Chapter Two

"Are you sure about this, Aimes?"

The two of them were standing by the water’s edge, and Aimes had her water wings removed. Pawson had pulled down a set of swimming goggles with a loosely fitting snorkel over his face.

"A hundred percent," Aimes said. "Think about what we might find! A sea monster? Or a sunken pirate ship?"

"It’s probably lost change," Pawson said under his breath.

Pawson's goggles and snorkel were merely decorative. Since he was a teddy bear, he didn't need to breathe. Aimes, on the other hand, still had to worry about getting oxygen. After getting into the water and trying to swim down as far as she could, she still couldn't see the bottom of the pool. She had to resurface for air.

"That's a lot deeper than any pool I've ever seen," Pawson said, pulling the snorkel out of his mouth.

Aimes was too lost in thought to congratulate herself. She was tapping on her chin, trying to think of a way to breathe underwater. In books, they had suits that were full of air, but Aimes didn't know where she could get one of those on short notice. Then again, why did she need a whole suit of air? She just needed one of those big helmets.

"One sec," she told Pawson, climbing out of the pool once again. She waddled her way over to the ocean life diorama. There was a large glass fishbowl with a little paper fish inside, standing on a stick. Aimes took the bowl and tipped it upside down, spilling the colorful rocks and the paper fish all over the deck of the pool. A few people in lounge chairs looked at her from behind their sunglasses.

"I'll return it when I'm done," Aimes assured them. Pawson, still in the pool, sunk down shyly so that the only thing anyone could see was his hat.

Aimes grabbed an elastic string off one of the jellyfish. It was sticky at the ends, so she stuck both sides across the top of the fish bowl. She took her new contraption with her back to the pool and slid into the water next to Pawson.

"What are you doing?" Pawson muttered, somewhere between embarrassed and annoyed.

"Making a diving helmet," Aimes said. "You see, air always goes up. So if I put the bowl in the water upside-down, it will stay in the bowl. As long as the bowl stays upside down, the air won't go anywhere." Aimes demonstrated by pulling the bowl over her head and tucking the elastic string beneath her chin.

"You look ridiculous," Pawson said.

"It'll work," Aimes assured him. And sure enough, when Aimes went underwater, the fishbowl was still full of air. It floated upward, but the elastic string held it in place over Aimes' head.

As a final thought, Aimes grabbed her underwater crayons, which she tucked into the side of her one-piece bathing suit.

Aimes & Pawson began swimming down into the deepest depths of the public pool. The sun flickered through the surface of the water, shining down in long, bright rays. But the deeper the two of them dove, the fewer sunrays came along with them. Soon, the surface seemed miles away, so far above them that it was almost like nighttime: muted and blue.

The tiled walls of the public pool started to look a lot more like rocks, decorated in colorful algae. As the light of the sun faded away, the algae glowed softly and lit up the path beneath them. Aimes grabbed a crayon out of her swimsuit and drew a big arrow on one of the rocks in a brightly-lit spot.

Pawson muttered something behind his snorkel. When he realized Aimes couldn't understand him, he motioned at the arrow on the wall.

"In case we get lost," Aimes said. She could speak inside the fish bowl, but her voice was muffled by the water. Pawson had to listen closely to hear her.

Aimes drew a few more arrows as they went further down — little signposts in case she needed to find her way back to the surface — until Pawson caught sight of a glint in the distance. It seemed to be going sideways rather than down. He tugged on Aimes' swimsuit and pointed.

"I think that's it," Aimes confirmed. She and Pawson swam toward it, into a little cave. Aimes stopped to draw another arrow and the pair continued onward.

Inside the cave, things were a lot brighter. The bioluminescent algae was more abundant and the water was full of little sparkling bits that reflected the light. A fish swam into view, and then another. Each one passed by Aimes and Pawson in sequence, but something looked odd about them. They didn't shimmer, and they didn't have scales. When another fish swam by, Aimes reached out and cupped it in her hand. It looked like it was made of plastic or rubber, and when she tickled its belly little bubbles spilled out of a hole where its mouth would be. The fish quickly swam away.

"They're like bath toys," Aimes said excitedly. She always wondered where her fish toys came from!"

Pawson tugged again on Aimes' swimsuit and pointed forward. There was a bright light at the end of the cave. Aimes drew another arrow in crayon and followed Pawson toward it.

When Aimes and Pawson got to the end of the cave, it was a sight to behold. High above, sunbeams bent through large holes in the cave, casting a glittering magical light over the sandy ocean floor. There were a few plastic boats - not unlike Aimes' own toy boat - but these ones were much bigger and broken into pieces.

But the most impressive sight of all was the massive underwater city made of glittering coral and shells. It seemed to go on for miles! Then, just as Aimes and Pawson thought they couldn't be more in awe, a glint from a scale caught the light. Swimming out of the underwater city was a woman with long blue hair and a long shimmering tail.

Aimes and Pawson had found a mermaid.