Moshiree believed she was about seventeen years old. She wasn't sure of her age because she was a slave serving a rich family in a huge mansion in this small town not far from the ocean.

Moshiree's room was a tiny space at the top of the mansion. She had no bed. She slept on the floor. The room was so small Moshiree had to leave the door open for her feet to extend outside the room when she went to sleep. Whenever she wanted to close the door she had to sleep with her legs bent.

When the moon was full and there were no clouds she could look out her attic small window to discern the ocean beach far away. She did not know why she was so attracted to the ocean beach. She tried to not remember it because that is where all the trouble in her life began.

For some time the details were increasingly becoming blurred. She vaguely remembered three men pulling her out of the ocean onto the beach. She could not remember why she was in the ocean. Later on the family had told her she should be thankful to the men because she must have been on a ship that sank in the ocean.

The three men had risked their lives to save her, she was told, repeatedly.

Sometimes the rich family would be away at night. Moshiree would sneak out to go to the ocean beach and hide behind trees and gaze at the ocean.

At times she had the urge to go and play in the water. At the same time she was afraid of the water because she remembered that everyone had told her the water was not her friend because it would have killed her had it not been for those three brave men who had rescued her.

This was a rare night. The moon was full. The rich family had gone out. Here was Moshiree hiding behind trees at the edge of the ocean beach staring at the water as if she were mesmerized.

She heard screaming. A girl's screams.

Moshiree's first impulse was to flee back home. She did not. It frightened her to become aware she could not flee back home.

She moved stealthily among the trees to get a better look at what was happening.

She saw three men struggling to hold onto a girl they had ensnared in their fishing net in the water. There were lots of splashing and tumbling against one another as the girl resisted mightily.

The men were shouting at the girl to keep quiet. Moshiree saw one of the men hit the girl a few times. Hard. The girl stopped screaming. She went limp in the net.

The three men dragged the girl up to the edge of the beach where the trees and grass grew. The men sat down and went about making a fire to cook the fish they had caught in the fishing net along with the girl.

As they were making the fire and cooking their fish the men spoke about how lucky they were to have caught the girl, too, in their fishing net. They were going to sell her as a slave in the town. They were going to get a lot of money for her because she was young and pretty and strong. One of them complained about pain in his chest where she had kicked him. From their conversation Moshiree learnt that these three men had caught and sold other girls before this.

Moshiree crept up to the fishing net. She reached out and touched the girl. The girl turned her head slowly and looked at Moshiree. Moshiree silently signalled the girl to help her as Moshiree tried to untie the knots the men had tied to make the fishing net into a bag.

Both of them working together got the girl out of the net.

The girl took Moshiree by the hand and whispered to her that they had to run down to the beach and plunge into the water.

Moshiree was terrified. She wanted to head back home. The girl would not let her. She held Moshiree's hand tightly. She was stronger than Moshiree. For the last few steps she had to almost drag Moshiree along.

The three men saw them, and, shouting angrily, ran after them; cursing and threatening.

The girls reached the water. The girl flung Moshiree in front of her into the water ahead of herself. She dived in after Moshiree.

A miracle happened! Both turned into mermaids! They swam away faster than the three men could swim after them.

The girl told Moshiree to follow her as she dived deep down to the ocean floor.

Much to Moshiree's amazement she could breathe underwater. She could talk without difficulty to the girl. She could swim as fast as a fish. The girl told Moshiree her name was Shimry. Moshiree asked why had they turned into mermaids.

Shimry gave Moshiree the following account.

Mermaids live in oceans and rivers and lakes. They can breathe under water like fish. In the light of a full moon mermaids can leave the water and become humans.

Mermaids love to run about and play human games in the full-moon light.

They have to be careful because before the full moon passes over they have to be back in the water. If they are not in the water before the full moon passes over they will forever forget they were mermaids. They will be afraid of the water. They will not turn back into mermaids if they enter the water.

Shimry said that's what must have happened to Moshiree. Moshiree had been a mermaid that had been captured by the three men. Although she had quite forgotten she was a mermaid she knew deep down in herself she was a mermaid. That is why she couldn't totally stop going to the beach to look and wonder at the ocean.

When Moshiree had touched Shimry in the net Shimry knew immediately that Moshiree was a mermaid.

Moshiree was glad to be back in the water as a full mermaid. She told Shimry there were other slave girls like her in the town. Shimry said she and Moshiree must tell other mermaids. They must come up with a plan to rescue the others from the town. That's what they did.

At the next full moon Moshiree and Shimry and a lot of other mermaids came out of the water and morphed into humans. They sneaked into the town and rescued all the slave girls and led them back into the ocean.

From that time onwards mermaids all over the world stay far away from people, and do not come out of the ocean during a full moon to transform into humans.

That is why nobody has seen a mermaid for hundreds and hundreds of years; and, most probably, never will.