Mermaid
Mermaid
1
I, James Bartlett III, could have told you they were real half a century ago.
It’s true, I am an old man now but as a boy, in my younger years, we went to the coast of Mexico on vacation. It was wild with women all scantily clad but as a boy my interest lay in the hodgepodge of life, in death, washed up on the shore.
There were many days we went to the beach and each time my inquisitions led me further from the encampment of my Father and Mother both trying to keep all eyes on me and my six siblings. It was quite a task and I slipped away easily, not to fear though, for I always returned. On that day I was accompanied by a younger brother Timothy.
“James why are we here? What are we looking for?” He said bringing a tired fist up to parlay his yawn.
“We are here dear brother to find out magnamoniously the secrets of the deep.” He had not the skills to deal with such words but he quickened his step and nearly tripped over a pile of sea weed.
“Are you ok dear brother?” I said and after receiving a convincing nod I continued. “Look what your lark-footed veracious step nearly crushed.” Indeed we looked closer with a smile breaching my lips.
It was the weed of the sea, not uncommon but comically flattered with several other sea items the most important of which was a shark’s egg sack. I looked through its sea green composure to see the small shark inside.
While Timothy popped the sea weed bubbles I held up the shark’s egg to the sun and was so enthralled the thing encapsulating my existence with thoughts of, “were I a shark…” and “was I in such a barbed sack when conceived?” that when the voice came calm and sweet, like bubbles on the breeze, I must have jumped half a foot.
“You must put that back in the ocean for the youngling to survive.”
I was indeed not ready for what perplexed me, in sweetness of tone and mindful of body, I looked to find a half-naked woman wading in the water. Or so she seemed to be.
“Toss it to me I’ll throw it back.” She said and with no mind spent on her bronzed chest I tossed it to her.
“James we should keep it and have a shark for the fish tank.” Said Timothy and he have a valid point. In the hotel our room came with such a tank and I, and my other rambunctious siblings, would watch for a minute, or tap on the glass, just a time or two before returning to other madness such as running around screaming at the top of our lungs.
She summoned the strength in her fin did a flip in the air, revealing her true nature, and amidst the amazing display she threw the egg sack. The throw was high and she had to stretch and that is when I saw the most amazing thing, as indeed her bottom half was a scaly sort of fin that disappeared as she slunk back in the waist deep water. She must have thrown it further than I had ever imagined a girl could throw it for it went sailing into the deep. When my gaze went back to where she wasn’t the unimaginable seemed like a dream, had I really seen her? Was she a mirage made up of childhood creativity? As the days went on I never saw her again but I did find several more shark eggs a few of which hatched the most perfect looking miniature sharks that I could watch swim for hours.
2
We were caught in the hotel for hours, the better part of a day. The whole time the wind and rain rattled the windows. Sometimes there would be a thump on the wall, a drizzle through the roof or a nervous cry from one of the grandchildren. Be that as it may we made it through the day.
When the storm finally passed we took our leave of our shelter to walk along the patio which looked out over the ocean. We all shared our tales of terror but I could hardly listen. All I could think about was if she was safe.
So now here I am an old man, saddened by the sea, scuttle-drunk on the day’s events and back at the same beach. The hurricane hit with such vengeance it ripped up palm trees and scattered them around the beach. My nephew held the camera as we picked our way around the wreckage.
Finally we were at the same spot. There was nothing on the water’s edge so we looked around on the beach and we found her. Weathered by time and the salt of the sea, she seemed well preserved but she had lived a long time and she did not seem young when I had met her before, though she was much more radiant in her beauty.
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