My mom grew curious to see what was so forbidden, no matter her telling me a possible reason. My mom and father never got along well, so my father pushed her to go look when the two people in Mermaid’s Lagoon had turned their backs to us - he didn’t care if her brain got eaten by an amoeba. My mom nodded at his idea, a tight smile across her fat face.
Once we had ordered our food, we watched as the only other two souls disappeared into the back of the place. My mother was a large woman but told both my father and I that her days running marathons made her quick and nimble - maybe at one point, yes, back when she was as skinny as a fleeting hope, sure; but now the scale told her she was dangerously close to three hundred pounds, but no matter as she had gotten up and made her way to the back where the swamp was.
We watched as she unhooked the velvet rope that separated the cafe from the swamp out back, she rehooked it when she was on the other side. The rain outside had let up but every moment or so I could see a stray drop fall here and there.
We watched as she circled the small swamp, eyes boring into the water. My father and I had no idea what she was looking at. Was she looking at anything at all aside from swamp water? I watched as she reached behind her and snapped off a branch of a nearby tree.
She began to poke the surface of the swamp with the stick. My dad stood up, something had sent up a red flag in his brain. We watched as something grabbed the branch by the way my mom held onto her end of the branch, before sucking it under the surface.
My dad stomped his foot, demanding she come back to the table now, which of course got the two employees attention. My mom called back, happily telling us that there was a mermaid under the water!
By then, the two employees were hurrying for the outside where the sky remained the grayish brown color of a dirty potato, and was still spitting rain. My father and I watched as a sickly green hand broke the surface of the water, webbing between the digits.
The arm the hand was attached to had scales running down the length of the arm, it looked like the Creature From the Black Lagoon! I was starting to get scared for my mom, but my mom didn’t seem freaked.
I glanced over at my father to see a man on the ragged edge of panic, as the creature grabbed onto my mom’s arm, and yanked her into the swamp. My dad, who had not cared, allowed his jaw to stretch open.
The employees shared the same look of horror as my dad. I couldn’t just sit there, I ran to the swamp as sweat sprouted upon my forehead. I looked into the water, and the only thing I saw was something I’ll never be able to forget. I saw a mermaid’s tail disappear down into the murky depths.