I caught a glimpse of a roadside sign that had been hidden by darkness before. Once theroad cleared, I was up on my feet and across the highway, bare feet skimming across blacktop in six, seven eight quick steps to get a closer look.It was the image of a bombshell of a woman from the waist up, in a bikini top made tolook like seashells—and from the waist down, a glittering single fin.A mermaid.The scales were actual individual blue, green, silver sequins, nailed to the billboard one by one, painstakingly.The years had removed a few, but the overall effect was still breathtaking.A line read: THEY REALLY DO EXIST!MERMAID PARK, JUST 1/2 MILE AHEAD.I set a quick pace for the park.
"In just those few minutes at Mermaid Park, I'd caught a glimpse of something I
didn’t even know human beings could do. And it was the most beautiful thing I'd everseen."
Amy Rush is tired of being the outsider in her own family. Tired of the distance that'sgrown between herself and her sister, Mel. Tired of tolerating the taunts and sneers of her new stepfather,Tom. Tired of her mother's blindness to anything unpleasant. Nothing in sixteen-year-old Amy's world holds the promise of anything butdisappointment... until a nightmare weekend at the New Jersey shore with her mother, sister,and Tom leads to a discovery that will change her life.When Amy first lays eyes on Mermaid Park, she feels like she's stepped into a living, breathing fantasy. Girls dressed in fabulous costumes put on underwater shows, glidingthrough the water as a captivated audience falls under their spell. In that moment, Amy becomes convinced that if she could be one of the "mermaids," the rest of her life would be just as beautiful. But over the course of a summer full of real-life magic and ordinarymiracles, she discovers that the difference between reality and fantasy is murkier than itseems.
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