"Daidí! Papa!" I ran to my father, grabbing at his pants. My father let out a pleasant belly laugh, a jolly smile hiding behind the dense hair of his beard. He set down the fishing rod he had been constructing and pulled me into his lap. I giggled as he cleared his throat, my three brothers scrambling to sit in a semi-circle around us.

"What do you want to hear today, you little muppets?" Papa teased as he reached out to ruffle my oldest brother, Alroy's, russet hair.

"No dry shite, oul fella!" Dalaigh exclaimed and quickly my father reached out and cuffed my youngest brother on the head.

"Aye, watch your language, boyo! How 'bout I tell you a story about the water demons?" I nodded swiftly. So fast in fact, that my head felt as if it was going to fall off. My dad placed his hand on top of my head to stop it. "Okay, you muppet! I get it! I'll tell you about the merman and the Irishman." I shrieked with joy while my thick, not the full shilling, total eejit, middle brother, Cassidy, covered his ears with his hands and sprinted out of the room. "Not very long ago, out along the coast of our beautiful country of Ireland, there was a lonely young man without a wife walking past the tavern on his way home from work. He stopped in front of the tavern, wishing he could stop in for a bite to eat. But the poor pauper, he didn't have half the money for even a slice of plain bread. All he wanted was a good ole craic. ''Woe is me." The poor man moaned, "The world will be better off if I die." The pauper walked to the beach and to the edge of the water. In the grey light of twilight, trying to get the courage to off himself. But, as the man stared at the water, the surface broke and a merrow-man appeared."

I squealed, clapping my chubby hands together. "Merrowmaid!"

"Shut your trap, Nereida!" Alroy snapped at me.

"That's right, muppet, shut your trap." My dad gave me a lopsided grin, his teeth stained yellow from many years and many beers. "'Dear friend, pray tell me why you look so sad?" The merrow-man asked, his gorgeous green glistening tail flicking in the water. The man took much heart to such a kind voice inquiring after him. "Once I was living in great wealth," the man sighed, ''But now I am poor of my own accord."

The merrow-man smiled. "I can make you richer than ever before, but on one condition." The pauper's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "Anything, I'll give you anything."'

"MARCAS! ARE YOU TELLING THE CHILDREN ABOUT YER STUPID MERROWMAIDS AGAIN?!" It was Mama. She stormed into the room, a cloud of anger about her. She had a wooden spoon in her hand, ready for attack. Her signature scowl was etched into her features like symbols into a rock.

Papa looked as if he had been caught red-handed. He grabbed my waist and lifted me off his lap, "Not at all darling, I was just teaching little Nereida how to make a lure." He set me on the floor with a wink. 

"Liar," Alroy muttered. He was our Mama's boy, to say the least. He often put my dad into sticky situations with his tattletaleing.

"I knew it! Yer just a filthy scum bag Marcas, get back to work!" Mama waved her spoon around in the air before stomping her way back to the kitchen.

My papa pulled his fishing rod back onto his lap and leaned forward. He put his mouth to my ear. "I'll tell you the rest of that tale tonight, little Nereida. Now run along." I did as he said, racing across the room, giggling loudly.