The little mermaid ---a short ove story

In the darkness of the night.
That is the time she selects to haunt me.
I know I did not give any credence to her ideas.
She told me that she was a mermaid
She had lived in the depths of the sea for a thousand years.
I know it was a sweet yet beautiful untruth.

If only, I could have let my heart become more receptive.
If only my ears could have said listen….listen to her.
I smugly accepted her fantasy
as a mild aberration harmless and mild.

She was, of course, the most beautiful woman i had ever seen.
She told me she was trapped in the deep oceans of forever until one day.
She built up enough courage to visit the surface where the humans live.
It was the abject loneliness of the depths
That had forced her to do this foolhardy embarkation.

She saw the sunlight for the first time.
The vivid beauty of non watercolours met her eyes
The sunlight, oh! the beautiful sunlight.
He was laid upon the beach surely he was dying.
She crawled over to him wishing she had legs like a human.
Her mouth covered his as she breathes the life of his air into his lungs.
And she fell in love
a feeling not known to her species.

She prayed to the gods of the deep
she offered her soul to be human.
Let me stay and breath the pure sunlit air.
Let me feel the love and touch of a lover.
She looked at her silvered tail as it melted
and the legs that appeared.

As he awoke from the coma of breathing water
he saw her beautiful face
So lovely so gentle,
so much what he needed.

He married her and they had four children.
The happiness faded as she became ill
She said she needed the sea
The salt water would give her the air she desired and needed.
He tried every medication and all the doctors in the land.
But he was losing her. He knew -----he knew
She said I am to return to the oceans
To live with the merpeople
I cannot stay here.

He watched as she walked across the sand
to the ocean that called to her.
Her children quietly followed her into waters.
They walked deeper and deeper until they disappeared.
In the late evening sunlight, he saw their silvered tails.
His mermaid was gone.

For many months he mourned her loss.
Until he could bear it no more.
Until one morning he walked slowly into the ocean.
Deeper and deeper.
He knew he would surely drown.
But he prayed to the gods of the sea
to give him a tail
That he may swim to find her.

His legs faded from him.
As he felt the purest salt waters of life
Accept him as one one of her own,
And swam into the deepest depths.
Far below in the secret caves of the ocean
he found his family.

She came to him.
You came to me, my love.
You lost your fears and your disbelief.
I am your mermaid
Forever.
And you are my man.