rayaso

Topic: Invitation

THE CHOICE

Lia was convinced she had magical powers, but the problem was, no one else at the Elsie Smith Community Pool knew it. Sure, she raised a few water spouts, but everyone said she was just spitting pool water and it was gross.

Lia also knew she was really a selkie; she just had to shed her skin and prove it. The lifeguard kicked her out of the pool for trying to take off her swimsuit. “They’re just jealous,” she thought to herself, as she headed home.

The pool administrator had called her mother to complain again. “You’re not a magical selkie,” sighed her mother, who had been hearing a lot of this lately. “You’re an ogre, and that’s special enough. You can’t shed your ogre skin or cast spells.”

When she was four years old, Lia’s parents had volunteered for the Ogre Revival Program. Due to slow rates of reproduction and “misunderstandings” with humans, the ORP had been established to preserve the ogre species. Her family had accepted one of the early invitations for admission to the program.

Lia had seen pictures of their old cave, and their house was a definite improvement. Their new names were certainly shorter than their ogre ones, which were difficult for humans to pronounce. Her parents had regular jobs and Lia went to the local school.

It had been hard being in the ORP, but Lia had tried to make the best of it. It hadn’t been too bad at home. School, on the other hand, would always be a problem. Her classmates were mean and obnoxious, and she wished she could turn them into tasty little frogs and eat them. She also yearned for the sea, but had to make do with the swimming pool. She was lonely, and she didn’t know what to do about that.

Lia’s only friend was a human, Rebecca, whose father worked for the ORP as her family’s Adjustment Counsellor. He knew all about ogres, and his job was to help them adapt to the difficulties of their new lives.

Rebecca’s father had understood Lia’s unhappiness, and had asked his daughter to be Lia’s friend. “I’m only hanging out with you because my dad asked me,” she had told Lia in the beginning.

But Rebecca had needed a friend as well. She had never been a popular girl, but now she was being teased by some kids because she had said she wanted to be a witch.

After a few weeks, Rebecca had told Lia she could cast spells. The only spell she had tried would make small objects disappear from one hand and reappear in the other, but they kept falling to the floor.

Rebecca had never minded that Lia was an ogre and they would eat lunch together, although Lia’s raw meat sandwiches still grossed her out. Rebecca was small, with delicate features and long blond hair, while Lia was big, with coarse brown fur and a loud voice.

When Lia had first told her she thought she was a selkie with magical powers, Rebecca had said “cool.”

Once Rebecca had asked Lia what it was like to be a selkie. She never asked what it was like to be an ogre.

On her ninth birthday, Rebecca’s father gave her a copy of Beginning Spells: A Witch’s Primer and a wand. The next day, Lia and Rebecca stayed after school to try an easy spell. They met at the playground because Rebecca wanted to make a swing move by itself. She said the magic words and waved her new wand. The swing moved a little, but it was a windy day so Lia wasn’t sure.

“Let me try,” said Lia. She chanted the magic words, waved the wand, and the swing spun completely around. “Cool!” she said. Rebecca only looked down before announcing, “It’s time for me to go home.”

Lia told her parents about it, who looked at each other, then sighed and grumbled. “Rebecca’s not a witch,” her mother said. “I know she wants to be one, but she has no magic.”

A few days later, Rebecca had something for Lia. “It’s a present from my father,” she said. Lia unwrapped it.

It was a wand.

Rebecca seemed surprised and not especially happy. “You can’t have my spell book,” she said, before leaving early for class.

There was a note with the wand. “You’ll make the right choice,” was all it said.

The next day, Lia couldn’t find Rebecca for lunch, so after school she went by herself to the swing set. After everyone had gone home, Lia took out the wand, said the magic words, and the swing went around again. Then she tried to move a small rock, which didn’t budge. Finally, she tried it on a candy wrapper and it moved a little, but it was another windy day.

Rebecca kept avoiding Lia, even after Lia left a note in her locker.

After a week, Lia waited for Rebecca outside her class. “I miss you,” said Lia. “I miss you, too,” said Rebecca, and they started eating lunch together again.

They also started practicing simple spells from the Primer. Once in a while, one would work for Lia. Nothing ever happened for Rebecca, who was getting discouraged.

Shortly before her tenth birthday, her parents needed to talk to Lia. “I promise not to sigh,” said her mother. When her father promised not to grumble, Lia knew it was serious.

“You really are a magical selkie,” began her mother, waiting for the explosion.

“You lied to me!” yelled Lia, who ran to her bedroom and slammed the door.

“I bet you got mad too, when you went through all this,” said her father. Her mother only nodded.

Once Lia calmed down and came back, her mother told her everything. All female ogres were related to selkies, but with a big difference. They were born as ogres, but on their sixteenth birthdays, they had to make a choice. They could remain ogres and live on the land, or they could shed their skins, become mermaids, and live in the sea.

As mermaids, they would be so beautiful they would even bewitch sailors who caught merely a glimpse of them. They could have many friends and live happy, wondrous lives.

Female ogres also possessed magical powers, which increased as they got older. But if they became mermaids, they had to leave their land lives behind – magic, family, friends – everything. They could only keep their memories.

“But I don’t want to leave you,” said Lia as tears formed in her eyes. “And what about Rebecca?”

“Rebecca’s just an ordinary girl,” said her mother.

“But I’ve never seen you use any magic,” said Lia. "How do I know it's true?"

“My powers are weak, and I have to keep it hidden,” said her mother. “That’s why we’re talking now. You can’t practice in public anymore. Lia’s father said humans are starting to talk.”

It had been clear to Lia’s parents for a long time that their daughter’s abilities were unusually strong, so they had asked Rebecca’s father to give her the wand and the note to prepare her for The Talk that all female ogres customarily had on their tenth birthdays. The choice to be made was a hard one, and it was best to give ogre girls a long, long time to prepare.

The intervening years passed quickly. Lia’s desire for the sea grew stronger, especially after her parents started taking trips to the ocean. Her powers increased under her mother’s guidance, and Rebecca remained her close, and only, friend.

Lia felt torn. Life as an ogre among humans was lonely and hard, but it was all she knew and she couldn’t leave her parents and Rebecca. Becoming a mermaid would be perfect, with its promise of love and acceptance. But then there was her magic. Could she really give that up?

By her sixteenth birthday, she still hadn’t decided, and time was running out. Her parents were waiting with her by the ocean, afraid they would soon be losing her.

There was so much about being an ogre that Lia hated. She was living in a human world in which she would never belong, but she could not go back to the family cave – that was a life she barely remembered. As a mermaid, she would finally be accepted, but she would no longer be Lia and she would lose her family and Rebecca. And her magic – who knew where such power would take her? But so much of her needed the sea.

Midnight was approaching.

Finally, she knew. The question of which choice would make her the most unhappy had a far clearer answer.

“I can’t give you up,” she announced. “The price is just too high.”

Her mother understood. She took Lia aside, and tried to console her. “I couldn’t do it either. But I found love and happiness with your father, and then you were born. I still ache for the ocean, and I always will, but you will be able to do something I never could.”

“But how will that ever help?” asked Lia

“Your power is so strong, that someday you will be able to change your shape,” replied her mother. “You can never shift into a mermaid, but you can do the next best thing, and become a seal. You can swim in the ocean and even visit the mermaids, although you will never belong there.”

“But will I ever belong anywhere?” asked Lia.

“No,” replied her mother, “but you’re an ogre, and ogres are strong and they adapt.”

The waves sparkled in the moonlight, and Lia was suddenly very tired. It was time for her to leave the sea behind, hard as it was. But she knew she would return. Even if she could never fully live in the sea, at least she could visit.

And if she did not belong among humans, she knew she belonged with her family.

That, she realized now, was enough.

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