CHAPTER 17

"Together Again"

It was one week later. The wedding barge was pulling out to sea. Ariel and Eric were in their wedding finery as they gave each other a wedding kiss after they exchanged their wedding vows. The assembled multitudes cheered on long and loud. Triton, who was holding Melody, beamed. Melody saw Sebastian nearby and proceeded to squeeze the unfortunate crab. But he was slippery and squirted away.

Above, Scuttle flew about and crashed into the mast of one of the ships in the harbor. The troupe was on the deck of this ship, waving their congratulations. The sail still had the stylized eye on it, but it now also read LIVING MUSEUM OF HUMAN SUPERLATIVES. Sampo was bawling like a baby as Felicity handed her handkerchief after handkerchief, as they got terrible soaked.

At her feet, Tom, Dick and Harriet tried to shield themselves from her tears, to no avail.

"I thought the weather forecast was for sunny skies," griped Harriet.

"Yes, but we did not except a squall to come in," muttered Dick, trying to stay dry.

"A squall or a squawk?" pondered Tom.

The captain, who piloted the old ship, was at the wheel of his new ship, dressed snappily in a very sharp and exquisite uniform. Next to him was Greg, who saluted Eric and Ariel, only to have his hand stick to his head.

Irongut looked on. "I'm not helping you this time, Greg!"

On the barge, the human participants weren't faring much better. Carlotta was a teary mess, as soaking wet as Sampo. Grimsby was also teary, but he was trying not to show it, preferring to remain stoic, but failing at it.

Chef Louis wheeled in an enormous cake, perhaps 10 layers high. So proud of his creation, he was full of himself, but not very attentive, as he did not see Max.

He ran the trolley over his tail. Max bounded up and upset the trolley, but Louis managed to right the trolley and keep it from tipping. "Non! Non, non, non, non, non!" Through a massive effort, it didn't slide off, but, in doing so, he overcompensated and the cake ended up falling over onto Louis. He was both livid and embarrassed, as he was thick with frosting. A few errant gulls swooped down and started to feast on the offerings.

Eric and Ariel went over to Triton. They collected Melody, looking fabulous in her beautiful dress. Ariel teared up as she hugged her father and waved at her sisters. All of them were happy, except Arista, who crossed her arms in indignation.

"Hmmph! She gets two weddings and I haven't had any!"

Attina, who was next to Arista, continued to wave at Ariel. With her free hand, Attina dunked Arista beneath the waves.

Flounder was brought up and waggled a fin towards Ariel. Melody reached out and grabbed him, squeezing him like a stuffed toy. Everyone giggled.

Triton raised his trident on high and instead of a creating a rainbow, made fireworks instead that outshined everything and anything.

On the deck, Eric, Ariel and Melody, the happy family, watch the display of lights as Sebastian spoke to himself.

"It's so nice they're together again. But dis had best be the last of all dis excitement. Just a quiet life now."

Eric and Ariel kissed again.

THE END

End Notes

When I heard that Disney was going to release a Little Mermaid 3, I felt that my time had come back around. After all, any kind of a Google search was going to draw attention to my script.

Perhaps Disney would want to contact me about this. Perhaps the Loch Ness Monster will drop by and take me out to dinner.

Although there were a lot of hits on my script, some of the comments were less than flattering. One person thought the script was written by a 10-year-old. The follow-up comment from another was "It's a 10-year-old script, but it is written so badly, it might as well HAVE been written by a 10-year old."

Ouch.

Since John Lassiter had taken over Disney Animation, I took this as a golden opportunity to try and contact him to see if he would be interested in "Little Mermaid FOUR" (as I had to change the title again!).

Alas, my emails and letters to Pixar Studios went unanswered and when I heard that LM3 is to be the very last Direct to Home Market offering from Disney, I find myself back to where I started all those years ago.

Now, we all know never to say never, as they could change their minds once again, (as they seem to do), and there have been times when I thought it was the end of the road, but a new opportunity manifested itself, but this looks like the actual End of the Trail.

Perhaps they might consider this as a Big Screen feature, but since animated film cost hover between 40 and 50 million, who can say? I mean, they did give us "Brother Bear" and "Home on the Range" and those scripts had less on the ball than mine did. (OK, I am getting a bit ranting, but what more can I do?"

Oh, and for your reading enjoyment, I have enclosed the lyrics for the movie-closing song.

What I have done for the songs in this novelization is to try and covert the lyrics as much as I could to real dialogue, but at this point, it would not serve any purpose to do so and it could come off as rather stilted and stunted.

So, the lyrics come down intact. This was only one of two songs in the entire script that I actually had a tune in mind, something light, happy and bouncy.

(The other tune was Mephisto's "Mastery". As I said, I have never billed myself as a tunesmith, but every once in a while, standing in the shower, these tunes come, unbidden.)

Back to Eric, Ariel and Melody, the happy family, as Sebastian speaks.

SEBASTIAN

It's so nice they're together again.

As Sebastian sings, both the land people and the merfolk react and act out parts of the song.

SEBASTIAN

Together again, together again,

We'll stay by our side,

And we can outride,

Whatever they send.

With our love so strong,

We'll never go wrong,

So, things might get stressed,

But we're at our best,

Together again.

When I was but a tiny one

My folks would always say:

"Money come and money go

But friends are there to stay",

So, you had better learn,

The simple truth I sing,

Once you lose all of your friends,

You haven't got a thing.

ERIC

Together again, together again,

I paid a big cost,

And I nearly lost,

My very best friend.

ARIEL

If we understand,

It's all in our hands,

We won't go astray,

And always shall stay,

Together again.

SEBASTIAN

Now, events can get quite stormy,

And you get blown around,

But if you're strong and wise on this,

You know that hope can be found.

Just take a dash of belief,

And faith in what you can be,

Troubles will scatter like sea foam,

You'll be rid of your quandary.

Life, we know, isn't easy, mon,

Good fortune can shift like the tide,

We must be prepared for the changes,

And able to take it in stride.

You can always rise to the challenge,

As long as you are as one,

So, if you're there for each other,

Your love will not be outdone.

ALL

Together again, together again,

If you speak from your heart,

Then you'll never part,

This I recommend.

Please take the time,

To make love sublime.

You can banish strife,

And have a great life,

Together again.

We all have a choice,

Let's be of one voice,

Together again

Together again.

Eric and Ariel kiss. Hold as the ORCHESTRATION concludes.

END

Meanwhile, at the Academy Awards, I end up collecting TWO Oscars, one for "Best Screenplay – Adaptation" and one for "Best Song" (as I did write lyrics) and I watch as the film garners the Best Animated Feature Oscar.

sigh