Time passed. Slowly, the dark waters grew lighter. The sea grew calm. At last, Ariel could see.

I’m on the deck of a ship, she thought.

The ship’s helm, round and solid, held her in place. She squirmed. But she knew it was impossible to escape.

“Hello?” she called out.

She waited a moment. “Hello?” she called again.

“Ariel!” Flounder hurried over. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere! Are you all right?”

Ariel pulled at the wheel. It wouldn’t budge. “I’m fine. I just need to move this.”

Flounder swam under the wheel. He pushed at the same time Ariel pulled.

The wheel lifted slightly, and Ariel slipped free. “Whew!” She gazed around. The ocean floor was littered with broken planks, uprooted sea grass, and shattered shells.

“Should we clean up around here?” Flounder pushed some broken planks to the side. He swept up the wooden bits with his fin. But Ariel was already speeding away.

“I need to find Father so he can change me back. I’ve got to return to the surface. Eric will be worried!”

At the palace, King Triton sat on his throne. The sea chair was still in one piece. But there were cracks in the pillars. Stones and sea glass lay scattered across the floor.

Sebastian stepped gingerly over the broken bits.

“All octopuses! You’re assigned to the far east corner. You’ll be on cleanup duty, picking up wreckage. Please use all arms. Squid! You’ll be mopping up in the kitchen. Ariel! Join your sisters in the—”

“Oh! Ariel!” Sebastian interrupted himself. “Flounder found you!”

Ariel nodded, taking in the damage.

“Thank goodness you’re safe,” said Triton, pulling his daughter in close. “Thank goodness everyone is.”

Ariel breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad. But I need to go home,” Ariel told her father. “I want to make sure Eric and everyone at the castle are fine. Can you please change me back into a human?”

Triton nodded. “Follow me.”

Together they swam to the surface. Moonbeams bright as sun rays lit the ocean. Triton led Ariel to a rock near the shore. He raised his trident.

One lone spark flew from its tip.

Ariel looked down. Her tail swished in the water.

“Where are my legs?”

King Triton shook his head. An uncertain look clouded his eyes. “I’ll try again.”

Once more, he raised his trident toward the sky. But it fizzled again.

“Ah, Ariel,” Triton said sadly. “I’m afraid I can’t do it.”

“But, why?”

“The solar eclipse,” Triton explained. “Adella made her birthday wish just as the eclipse took place. She wished you could stay. And the eclipse was so strong…so magical…that her wish came true. My powers aren’t enough to change you back.”

Ariel stared at her father. “But that means I’ll never be able to leave. I’ll never be human. I’ll always be a mermaid!”

Triton gazed at her and nodded slowly.

Ariel choked back a sob. “No,” she whispered.

“Ariel!” Eric was calling from the shore. “You’re safe! I saw the eclipse and the giant waves! I’ve been walking along the shore looking for you.”

In a flash, Ariel dove from the rock into the water, toward Eric.

He splashed into the water to meet her.

“Oh, Eric,” she cried, “I’m so glad to see you! Is everyone at the castle all right?”

He nodded. “There’s some damage to the east wing that I should attend to. Are you ready?”

“I can’t turn back into a human!” Tearfully, she explained what happened.

“That can’t be true!” Eric cried.

King Triton neared them. “I’m afraid it is,” he told Eric. He looked at Ariel sadly. “I’m sorry. I feel so helpless. You know I’d do anything to make you happy.”

“I know, Father.”

Triton was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “There is one thing we could try.”

“Yes?” said Ariel eagerly.

“You must spend tomorrow as if it were today. As if it were Adella’s birthday all over again—from when you first saw your sisters to the moment Adella made the wish. If the feeling is there…if the feeling is strong enough…then the solar eclipse will occur again, and Adella can change her wish.”

Repeat the day? Ariel thought. The whole day, and everything that happened? “That would be impossible!” she exclaimed.

King Triton shook his head. “Nothing is impossible.”

“What do you mean, if the feeling’s there?”

“All I can tell you is that you have the best shot of turning back into a human if you and your sisters pretend it is today when you wake up tomorrow morning,” Triton answered.

Ariel’s mind raced. She’d alert the kingdom. Ask every merperson, every sea creature, to copy everything they had done. She’d make sure her sisters did all of the same things. She’d make sure Adella believed, really and truly, that it was her birthday all over again.

“Tonight, you must sleep in the guest grotto,” Triton told Ariel. “Right after breakfast, come to the meeting hall, as you did this morning. And then we’ll begin.”

Ariel and Eric looked at each other and nodded. It was their only hope of being together again.