“A little. But she had saved a fisherman in a storm, which is why she lost her last scale, so she knew she’d done the right thing. Afterwards she and her sisters and brothers went to explore a cave together and they made pearl necklaces so she felt better.”

“What did King Koradome do with all of her scales except stare at them and do the evil laugh thing?”

“Well, a magical thing happened then.”

“What?”

“King Koradome didn’t know the whole story. He used his own magic to take Serafina’s scales away every time she did something kind for someone else, but he wasn’t a smart merman. He didn’t know that the rainbow-colored scales would dissolve into dust when they were all together again until they were returned to the owner.”

“So Serafina’s scales all became dust in the jar?”

“Yes. As soon as the red one was dropped in. But one of her brothers knew of the deep magic and he had been watching the king. When King Koradome saw the dust in the jar, he became enraged and he tossed the jar so fast and so hard, it sped by an octopus and lodged in purple-and-orange coral. When the king wasn’t looking, the brother swam over and grabbed the jar of dust and gave it back to Serafina.

“As soon as Serafina touched the scales, they turned back to their original colors: Deep purple. Lemon yellow. Dusty pink. Burgundy and azure blue and lavender. But Serafina knew that she shouldn’t be the only one with such beauty anymore. She placed the scales in her mother’s garden. They shimmered and shone, and mermen and mermaids came from all over the world to see the magical garden. The garden brought smiles to their faces, wonder, joy.”

“But was it hard for her to give up her rainbow tail forever?”

“A little. But she knew that when she became an old, old mermaid, she could look back on her life and know that she had made so many people happy. It was definitely worth it.”

“So when I save people or help people, I make them happy, right, Daddy?”

“Yes, Evie. When you are old you will be able to look back on your life, as I hope you do now, and know that you saved people’s lives, you made their lives better, even if they’ll never know what you did for them.”

“It’s hard with all these premonitions.”

“I know.”

“Hey! I need a magic mermaid tail!”

“Your magic mermaid tail is in your heart, Evie.”

“It is?”

“Yes, but you won’t ever lose it. Your helpful heart is yours forever, and I love you.”

“I love you, too, Daddy.”

My dad died in the sands of the Middle East when I was twenty-one years old. Those sands have haunted me.