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 a story from Hattie MacGruder's Diary
My name is Hattie MacGruder, and I found a mermaid! I found a real live mermaid that is only 3 inches long. I am telling the truth. There are others that are not telling the truth Sybil and Sarah are liars and fibbers and tellers of untruth. They
said that the mermaid was nothing I have proof that I found a mermaid. The proof is in my diary and I'm going to let you read it exactly as I wrote it three weeks ago when I found the tiny mermaid. Special Note: I am only going to show you the parts of my diary that are about the mermaid. The other stuff is private where I write about Bobby Sullivan and what he did at school in the girl's bathroom. And you can't read about Debbie Phillips and the pictures she showed me of her older brother, David, who is the coolest human male in the whole world, and who I will marry after I finish my job as a model and singer. He is so Pop! So don't think that I'm leaving out something about those fibber liars Sybil and Sarah when I skip some stuff. It's just that I don't want you to know about me kissing Craig Buckman at the back-to school party that Tebby Strelinger threw.
The Proof: Diary Day 93 Sybil and Sarah are coming over today for our third annual Back To School Picnic. I hope Sarah doesn't bring her snotty-nose brother, Scotty. Snotty Scotty is such a baby. Sarah has to drag him everywhere because her mom works weird hours. Hey, they're here! I'll write longer, later.
Diary Day 93 (continued later) You will never in a billion years guess what happened. I found a mermaid! She is the coolest little thing you have ever seen. She's only about 3 inches long and is a real, real mermaid. She was kind of naked on top but my old doll clothes (a Barbie T) fit her good. She didn't need any jeans or anything. She's a mermaid. Right now she is sitting in a teacup filled with water on my bedside table watching me write. She didn't know what what writing was. I told her it was to remember stuff for other people. She laughed. She said her people remember their stuff in songs. She sang me one. It was so beautiful. It was her oldest story/song. It was about how the tiny mermaids got trapped in an underground sea. It was all about how they survived and built this little water village and how the sun kind of peeks through the rock ceiling where they live. Wait a minute! I'm getting too far ahead. The whole thing started when Sybil and Sarah came to get me for the picnic. We had a picnic on the first weekend after school began ever since we were in the 1st grade. Now we're 3rd graders and this time we were going to actually go somewhere besides my backyard. This year we were supposed to go to River Park. My dad was going to take us, but he got stuck in a meeting or whatever. We were stuck with nowhere to go. None of us wanted to just eat our picnic in my backyard, that is so second grade. Now, the good thing about my yard is that it backs up to the Ledbetter's dairy farm. They have hundreds of acres of wild grass where the cows are. In the middle of their pasture is a big old rock hill called Crying Rock. They called it Crying Rock because water drips out all over the mountain and then becomes Crying Creek which eventually ends up in the river on the other side of town. So, we decided to have our annual picnic in the middle of Ledbetter's. Nobody said we couldn't go even though we've been told before not to go through the fence. They always warned us about the fence when the cows were in the field. There weren't any cows out today so nobody said don't go under the fence. So we crawled under the barbed wire and ran all the way to Crying Rock. We ran because we didn't want old Mr. Ledbetter to see us. He's a bit crotchety. We were panting like puppies chasing a ball by the time we got there. Then we got the giggles which didn't help at all. Sarah was all weirded out that we were going to get in trouble and she just wanted to eat and go home. Sybil always did what Sarah wanted so we leaned up against the rocks and ate our sandwiches really fast. Crying Rock was pouring into the pond that started the little creek and it was really pretty. I probably wouldn't have found the mermaid at all, if Sarah didn't have to go the bathroom. Sybil always went with Sarah but I didn't want to go. The two of them climbed down from the rocks and kind of sneaked over to a bunch of trees that grew beside the creek. Knowing Sarah, this would take a long time and I decided to climb higher on the rock to see if I could see my house. I
climbed and climbed. The rocks were big and there was almost a path
that led up around the crying part of the rock that made the creek.
When I got almost half way to the top I stopped and looked down.
Way off to the side I I was just about ready to go back down when I heard a sound coming from above me higher up the rock. I listened carefully. I couldn't understand the words, but someone was singing. It was really pretty. There were little notches in the face of the rock, and I started climbing up. It wasn't easy but going up is always easier than coming down. Up I went. The rock was damp, which is why the whole place was called Crying Rock, and moss was growing everywhere. The singing was loud enough that I could tell that it came from the ledge just above my head. I pulled myself up and over the top. The ledge was pretty deep and at the back Crying Rock continued up and out of sight. The stone was covered in moss like carpet in a house. In the middle of the ledge was a small pool of sparkling, clear water. The climb and the chips I had eaten earlier had made me really thirsty and I crawled over to the pool on my hands and knees and just bent over and took a big sip. The water was cold and crisp and tasted great! I had just leaned down to take another drink when I saw an odd reflection in the water. At first I thought it was a frog and I almost screamed. But I didn't! My heart in my throat, I looked and then looked again. It wasn't a frog. It was a tiny mermaid sitting half in the water leaning over a rock with her back towards me. She had her head cradled in her arms and she was softly singing. I didn't say a word. I just lay there, hanging out over the water. My head couldn't have been more than 12 inches from her back. I don't why I did it, but I just reached over and carefully grabbed her with my hand. She twisted and squirmed like a fish, in fact she was half fish and the other half was pure human. I pulled back from the water and sat back on my heels and looked at what I held in my hands. She looked at me and I looked at her. Then, her eyes kind of went blank, her eyes blinked closed and she went stiff in my hand. I thought I had killed her or something. I lay her down on the ledge and ran my finger down her fish tail. Right then she looked more like a toy doll than a real mermaid. I
felt really bad that maybe I killed her, but then first one of her
eyes opened and then the other. She looked up at me and blinked
a couple of times. She looked over toward the water and then back
at me. What
was going on? In the distance I could hear Sarah and Sybil loudly whispering my name. "I'm up here!" I shouted excitedly. "I'm coming down. Wait until you see what I found." With the mermaid gripped tightly in my hand I climbed down from the rock. I was so excited. It's not everyday you find a 3 inch mermaid. This is where the trouble started with Sybil and Sarah. I showed them what I found, but the mermaid wouldn't wake up and the two liars laughed at me and said the mermaid was nothing more than a stupid Disney doll. Then, they grabbed their backpacks and ran laughing back to my house. Since then they haven't stopped telling everyone that I am liar and crazy. They say that like a baby I carried one of my 'Dollies' on the picnic and then when they caught me playing with it I made up the story about the mermaid. And
there it is, my proof. Now you've read it, too! But now what do
I do? I've got a mermaid in a teacup, but every time I show her And there's more. Not just to the story but mermaids. She told me that Crying Rock is hollow and is filled with tiny mermaids. And, I've got to take her back or she will die. I'll write longer later. (to
be continued)
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author Stephen Cosgrove has written over 300 children's books of
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than a stupid toy and wasn't ever alive. They said that I made it
all up. That's why they are liars, fibbers and tellers of untruth.
could
see Sarah and her shadow Sybil walking into the trees. I looked
back toward my house. It was really cool. My house was a long way
off but I could see it as clear as bell.
to someone she gets stiff like a doll.