I want a house by the ocean like the ones in books where the people that live there can walk outside on the beach and find a mermaid comb on the sand before breakfast. We go to the beach on vacations when Mommy and Dad don’t have to work. We used to go a lot more, but now we only go sometimes. They have to work and we don’t have enough gas in the car to get all the way to the beach Dad says. Most times we stay home and play board games, which doesn’t cost anything. Sometimes I just sit by the window and look at the puddle in the driveway. For a very small ant that puddle must be just like the beach, and all the grit in the street is the sand, and the warm rocks are very good for getting a tan. But I know ants can’t tan, because one time Elena put an ant under a magnifying glass to make the sun shine on it, and it burnt up. I think the people who live on the mountains behind my house must have to be careful when they go outside not to burn up because they are so close to the sun.

If I lived by the ocean I would be far away from the sun, I would only have to wear sunscreen in the summer and then only on really hot days. People who live by the ocean can be friends with the mermaids if they’re nice to them Mia tells me when we watch The Little Mermaid but I’m not so sure how Mia knows this for sure. If the mermaids liked me enough maybe they would give me a tail so I could go swimming with them and we could wear starfish in our hair, and they wouldn’t fall out like barrettes, they would hold on tightly when I was diving and not slide off. The mermaids must forget about the people above them with all those fish to play with and dolphins to swim with. They are probably never lonely with their whole ocean family bubbling around. Mia tells me mermaid laughs don’t make noise they’re just a big line of bubbles. I feel sad for the mermaids never getting to hear each other laugh. I like to listen to my friends laughing it makes me laugh too.

When I was at home in my house by the beach my friends could come over for tea and saltwater taffy. We could sit on the big porch in rocking chairs than creak and squeak like the seagulls that fly around in circles like a mobile over Baby Ben’s crib. Maybe they’ll hear burbling sound from the bathtub.

Water troubles? they’ll ask.

No, mermaids, I’ll tell them.
I will live in my ocean house with mermaids in the bathtub laughing all day.