“Not possible. You know English better than half of the humans I know.” Daniel had to regain control of his face as Ina’s declaration of illiteracy left his mouth agape and at a loss of words. Ina was embarrassed. She knew that she needed actual instruction for the textbook to be of any use but to admit that she was incapable of something children do. She glared at Daniel before falling back on the bed to hide her face. I trusted you and you mocked me. “Have you ever seen a book in water?” Her voice was louder and more pointer than she had anticipated. “Please, forgive me. I guess I’m still not processing that you are an actual mermaid, who had a mermaid upbringing, under water… in the sea… stupid!” He hit his head with his palm, just hard enough for the sound to make Ina lift her head. “You are too harsh on yourself. And, I suppose, let my temper have control of the conversation. I, too, have to remember that merfolk have only just become a fact in your life. Now with that aside, how am I going to learn?” The animosity was removed from her voice. Ina focused on her opportunity to learn over her inadequateness. “Well, we should start with the alphabet. Once you’re able to recognize which letters make which sounds you should be mostly set. I might be over simplifying, spelling is going to be harder than reading. English has some weird stuff going on.” Daniel spun his chair around and started digging through his desk. He pulled out a spiral notebook and a few pens. “You can practice writing in this. I’ll put the alphabet on the first page, for reference.” He walked over to Ina to hand her the notebook. “The first one is A, it sounds like ah, apple.” “A, ah, apple? Those are all different sounds, why not call it ah not A and have an ahple?” “Uh, most letters, especially vowels, can have more than one sound, mostly influenced by the letters surrounding it. Don’t worry, you are at an advantage knowing how words are pronounced. You’ll recognize how to adjust the sound and it will help you in the future for recognizing patterns, like an E at the end of a word is usually silent.” He pointed to E on the paper. “Is there no form of writing where you are from?” “The currents erase markings in the sand and wall space is preciously limited.” “But how do you keep records of things? Your schooling? History?” “We must remember. Merfolk almost never forget anything we have committed to memory.” “Man, that must be great, I could use that in my life. Let’s just go over the letters once, no real questions, then we can do some practice writing and then we can watch something with subtitles. That’s when a show puts words on the screen of what the people are saying, It might work but I don’t know it might be too fast paced. I’ll find a children’s book online that I can read to you and then we’ll work it out from there.”

They went over each letter and its sound. Ina’s foreign grasp on the pen made her writing look worse than Daniel’s non-dominant hand’s writing. “I’ll put the letter on the top of the page real big and you can fill the entire page, not all right now but, later…you’ll have time.” After writing a few lines of each, Daniel grabbed his laptop off his desk. He pulled up a virtual book when Ina asked, “Can I try, with the words before you say them?” He nodded. And pointed to the first word. “Buh. Err. Oh. Wuh. Nn. Brr-ow-n, brown? Like the color of this creature, a bear?” “See, you’ll get this in no time.” “Buh. Eh. Ah. Err… Bear?” This continued for the remainder of the book, Ina slowly gaining confidence but struggling with words like purple. Upon finishing, Ina let out a huff then her stomach gargled. “I am famished. Do you have any fish?” “If you’re going to stay here long, we need to get you to eat some other people foods. And I’m guessing you don’t cook your fish?” Daniel stood up and walked to the kitchen; Ina followed. “Is there anything about the taste of fish that you like?” “My preferences are rendered useless if I’m not eating fish.” “Well it looks like all we have is PB&J. Peanut butter and jelly.” He got out what he needed and glanced at the peanut butter jar. “Do you have any allergies? Like will this kill you?” “We are susceptible to certain poisons but if terrafolk can eat it, I should too.” Daniel shifted his weight. “Well, this could kill a large portion of terrafolk… I’ll do a sketchy allergy test. Give me your arm.” Daniel opened the jar and spread a small glob of peanut butter on her outstretched arm. “Better do the same with the other stuff.” He proceeded with the jelly and awkwardly held a piece of bread to her skin. “This is strange. What exactly is supposed to happen?” “We wait for a few minutes and if a rash forms the you won’t eat it, otherwise we just hope for the best.” There was an air of uncertainty in his voice that fueled Ina skepticism. Daniel realized that he could balance the bread on Ina’s arm and proceeded to make himself a sandwich. He wolfed down more than half of it before remembering to check on Ina, who was staring quizzically. “Unlike in the water, that is dead and not in need of attacking.” “Sorry, I was so preoccupied today that I forgot to eat lunch. I’m starving, well, I didn’t feel it before but I knew I needed to eat and once I started, it hit me.” “I found it reassuring. We are more alike than I had imagined.” Daniel cracked a small smile and rinsed Ina’s arm off under the sink. “Well, I don’t see a rash or anything.” He made a sandwich for her then suggested she take smaller bites than he had. “Land verses water might be different so take it slow.” It wasn’t like anything she had ever tasted. She could distinguish three separate flavors and textures. Ina struggled to swallow the few bites she had. “It’s very sweet… and dry.” Daniel rushed to the cabinet to get a glass and poured her a cup of milk; she drank. “The lack of salt is refreshing. I’m afraid I’ll get too comfortable up here.”

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With the food gone, they retreated back to Daniel’s room. “I think it’s my turn for a nap.” Daniel collapsed on the bed. “What should I do?” “Oh, I can get a video up, you can read.” He sluggishly got up to search his laptop. “Intellectually, Sesames Street is beneath you but it has a simple educationally driven storyline that will give you more time to read. Hit this button to play or pause. The words will appear on the screen, here. And wear these.” He placed headphones on Ina and started the episode. By the time he hit the pillow, he was asleep.