One night, a miserable man was fishing. As he cast his line in the moonlit water, it jumped in his hands. To his surprise when he reeled it in, instead of a fish upon the hook, there came a struggling mermaid trapped by her long wild hair. Promising to be gentle and coaxing with sweet words, he brought the mermaid to the shore. He asked her to sit by him while he untangled her hair from his lure. She sat quietly beside him while he talked sadly of his unhappy life, occasionally reaching out her small hand to pat his arm reassuringly. As the wind blew the mermaid’s locks dry and the fisher-man was shocked to see that her tail was gone. She had, instead, a pair of white legs. Hastily, she explained that her tail would grow back when her hair was wet again. Darkness came over his mind then and he scooped her up in his arms, walking rapidly away from the shore. She went willingly enough, never knowing the evil in his mind. He wanted to own her body and soul, to possess this wonderful creature.

 He built a tank and put her on display. He posted signs for people to see his beautiful mermaid. The crowds came to gawk and stare and make criticisms. Some of the people threw garbage into the pond. Day after day, the mermaid would swim round and round in her Plexiglas pond and rue her mistake in trust. Night after night, the fisherman would take her out and dry her hair. When her legs formed, he would wind great handfuls of her twisted hair through his fingers and sleep next to her. Each day, her hair grew more tangled and dull; her sparkling eyes dimmed. Her complexion grew paler and her scales faded with the weeks of captivity. Sometimes, she would sit on the edges of her pool and sing a haunted melody of sadness and loss.

 One day, another man came with the crowds. Instead of jeering or catcalling like many of the others, he looked on with compassion. He saw the sorry state of the mermaid and felt pity. He came back many times and they began to be friends. He gave her a silver brush for her hair and made time to listen to her woes. The fisherman became insanely jealous of the close-ness shared. He grew angry and tried to force the mermaid to turn her friend away. He didn’t notice how the mermaid’s illness had started to change. He was cruel and harsh to her, immune to her weeping and infuriated by her silently stubborn refusal. Now the mermaid flinched each night, as he wound her hair tighter and tighter in his hands, clutching it obsessively in his sleep.

Finally came the day, the mermaid’s friend gave her a pair of small, sharp scissors to trim her split ends. She hid them near where she had to sleep, under the mattress where she could reach them. In the dead of night, when the fisherman was fast asleep, clenching his fists in her heavy hair, she reached out for the little scissors. Carefully and quietly, she painstakingly cut through the masses of her long hair until her poor elfin head was quite shorn. But she was free! Silently, she slipped away out the door and guided by the explanation of where her friend lived, hid away in his house. When the fisherman woke up the next morning, he was in a terrible rage. He ranted and shouted for the mermaid to come back but she would not leave the sanctity of her friend’s home. Her friend, sensing her fear of the fisherman, confronted him with his abuse and shamed him.

Since that time, the mermaid’s hair has grown long and wild again. She lives with her best friend and their four children. On occasion, she slips out of the house and down to the water to swim for hours in the rejuvenating lake. They sing together, share life together and love together. But most of all, with their freedom together, they share happiness.