The Mermaid's Tail : Puffin Nibbles

Crystal had been a fairy once. But that was when she was only three. Now that she was older, she knew what she was going to be. A mermaid!

She did everything she could think of to make it happen. She swung her legs under her chair while she had breakfast. Then she walked with tiny little steps when she got down from the table.

'I'm a mermaid,' she said to Mum and Dad.

'Well, you've got the right hair for it,' said Mum.

Dad had once said her hair reminded him of seaweed. Now she didn't mind that at all!

At the beach she swam with her ankles together. Until her ankle bones got too sore. Then she sat on a rock and combed her hair. She used the comb Mum kept in her swimming bag. It was old and yellow and it looked a bit like fish bones.

Crystal held her breath in the bath to see how long she could stay under.

'Don't do that,' said Dad.

She even tried to fit both legs into one side of her green pyjama pants, and every night, before she went to sleep, she made a very special wish.

'I wish I was a mermaid,' she said with her eyes shut very tight.

But no matter how many things Crystal tried, nothing she did ever seemed to work.

'What do I have to do to be a mermaid, Mum?' she asked one night.

Mum helped her put her pyjamas on the right way. Then gave her a kiss and tucked her in.

'You leave that to me,' said Mum.