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Storyteller's Cabin |
Finally it was opening day, and most of Charleston was crowded into narrow King Street in front of Dr. Cavanaugh's shop. It was late June and the heat was so fierce you could almost taste it. The door finally opened and Dr. Cavanagh himself came out and told folks they were gonna see something they'd never seen before, or ever would again, and all it was gonna cost them was a single copper penny. Well, he could have told them it was one thin dime or one Yankee dollar or even a gold double eagle and they would have forked it over. Every one of them lined up, dug out their pennies, and marched right into Dr. Cavanaugh's Hall of Wonders.
Now every room in that ground floor had been ripped out, and there was some kind of magic lantern thing up on the ceiling that made it look like it was underwater. Slowly the walls began to glow and folks gasped and looked and gasped some more.
What they saw was fish. Hundreds of fish in hundreds of colors, swimming around in little glass tanks that covered the Halls. Now folks had seen fish before on a plate or on the end of a hook, but not swimming around freely inside a room. All those glass tanks were marked with the names of the fish and where they came from. And the only sound was the water splashing back and forth, as if the audience was swimming in the middle of the ocean.
Dr. Cavanagh suddenly appeared, and without saying a word he pointed to the back of the Hall of Wonders. Slowly, heavy velvet drapes pulled back and it was gasping time again. They saw one great sheet of glass that must have cost more than the rest of the tanks combined. Behind it was nothing but murky emerald water. Dr. Cavanagh then pointed to a sign on a brass easel. There was just one word there:
"Mermaid."
Folks crowded forward and stared into the murky depths for what seemed like hours. And just when everyone was nearly cross-eyed, it seemed like something flickered in all that opaque green, a flash of silver like a salmon's tail, a gleam of yellow like golden hair, a hint of a body as pale and perfect as ivory. Then it was gone and Isaac Sims, Dr. Cavanaugh's assistant, suddenly ushered the people out so the next group of folks could come in. And of course, Dr. Cavanagh had them ushered through the upstairs apothecary, just in case anyone needed to buy some overpriced medicines on the way out.
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