It seemed like years but really it was only a few more minutes before Mikey appeared pedaling his bicycle down the street. He coasted into the driveway and hopped off his bike directly in front of bizarre mermaid fountain Karyn had become. He didn't seem to regard her current condition as especially odd.
"They put the fire out," he said dejectedly. "The fire trucks got there before we did. The firemen said there wasn't much damage."
Karyn was waving her arms frantically and doing her best to yell at him. "Mikey," she screamed, "Change me back."
At least, that's what she meant to say. What actually came from her mouth sounded more like a series of splashes and gushes, with a couple of high-pitched squeals thrown in. Mikey looked at her in annoyance. "I can't understand a word you're saying," he told her. "I sure wish you weren't part of that fountain any more."
And, suddenly, she wasn't. The fleshy connection holding her belly to the fountain bowl abruptly dissolved, while the fountain itself expanded, deepened and turned to stone. Karyn flopped face first into the pool, to emerge a second later and swim to the edge of the great water-filled bowl. She was so relieved to be able to breathe normally and tp move around that she barely noted that she hadn't reverted to human form. She was still a quite fetching mermaid.
