When I was a child there was a period of time when my family lived like gypsies. My parents had sold their city house and were looking for a piece of property, far off the beaten path in the foothills of Northern California. Before they settled on an exact piece of land we set up camp at a riverside campground—the four of us (my parents and my sister and I) lived in a beat-up old trailer. My sister and I spent most days playing in the creek that flowed into the river, and swimming in the river, and reading on the sandy shores. It was around this time that my mom obtained a copy of Andersen's Fairy Tales and I was the first subject to the dark tales within. Among the stand-outs was The Little Mermaid, complete with painful stabbing feet. (At the risk of outing my age, this was prior to Ariel of Disney fame!) Needless to say every dive under the clear blue waters I imagined myself to be a mermaid. And so began my love affair with these fabled beauties and beasts.

I welcome you back to Mermaids, I am your hostess Ana Karenina. Today I will be reading: The Mermaid of Druid Lake: