The Mermaid

The ocean has a rhythm, but it has no heart.

Women who did what they liked instead of what other people wished were often accused of witchcraft, because only a witch would be so defiant, or so it was thought.

Humans often valued what they should not, she reflected, and most often they did not value what was right before their eyes.

Until I became human, nobody ever told me there was something wrong with my body.

Men generally don't recognize the authority of women", Levi said very gently. "It's the way of the world, Amelia. I'm sorry it distress you." "The world", Amelia said, "is wrong about so many things.

They wanted the moon, but they hadn't realize it cost the earth.

Do not mistake the revelation of my body for the revelation of my heart. My heart keeps its own secrets, and they don't belong to you or anyone else just because you've seen me with a fish tail.

I don't belong to you ... You thought if I married you that I would, but I don't. I don't belong to any man ... I only belong to myself. But belonging to myself doesn't mean I don't love you or that I don't want to stand beside you.

Love does that. It changes you in ways that can't be undone

Humans, Amelia knew, would do anything for belief. They would proselytize from the highest mountain for belief. They would collect like-minded people and form mobs for belief. They would kill one another for belief.

Freedom was far more intoxicating than safety could ever be.

All she'd found was that women spent a great deal of time saying they were please when they were not, similing when they were not happy, and pretending their anger and frustation did not exist

but it was easier to be brave when you had nothing to lose.

Why is a girl less valuable than a boy?” Amelia asked. She'd heard this before and did not understand it. Did not women bear the next generation? Was not that power more profound than anything a man could do? “Men like to have sons to carry on their name,” Charity said. “They aren't men otherwise.

The faster she ran, the freer she was, fast and free and far away from everything that hurt.

And I told you it was my choice", [she] said. "But I was too foolish to understand what I was choosing.

she had found her freedom and she loved it, and she would not be bound to someone else’s will again.

What's a savage?" Amelia said. "Someone who doesn't live as you do? Someone who doesn't have gaslight ans hows and cobblestoned streets?" Levi took a breath and tried again. "These are simple people who haven't been exposed to-" "And why is simple something that needs to be fixed? Why must all people everywhere be cast in the same mold?" Amelia said.

Amelia felt there was nothing more absurd than believing in a God who never spoke or appeared to you but disbelieving a mermaid that sat in your parlor.

The world is wrong about so many things.

Every human who saw it remarked on its size, but to Amelia it looked like a very small container compared to the ocean.

People want to believe in mermaids.

I only belong to myself. But belonging to myself doesn’t mean I don’t love you or that I don’t want to stand beside you.

Everywhere she traveled in the south she saw what the evil men did, an evil that had simply not been present in her hometown. They passed field after field of black men and women in chains, toiling for white men in shaded hats who sat on horses and bore whips like the one Amelia had used on Stephen White. She could feel the hate that radiated from these men, the contempt, the smug superiority, and she never passed by one without wishing to knock him from the back of the horse and hope the animal kicked him to death.

Men generally don’t recognize the authority of women,” Levi said very gently. “It’s the way of the world, Amelia. I’m sorry it distresses you.” “The world,” Amelia said, “is wrong about so many things.

She threw the stupid missionary book across the room. It was the first time they’d ever really disagreed, and since he wouldn’t stay and let her convince him she was right, she didn’t know what to do with herself except pace and argue with him in her head instead of in person.

What’s a savage?” Amelia said. “Someone who doesn’t live as you do? Someone who doesn’t have gaslight and shoes and cobblestoned streets?” Levi took a breath and tried again. “These are simple people who haven’t been exposed to—” “And why is simple something that needs to be fixed? Why must all people everywhere be cast in the same mold?” Amelia said. She felt unreasonably angry with Levi for not understanding the basic wrongness of this idea. These people had their own lives, their own gods, their own ways. A missionary traveled across the ocean and told them that everything they believed and lived by was incorrect. It was the same as if a human came to her people under the ocean and told them that they could no longer be merpeople.

Amelia had carefully observed Charity Barnum over these weeks to see what was generally expected of women. All she’d found was that women spent a great deal of time saying they were pleased when they were not, smiling when they were not happy, and pretending their anger and frustration did not exist.

The ocean was a violent place, yes, but it was violence without malice. When a shark ate a sea lion, it did not hate the sea lion. It only wanted to live.