A Mer Story
- Locked due to inactivity on Aug 4, '16 4:18pm
Thread Topic: A Mer Story
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"The raging inferno burned up. Burned up the wiry, spare grass on the wind-swept hills, plentiful trees on the inland. It moved quickly to the shoreline, and with it, primates. Primates that dragged their knuckles on the ground, walked with seemingly two left feet, mahogany hair coarse and tangled. Off the shores of present day Alaska, our ancenstors; monkeys!"
Grandpa always stopped to chuckle, sweeping his arm in down the coast in a grand gesture. "One that looked a lot like this! Only crowded with more trees. They put stubby toes in the water."
Here her would grab my small toes and tickle them, with me screeching in delight and burrowing into my towel, flailing my legs, then again settling down, eager to hear what happens to the monkeys.
"They had spent their live on land, and before that, in trees! That were unfamiliar with water, except that it gave them an occasional fish, or a whale! But now they were going to get their first introduction. These half monkey, half human ancestors ran into the water as the fire burned along the shore. Eating drift wood and spitting out ashes."
Running to the shore, I'd run and search, then faithfully bring back a sun-bleached, smooth washed piece of drift wood.
"This!" I would cry, handing him the wood. He'd chuckle, and look at it like I'd given him the world.
"Yes, just like that." He'd pull me onto his lap, me running my fingers along the smooth wood, as he finished the story. "The water would sputter and the fire would hiss once it touched it's equal. Fire and water are equal: Neither one more powerful than the other. They balance. But here water won out, and the people realized they were safe here."
Looking up to the sky, he would point. "They'd thank their Gods, that they had sent water to save them! As the people grew more accostomed, they started to be in the water more and more. Soon they barely came out of it! The children could play all day, while the adults spear-fished and bare-handedly caught small silvers. They could stay under forever."
"This forever?" I'd say, stretching my arms.
"And much more!" Said grandfather, stretching his old bones, twice the length of mine.
"Soon, their monkey fur was gone. They'd evolutionized. Their skin was smooth, except for their heads! A full head up hair, used to mimic sea anemone. And after a while, they'd mimic the fish. Legs together, kicking gracefully and learning how to swim faster and faster."
"And they evolute...lutchin..."
"-lutionized," finished grandfather, chuckling. "They had no need for two legs, instead that had one, one that looked a lot like a fish tail. Skin so slippery, like a mossy rock. And their feet had grown. My, had they grown! They were like snowshoes! Like-"
"You feets, gran-pa?"
"Yes, like my feet. But now they weren't really monkeys anymore. Nope, more like half-fish, hald-human, instead of half-monkeys. We call them mermaids." -
"I haven't told anyone. Not a soul. Grandpa made me pinky-swear. And two can keep a secret. If one of them is dead. Grandpappy died two years back, right when I'd learned about... I was devastated. He was teaching me, training me. I'm spilling this all out now because I've no one left to turn to. Mom's angry, and suspicious. I go to the docks everyday, from three thiry to seven o'clock. She thinks it's a boy! In a way I guess it is, but not the normal kind...No offense, Jaq! But you're not my normal...Aye, that didn't come out right either..."
"It's okay!" He laughs, churning the water with his tail. "You're not exactly normal either."
I dive for him, but he easily darts out of my reach. Human legs are so clumsy underwater.
The water creates a mosaic on the sand below us as I take his hand and he swims us both out to a current. It's a cold Atlantic, moving down to the equator from the Artic ocean. A knowing shiver rattles my spin as he pushes me in. "Bon voyage!"
I scream at him, immediately being pulled by the current. It's like a rip-tide, iron fists that pull you away. But Jaq doesn't let me get far. I'm twirling and spinning at without breaking a sweat, and he's moving ahead, swimming with the current. It makes me think of walking on an elevator.
We move away from the warmth of shore and into deeper waters, the ocean below turning blue to black. Fish still dart around here, but they'd bigger and slower.
I lay back and coast on the currents. -
Jaq tweaks my toe, and I startle. I hadn't even realized I was falling asleep.
"Oh god," I murmur, pinching myself to make sure I'm even still alive. Jaq laughs, so much you can see the gills in his throat.
"Wait, gills..." I open my mouth and put my finger down my throat. I have them too. They're like riveted slices of my throat, tough muscle that I realize is how I'm able to breathe underwater. The gills keep out the water, and let in oxygen. I'm surprised, but Jaq just looks amused.
"A little science lesson to get us started, Aye?"
I laugh and elbow him in the ribs, with him poking me in the sides. Up ahead is our daily "training camp." Here he has been teaching me when Grandpa couldn't. It's now become a daily thing.
"Legs together," he commands, going into army coronel mode. I fore my legs side-by-side and start kicking like a dolphin, gracfully moving two legs the way the porpoise would move its tail.
Jaq swims around me like a farmer inspecting a cow, and I juts now realize he doesn't know what an elevator, or a cow, or a farmer is. I sigh and bubbles obscure my face for a moment.
"What?" Jaq says, losing the bravado.
"I just realized that I know a lot about yuor world, and nothing about mine."
"Don't be so quick to judge. I know more than you think." He has a malicious smile on his face that resemebles the smirk of a shark.
"What-"
"Field trip day!" He proclaims, and starts swimming west to shore. I sigh and do my best to catch up, grabbing onto his shoulders so he can pull me along. A quick current is up ahead, and he pulls us into. It moves quickly, twice as fast as the one I fell asleep in. I'm ascertain I couldn't doze off here.
After a while he points at the ground. The vegatation here is thick, like a northern lake. I'm not accustomed to seeing this is Florida, I like the sandy shores and bright coral better. But he keeps swimming until we meet trees that reach out over the water, grasses that are like boueys on the ocean.
"You brought me to the-"
"Everglades." Smiles Jaq, pointing out a crocodile hat seems to be smiles at us.
"I know your land mammals here: Opossums, raccons, rabbits, alligators, snakes. I've yet to learn more."
I nod, and realize what he's saying. He wants me to teach him. I smile smugly and swim around him, he turns his head and follows me with amused eyes.
"So I get to be the scary drill sargeant now?" I poke him in the chest. "Drop and give me twenty!"
He laughs and grabs my hand.
"It would've been funnier if I knew what that was."
"Well, I guess we've got a lot of work to do," I say, rolling my eyes. He acts angry, and billows water at my face with my tail. It's like trying to see in a roiling hot tub. I laugh and grab onto a slippery fin as he swims us back to shore. -
Walking across the beach, the sun is nearing it's bed. It will be tucked in by the waves, sang to sleep by the dolphins. I walk with my back to it, trying to absorb the last few warm rays as I tread home. The streets are quieter at this time of day. Unless for a concert or other out-of-town-thing-ma-bob it's quiet.
I wheel my bike out from the side of a life-guard shack and up the grassy ditch and start biking. The pedal with one foot, symoltaneously kicking sand from my flip-flops and picking seaweeds bits from my hair. Everything seems right at this moment. I have little home, a few algabreaic calculations and a brush-up on the science test then a quick shower and dinner.
I zone out as I think of the water. The air feels to dry, my body to heavy. Everything's loud and my throat is scratchy. I've never been in at night but I'm sure it's-
WHAM
You can't actually hear the wham, but I sure did feel it. Another bike rams me from the back side, and I fall off my book, instinctively putting out to arms to brace my fall and skidding my palms and elbows.
The blood pumps in my ears and I feel dirt sticking to the blood welling on my skin.
"Sorry," says a not-so-sorry voice from behind me. I know exactly who it is already.
I brush my shorts off, wincing when the rough jean-fabric bristles against my cuts.
"I've never done anything to you," I say calmly. I sigh, and prop up my bike, checking air pressure in the wheels. It's a kindergarten affair, which I'm more than used to now. Jody, a real beach babe, the Farrah Faucet of the 400 kid fish bowl, more like shark tank. I laugh at my joke, even though it wasn't that funny, because it pretty much sums up the high school experience for this sophmore year.
"What's so funny?" Jody furrows her brows, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"If you keep making that face, I'd say that's pretty damn funny."
Jody's seen as a surfing legend, when the waves here only get to about 3 feet. I'd say it's gone to her head. She's gone on a carbo-loading diet and taking weight training courses. She wants to be a "goddess." Mostly, I think it's to terrorize kids.
A garage light flickers on beside us.
Jody takes a step and raises her right fist. I know that she can pack a punch of a 10 pound weight being thrown in my face,but she only hates me because I beat her in the only surfing competition she's ever entered. Making the fish in the shark bowl gulp to each other, eyes bulging like a guppy, sucking air and blowing bubbles. And because her I.Q. says she's in the Below-My-Arch-Nemisis-I've-Only-Just-Had-Since-She-Beat-Me-In-a-Surfing-Competition range.
I take the punch. My nose feels instantly numb, then like it's being stabbed with a thousand needles. It pulses and iron fills my mouth.
I turn my back to the house and grin at her.
"Good shot. Next time though I'd check to see if I was performing for my boyfriend."
Jonah comes down the steps then, his eyes dark pits.
"What the hell Jody?" His voice is shallow, like he's reading from a story.
Jody moves her jaw like she's chewing gum the size of a golf ball.
"She never did anything to you. I swear to God, this is the last time you hit some one. I'll give Ms. Evans some helpful hints."
"No, Jonah please! It's just- she just-"
"Did she call you a b----? Right about now I'd think you'd deserve it. We're done."
Jonah places a hand on my hip and helps me up. I'm surprised to feel his touch and by the look on Jody's face so is she. And she's pissed.
"You'll pay, Sylvie. Godammit you'll pay." She pedals quickly. It's a bad getaway, but I'm surprised she didn't run me over with the mustang she got for her birthday. She was attatched to that thing at the hip.
"Wow..." mutters Jonah, shaking the hair out of his eyes, then turning back to me. "We better get you cleaned up." -
His house is nice. Much bigger and fancier. White marble floors are cool on my bare feet as he leads me to the kitchen.
"Sit up here," he says, patting the granite countertop and running a cold washcloth under the sink. I do and feel wierd. The last five minutes were strange. Jody normally didn't do physical attacks, and Jonah just doesn't invite people like me into his home.
I lean my head back and pinch my nose.
"No, no, you'll be drinking blood if you do that," he laughs, handing me the rag.
"Tilt your head forward and just hold it to your nose."
I do what he says as he leans on the counter across from me. I feel his eyes on my face.
"What?" I ask, looking up. He laughs at my nasally voice and takes the rag, rinsing it in the sink.
"You look like you just got into a fist-fight on the beach."
I touch my nose, guessing it's purple, and my hair, gritty with sand. Then I look at the rag, pink water going down the drain.
"What about AIDS? Or HIV, or something? Touching other people's blood is-"
His laughter cuts me off. "You're the last person I suspect to have an STD."
I understand the second meaning to that, and my cheeks get hot. I hop down from the counter.
"I better be going, long bike home..."
I start towards the door, eager to be out of there and home. I'm Jody's number one target now.
"Why don't you let me take you there?" He jangles car keys in his hand.
"No, no, no." I say, shaking my head. "I'm not exactly Jody's favorite person. And with her seeing this, you taking me into your house and giving me a ride home? No waaaay."
He studies me for a minute, then sets his keys on the counter.
"Let me show you out then."
I shrug as he opens the door, cool night air refreshing my cheeks. As I start down the steps on his porch, he grabs my hand. I'm guessing he's able to feel my pulse racing in my wrist because he lets go again quickly.
"Sylvie, I, mmmm....good-night."
I nod and flash a peace sign. He laughs and does a typical guy move: Nod and flip the hair out of the eyes, then saunters inside.
I'm flustered but get home quickly, leaning against the door, and wondering what the hell just happened. -
School passes uneventfully. And it scares the living s--- out of me. All day I felt two pairs of eyes on me: The daggers from Jody's clique, and curious, judging eyes from Jonah's crew. Both make me want to hurl. But one in a scared-what-is-she-going-to-do-me way, and the other in the is-this-boy-trying-to-tell-me-something way.
Both frighten me.
I know Jody's waiting for me, the right time to strike. I plan to make my plans around her. -
I sit on the bus, glad Jody doesn't ride it. Either way, I sit towards the front, leaning my head against the window. The school is two blocks from the ocean, a street over from the main street where family-owned boutiques and fairly new, fairly popular restaruants line the the street. It's a residential area, the rest is a quiet surburban. It's a small sea side town, so sleepy you could hear the waves from the other side. I live near the back, inland, 3/4 of the way from ocean front, and 1/4 away from the bad side.
The ocean front is filled of big houses, like Jonah's. They crowd the shore, giving the rest of us room to breathe on the inland.
Nobody rides my bus except for the kids with the dirty sweatshirts, uncombed hair, kids who wear flip-flops all year round. It's my time of peace, listening to an old radio station that the bus driver hums to, mostly Bob Marely.
I get off and run inside the house. The lesser seen, the better chance of living.
I throw my back-pack on the table and start towards the garage when I think better of it.
I've always been an A+ student, no problems, above average, not in the 99% percentile, but enough to earn a little headway in the ranks. Getting home so late every night makes me groggy, makes me want to push aside homework and lay in the shower, have it rain on me and just sleep there.
At least I know I won't drown.
I plop into a dining room chair and pull out science flashcards and my half-finished essay. I'm surprised at how little I know, I repeat every flashcard, all 25, until I get them all (a couple thanks to paper being so thin.) I plan to study again after I get home.
I dive in on the essay, read it and fix errors, add the final paragrpahs and shove it all in my back-pack.
Then I hear the garage door opening.
I haven't talked to The Trainer until the mini blow-out on Saturday. With her asking why I'm getting B-'s and why the hell I spend every god damn second at the beach.
I tell I just need to be out, she says I need to study. I tell her it's May, almost the end of the school year; she says why not get a good grade for the last semester?
I walk out into the garage. She looks surprised to see me. I never see her after school and normally she's writing fitness blogs for wanna-be celebrities by the time I get home.
She's a personal trainer for a big-wig, over-seas savings account guru in town. He pays her twenty-seven dollars an hour. The Trainer doesn't complain.
I wave limply and grab my bike, wheeling it out onto the drive-way, and notice weeds creeping out through the cracks.
"What are you doing...?" It doesn't sound angry, more inquiring.
"I was doing my homework." I keep staring at the weeds, planning to spray them over the weekend.
"Oh, well, be back by nine."
"I always am."
The door closes softly behind me, and the garage door rumbles closed.
I start off down the street. -
I stop biking when my wheels start to lose traction, and walk it down the hill behind the back of the life-guard shack. I'm more than surprised when Jonah hops down from the deck that wraps around it.
"The mysterious mermaid," Jonah smirks, crossing his arms. I freeze in the middle of taking off my shorts, feeling the breeze like it's an Alaskan gust. "Always see you getting out, never going in."
I shiver. How does he know?
Laughing, he kicks sand at my shorts.
"Don't get a cold shoulder. Jody's 'too cool' to come here."
I breathe out. It was just a metaphor, he doesn't know, how could he know. I leave my shirt on, and smile, acting like I was scared that Jody was my biggest worry.
He grins back, teeth like rows of pearls in the sand. He walks back then yells through the door for someone named Trevor to take his shift.
"Wanna swim?"
He's wearing surfing shorts already, and he peels off his shirt. I try not to stare at a his ripped body, and take off my cover-up.
I walk in the sand, feet burning on the fine grains as he walks beside me.
I stop beside the water, letting it touch my toes. I hold my breath as my throat seems to rip open. This part always hurts. Jonah looks at me quizzically. I laugh.
"Just cold," even though I could swim in 30 degree water and not feel a thing.
I walk out until it's up to my hips the kneel down and dive in. I see Jonah dive down, eyes closed, bubbles streaming from his nose. He treads water then opens his eyes and smiles at me. I laugh, do a back flip. Jonah goes up and takes a breath, then tries a back flip. Even ends up flapping his arms and legs uselessly, trying to turn himself.
I laugh again, bubbles streaming from my mouth.
Suddenly, Jonah's face blanks. And suddenly, I remember what I forgot to do.
I clutch my stomach and pretend to cough then launch myself to the surface, and stay up there until he surfaces.
"You can hold your breath for a while?"
He asks it like a question, and I nod.
I lay on my back and swim out, Jonah follows. I feel a hand on my hip, and almost scream until I look down.
Jaq.
"Frack!"
Jonah turns around.
I drop to my shoulders underwater.
"I-I, my swimsuit came untied..."
Jonah blushes, but I see his face grow hot as he turns around. I sink below the waves and come face to face with Jaq.
"I'm sorry," I move towards him, "I totally forgot."
"It's fine!" He laughs, "One day to spend with your own kind."
I nod and he swims off, I surface and feel braver than before. Maybe this is how Jody feels, unjustified self-confidence. I don't care, I'll take it as it comes.
I touch Jonah's side and whisper "Tag."
He grins, rising his eye brows and starts towards me. I dive out of his way and this starts our nearly four hour game of a kindergarten tradition. -
When we get out, the sun has very nearly set, and he lets me in the life-guard house. It's warm, retaining heat from the day. He throws me a towel, and pulls on his shirt.
"Well, I'd say this was the best Friday afternoon in a while," says Jonah, toweling off.
I sit toweling off, and laugh, water dripping off my nose.
"I didn't even know it was Friday."
"Hmm. I'm always counting the days."
"To what?" I ask, rubbing my hair in betwen my toweled hands.
Jonah pauses. "I don't even know," he says laughingly. "Afternoons with Jody talking about how fat she thinks she is, how she hates her life. Girl s--- like that."
I focus on drying my hair, staying silent. Jonah laughs, his answer to word mess-ups. "Except for you. Never complaining, just doing."
I smile at my toes and hear him come near. I feel his body heat like its a space heater.
"I...better be going," I mutter, standing up. I look up, he's nearly a head taller than me.
It's that moment: The moment every girl in the world thinks about.
He cranes his head, and his lips meet mine, softly, inquiring.
I kiss back, as if answering his question. Yes, yes, yes. I put my arms on his shoulders, hands in his hair, knotting my fingers in it. His hands rest on my hips, and he pushes close, his body against mine. His fingers trail on my spine, and it makes me shiver, my body in just a swimsuit. His hands linger on the tie of my swimsuit, but settle on my hips.
I pull away. I can't I did this. Kissing Jonah. Jody's Jonah. I lean against the wall, breathing silently.
He backs away as well, keeping the lights off.
"I don't know...I..." I can see he's trying to say he didn't mean to, when I know he did.
I smile and kiss him again, palm against his chest.
"Same thing tomorrow?" I ask,
"I don't remember the lady making the first move," he whispers, moving hair out of my eyes.
"I'm not into all the girl s---."
He smiles. "Exact same thing." -
The rest of Friday night passes uneventfully, except for the fact I can't stop smiling. I eat supper, chewing slowly and feeling the tingle on my lips I can't get rid off.
Anyime I think of it, my spine tingles and I wonder how I even did something like that. I've never been that type of girl, at least never thought I was.
I go to bed replaying it over, and over.
Saturday morning I'm up by eight, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I wear my best swim-suit, but tell myself to remember that that's not the reason Jonah likes me.
I bike slowly, enjoying the cool air, knowing how warm it will get later on in the day. Its so blissfully quiet, with everyone sleeping in on their Saturday off.
I put my stuff in the regular spot, and run down to the beach. I'm surprised to see surfers out already farther down the beach, taking the bigger waves. I dive in, and ready myself to see Jonah. After last night, I don't know... Plus, I also wanted to see Jaq-
I scream mid-sentence, my first reaction when I feel a hand grab my foot. Jaq surfaces, laughing loudly. I splash him.
"You're an evil mer-boy, you know that?"
Jaq only laughs harder, then dissepears below a wave. I look around and see a family getting out of an SUV.
I descend quickly. Practicing my dolphin kick, I lay backwards and let my nose just barely skim the surface. It's nice to be back in the water. One day without it, I realize how much I need it. I also need to remember not to loose track of time, since it seems to move more quickly here. An hour here can be two hours above the surface. Maybe it's because I always enjoy myself so much here.
Jaq watches me with curious eyes.
"What?" I ask, scaring a school of fish.
"Why so early today?" He swims slowly, the fish swimming below and above and all around him. I try to mimic his movements, but everyone still stays away.
"I'm seeing Jonah again..." I smile to myself and do a back-flip. I notice a forced blank look to come over Jaq's face.
"Hmm," he says. That's it, and it does not seem like a Jaq answer.
I settle on a plain part of the shore, an open bed of sand where sting rays and flounders settle. I be careful not to sit on any.
"Is he nice?" Says Jaq, sitting close to me. I pause. He's nice to me. He can make me feel like I'm this one perfect thing, a thing only he can see and I can have. I would call that nice.
"Yes, very," I reply. He's one of those people who's everyone's friend, who makes everyone feel glad to be around him. Even being Mr. Popular, unlike Andy, a notorious senior who's worse than a shark in a blood frenzy.
"It was strange. He told me he likes me because I don't do 'girl s---.' Then he broke up with his girl-friend. Then kissed me."
Jaq's jaw grinds, then suddenly he takes my face is his face in his hands, and kisses me. I'm too shocked to respond, but I don't pull away. He's gentle and strong like a wave. Cheesy metaphor I think of as he pulls away.
"Just don't get hurt, Sylvie." Jaq's eyes are filled with betrayal. "Even here, we have rebounds."
Then he swims away. -
salvatore1 Newbiewow you must love to type, i love to write stories that are about ten pages long
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As I back-stroke back to shore, fighting the waves, I think about it. Jonah did seem only too eager to kiss me, but the signal he'd sent me. Touching the ties of my swimsuit but not going there? Respect of privacy, or just a coincidence? I'm not about to do girl s---.
I meet him by the life-guard shack, and he smiles coyly.
"I don't remember boys being the shy ones," I say as we sit on the sand. He's about to respond but I speak before he does.
"Am I your rebound?"
His light-hearted air turns sour and he falls silent. Then he shakes his head.
"You're more than just that, Sylvie," he says, voice husky. I've never heard him talk that way, so serious and meaning. It's strange, but I listen to the words. "I'd never do that to you. I-"
"Why not me?" I ask. "Why would you not make me your rebound, but some other girl?"
"You're different," he says. "In a good way. You don't mess around. You're always short, and sweet and to the point. You're imaginative and smart and beautiful, and you're always in a different world when everyone else is stuck in reality. It give you an edge."
I smile at my belly-button, glad to have some reassurance.
I touch his hand in a "thank-you", then run into the water. He rolls his eyes but laughs, catching me around my hips when I try diving into the water away from him. It's one of those touches you see every boyfriend/ girlfriend do, a hug around the waist. I turn around in his grasp so I'm facing him and move in like I'm about to kiss him, then instead reel backwards and pull him in with me.
Under the water he's laughing and darts towards me. I easily escape him, then act slow and succumb to his grasp, and let him kiss me again. It's a different kiss, happy and less afraid.
He pulls away and mouths, "You're mine now."
I know exactly what he means. He is mine, and I am his. It's strange to be in a relationship so fast as he just broke-up.
As he surfaces I smile into the water, and see Jaq not ten feet away, hurt evident in his eyes. -
Hmm...I dont like this story no moree. DELETING /////////////////////////////
Okay, I'll start my next story later ;P -
@salvatore lol yes I do ^~^ sometimes I write stories like this one just to be writing
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