Somewhere, days upon days ago in a land far away there is a girl who was granted legs for one single night.
And in alone upon the tiles of a grand wide ballroom she dances.
She spins, twirls, pirouettes and spreads her lavender dress out behind her like a bubble floating to the surface of the water.
She moves like a kite taking flight on a day filled with lazy breezes that can't quite sweep it away. She twists, trips, falls, balances on one foot and falls again. Still she dances.
She doesn't ever suspect for a moment that she might be dreaming of a half truth life, still waiting, love-struck, beneath the seas.
Her silvery gossamer sleeves still float, as if suspended in water. Her skirt scallops out before her, a striking likeness of it's namesake shell.
And her shawl swims through the air. Sailing in a muted salmon silk, with golden tassels caught while attempting to fly up towards the sky.
Her hair is filled with coloured jewels, polished rocks appropriated from some pirate captain's bounty, still haunted by the singing voices of his crew. The rubies sparkle in the flickering low candle light.
She continues to dance upon lapis blue tiles - alone. While she sways to the humming waltz of her voice, the tapestries to her back sway in time with the haunting melody.
It echos, like a muffled voices through a conch shell, sprayed with the music of the sea.
On the walls- thick green gelatinous sea weed trickles down, garlands cut from the mermaid girl's hair. That was before it grew in tiny golden strands, thick and rich from her dainty head.
Her tail wasn't the only thing she lost in the water.
No where is there a prince to be found. She continues to dance.
She had no need of him to break her spell, so he was likely off in some other story, falling in love with some other fairy girl with rose water hair and whose mouth drips with diamonds and pearls each moment she speaks a word.
The mermaid girl swims in her undersea ballroom dream, a girl who was maybe granted a voice and footsteps and a name for but a single night.
She dances still.
Inspired by the artwork of Harry Clarke: 'The Little Sea Maid'.
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