Then Mr. Ames turned toward the mermaid tank behind him, and Slane
O'Graeme said quickly, "Be careful, Mr. Ames. Don't drop--"
And then it happened.
* * * * *
The opened vial slipped from the liquor magnate's hand as he lifted it
over the rim on the tank. It hit the top of the water with a soft plop,
sank and struck the coral with a faint clink. Diffusion in the water
must have been almost instantaneous; it was light blue throughout even
before the vial hit bottom.
I heard a low exclamation from O'Graeme, and then he yelped excitedly,
"Quick, everyone, get out of--" His voice trailed off there and a
beatific expression came over his face. I was only a bit farther from
the tank than he, and it hit me almost at the same time.
It was the same sensation I had experienced in my office. Not much
stronger, but far more sudden and complete.
My eyes were still on the mermaid tank, and I thought for an instant
that it was empty, that the mermaids and goldfish had mysteriously
vanished into nothingness. Then a pair of golden streaks, faintly
visible, followed by the flash of a mermaid's body, showed me my error.
Suddenly it came to me: This was the time to tell Mrs. Ames about
wanting to marry Margie. Now! Tell her, and tell her to go to Jupiter
if she didn't like it.
I whirled around, and paused aghast. Mrs. Ames was slumped down in
her chair, and her eyes were vacuous. Her mouth was wide open and
her fat arms were making wriggling motions as though her hands were
flippers and she was trying to swim. She looked like a fish out of
water--certainly _not_ like a mermaid.
Slowly, I turned back to O'Graeme. I grabbed his arm and he looked up,
obviously startled. "Listen," I said. "What did you say an overdose of
this Breath of Beelzebub would do?"
His popping green eyes opened wide. "Why, darling," he said, "how
should _I_ know? And how did I get over here?"
I sort of swayed on my feet and closed my eyes. I was looking down at a
bald-headed little man, and hearing Slane O'Graeme's voice, but--but--
It couldn't be! I opened my eyes and looked across the tank at Margie
Ames. My Margie. Her beautiful blue eyes were wide with astonishment
and she was staring down at her own arms and hands in the blankest
sort of bewilderment. Then she looked up and caught my eye and said,
"Mr. Dineen, what the devil--Didn't I tell you that six or seven drops
would--"
I shook my head and closed my eyes again. And something seemed to
slip. I didn't open them, but they were open just the same, and all I
was seeing was a blur of motion and I seemed to be going in circles
through something wet and blue. I got dizzy and tried to close my eyes
again, but they wouldn't close. But I did manage to stop moving--and
I shuddered, and the shudder wasn't because the water in the tank was
cold.
A beautiful young woman, with long flowing hair of gold, swam by. But
she didn't have any clothes on and where her legs should have been
there was the tail of a fish. I thought suddenly here was my chance to
kiss a mermaid, but she flung some sea weed in my face and ducked into
what looked like a cave.
I tried to look out of the tank, but everything was distorted and I
couldn't make out much. I could hear sounds as though several people
were talking at once, but the sounds, too, were distorted and I
couldn't make out what was being said.
I tried to groan and found I couldn't do that, either. And that made
me, strangely, want to giggle. And, oddly enough, I _was_ giggling.
Then someone was saying, "_Stop_ that!" and shaking my shoulder and it
didn't seem to be wet and cold any more. My shoulder was bare, and the
hand hurt and I looked up, and suddenly a nursery song of long ago that
I'd heard in my childhood came back to me and I started to sing, "I
fwam and I fwam right over the--" until the shock of hearing my voice
come out a rich throaty contralto made me stop and bring my eyes into
focus.
And I was looking up at myself leaning over me, and the other I was
saying in my voice, "Listen, I'm Margie Ames, and I'm curious to know
who is in my body."
"I'm Bill," I said. "What in the--"
"Bill!" she cut in. "Where _were_ you? This Mr. O'Graeme (he's over in
Senator Weems right now) was explaining what happened and we took a
roll-call and you weren't around."
I closed my eyes (or Margie's eyes) again. I should have had it by
then, but I was still confused. Coming down the hallway, O'Graeme had
told me that four or five drops of the fluid, in water, would cause
"partial dissociation of personality." More than that would make it
complete. And Mr. Ames had dropped the whole vial into the mermaid tank!
"It's temporary," Margie said. "We change around every few minutes or
so and it'll all come out right when the stuff wears off, but--"
I was looking down at my--temporary--shapely arms and bare shoulders,
and I started to chuckle. Suddenly--possibly it was the realization
that whatever was happening was temporary--I began to see the humor
of the situation. It isn't funny unexpectedly to find oneself in the
body of a goldfish. But it _had_ been a rare experience--and I'd almost
kissed a mermaid!