The origin story if Sirena can serve as a lesson for the children it is read to listen to their parents. This story is set in Guam and is about a Chamorro girl named Sirena. She is infatuated with the water and swimming in it. One day, her mother is in need of some assistance in the kitchen when she asks her daughter, Sirena, to “-come, take this basket from your brother and fill it with breadfruit from auntie’s. Hurry, come directly back.” As she was on her way to her Aunts house, who so conveniently lives near a river bank, Sirena is convinced by the birds in the sky who begin diving in the water that she must join them in their play. It would seem that Sirena stayed in the water a lot longer than she had realized as the sun leaves the horizon and the realization that she has not fulfilled the errand her mother sent her on has not been fulfilled.

When she returns home, Sirena is scolded by her mother as she, figuratively and literally, curses her saying “Sirena, if you ever go in the water again, you will become an ugly, fat fish!”. Sirena then runs away from this scolding and flees to the river, and hops in. She chooses the water as she felt that her connection to it far outweighed the life she had on land. To her surprise, she did not turn into an ugly fish, but “-instead, [formed] an iridescent tail stretched down from her waist.” She whispered goodbye and that goodbye is to have said still echos across the land. Despite the fact that Sirena sort of got a happy ending, I feel it still gives a warning to the severity of not listening to your mother and failing to be well behaved as an outlined duty for children. I feel like the story argued that you either listen to your mom or you live an entirely different life; there is no in between.