My mermaid Marina

“Don’t come any closer” she said.

“Do you want me to help you down? I said, still averting my face.

“I am waiting for the tide to come in.”

“Isn’t it easier to get down when the tide is out?”

“No, I haven’t got legs like you.”

That was all I needed a disabled girl, abandoned on my beach with no clothes on.

“It’s alright I will help you down.”

“No you won’t human. I will wait for the tide. Now leave me alone.”

Human did she say?  Was she disabled and nutty too? I had to look at her.

I looked up and found a very beautiful but angry girl pouting at me with her tail dangling over the rock.

“What? Haven’t you seen a mermaid before?”

I shook my head and looked at her again. Her tail was smooth like a dolphin’s. Her coarse hair was like strands of seagrass. She blinked her eyes which I guessed were drying out and her breasts were just tiny mounds on her body.

“Finished looking?”

“Let me get you down, you are worried about drying out aren’t you?”

She looked at me differently and nodded. I reached up for her, she paused then put her arms round me while I held her bottom and lifted her down, carried her to a rock pool to sit in.

She immediately sighed with relief and splashed the water.

“Can you breathe both in and out the water?”

“Questions, questions?” she responded

“Why are you so angry with me?”

“I am not angry with you, I am pleased with you. I am angry with myself for making risky mistakes.”

“You’re not going back to sea straight away are you?”

She shook her head, “The sharks out are still out there.”

“How can you tell?”

“The sea is for those that can interpret other languages. That is why I can speak to you, crabs, birds and shellfish too. So there are sharks out there now OK?”

“What is your name? And how do you know that expression jungle telegraph?”

“Boy, do you need thelp. I can read your mind that’s why. Under the sea we don’t ask questions all the time, there is no need. That is why I know you are safe to be with, your wife is dead, you think I am beautiful and have small breasts.”

I laughed and nodded in agreement. “All what you said is true, but how about my name?”

“Not sure. I am going to call you Shark because I was frightened of you at first.”

“That’s close, it’s Mark. Then I will call you Marina unless you have another name?”

“I do, but you humans couldn’t pronounce it, so Marina is fine.“I’m off now, the sharks have gone". 

With that she swam off. I do hope I'll see her again.



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