Mr. Pettigrow, Isabelle, and her parents began their journey with rough weather. They set sail towards Europe on a beautiful spring day. Shortly after their journey began, a horrible storm came over them. Their boat was thrown back and forth by the overpowering waves. The storm continued for an entire month. Finally, Isabelle woke up to the sunlight gleaming on her face and jumped out of bed to discover there was not a cloud in the sky. 

 

The storm had been over for about a week when the ship finally made it to land. Mr. Pettigrow had traveled often so he was fairly familiar with navigation, but this time he had no idea where they had ended up. The coastline was gorgeous, with clean white sand. It looked like it had never even been touched. There was at least fifty feet of beach before it reached the luscious green foliage and an abundance of exotic tropical flowers. Isabelle had only imagined places this beautiful. The four shipwrecked individuals took advantage of their unfortunate situation and stayed on the beach rather than setting sail in an attempt to reach their original destination.

They had plenty of food and water on the ship so they were more than capable of surviving on the beach. After a couple weeks, Isabelle began to get bored and wanted to explore more of the land. Much to her parents' dismay, she began to weave her way through the thick greenery to find out what else existed on this isolated terrain. At last, she found a pond with a giant waterfall. She could see straight to the bottom through the clear water, and she also spotted a small cave behind the waterfall. As she walked deeper into the cave, it became narrower. Finally, she saw sunlight coming from the back of the cave and discovered that it led to a large body of water. She was shocked to see mermaids lounging on large boulders lining the coast.

 

One of the mermaids approached her and said, "Hello there. We aren't used to having visitors. What brings you here?"

 

Isabelle replied, "I, I, I, I'm not sure. My family was traveling and we arrived here after a horrible storm. Who are you?"

 

"My name is Samira," she responded.

 

"Well, what are you doing here?" Isabelle questioned.

 

Samira explained, "This is our special place. We all come to this beach to relax."

 

"Oh well, I'm sorry to bother you. I'll be going now," said Isabelle.

 

"Don't be silly," exclaimed Samira. "Come back anytime you want. We all have different adventures we would love to share with you!"

 

Isabelle was very excited and said, "I would love to! I will come every day to see you, Samira."

 

Samira smiled and said, "Wonderful...we'll see you tomorrow, Isabelle."

 

Isabelle was so excited about what she had discovered. She ran to her parents immediately to tell them about her exhilarating discovery and was so disappointed when they did not believe her.

 

"Oh, your imagination has gotten the better of you this time, Isabelle," Said her mother.

 

But Isabelle knew better. She went to the waterfall every day from then on to see Samira and hear about all of the sea people's adventures...