Kid

That's me.

 

Storyteller

That's you? Why is that like you?

 

Kid  

I'm always getting dirty and playing in mud. I brought back crawdad remains from the lake today.

 

Storyteller  

That's super cool. You seem to have a lot in common with the Crabman's Daughter. 

 

Of all the things the Crabman's Daughter loved to do, running and playing under the twinkling stars at night was her favorite. But what she really longed to do more than anything, was to swim in the large lake. 

 

Kid

Why didn't she?

 

Storyteller

Good question. You see, it was forbidden. No one was allowed to swim in the lake. No one had ever been allowed to swim in the lake for generations and generations because,

 

Kid  

Because the crabs and fish would bite and pinch people and pull them to the bottom of Lake and drown them.

 

Storyteller  

Ooh, that got really dark, really fast. First, I was like, yeah, just fish. Fish bite. But then they're drowned. Any other theories about why they can't swim in the lake?

 

Kid 

There's a sea monster in the lake. 

 

Storyteller

You think there's a sea monster?

 

Kid 

Just a monster, not a sea monster, because it's lake people.

 

Storyteller  

So it'd be a lake monster, okay?... Lake monster.

 

Well, no one was allowed to swim in the lake because the townspeople believed that there was a monster who lived in it, and anyone who swam in it would be dragged to the bottom and drowned. The Monster never bothered the fishermen in their boats, but often the fishermen saw strange sparkling things beneath the surface of the lake, and when they did, they said it was the teeth of the monster. But the Crabman's Daughter didn't believe in old stories about monsters. She wanted to swim in the lake very much. One evening, after a long and very hard day fishing, the Crabman sat his daughter down and said, “You are of marrying age. Now, why can't you be a nice, well behaved young woman who cooks and sews and chooses one of the fishermen of the village to marry? That's all I've ever wanted for you.

 

The Crabman's Daughter was furious. “What if that's not all I've ever wanted for myself?”

 

Kid

This guy is horribly sexist. 

 

Storyteller

Why? 

 

Kid

Because he's like, you're a girl, so you have to cook and clean and support him. 

 

Storyteller

Very interesting. 

 

Kid

She's this free spirit, and she doesn't want to go cooking, sewing and marrying someone who will always want to spend time with her.

 

Storyteller  

Yeah? Who wants to marry someone who spends time with you.

 

Unknown Speaker  

Yeah, that's boring. 

 

Storyteller  

But look, there are some people who don't find cooking and sewing boring at all. For some people that's what they want to do.

 

But the Crabman's Daughter, it's not what she wants to do. You see, every woman in the town by the big lake was a Fisherman's Wife and kept up the home while her husband tried to catch enough food for their supper. But the Crabman's Daughter didn't want that. She wanted to explore the world, run under the stars and to swim. More than anything else, she wanted to swim in the big lake. And so that very evening, she spread word around to the other young women in the town to meet her by the lake at midnight that night, just before midnight, all the young women in the town crept quietly out of their houses and made their way through the empty streets down to the edge of the lake as the stars shone brightly down upon them, the other fishermen's daughters rubbed the goose bumps on their arms and wondered why the Crabman's Daughter had gathered them there, and then they found out. 

The Crabman's Daughter said,  “Tonight, we swim.”

 

 “Are you crazy?” Said the Troutman's daughter.

 

“We can't swim in the lake.” Said the Bassman's daughter. “What about the monster?”

 

 The Crabman's Daughter scoffed “There's no monster, that's just a story the old folks tell.”

 

The Flounderman's daughter seemed a bit nervous. “Can't we just catch fire flies and call it a night?”

 

The Crabman's Daughter cocked her head, gave the young women a salute, turned her back and dove into the dark water. The Crabman's Daughter had never swum before, and yet she took to the water naturally, like she was born to swim. The lake water was deep and dark and silky. It was the perfect temperature, and when she opened her eyes, she felt like she was swimming through the night sky. Stars appeared to twinkle from the depths of the water, she kicked her legs and swam deeper toward the underwater stars, and as she swam, the starlight twinkling at the bottom of the lake seemed to blink.

 

“Are those eyes?” she thought. But unafraid, the Crabman's Daughter kept swimming toward the glowing lights at the bottom of the lake. Meanwhile, on the shore, the other young women began to worry.

 

“Oh, shoe buckles!”, said the Troutman's daughter.

 

“Nonsense. The monster got her," said the Bassman's daughter.

 

“Her dad is gonna kill us!”, said the Flounderman's daughter. 

 

The young women had nearly broken into tears when suddenly they heard a splash. The Crabman's Daughter had emerged. She was gliding along the surface of the lake with an easy backstroke. 

She called to the young women laughing. “Catch any fireflies?” 

 

The young women looked at one another, scared and thrilled by what the Crabman's Daughter had done, and one by one, the other young women jumped into the lake. And somehow, despite never having been in the water before, they all swam easily and gracefully. Soon they were doing somersaults and playing water games laughing.

 

Kid

That is very unfair. What if they don't know how to swim? They jump in the water, they gracefully glide, and then they're playing doing somersaults and playing water tag. For us, it's boring swimming lessons and it is hard. We don't just jump into the water and swim easily.

 

Storyteller  

Now, a question about that, if you don't know how to swim, should you jump in water?

 

Kid

No, no, definitely no, especially without parents around, they're like supervisors. 

 

Storyteller  

What if you do know how to swim, and there are no grown ups around? 

 

Kids

No! 

 

Storyteller

Correct. 

 

The young women were enjoying themselves so much that they had lost time. Before they knew it, the sky had turned pink and the sun was beginning to rise. Knowing that all their fathers would soon be awake and on their way down to the lake to start their daily fishing, the young women swam to the shore and hurried home. When the Crabman's Daughter got back to her cottage, she quietly slipped off her shoes and tiptoed in.

 

“Where have you been?” The Crabman was standing behind the door with his crab net in his hand. 

 

His daughter said,”Nowhere.”

 

“Your hair and your clothes are soaking wet. You didn't go swimming in the lake, did you?”

 

“Of course, not, Father,”

Just then, a tiny fish fell out of her pocket.

 

“You lied to me!” The Crabman shouted. 

 

His daughter rolled her eyes, “It's no big deal. Nothing bad happened.”

 

“You're lucky. You weren't taken by the monster.”

 

“There is no monster.” She shot back, but then she thought about the eyes at the bottom of the lake, and she was not sure.

 

The Crabman went on. “I was worried sick. I delayed going out on the lake, and I have to catch twice as many crabs today.”

 

The Crabman's daughter paused, confused.“Why?”

 

“Why don't you ever think about anyone but yourself? Today is tribute day. The King is coming just as he comes every year to take our tribute of fish, and if I don't catch enough crabs for the tribute, the king can take whatever he wants from us as a tribute instead: our home, my fishing nets, anything.”

 

The Crabman's Daughter had forgotten about tribute day and she hung her head in shame. “I'm sorry, father.”

Her father, crabbily, collected his nets and marched off to the lake.

 

That day however, something happened that had never happened before. The Crabman didn't catch a single crab. The Troutman didn't catch one trout. The Bassman, not one bass. The Flounderman, not one flounder. As far as the fisherman could tell, there was not a single fish in the lake to be caught. Later that evening, the Crabman and his daughter gathered in the town square with all the other families of the town waiting for the King to arrive. 

“You cursed us,” hissed the Crabman at his daughter. “You swam in the lake and cursed us all. What will we offer to the King as tribute now?”

 

Kid 

So he's just blaming it all on his daughter that he didn't catch fish?

 

Storyteller 

Good point. 

 

Kid

Could just be that he's incompetent.

 

Storyteller  

Just then the King and his followers clattered into the square. The King rode in a carriage drawn by four enormous horses, and his men rode on great steeds all around. The King got down from his carriage and announced,

“It is now time for the village by the lake to offer their tribute.”

 

The King's men held out their baskets, expecting fish. They waited and waited, and none of the fishermen had anything to offer them, nothing The King asked in disbelief, not a flounder, not a single crab.

 

The fishermen hung their heads and glowered at their daughters out of the corners of their eyes. The King followed their gaze and said, “Very well, then I will take one of your daughters as my wife.”

The King turned and pointed at the daughters of the fishermen. And who do you think his finger landed on? The Crabman's daughter. 

The Crabman's Daughter cried, “No!” 

 

And the Crabman cried, “Yes, this is a good thing. You're going to be Queen.”

She cried, “I am going to be sick!”

 

Kid

I'm gonna be sick!

 

Storyteller

But the Crabman said, “Well, you can throw up after the wedding.”

 

The Crabman turned to the King, “She would be honored to marry you.”

 

“No, I wouldn't” cried the Crabman's Daughter.

 

Her father pleaded with her, “Oh, please be sensible. You didn't want to be a Fisherman's Wife. Now you don't have to, you get to be Queen.”

 

Kids

She doesn't want to be a wife!

Yeah. Did you just hear her? She's like, “I will puke.”

I would be like, let me help you. I will make the King puke and I will make your father puke. Then they will go and join a puke club. I would just be like, “I'd rather marry one of those dead crabs than marry you!”

 

Storyteller  

The Crabman’s Daughter shouted, “I won't marry him,” and she took off running toward the lake. 

 

Everyone watched in astonishment as she dove in and disappeared beneath the water. The Crabman's Daughter swam deeper than she had the night before. She swam toward those glowing, glittering eyes. She swam, and she swam holding her breath for so long that everyone ashore was certain she had drowned. After many minutes, she finally resurfaced on the other end of the lake. She took her time swimming back to the shore, and when she finally came out of the water, she was holding two of the largest crabs anyone had ever seen. She threw one crab at her father and one at the King, and she said, “There, now you have your tribute.”

 

Word spread around the kingdom, and soon people traveled from far and wide to watch the young women catch fish in the small town by the big lake. They were a marvel. They were famous. Some came all the way from two villages over! And they were proud.

 

None were as proud as the Crabman's Daughter. She was helping, she was working and she was swimming. And her father, who didn't have to sweat in his little crab boat with his net in his traps, well, he wasn't quite so crabby anymore.

 

A year passed, and the King returned to the village once again for tribute day, the fishermen were ready. Their daughters had caught a huge pile of fish to give to the King, but this time, he didn't want fish.

 

Kid

I hate this dude. 

 

Storyteller

This time, he had brought kings from many other kingdoms with him. They'd all heard about the marvelous young women of the little town by the big lake, and they all wanted to take one as a wife.

 

Kids  

“Excuse me, girls are not just toys!” “We are living beings.”

“You can't just take one and claim them.”

“We are not items. We are women and we are terrifying. So be afraid!”

 

Storyteller  

The King announced, you all get to be Queen. 

The Crabman's Daughter shouted, “You can't do that! We've offered you fish.”

 

“I can do that. I can do whatever I want.” The King went on. “Besides, I'm no fool. You know what they say. Get a fish's tribute. Eat for a night. Marry a fisherman's daughter. Eat for a lifetime.”

 

The Crabman turned to his daughter, “Are you sure you don't want to be a queen? It could be good for you and for the town?”

 

His daughter replied, “I don't want to be a queen”. 

She turned to the other daughters, “Do you?” 

Each daughter shook her head, no.

 

The King said, “Well, I'm afraid you don't have a choice.”

The King's soldiers hurried forward and tied ropes around each young woman. The fishermen and their wives shouted protests and wrung their hands with worry. The King's Men had drawn their weapons, and there was nothing they could do about it.

 

A great ceremony was organized right there by the lake where all the kings would marry their new queens. At once, the young women were given wedding gowns and veils and flowers to carry. There was even a band. At sunset, the band played "Here comes the bride”, but it sounded very slow and mournful to all the people of the town. Beneath their veils, the fishermen's daughters were all crying, but there was nothing anyone could do. 

 

Storyteller

What do you guys think of this wedding ceremony? Terrible?

 

Kids

Yeah, they're so stupid. And mean!

I hope, if the monster is real it just comes up and eats them all!

 

Storyteller  

As the Crabman's Daughter was brought before the King. The King smiled, lifted his bride's veil and he screamed. The other kings lifted their brides' veils as well. Each and every one of the fishermen's daughters had scales on their faces. The scales made rivers down the sides of their noses and down their cheeks, rivers that seemed to follow the tracks of their tears, and as their tears fell, the scales spread across their faces. And then something really terrifying happened. Strange cuts seemed to open on the young women's necks, but they weren't cuts, they were gills. All the kings began to scream and shout. 

 

The King regained control, and he declared, “These fish women must be killed, not just killed, roasted like fish.”

 

A great bonfire was built out of old driftwood, and the young women were tied to spits like fish to be roasted for dinner and were put over the fire, and the fishermen and their wives wept with their daughters and Crabman cried the hardest.

 

Kid 

Crying won't do anything, you can just “revolution”.

 

Storyteller  

The bonfire was lit, and the flames roared up around the young women, the fishermen and their wives and daughters all cried for mercy. The King wouldn't listen. He just watched as the sky turned orange from the flames and black from the smoke. The only one from the village who did not cry was the Crabman's Daughter. She just looked at the lake and waited. The flames began to roast the young women's scales and singe their hair, which was now the color of sea foam, when suddenly the earth began to rumble and tall waves rose up from the lake, and an enormous sea, green mermaid, head with eyes that glittered like stars, emerged from the water as she rose, waves came crashing out of the lake, over the shore, and onto the bonfire- extinguishing the flames. And then the King and his men and all the other kings and all the townspeople watched in awe as the enormous mermaid opened her mouth, and a giant bridge of water rose from her throat and extended straight onto the fire.

 

The burnt ropes that had held the young women on the spit fell apart.

The Crabman's Daughter gazed up at the enormous mermaid and then turned to the other young women, she took a deep breath and said, “Shall we?”

 

The fisherman's daughters nodded together. They all walked onto the bridge of water as if it were made of stone, and they followed the bridge straight into the enormous mermaid's jaws. Then the mermaid closed her mouth and descended back into the lake.

 

Well, the Kings all ran straight out of that little village, and they never came back, not for fish, not for wives. They wouldn't have come back if you drug them by the mouth with a fish hook. 

 

Kids

Yay! 

 

Storyteller

The people of the village rushed to the edge of the lake, and there they wept for the young women. There had been a monster in the lake, after all, and the monster had taken the young women, but had it eaten them or saved them?

 

Kid

Well, maybe inside of the mermaid was like a mermaid land, or the mermaid was just holding the daughters in its mouth, and then let them go into the water?

 

Storyteller  

So either inside of the mermaid was a mermaid land, or when she got into the water, they all came out. Interesting idea. 

 

The fishermen mourned their daughters for many days, but alas, they had to go back out into their boats to see if they could catch food for their suppers, for they had nothing to eat. As the prows of their boats cut through the surface of the lake, something very surprising happened. Fish began to jump into the depths of their boats. They were all so confused. What was going on? Just then, all around the boats, the fishermen saw their daughters swimming, but now their daughters' faces were covered with blue scales, and their hair was sea foam green.