Tales of Aleah

A Story by Jherica

A mermaid version of Cinderella

Tales of Aleah

One fine summer’s day on the wispy waters of the Mediterranean Sea, there was a gentle mermaid named Aleah. She was using a soft clam (what she has to use in the sea for rags) to clean the ocean bottom that was her part of the sea to clean. Of course the other half belonged to other merpeople, but Aleah was known for her noble talents like cleaning.

Now back at home under the sea are some of the foulest creatures on earth. Their names were Ella and Stella, the bossy, rude steptwins. They make her fetch tea even when it is sitting right beside them, for example. Then, there is the meanest stepmother to swim this earth. She would make her do anything. For example, Aleah had to make all the jewelry for everyone in the whole house.

She longed for a prince that was kind and would take her away from the evil family to marry her.

“Aleah,” called Stella from her bedroom early in the morning before she went to go clean the mucky ocean floor. “Bring me my seaweed tea.”

Aleah sighed. “I’ll be there in a minute.” She started stirring the tea. While she was doing that she started thinking, “Oh, how I wish they would stop bossing me for one day.”

“Hurry up!” said Stella.

She took Stella her seaweed tea (Uck!) and hurried back into the ocean to get cleaning. She didn’t want her stepmother to catch her not cleaning on any day because that would be a horrible nightmare.

Suddenly she heard a big PLOP about a mile away! She swam over to where she heard the sound and saw a huge thing that looked like an anchor sitting there. It was stuck in the muck. She put her hand over her mouth and gasped.

She followed the chain up and found an enormous, huge oval that had two points on each end. She reckoned it was a boat.

“Oh dear,” said Aleah. She swam back to her cleaning hoping her stepmother still wouldn’t find that she wasn’t cleaning.

When she looked up on the boat to see what was up there she thought she saw a man that she recognized. Aleah said, “I think I recognize him from my dreams.”

All of the sudden...ding dong!

“ Aleah!”Her stepmother called.” Answer that!”

At the door the royal page from the kingdom was there holding a bright pink letter with a heart for a stamp. Her steptwins happened to be watching and stepped to the door. They screamed after they read the letter.

Here’s what the letter said when Aleah read it out loud:

Dear All Ladies of the Land,

I have invited all of you to a ball at the kingdom. There I will find the lady I love most and marry her. I will dance with every lady and it will be at 6:30 p.m. next Thursday night.

Sincerely,

Prince Andy

A week later at five o’clock p.m. all the girls were getting dressed with the pearl jewelry that Aleah had made and dabbing on Sand and Clam Works lotions. Stella had on a pretty pink sparkly dress. Ella had on the same, but it was blue.

Aleah was still dressed in her night robe. And the stepmother looked really different. She had on an ugly dark forest green dress with a fish on the skirt on her dress.

When the sea horse and buggy arrived, the girls climb on. While that happened, Aleah sat on a soft clam bench with a handkerchief in her hand. All of the sudden, a little bit of sparkly dust appeared. Then a ghost-like mermaid emerged out of thin air.

“I will make a beautiful dress so you can go to the ball.” She took a torn rag sitting nearby and turned into a glittery long dress with only the tips of her tail showing beneath it. Across the front was a lovely turquoise blue dolphin.

Only her tail had its own glow with glitter lotion spread all over it.

The fairy god mermaid saw a sea horse floating nearby. She made a buggy out of thin air and hooked it to the seahorse, then helped Aleah get in.

“Be back before your sisters.”

Aleah traveled to the ball. At the kingdom palace she got lost in the corridors, for which she did not know which one led to the ball. Finally, a guard helped her into the ball room.

It had a peaceful, sandy floor. All around were ribbons on the ocean floor walls with clams. While the prince was trying to get away from Stella and Ella, who were trying to get him to dance, he noticed Aleah.

He swam over to her.

There standing before her was the handsome prince. They started to dance. They danced and danced until Aleah noticed Stella and Ella were swimming to the doors to leave.

Aleah said, “I have to go.” She rushed out of the place to go home and made a maiden again.

She was home just in time to grab her clam mop to start cleaning. And then Ella and Stella walked in.

“How was the dance, girls?” asked Aleah.

“None of your concern,” said Ella suspiciously. Ella was looking at something on Aleah’s tale. “What is that on your tale, anyway?”

Aleah looked down. “Oh, I was just cleaning up the art area.”

“Oh,” said Ella.

Weeks later the prince swam to every house with a special pearl headband in hopes of marrying the girl he danced with. When he got to Aleah’s house, he tried it on the twins. Stella’s head was too big. Ella’s head was too small.

Then he tried it on Aleah. It fit perfectly. He scooped her up into his arms saying, “My love. My love.”

At the kingdom palace they were married at once.
Aleah never had to worry about her steptwins or stepmother ever again. They had become maidens at the castle.

Aleah and Andy lived happily ever after.

The End

© 2013 Jherica

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TLK

A few mistakes, such as "arrives" when you mean "arrived", and "tale" instead of tail.

While this reads well, it is at too fast a pace to develop much identity of its own away from the original tale. (I'd be quite interested in a story that mixed up Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, for example: although I'm not sure if it could work, as the ending of TLM is desperately sad).