Jaidev and the Mermaid
By Sharon Fogarty © 2007
Jaidev lived in New York City and worked on Wall Street at a busy investment firm. Each day he walked to and from work along the piers of the South Street Seaport. He watched families, people holding hands, people walking dogs and realized that although he loved his job, he would like to have more time for friends and family. 
Jaidev’s days flew by as he busily invested his clients’ money. He worked very hard thinking that maybe one day he could retire and settle down with someone he loved and live happily ever after. Having this dream in mind, his work became a joy to him because he knew that if he worked very hard, he could possibly make this dream come true.
The only trouble was, that Jaidev’s job started early in the morning, often times before the sun came up, and finished late in the evening. So he didn’t have time to meet someone. He knew that he did not want to be alone but was not sure when and how to meet someone to possibly love and live with.
One warm summer night as he was walking home, he heard a strange sound by one of the piers. “Ow, ow, ow…” the voice cried. He thought it was a woman in pain and ran to find where she was. He followed the voice to the end of the boardwalk and saw sitting on top of one of the pylons, a creature, half woman and half fish. 
Jaidev blinked and blinked again as he stared in disbelief. He had only heard about mermaids and didn’t believe that they existed until now.
“Are you in pain?” he was finally able to ask the mermaid.
“A little bit,” said the mermaid. “I’m peeling my scales.”
“Why,” asked Jaidev. “Why must you peel your scales and why does that hurt?”
“I’m trying to grow legs,” said the mermaid. “The water is too dirty and it’s hard to find food so I would like to grow legs so that I can get a job in New York, make a living and buy food on land.”
“Oh, my goodness” said Jaidev. He tried to think of some way that he could help. “Are you sure that peeling your scales will help you grow legs? Won’t it just help you be scale-less?”
“I don’t know,” said the mermaid. “I was thinking that if I peel my scales I’ll at least look like I have a human leg and then I can split it into two human legs.”
“That sounds very dangerous,” said Jaidev. “You might hurt yourself.”
“I don’t care,” said the mermaid, “I’m very, very hungry.”
“Wait here, Jaidev said and went to a nearby restaurant which unfortunately was closed, but he felt so desperate and wanted to help the mermaid so badly that he broke the kitchen window of the restaurant, climbed inside, opened a refrigerator and found a large fish bucket full of fish. He ran back to the mermaid and she violently grabbed them and immediately started chewing on them. 
“Thank you!” she said as she gnawed at the fish.
“I’m happy to bring you whatever you want,” said Jaidev, “but please don’t hurt yourself by pulling your scales off.”
“You don’t understand,” said the mermaid who Jaidev noticed was a beautiful creature even as her sharp teeth bit hard into the raw fish. She ate so quickly that it was a little bit scary for Jaidev to watch. “I want to have legs to be like everyone else. I’m sick of swimming in these cold waters. I’m getting older and I want opportunities just like you. I’m smart. I’ve taught myself how to read and how to speak just like you.”
“Maybe there’s a way to have an operation,” said Jaidev. The mermaid’s hair seemed to be curling all by itself in and around her shoulders.
“If you find a way, please tell me. I can’t stand being a fish for another minute.”
“If you want, I can take you to a doctor who might be able to help.”
“If it’s not too much trouble,” said the mermaid.
“I don’t think the doctor’s office is open now…” started Jaidev.
“Ow, ow, ow…” said the mermaid who continued to peel at her scales. 
“Please don’t do that,” said Jaidev. “I’ll call the doctor now and tell him it’s an emergency.”
Jaidev took his cell phone and dialed his doctor’s phone number. As he suspected the call went to a voicemail recording, “…if this is an emergency, please press ‘zero.’” Jaidev pressed zero and he heard his doctor’s voice.
“Hello?” The doctor sleepily answered.
“Dr. Wilkins? This is Jaidev Iyer. I have a little bit of an emergency.”
“Go to the hospital,” said Dr. Wilkins.
“It’s a very private matter. Can I bring a patient to you now?”
“Meet me at Bellevue in the emergency room in ten minutes.”
“Thank you Dr. Wilkins.” Jaidev turned to the mermaid and said, “I think I have someone who can help you. He’s an excellent doctor. He wants us to go to the hospital.”
“No one can see me,” said the mermaid. “It will cause too much trouble and I’ll be in the newspapers.”
“I understand,” said Jaidev. “Wrap my coat around your waist and I’ll hail a taxi.”
The mermaid took Jaidev’s coat and wrapped it around her waist. Jaidev then picked up the mermaid whose heavy body was slipper and hard to hold. He carried her over one shoulder and walked out towards Fulton Street in search of a cab. After several minutes, he finally saw one and loaded the mermaid into the back seat. “To Bellevue Hospital” Jaidev said to the driver and off the taxi went into the night.
At the hospital, Jaidev asked for a wheel chair and, making sure the mermaid was covered, wheeled her into the emergency room. Dr. Wilkins was waiting there and took them both into an operating room.
“What? What happened to her legs?” Asked Dr. Wilkins.
“She’s a mermaid,” said Jaidev. “I know, it’s amazing. I can’t believe it.”
“What a beautiful creature,” said Dr. Wilkins.
“She wants to be human,” said Jaidev.
“Yes,” spoke the mermaid. “I would like you to operate on me so that I have legs like a regular human. I want opportunities just like everyone else and I’m sick and tired of living in the water. I want good strong legs so that I can walk along the streets, get a good job, maybe even drive a car.”
The mermaid had a funny unfamiliar accent. She spoke quickly so it was sometimes hard to understand everything she was saying.
“I want you to do it now!” she said.
“I wouldn’t know where to begin,” said Dr. Wilkins. But the mermaid was so insistent that the doctor started to speculate. He took an ex-ray and realized that the mermaid had what appeared to be one long spinal column, with vertebrae extending all the way down to her tail.
“This is going to take a very long time,” Dr. Wilkins said, “and it’s going to be very expensive.”
“I don’t care,” said Jaidev. “I will pay for it.”
“She will need to be hospitalized,” said Dr. Wilkins. “We can begin the procedure tomorrow.”
The doctor and Jaidev wheeled the mermaid into a physical therapy room and filled a large tub with water. The mermaid stayed there all night long and Jaidev stayed with her. He was so afraid of leaving her alone, of someone finding her. Once during the night, a nurse walked into the room. Jaidev yelled at her and told her to get out, saying that the mermaid had a very contagious disease. The nurse ran away and Jaidev tried to sleep in the chair. Every noise made him jump during the night and when morning came, Dr. Wilkins still hadn’t returned. Jaidev didn’t feel that he could leave the mermaid alone so he called in sick to work which he had never done before. He was afraid of losing his clients, but more afraid of losing the mermaid.
“You can go” the mermaid said. I’ll be fine until the doctor comes back.
“I don’t want to leave you,” said Jaidev.
“I don’t love you, you know,” said the mermaid.
This hurt Jaidev although it was completely reasonable. After all, they had only just met. “I know. That’s fine,” he lied. He tried to think of why it hurt so much. He wondered if the mermaid just needed more time to get to know him.
As if she read his mind, she spoke, “it’s only because I’m unique that you love me. I’m actually not a very nice person.”
“Don’t say that,” Jaidev said. “You’re beautiful.”
“I know that,” she responded. “You don’t even know my name.”
Jaidev felt embarrassed that he had been so enamored by the mermaid that he had forgotten to ask if she even had a name.
“I suppose I just thought it was Mermaid, because that’s what you are.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I only know your name is Jaidev because I heard you mention it on the phone to the doctor.”
“So what is your name?”
“Shallow.”
“Shallow?”
At this moment, Dr. Wilkins entered the room with an X-ray of Shallow’s skeleton. He explained that in order to complete Shallow’s leg operation, they would need to do several blood transfusions, changing her cold blood to warm and then remove her lower body tail and replace it with the legs of a recently deceased ballerina. Shallow was overjoyed but the description made Jaidev feel a little sick. Still, he continued to listen to the doctor.
Dr. Wilkins explained that Jaidev would have to live in the hospital room with Shallow for at least three months to make sure nobody saw her and to be available for blood transfusions. Jaidev didn’t know how he would be able to do this without losing his job, but he agreed. Dr. Wilkins also said that to stay in the hospital room for that long would cost almost five hundred thousand dollars, the approximate amount that Jaidev had in the bank. The doctor added, “No one must know you are here, Jaidev.
If any friends or family find out, they will attempt to visit you. And if they visit you, they will see Shallow and spread her existence to the media. You must stay completely in secret with this or I will not complete the operation.
Jaidev thought of his mother and how much she would worry about him, but he realized that if he was going to help Shallow, that he would have to remain hidden.
That evening, Dr. Wilkins removed the first quart of blood from Jaidev’s arm and started the blood transfusion process. Jaidev started to feel weak and fell asleep. While sleeping he had a dream that he moved into a gigantic house, but the house was very dirty. He knew that he wanted to have a family, maybe even marry Shallow once she had legs, and if they could not have children because she was a fish, then they could adopt. So in his dream, he started to clean the house, but the only cleaner available was a very strong substance like Clorox and instead of a sponge, he only had small cotton balls. The acidic cleaner smelled strong as he swabbed inch after inch of the gigantic filthy mansion.
Jaidev awoke from the dream, but the smell of the cleaner was still in the room. He realized that Dr. Wilkins was swabbing his leg with alcohol in order to extract more blood. When the doctor had extracted another quart of Jaidev’s blood, he sat up and drank the bitter vitamin soup given to him each night so that he could build up blood fast enough for Shallow’s operation.
Meanwhile, Shallow got stronger and stronger and after five weeks, Dr. Wilkins said it was time to create her lower body. From the ballerina cadaver, Dr. Wilkins was able to saw through the spine and remove the hips and legs.
“How wonderful!” said Shallow who enjoyed watching the operation. “You’re such a good doctor!”
Jaidev, however, felt very sick watching any operation or seeing blood. He covered his ears to not hear the saw and cried when he looked at the poor ballerina’s body. He knelt and prayed until the operation was completed. Now it became time to remove Shallow’s tail and replace it with the ballerina’s legs. Dr. Wilkins took another transfusion from Jaidev, then gave him a shot so that he could sleep through Shallow’s operation.
Shallow refused the sleep medication as she wanted to be awake for everything. She was so excited and chatted about buying skirts and pants in bright and beautiful colors, and how she would be able to walk to all the sushi restaurants in Manhattan.
Jaidev drifted off from the strong sleep drug to the sound of Shallow singing:
She’s got legs!
She knows how to use them…
Finally, after almost two days of sleeping, Jaidev awoke to see that his mermaid friend was now a woman, tall and beautiful. She was practicing walking on her treadmill and Jaidev became excited that they could soon leave the hospital.
“Can I finally call my mother? And my job to tell everyone I’m okay?”
“Absolutely,” Dr. Wilkins said. You can now get dressed and go home. We’ll be ready to release Shallow in another two and a half months.”
“Two and a half months?” said Jaidev. “I thought she could come home with me now.”
“Shallow needs more therapy,” said Dr. Wilkins.
“I’m walking faster and faster!” Shallow giggled as she pointed, bent and straightened her new toes and legs.
Jaidev said goodbye and that he would come and visit Shallow every day but Shallow paid no attention to him. She just wiggled her toes and laughed.
“You can pay at the front desk,” said Dr. Wilkins.
Jaidev went to the front desk and wrote out a check for six hundred seventy three thousand three hundred and seventeen dollars and forty eight cents, grateful that he had an overdraft in his checking account that would cover the few extra thousand.
The sun blinded Jaidev as he hailed a taxi from the hospital to his apartment downtown. He gave the driver the last ten dollars then strode into his apartment.
“Ahhhh!” screamed a young woman when Jaidev entered.
“Who are you?” Jaidev asked.
“I’m the new tenant! Who are you?”
“This is my apartment,” said Jaidev, but then he realized he had not paid rent for three months, and that it was very likely that the landlord re-let the apartment. He wondered what happened to his computer and his bed and thought of contacting the landlord.
He walked to a hotel and used his credit card so that he would have a place to stay for the night, then walked to his office. When he entered, he saw that his secretary had been replaced with someone new.
“Hello, I’m Jaidev.”
“Oh, hi,” said the secretary. “I’ve heard about you.”
“What happened to Rachel?”
“I came on board with Stuart.”
“Stuart?”
“Stuart, your replacement…? Do you need to speak to him?”
“No, that’s fine,” said Jaidev. “Is Bruce here?”
Bruce was Jaidev’s boss who the secretary said was on vacation. Jaidev left without leaving a message and went back to the hotel. Realizing that he needed to find work, he entered an electronic store and used his credit card to buy a new laptop. At the hotel, he searched for jobs and typed up a new resume.
After several hours of search, he realized that he was very hungry and went to a nearby restaurant. So grateful to eat anything other than the bitter food in the hospital, he realized that he missed Shallow very much and wondered how she was doing. Without any cash, he used his credit card to buy subway fare, then take the train up to the hospital. But when he entered the room, he saw that Shallow wasn’t there.
Jaidev asked at the front desk where Dr. Wilkins was.
“He left with the lady,” the woman told him at the front desk.
“With the lady with the long hair?”
“That’s right, long hair, long legs. She was walking slowly, with a cane. She was singing, too. Maybe he was taking her to the psych ward.”
Jaidev forced a smile and thanked the woman. He sat down in the waiting room and called Dr. Wilkins on his cell phone.
“Hello?” he heard Dr. Wilkins say.
“Dr. Wilkins, it’s me, Jaidev. Where’s Shallow?”
“Oh, she left the hospital.”
“Where did she go?”
“She didn’t think she needed any more therapy. She was too anxious to look for work and find an apartment so she left.”
“But she didn’t have any money.”
“Actually, I loaned her five thousand dollars. She that you’d be able to pay me back.”
“Right, well, thanks for everything.”
“You’re welcome! I think the operation was a complete success.”
“Right. Right. Okay, bye-bye.”
“So long, pal.”
Jaidev closed his phone and walked towards the subway. The air was cool and crisp and Jaidev noticed that the weather was quickly changing to autumn.
