The Cove

Word Count 1,763

    The changing sound of the waves on the hull and rythm of the boat riding at anchor, caused Mark to stir from a restless sleep.  Sitting up he glanced at the shore and knew the nineteen foot open sailboat was in the same place as when originally anchored, but she was riding heavy at the bow. Now what, he thought, getting up and onto the foredeck at the bow.

    “Shit,” he muttered, making his way to where the fins, mask and snorkel were stowed.  Taking his t-shirt and shorts off he sat on the foredeck.  Mark didn’t want to get wet, knowing the water was cold.  Putting the fins on and swinging his legs over the side he took another look at the tight line.  There was an arm gripping the anchor line and a face intently studying him.  The mask and snorkel splashed over the side as he closed his eyes, tight.

    Suddenly, the boat was riding free, moving with the natural rhythm of the ocean.  Crap, I know I drink more than I should since she was killed.  But, this … this can’t be?  Slowly Mark opened his eyes.  The face had moved.  It was directly in front of him.  It was a she, and it held his mask and snorkel.  Slowly she rose to the surface, their eye’s met, neither could gaze away.  She held the mask and snorkel up to him.

    “You dropped this,” she said.

    “Thank you,” he dumbly replied.

    Mark could almost see all of her; there were sparkling aqua colored scales below her waist.  Long blond hair streamed from her head and floated like sea grass around her shoulders.  It was a feminine face, young and naturally vibrant, with rosy cheeks.  Her nose was straight and well proportioned to her head, her cheeks high and prominent, eyes like the ocean with sun on it after a storm.  She looked eerily familiar.

    “Do I know you?”

    She paused, gazing at him as if etching his face in her memory before answering, “No, I have never met one of your kind.”

      “One of my kind?  There are more like you?  Where do you live, how many of you are there?”  He realized he was babbling but couldn’t stop himself.  “You can breathe above and below the surface?  How old are you?  What are you?”

    Dimples appeared when she smiled, “I’m four.  Your kind, land humans, you’re like us except you live on the land and we live in the ocean.  We are human also, except we live in the water.  My mom says we can’t be on the land very long, we dry out or something.  I think you call us mermaids.”  She looked closely at him, then at the boat, “Did you make this boat?”

    “Yeah, yeah I did.”  Mark knew this creature, this girl.  He’d known her forever, he just didn’t know where.  “You’re a mermaid?”

    The child smiled again.  There was a flash of something larger coming from the depths, a quick turn and flash of more scales and the child disappeared beneath the surface, snatched away before she could answer.  He sat stunned and looked around the deserted cove.  Putting the mask around his neck he slid off the boat and into the water, unaware of the temperature.  Pulling the mask on his face he cleared it and rolled over, searching for some sign of the mermaid.  He could see the bottom twenty-five feet below.  Taking a breath he dove and held onto the bottom, searching in every direction.  He saw kelp, moss covered rocks, rock bass, and a school of anchovies; there were several holes that most likely held lobster and a wolf eel or two.  None of this registered.  Not the bright yellow and pink nudibranchs, the orange starfish, nor the brown encrusted scallops.  He was hoping to see flowing hair and shimmering aqua scales, the flash of white smooth skin, none of which he saw.  Slowly he drifted to the surface and began to swim in widening circles around the boat, searching for the mermaid.

    He came to open water; he’d been over the entire cove.  Suddenly, realizing he was shivering, he swam to the boat and climbed in.  He quickly dried off and put water on to boil for hot Tang, found long pants and a sweatshirt and dressed.  Again crawling up to the bow and sitting on the foredeck with his legs dangling over the water, he contemplated the water while the drink went cold.  He saw everything and nothing.  Before long his salt mixed with the water’s salt, he didn’t know why.  Staying this way, tears softly falling until the sun disappeared behind the tiny island.  Mark didn’t know how long he sat in the dark.  Eventually crawling to the stern he lit the lantern for light, then lit the anchor lights, oil lamps of old.  He hadn’t wanted an electrical system in his boat.  The boat had been an escape for him and his wife; he had finished it shortly before her death.  He thought it was the one thing that kept him sane after the accident. 

    About a year before Kelly had been killed by a drunk driver, they’d chartered a small sailboat for a week and found this cove.  They’d spent three nights here instead of the planned one, spear-fishing, diving, and sleeping in the sun during the day; making love into the early hours of the morning.  It had been an idyllic, magical time.  Mark pulled a granola bar and piece of jerky from the dry box and a beer from the cooler.  There was a splash behind him.  He quickly turned around, seeing only the ring of waves on the surface from a fish jumping.  Turning back to the boat he was startled by two small hands gripping the rail.

    The young mermaid was back, her arms over the rail, her eyes laughing at him.  “Scared you didn’t I?”

    He laughed, “Yeah, yeah ya did.  That was you jumping behind me?”

    “Yes,” she giggled.  “Mom says you have a good laugh, like water falling on skin she says.”

    Mark blanched, unexpectedly scared.  “What? Who, who said that, where did you hear that?”  He hoarsely uttered.

    Before the child could speak there was a, “Ssh, hush now.”  Another hand appeared on the rail, and another.  Then, a face he knew.  “It’s okay honey, I’ll explain, it’s okay.”  She looked painfully at him, “Breathe babe, don’t forget to breathe.”

    “How…, what…, Kelly, is it you?”  In a crying whisper.

    “Yes, yes it is love, may we come aboard?”

    “Yeah of course, come on.”

    With a swift graceful motion, Kelly was sitting across from him, then she helped the child aboard.  “This is Jenni.”  They were both covered with blue, green, and aqua colored shimmering scales from the waist down.  Instead of the single porpoise tail he’d expected both had legs, and feet that were more fins than feet.

    “Your daughter?”  Mark said, more of a statement than a question.

    “Our daughter Mark, your daughter.”

    “But how, I mean, you know, when?”

    “Here, in this boat.  In this cove.  I was going to tell you the night of the accident.  I knew it was when we made love here the last time, I just knew.”  She smiled and he melted.

    Mark turned to his child and reached out to touch her cheek.

    Jenni took his hand in both of hers and put it to her cheek-it was warm.  “Daddy?”

    “Yes Jenni, yes.”  The small mermaid was quickly in his lap, he softly kissed her forehead and held her tight.

    “I was given a choice,” Kelly said, “because I was married to a waterman, you, I could wait for you here, like this, and we could go to the afterlife together, or I could have gone then, alone.”  She looked longingly at him, almost reaching out to touch him.

    “Oh,” Mark simply said.

    “Mom told me all about you, Daddy, I wanted to see you and hear your voice and the way you laugh like she talks about.  She told me not to but I did anyway.”

    Kelly almost sobbed, “I can’t bear the thought of parting again, I am so sorry.  It would be easier if you didn’t know.”

    “I can come now, I can do it, it would be worth it to be together again, I am so lonely, I miss you more than you can imagine.”

    “I can imagine.  No it doesn’t work that way.  If you take your own life you have no choice.  Jenni and I will be stuck here and we’ll never be together.”  Pain was palpable in Kelly’s voice.  “We must go, I am sorry my love.”

    “Wait, no, can I see you again?  I’ll come back here.”

    “No, it’s not possible; tomorrow we must leave for a far place.  I don’t know where. We weren’t supposed to see you.  You can’t know where we are,” she moaned.  With the words still hanging in the air both mother and daughter were gone, over the side. 

    Mark watched as the rings of their splashes disappeared, glittering in the light of the full moon.  He then got out a blanket and extinguished all the lights, maritime law be damned.  Eventually he slipped down and fell into a fitful sleep. 

    He became aware of a soft kiss and a warm hand on his cheek, breasts pressed against his chest.  He dared not open his eyes for fear he was dreaming, but it was real, Kelly’s whisper in his ear, their tongues dancing, his hand covering her soft breast.

    She removed his sweatshirt, he opened his eyes, and saw the hunger in hers.  They removed his pants and he lay on her.  The scales were soft, smooth, silky, the way he remembered her inner thighs.  Her scent was the same, exotic, enticing.  It aroused him, fueling his lust; her neck was warm, firm and tempting.  She looked up, without seeing as the boat rocked rhythmically in their cove, waves emanating from their small sanctuary.  They clung to each other fiercely, with power and strength.  The darkness surrounded them as from heaven the stars watched the lovers.

    The boat continued to rock, now with soft, tender passion.  Their embrace loving, their rhythm slow, their breathing heavy and filling.  He held her to him, she clutched him to her.  They relaxed, their tears mixed, each gently kissing the other.  The boat ceased its motion, the steady waves stopped.

    “Wait,” he said.

    “Live,” she said as she slipped beneath the surface. 

Word Count 1,763