The Office of Historical Corrections

When Lyssa was seven, she watched The Little Mermaid and was disappointed that Ariel would give up her whole life for a man. Now 30, she notes how the only interaction she has ever had with the sea is at her current job; she works in the gift shop of a museum that features a replica of the Titanic.

The museum makes most of its money from birthday parties and weddings held on the upper decks. Near the end of the summer, a pop star rents the entire Titanic for a music video. When the director sees Lyssa, she is chosen to dress up as a sea monster and work in the gift shop in the background of the video shoot.

Typically, her coworker, Mackenzie, is the one who dresses up and participates in parties and events, usually as a princess. Because she is Black, Lyssa usually doesn’t dress up; her boss claims that he wants to maintain “historical accuracy.” Now, Mackenzie is jealous and unsuccessfully attempts to get the director’s attention. Mackenzie tells Lyssa that she was probably chosen for the shoot because the director wants to sleep with her. This turns out to be true, as the director asks Lyssa back to his hotel after the last day of shooting.

Lyssa and the director have sex three times, and the third time, he does not use a condom. He tells Lyssa that he’s safe, and Lyssa says it is fine because she does not have any ovaries; after her mother died of ovarian cancer, Lyssa’s ovaries were taken out as a precaution.

Later, Lyssa reflects on how this is not true. Her mother did die of ovarian cancer, and afterward, the doctor told her that she should have her own ovaries removed as a preventative measure if she did not plan on having children. He told her to “Take care of [her] real future, not [her] imaginary one” (9). However, she has always found an excuse to avoid the appointments for the procedure.

During her mother’s initial appointments, Lyssa did her best to dress up and be as attentive as she could at the doctor’s office. Because she is Black and not wealthy, she feared the doctors judging her family or treating them like they weren’t real people. However, after a few months, she realized that there was truly nothing to be done for her mother, who died after 11 months.

While her mother was sick, Lyssa dated a man named Travis. As her mother’s sickness worsened, she did not have the energy for Travis and intended to break up with him. However, because of his supportiveness and effort in helping with her mother, Lyssa stayed with him.

One day when Lyssa’s mother needed medication, Travis went to the pharmacy to pick it up instead of Lyssa. However, when he showed Lyssa’s mother’s ID to the pharmacist, the pharmacist insisted that the ID was not enough. Travis argued, and security was called. Just before the police arrived, the manager—who knew Lyssa and Travis—arrived and gave Travis the medication.

Shortly thereafter, Lyssa told Travis about her oophorectomy. He told her to have the surgery if it’s what she needed to be healthy, but Lyssa was unsatisfied by his response; she hoped that he would have suggested having a baby first. Although her cousin tried to console her saying it was nice that Travis would rather have her safe than have a baby, Lyssa still broke up with him.

In the present, Lyssa and the director talk about the pop star. The director explains that the point of the music video is revenge against the pop star’s ex-boyfriend saying that she looked like a “monster.” In response, she made a sea monster music video. However, the director reveals that her ex-boyfriend never said that; the manager told the press that he did to motivate the pop star.

A few weeks after the video shoot, the music video is released. Lyssa sits in the gift shop and watches on her phone. Throughout the video, Lyssa is only shown for a handful of seconds at a time. In one scene, she is arranging the items in the gift shop, and she notes how the items in the shop cast shadows, leaving “the smallest spaces on her body all lit up with danger” (18).