Excerpt from my children’s novel in progress titled ‘The Mermaid’s Tale’

PROLOGUE

Journal entry Professor Rachel Askham 28 May 2014

I have been intrigued by the findings at Smithridge University school of Mythology it seems they have been interested in funding research for anyone who can piece together a story from some evidence that they have had in their archives for over fifty years:

I. Birth certificate of male Louis George Iolaus Hermes Fitzroy. Born: April 29th, 1696 London. Father unknown.

II. Nautical map and coordinates Spain circa 1689

The documents listed above were also found with the enclosed parchments and papers, which were located in a chest hidden behind a rotting book panel of a sunken ship called ‘The Hell Star’. They were excavated and examined by marine archaeologists and are said to be a collection of accounts from diaries, ships log entries and letters.  

All the documents were neatly pleated into a jewelled box bound by ribbon and Cedar bark, which itself was sealed with a type of red wax indented with small semi-precious heart-shaped black stone and a coil of bright orange tightly curled hair that biologists say has the cellular base of fish protein.

Big Water

Slave ships sail for a very long time, and they sail so far from where you were born that you start to forget who you are.

She let the current take her down her eyes shut against its salt. Her arms did not flail with confusion, composed and harpoon-like she zipped back to the surface, bubbles streaming...