Alison Barry credited as playing...
Annie
- Annie: This town is what you call sartorially challenged.
- Ondine: What does that mean?
- Annie: A supermodel's nightmare. Do selkies do lingerie? Why not? They wear seaweed knickers and a scallopy bra.
- [Syracuse stifles laughing]
- Annie: But that's underwater. Won't do here. I'm not suggesting she buy them all, Da. Just a selection.
- Ondine: Can I...
- Syracuse: What?
- Ondine: Can I clean up this place?
- Syracuse: I suppose. How long are you staying?
- Ondine: Depends, I guess.
- Syracuse: On what?
- Ondine: On you.
- Syracuse: On me?
- [pleased]
- Syracuse: It depends on me, you can stay forever.
- Ondine: Forever?
- [chuckles]
- Syracuse: Forever. Happily ever after. Once upon a time. I've been... telling my daughter a story... uh, a fairytale.
- [exits]
- Annie: [hidden, to herself] What's the story, Da?
- Annie: So I supposed she isn't a Selkie really. 'Cause you can't marry a seal, can ya?
- Priest: No, you definitely cannot.
- Annie: Not in the real quotidian world, any way.
- Priest: Quotidian?
- Annie: Yep. Means the one we have to live in. If she was a seal, though, would you still do the wedding?
- Priest: Me?
- Annie: So, what's the story?
- Syracuse: Oh, she sings.
- Annie: Who sings?
- Syracuse: The woman in the story I told you about.
- Annie: With the fisherman?
- Syracuse: Yes. She sings to the fishes and he catches them.
- Annie: You sure you're not dreaming, Da?
- Syracuse: Dreaming?
- Annie: Yeah. You sure this isn't some weird wish-fulfilment thing?
- Syracuse: Where did you learn words like that?
- Annie: I go to school.
- Syracuse: And I didn't?
- Annie: No. Let's be honest, you didn't. You move your mouth when you read.
- Syracuse: Is that bad?
- Annie: No, but it means something. So she sings, does she?
- Syracuse: Yep... a song in a language he has never heard.
- Annie: That would be Selk.
- Syracuse: Selk?
- Annie: Kind of seal talk. And do you know why she sings?
- Syracuse: Why?
- Annie: That's the way they communicate underwater. They don't speak, they sing.
- Syracuse: Ah... so the lobster hear her singing.
- Annie: What lobster?
- Syracuse: What I mean is, under the water they hear her singing?
- Annie: The denizens of the deep.
- Syracuse: Are you sure?
- Annie: She's a seal. She's not human.
- Syracuse: She looks human.
- Annie: In the story?
- Syracuse: Yes, in the story.
- Annie: Whose story is this?
- Syracuse: It's mine.
- Annie: You make it up?
- Syracuse: Yeah. For you.
- Annie: [happens upon Ondine as Ondine swims to the shore] Curiouser and curiouser.
- Ondine: What's that?
- Annie: What Alice said to the White Rabbit.
- Ondine: Come again?
- Annie: Curiouser and...
- Ondine: curiouser.
- Annie: See. I knew you were real.
- Ondine: I was real?
- Annie: Yes. I knew it wasn't a story.
- Ondine: What wasn't a story?
- Annie: The fisherman. The girl in the net.
- Ondine: Ahh.
- Annie: My da told me a story about you.
- Ondine: Your dad is Syracuse?
- Annie: Yeah, the fisherman.
- Annie: [undergoing dialysis] Well... go on.
- Syracuse: Go on what?
- Annie: You said you'd tell me a story.
- Syracuse: Okay. Once upon a time...
- Annie: Does it always have to be, "Once upon a time?"
- Syracuse: Well, it's how stories begin.
- Annie: And a very good time it was.
- Syracuse: Yes... It was a good time. And it was a bad time. How are you feeling, love?
- Annie: Never mind about me. Go on.
- Syracuse: Once upon a time... there was a fisherman. And he was pulling in his nets... and it was a normal day.
- [cut to Ondine sitting outside humming, looking away as she views the cove]
- Annie: And?
- Syracuse: And what?
- Annie: What was she?
- Syracuse: What was she?
- Annie: Was she a mermaid?
- Syracuse: No. She wasn't a mermaid.
- Annie: Was she a selkie, then?
- Syracuse: What's a selkie?
- Annie: A kind of seal woman. You hear them singing out on Seal Rock.
- Syracuse: Who told you that?
- Annie: Teacher. She comes out of the sea. Loses her seal coat. Lives on land until the sea calls her back.
- Syracuse: [skeptically] Well, she didn't have a seal coat. Whatever that is. She seemed to remember drowning.
- Annie: And?
- Syracuse: And... that's it.
- Annie: That's a real shite story.
- Syracuse: Yeah? Maybe.