16 Jan Photo Story Week 2 Ethan Vink

It was 1947 and Martha Kowalski was 18 today. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. She finished packing her suitcase and hid it in the back of closet where no one would notice.

Downstairs she could hear everyone arriving for her party. Her cousins were there and all four grandparents, She practiced her speech one more time and darted down the stairs. “SURPRISE” everyone yelled!

For 2 hours they played games and laughed and had fun but things were about to get serious. Her Grandpa Bob tapped his glass and said it was time for a speech from the birthday girl. He handed her a glass of champagne and stood her up for all to see. Martha took a deep breath and said, “Thank you all for coming but I have a really important announcement I want you all to hear. Today is my last day here in Fairfield Iowa, I am moving to Florida to become a mermaid.”

The room was silent, Bob shook his head and thought what the heck got into that girl, she was definitely not right in the head today. He pulled her aside and said, “Marthy, I know I always told you that you could be anything you wanted but really, a mermaid? They aren’t even real Sweetie. Martha ran to her room, grabbed the newspaper article and ran back down to her grandpa.

“Look, Look here, it is real and I am going. I already bought a bus ticket and Aunt Jean will be in Orlando to meet me.” Bob read the article about a crazy new park called Weeki Wachee Springs that was opening in Florida. Some guy named Newt Perry had devised an underwater show where girls would wear fish tales and breathe through hoses. “Real life mermaids, well I’ll be damned!” Bob said.

One month later Bob called the family together and held up page 5 of the Orlando Sentinel. Right there was his Granddaughter Martha in a lovely black bikini floating at the bottom of Weeki Wachee Springs. She really was a real life Mermaid.