Prologue

Ode to Paradise Island

Blessed are those who have suffered the scourge of shipwreck — those who have swum warm waters and crawled onto these sandy shores — for they shall be rewarded with reprieve on this magnificent isle. Let’s remember the world as it once was, when mermaids sang songs to us and saved us from drowning, and pirates greeted us and offered much drink from their barrels and flasks. But let’s live to cherish this world as we now find it, where happy-go-lucky bar-goers have no wish to be rescued from the pleasures and vices of their tropical havens. And the mermaids — may they forever be beautiful island maidens who use their feet to dance into the night rather than their tails to frolic in the ocean by day.