Chapter 6: Petra goes to Homeland.

Chapter 6: Petra goes to Homeland.

Petra landed at the House of the Lady. There was a spot, everyone could land, but she had to get of immediately, while this was a ‘visitors spot’.
All Homelanders were allowed to use this, when they did need the advise of the Lady or her counsel.

Quickly Petra went outside the ribbons, that marked the spot.
The first one she did see, was Cindy, her friend.
About that she wondered, but Cindy laughed at her and said: “You do forget two things. I am a red curly hear girl, and with the Lady lives Amany, the girl that can dream things, that are going to happen.
She did warn me, you were coming. So let’s go to the big pond. There you do find the Lady, the counsel and Purple waiting for you.”

Petra, just new in having a friend from outside Homeland, had to adjust a bit.
A lot was new for her too, finding her friend finally, and going to there, to find out, who he was.

Cindy did see it on her face, and said: “Never mind, you get used to that very soon. Lea, my friend and I also took some time to do so. Let’s go”

They walked quietly to the pond in the garden of the lady, and Petra just found time to ask Cindy: “how is the “anti-gang-bang-club” working?
Are Lea, and that other girl still involved?”

Cindy nodded and answered: “That will take more time, and Lea will come over very soon for another night to help out with things, we do not know about yet.
About that Amany did dream too.”

They could not talk more, for they did reach the others, waiting for them.
All were sitting on something on the bank, the Lady, being of an older age in a chair, the rest just as they did like to sit.
Purple preferred to sit in the water, so she sometimes could go under, while there breading was easier for her.

Like always, there was something to eat and drink standing ready, for most Homelanders did not eat nor drink in the world.
Only when they were curious or when they stayed there for a long period of time they did . But here, in their own Homeland, they had to.

“Billy knows, you are here, mermaid Purple, and he was very stressed you had been weeping”, Petra said, after she did greet the others and had a bite and drink.

“Does he know, why I am here?”Purple asked.
“And does he know, he cannot come to the dry land in the world he is living, before he slowly is adjusted to less and less water-pressure?
He is not a mermaid, nor a Homelander, but a normal human boy, that is born there, while I did save his parents from drowning by bringing them there.”

“His mom and dad yesterday did tell the story about your saving, but all do think he does not know enough to understand that water pressure thing.
So do I! I do wonder, can I take him here, to Homeland?
Is that not dangerous for him too?”

The Lady did laugh, and so did the older people, who had friends in our world before or a longer time already.

“You do forget the first line, your mom every night started her bedtime story with: here in Homeland, where all paper things live, and were the great secrets of life are saved, and maintained…”
At that point Petra started to laugh with the others, and when she had wiped out the laughing tears from her eyes, said: “Of course, but how do I explain to Billy?”

There the Lady pointed to Cindy: “will you go to Lea, and ask her, what she does know about the worlds environment.
The other members of counsel, who do have an older kid, or an adult friend, are going to do the same.
In about one hour Homelander time, I do expect you all back.”

Petra wondered: “will one hour be enough, Lady? It would be nice, for I did promise Billy to be back in the morning, when he wakes up.”

“Remember the cave, where the grannies were with the babies, during our our last adventure?
That is one of the lessons, not to forget that time in our world, and that of your friends, have a different pace.”

Petra blushed, put a hand for her mouth in a gesture of ‘how could I forget’, and nodded yes.
She really should not have forgotten…

But for hér there was a lot new too, even when her mom did prepare her for having a friend in the world, as did her teacher.
All Homeland kids were told from very young. She also.

But really getting out, and do, as each Homelander kid wished for, was an honor, even when she had to do more to find her friend.
But now Petra did hear something, her mom never told about, while she was sure, her friend Billy would ask about.

“Lady, may I ask something, I do not understand. What is envir.. oh, such a difficult word!” she said with a sigh of impatience for her not knowing.

The Lady smiled. “I did not know either, until recently.
We in Homeland do not need this word, while we care about nature, and the things that grow, and live in that.
The People of Lea’s world, the dry-landers, as you call them, have very much need of this word: environment.

It does mean that all what lives and grows forms one big thing, in which each and everything has its own value.

When you take out one part of it, other parts are suffering from that, while it is not entirely whole anymore.
And if you take out more parts, even more other parts are suffering.

There also is more, dry-landers, or a lot of humans, do not care what will end up in their waters.

You can compare that with when you would put Poison Ivy in the salad, and after that become blisters in your mouth and a sick belly when you eat this!

What Purple did tell us was, people did throw in the sea so much rubbish, that the animals, who do live there, are suffering as if they have eaten that Poison Ivy.”

“Why, cannot they see, it is noting good to eat?” Petra asked.

“No, some of the plastics do look a lot like seaweed, the lines are so fine, and you hardly see them, they got entangled in them before the animal is aware of this.

That is, what Purple made decide, to come to us and have a pow-wow or deliberation, if there was something we could help her with.

She otherwise have to do as her great, great, great aunt did, drink the potion of the sea-witch and become human, what would make every footstep painful and does not guarantee success.

Or she has to let herself ‘catch’ by scientists, act if she does not speak like a human, before she can tell about this disaster.

The twist is, that they will not believe she is not the only mermaid, what is true, so they will keep looking in all nooks and crannies to find more, and her mermaid society has no more rest, like happened when somebody did see the big beasts of the Big lakes and Loch Ness.
You do understand that is a dilemma?”

“What’s a dilemma?” Petra asked, knowing Billy would ask the same, and could not ask about new words of Nemo, without telling, who used that word.

“A dilemma is a choice between two or more possibilities, who all are as good or bad as the others, so it is very difficult to decide, what to do,” the Lady answered.

“Ah, there the others are back, that hour went by fast. Let’s hear what they have to tell.”

© Nan van Daalen, all rights reserved.