Mermaid 3 by KeikoJade

8/12/2019 Mermaid 3 by KeikoJade

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We sat there for a few moments, watching each other. Finally, I pointedto my chest and said "Ytha."

The boy nodded. He placed his hand over his heart and said "Kali." Thegirl made the same action and said "Aluanta. Alu."

I nodded and smiled. The girl smiled slightly, and the boy looked ather, then me, and smiled.

I pointed to the ocean, rolled onto my stomach and started crawling,keeping my eyes out for others. I suspected their parents were in thejungle or in another canoe offshore. The children followed me quietly.I passed their canoe. It looked handmade, and an outrigger was lashedto the port side. It was just big enough for two. Their gear, a couplespears and a net, hung off the side. The kids reached for something inthe canoe as I slid into the water.

To my surprise, the children waded right in after me and startedswimming along. They swam almost as well as I did and confidentlyfollowed me, staying on the surface. The sand bottomed out about sixmeters down and turned to coral. I paused. The kids were swimming aboveme. There was still enough light from the fading sunset to see theirprofiles. The water was so calm and clear that it looked as though theywere swimming in a deep blue sky swept with wisps of sunset.

The boy, Kali, followed by the girl Aluanta, dove down. He had an old-style mask, with round glass. He swooped down, and paused in front ofme, his belly nearly on the bottom. He was unarmed, and here, he wasthe one who as at a disadvantage, so, I felt safe. Even if his parentsshowed up, I would have plenty of time to lose them in the coralchannels and exit the reef.

He was able to hold his breath for an incredibly long time. After whatmust have been almost two minutes, he pulled his legs beneath him, andleapt for the surface. I followed him, and surfaced next to the two. Iscanned all around. No sign of anyone else. The two children startedtalking two one another in a language of which I only understood my

name. I was more concerned about anyone else being here. I would haveleft, but felt compelled to stay. I suddenly realized that company wasenjoyable.

I didn't know how to communicate with them, but all children love tag.I swam up to the boy, tapped his shoulder, and then swam away. Theygrinned and plunged after me. A simple quiver from my tail could sendme shooting out of his reach, but after giving a 'struggle,' he taggedme. The children shot away from me and each other, and I chased thegirl. She swam swiftly across the surface. I passed under her, andpopped my head above the surface and smiled at her as I blocked herescape. With a squeal, she turned the other way. I dove back down andturned on my back, looking up at her and reaching for her belly.

Whichever way she turned, so did I. Aluanta started laughing so hardthat she stopped swimming, and I tagged her.

By this time Kali had drawn near, and she simply tagged him. He cameafter me, and I simply glided down to the sandy bottom. He dove afterme with surprising agility and speed. I waited on the seabed and whenhe approached darted away, keeping a hair's width from his fingertips.I turned in corners with him chasing me. He didn't give up easily, andafter a minute or so he finally squatted on the sand and then shot tothe surface for air.


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I followed and surfaced next to him. He and his sister tread waterright next to me. Their laughter and smiles were infectious, and wesimply hovered there together giggling. Kali reached out and grabbed myshoulders, and before I thought about it I let him climb onto my back.His legs split right where my dorsal fin was, and in the water therewas no pressure. He tapped my shoulder and I heard him take a deepbreath. I realized what he wanted to do, and thought about how fun itwould be to share my speed with someone. The tide was high enough thatI could swim over the reef. I slipped just under the surface andstarted accelerating; the coral tips mere inches below my belly. Iincreased slowly, and his arms clasped around my chest. I sped up. Thereef was a blur beneath me. Nearing the drop-off at the edge of thereef, I surfaced. I heard him exhale, breath, and then take anotherdeep breath. With that, I plunged into the drop off, diving toward theabyss. He held on with one hand while equalizing pressure by holdinghis nose. In a few seconds we were about 30 meters down, and I levelledout, and then shot upward. He held on with both hands again, and Ifinned as fast as I could. He started to lose grip just beneath thesurface, but not before we both shot out into the open air, a good 10feet up. At the top of the arch he pushed away from me, and we bothjacknifed and dove back into the water.

I surfaced, and Kali was shouting exuberantly. We were already about a

quarter mile from the shore. The girl was rowing toward us across thecalm waters. Chatting in his own language at a mile a minute, he keptgesturing down to me while grinning. He made for my back, but I tookhis hands, and pantomimed taking a big gulp of air. He held his breath,and I flipped on my back, angling downward. With him to my front, Icould watch him with his arms outstretched toward me as I held hishands. I chose a safe direction and started finning as hard as I coulda few feet below the surface. Thin, silver streams of air leaked fromthe corners of his mouth and the long strands of my hair danced infront of his mask's faceplate. I banked threw the water, did a barrelroll down, then straightened out and frantically drove for the surface.I could have gone faster, but I slowed down when I felt I was losing mygrip on him. As we burst through the surface I heaved my arms and

shoulders, throwing him up and away. Earth and sea changed places as Ibackflipped back into the water.

Aluanta joined us. She threw what looked like an improvised sea anchorfrom her dugout and jumped fearlessly into the ocean with us. Togetherwe continued to have a blast. With a little imagination, and recallingwhat I saw dolphin-riders do at Seaworld, we came up with all types ofways to play. I could drag each child with one arm as I swim on myback, or push both of them threw the water as they 'stood' on my hands,which I held out above me head. The boy had much more zeal for theacrobatics, though, and soon the girl was in the dugout watching whilewe put on shows. We kept playing long after the sun went down. The Moonwas full and so bright it made shadows in the water.

The thing we determined was best was for him to ride my back to abouteighty feet, where I would stop and he would stand on my shoulders. Iwould fin madly for the surface, gaining peak speed just before webroke it. If we didn't get 30 feet into the air, I would be surprised.From the apex of our air, the dugout looked tiny, and we were out ofthe water for almost five seconds.

We did this dozens of times. Finally, exhaustion intruded on our fun.We were just too tired. Aluanta in her dugout was falling asleep. I


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pointed to shore. The boy crawled right into the dugout. We had drifteda long way from the beach. Another island was closer. The boy and girlturned right to the closest island. I didn't know what or who was onthe other island, so I objected. I guess there was nothing moreimportant there besides convenience, so we went back to our originalbeach.

I realized I was starving. Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. I broke away fromthem and dove deep. I turned a few times before sensing prey. I endedup near the reef wall. The only fish I saw were a trio of reef tipsharks about my size, cruising for an easy meal. I wondered what theywould do to me if I attacked one. I hadn't killed a shark yet. All theother fish I'd preyed upon had simply swam for their lives, leaving thelosers to be my meals.

I thought about it for a moment. I could spend some more time lookingfor something easier to kill, and maybe less dangerous, but I wasstarving. When I became hungry it was difficult to focus on anythingbesides food. I selected the smallest one, about four and a half feetlong, and swam toward him from behind. I decided that a violent stabwith my knife right on the top of his head, between his eyes, couldkill him quickly and effortlessly. Besides, he'd be more than enoughfor all three of us to eat.

The sharks didn't pay me any mind as I swam about twenty feet abovethem. I got a little ahead, and then dove down hard to intercept. Mystrike was spot on, and the knife punctured the top of the shark'shead, sinking to the hilt with a tangible crunch. The other two sharkssplit up and circled. My prey quivered as if electrocuted and its eyesrolled up into their sockets. The mouth opened and closed as ifpanting.

Using the knife as a handle, I steered the dying shark's aerodynamicbody toward shore and finned fast. A smooth trail of blood poured fromaround the puncture wound and dispersed in our wake. We cleared thereef wall. I kept an eye behind us. The two other sharks had finishedcircling and were now on my trail. I held my catch out away from my

body and finned harder. The bolder of the two put on a burst of speedand drew near, but I could tell it was angling for my dinner ratherthan me. It shot like a bullet and grabbed my dinner's tailfin, shakingits head and tearing off a bite. The second shark, which I had lostsight of, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and grabbed a bit of flank,tearing my dinner off of my knife. The shark corpse sank toward thereef, bleeding even more. I swept back and sank my one hand into itsgills, while brandishing my knife in the other hand. I started towingit fast for shore. The sharks were dispersed on my left and right, anda third appeared from behind my again. I made it over the reef and ontothe beach covered by high tide. But the sharks were persistent, anddidn't want their food taken away. I was swimming so fast I slid ontothe beach, and lost grip of my prey. The bold shark nearly beached

himself as he grabbed a bite, and frothed the water as he shook amouthful free. My first instinct was to stand up and stab at it, butwith no legs I merely floundered. I recovered and dragged my body outof the water, then dragged my hard-won food onto land, too.

The dorsal and tailfins of three sharks patrolled the water just offshore, cutting through the moonlit waters. The children raced over tome. They had started a campfire near their beached dugout. I pantomimedeating the shark. The boy spoke to the girl and they dragged it towardtheir camp. I started dragging myself toward the fire. The children


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raced back, and picking my up gently by my armpits, nearly lifted me upoff the sand and dragged me quickly over to the fire. I laughed at theroll reversal, and it must have been obvious to them, too, as theirlaughter joined mine. But at the same time, I felt anxious as I watchedtheir brown legs moving effortlessly across the sand.

They brought me to the fire. The girl dragged the shark corpse to theedge of the water. I lay on my side and stared at the fire. The soundsfrom the jungle behind us were almost intimidatingly loud, but I hardlynoticed as I thought of the stupidity of my actions with the sharks. Ithad been stupid to try and grab dinner with those predators all around,and I had been lucky. If I was attacked out here, who would patch meup?

Aluanta returned and was cooking shark steaks on a wok-type pan thatlooked like it had been made from a hammered-out artillery shell andstarted cooking, throwing in spices and salt. In a few minutes dinnerwas served on green coconut husks. The meat almost burned my mouth as Iwolfed it down. Whether it was my newfound taste for fish or hercooking, it tasted awesome. I went through four plates and kept thepoor girl at the fire by the time they had gone through one. I wouldhave eaten it raw, but didn't want to gross them out, and she was alsoobviously trying to be very hospitable. They seemed to be a littleshocked at my appetite, since it took me about six plates to be full.

After dinner, Kali packed a pipe with some spicy-smelling tobacco andstarted smoking. The girl grew close to him for warmth. From the looksthey gave one another, the way they communicated, and the tendernesswith which they touched one another, I realized they must be husbandand wife instead of siblings or just young friends. Even though theyhad childish tendencies, their actions and relation seemed very adult-like. It was shocking to realize that they were old enough to bemarried, mates, or whatever, but it was obvious they had no need forparental supervision. They navigated the ocean and were capable ofsurviving, or even prospering. I wondered if they were from a nearbyvillage or whether they were on some type of honeymoon or sojourn.Perhaps they came here to gather a certain type of fish or something

from the ocean. Even if they were adults in their culture, they didhave a great sense of play. I guess I did too, since I'd enjoyed it somuch. I was only 19, and they perhaps 14 or 15, but to me they seemedvery young.

As we sat we talked, trying to communicate in English and theirlanguage, of which I was ignorant of even the name. The moon reachedthe horizon. It and its reflection looked like a gigantic, blood rednumber '8.' It sank into the sea, and the stars appeared - stars likeI'd never seen before. The Heavenly River ran through the middle of thesky, and the atmosphere was so clear it almost seemed as if you couldsee each individual star in its massive body.

As the fire went to coals, so did our conversation. I dug a hole for mydorsal fin, lay on my back, and stared at the sky. Kali brought me athin sheet, which was their only blanket. I gratefully refused, but heinsisted. He and his girl gathered their gear into a little nest alongthe side of their dugout, and called something that might have beengoodnight.

"Goodnight," I said back. But I didn't sleep. I watched the sky andcounted shooting stars. The air smelled fresh and clean, the ocean madea rhythmic hissing on the coral sand, and the racket of the jungle


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faded to a quiet cacophony that stayed in the background of awareness.Soon, I heard Kali snoring. I felt wide-awake and more alive than ever.But I felt a bit lonesome despite the company of my new friends. I hadonly befriended them because they seemed innocent. But they must beconnected to a larger society, and that had to pose a danger to me. Soby befriending people, I was playing with fire.

When I fled area where I had transformed, it had been almost a panic. Ihadn't thought in the long-term. I just figured I had to get away whileI was in this altered form. I guess I had figured it was temporary. Butnow almost a month has gone by. It'd been a busy month, just becomingaccustomed to what happened, and finding a way to live through theshock of it all, but I was mentally catching up with the changes. Whena person loses a limb in an accident, they have little time forremorse. Survival is the number one priority, and they are able tofigure out ways of surviving, whether they simply start hopping on oneleg or tying a tourniquet around the stump of an arm with one hand andtheir teeth. I had essentially lost an entire body, an entire life, andan entire culture in which I lived. Somehow, that fact only caught upwith me on this night, when I lay here on this beach.

I fingered the necklace, feeling its innate resistance to being pulledoff my neck. I regretted ever picking the thing up, and going back tothe water. I raised myself up on my elbows, and looked down at my fish-

half in the starlight. If I were to ignore my body from the naval up,it looked like three quarters of a dolphin was laying on the beach. Iremembered what it was like having legs. Even though I've lived withthis form for over a month, it felt as though my real legs weresomewhere inside this fish body, that it was a rubber costume of sometype. But I only had to touch the smooth skin with my fingers, or movemy fins or tailfin to know it was real. Still, it was hard to growaccustomed to.

Also, my torso, and arms, and breasts. I felt as though I was stillhere, but somehow wearing a mask. I hadn't had an occasion to look in amirror. And I spoke rarely. The sound of my own voice was stillshocking. The only time I'd seen my reflection was in the mirror-like

undersurface of calm water.

I sank back into the sand. The sky was getting light in the east.Again, I fingered the necklace, trying to think of a way to break freefrom it. If I could get it off my body, I rationalized that I shouldchange back. Changing back would be the solution to all my problems.I'd be in a little trouble from the Marines by being absent for solong, and I'd have to find civilization, but at least I would be human,and male, and normal again. The military might have already written meoff for dead and informed my family. I didn't want them to suffer,unknowing what happened.

I tried to get the necklace off some more. It still wouldn't budge. I

started using the serrated portion of my diving knife. It was tightwork, cutting about one inch from my face, but I noticed there wasprogress. The necklace seemed to be made of gold. It was slow going,but flakes were coming off. I suddenly felt a surge of hope. The thingwasn't indestructible after all.

But, I had another problem. It would be day soon, and I figured that Ihad to part from my friends. I was too afraid more people might come,and catch me on land. For all I knew, people in this part of the worldare big fans of mermaid-fin soup. Perhaps they'd stuff and mount me, or


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just capture me to sell off. Regardless, I didn't want to take thechances on any of it. While the two slept, I slipped back into theocean. I found a private grotto on the edge of the reef, sank to thebottom, and continued sawing at the necklace.

The sun rose, and its rays spilled into the grotto. Scores of fishswarmed through the grotto. The surface lowered with the tide until thecoral on the rim of the grotto almost touched the air, turning thegrotto into a massive bathtub. I realized it would be a bad place toget caught, but then again boats or humans can't get across the reefsurrounding the grotto at low tide, anyway.

I felt bad about not saying goodbye to Kali and Aluanta, but had afeeling they were here to do something specific, like fish, so wouldprobably be around for a bit. Or maybe they might understand that Ican't afford many social connections.

After some hours, I was halfway through a link in the necklace. Ilaughed to myself with excitement. This was it! Every 100 cuts I wouldcease sawing and try to pull the link apart, to no avail of course.This became so routine that I wasn't even thinking about thepossibility of escaping this mermaid form when I ceased sawing, graspedthe necklace chain with both hands, and pulled it apart. The link brokeaway, and I watched in disbelief as the necklace slipped from around my

neck and into my hand. I rubbed my unleashed neck with one hand whilestaring at the bundle of gold chain in my other hand. It glinted in thesunlight.

I looked at my body, expecting a change. I felt nothing. But hopepersisted. As I waited, I grew hungry. The sun had already come andgone, and the tide had rushed back in. Still, nothing. Well, the lasttime I changed, it had happened when I had slept. Perhaps the samething would happen.

After finding some easy lobsters I went to shore. Kali and Aluanta weregone. I slipped back into the water until sunset, chose another beach,and came ashore. At first I was too excited to fall asleep, but

exhaustion from being up all night and day caught me.

I awoke to a grey dawn. I was lying on my stomach, my head in my arms,and I knew at once that nothing had changed. I rolled on my side andlooked down at myself. Long hair, girlish arms, breasts, tapered waistflaring into the fish body. The fish portion of me was dry and sandy,and looked like something that you should be able to buy by the poundat your local fishing wharf. I pounded the sand in frustration.

I picked up the necklace. So, nothing had changed despite freeingmyself from the stupid thing. As I turned it in my hands, I realizedthat the broken link was now mended. The chain was whole again. I feltlike putting it on, but then thought twice. Perhaps the change back to

normal takes longer than a day. Or, perhaps my proximity to the thinghas something to do with staying in one form. I felt like chucking itinto the ocean and not looking back, but was worried I might need it atsome time.

'Well, I can carry it with me for some time, and if nothing happensI'll leave it in a safe place and swim away from it,' I thought.

I carried it in my net bag for another day and night as I swam andhunted through the numerous, tiny islands. After another night on dry


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land, I hadn't turned back to normal. I finally left the necklacedangling on a limestone outcropping on the edge of a submarine cliff,and remembered the location. I lived without it for two days, then wentback to find it. It was right where I left it, so I swam off foranother week. My days fell into familiar patterns that didn't leave mea lot of time for despair. Explore, swim, keep an eye out for humansand sharks, bed down at night on a deserted beach, repeat.

After two weeks away from the necklace, I was still 100 percentmermaid. The only thing that was changing about me was improvements inmy fishing skills, and improvements in my ability to sense proximity toland and prey. I was become more mermaid, not less. I went back, andfetched the necklace. Tentatively, I put it on. I felt no change,except this time I could take it off at will. The easiest thing to doseemed to be to leave it on, so I did.

After eating a meal, I was floating on my back staring up at thesurface and the bright blue sky beyond. I didn't want to think aboutthe problems of being stuck like this. When I did, I felt acutelyalone, and panic started seeping into my mind. But, I had to face mysituation. For some unholy reason, I was stuck as a mermaid. I at leastwanted to cry on someone's shoulder. I asked God why? What was the bigjoke? Of course, no matter how many times I pouted this question, noanswer.

This mood prevailed for almost a week. But one morning I awoke to aperfectly sunny, blue sky, and another ocean of crystal clear waterfilled with life, and realized I had been feeling sorry for myself. Ihad got no more answer to 'why?' than 40,000 people do every day whenthey are born into this life. Some people simply get degenerativediseases, or are stricken blind, or by fate or accident end upparalysed. Some people end up old and lonely and have no one to talk towhatsoever. I at least was able to experience things that no one elsecould, and I had people who loved me. I just needed a way to contactthem without ending up as the star of unwanted attention.

So, at the moment, due to restrictions and isolation, I was all alone.

But it didn't have to be permanent. I could somehow contact my family,on the other side of the world, and arrange a visit of sorts. At firstI thought the idea ridiculous. I have to convince my folks that I'mtheir son, turned into a mermaid? And then what, how do we spend timetogether even if they accept such a grotesque development?

Well, I figured that my first priority was to get to America. We sureweren't going to do a lot of family visits in the middle of... whateverislands I was in. So, I had some problems to figure out. But, I had6,000 miles of swimming to think up solutions.

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I started for my journey by eating. I planned to hunt for prey as myprimary source of nourishment, with a cache of live mussels to get methrough the dry spells. But the best way to store food on a body is togain fat. I simply hunted, killed, and ate. Hunting for more game gaveme just enough time to get room in my belly. Eating was a vulnerableperiod for me, and my paranoia of sharks was never more acute than whenI was ripping into a baby tuna or pulling apart lobsters. I kept it upfor a week straight. The effects were showing - I was definitelystarting to get thick around the middle. The muscle striation in mypowerful fish body grew dimmer under the body fat. And, my breasts


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seemed to expand. I continued for another week, and my belly wasdefinitely rounding out. Still, I tanked up some more. But by the timeI felt a second chin forming, I was growing sick of the non-stophunting and eating. I decided to start moving.

By luck, I found a piece of plastic netting from an industrial cast-off. With some nylon rope, I made another net bag. I packed both bagswith as many mussels as I could carry without sinking. I spent my lastnight on land, and watched the gleaming dawn star rise ahead of thesun. I crawled into the water, dragging my gear, and started swimmingstraight for it.

Within an hour I had lost sight of land. Again, the same fear I hadfelt when I left the Japanese islands crept into my mind and body.There was no hint of a bottom to the ocean, just endless rays of sunbeaming into the azure depths. This time, I wouldn't try to bed down onthe bottom. I decided to simply keep swimming, non-stop, and sleep onlywhen I was too exhausted to continue. I cruised at my easy pace, aboutfifteen miles per hour. I swam on my back, grew tired, and swam on mybelly. I navigated by the position of the sun, cross-checked againstthe data from my watch-compass. I kept a bearing of exactly due Eastthe entire day.

I figured that my only real threat was meeting a large, roving

predator, such as a great white shark or maybe a large tiger. I'd spentdays recounting what little I'd learned about sharks from televisionand books. While they were efficient eating machines, it wasn't veryefficient to go after live, healthy game that had a good chance ofsuccessfully evading or fighting back. I felt that my top speed wassufficient to evade a shark. The only problem was that I had to see orsense the shark before he saw me. I had no problem hearing anddetecting other animals in the water, but I was worried that if I werefatigued or asleep I wouldn't hear a thing before being attacked.

I also had no idea in hell where I was starting from. I guessed itmight be the Philippines, but wasn't sure. All I knew was that if Iheaded due east for a good, long time, that I was bound to hit the

Americas, or Hawaii. Somewhere on all those thousands of miles ofcoastline I would be able to find a way to get a message to my parents,to let them know that I was alive, and perhaps arrange a meeting. Ihoped that perhaps there would be a place on the coast where I couldfind a beach frequented by tourists, sneak up on to it at night, and beable to reach a pay phone on a boardwalk. Or, maybe I could befriendsomeone, and convince him or her to lend me their cell phone.

I started growing hungry, and went into hunting mode. I listenedcarefully for game, and heard the flutter of a school of small fish tomy right. I angled toward them. It was a school of mackerel. I startedto gain speed to burst into the school, but the drag from my two cachesof mussels was really inhibiting. They weighed about 10 pounds each in

the water, and I had to swim at a slight angle to maintain the liftnecessary to swim without sinking. They were just heavy enough to ruinmy neutral buoyancy. I simply couldn't gain the speed I needed beforeit felt like the bags would pull my belt off. So, there went my plansfor the 'emergency' cache of mussels. It was either keep them, or dropthem and hunt. I decided to keep swimming and eat them, hoping that Iwould still be able to find game in the deep deep.

I sliced open and ate the muscles, maintaining a slow zig-zag course asI did so. I didn't want a straight trail of smelliness leading to me.


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Soon, it was dark. I no longer had sunrays to give me an easy routeeast. I surfaced and swam on my back, like a seal, keeping the SouthernCross to my left. The water started to grow turbulent, and cloudsencroached on the starry sky. The only sound was that of the waterpassing by my ears. Soon, I was climbing into wave faces, and thensliding down their backs. The waves grew larger as the wind picked up.The wind started making a slight whisper over the waves, which weregaining frothy crests at their peaks. I fell into the wave troughs andcould see nothing but darkness. Then, a wave would pick me up, and allaround in every direction, I could see pale white crests of froth. Inthe wave trough the wind died down, picking up as I went back up. Ifelt raindrops falling on my face, and they hissed as they hit theocean. The wind was coming from the east, so I just kept my head towardit.

I felt as though I should submerge. It would be easier going under thewaves. But something compelled me to stay on the surface. The sheeremptiness, I guess. There was simply nothing out here except the ocean,and myself. Was this nature, the lifeless, but dynamic world in which Iwas immersed? There was less life out here than in the desert, yet Ifelt there was life, in the rolling of the waves, the wind, and therain. It was mysterious, and massive. I couldn't identify exactly whatI was witnessing less with my eyes than with my other senses. I didn'thave the words. I wasn't taught words for this. I don't think anyone

could describe it. Somehow, I didn't feel afraid at all. It occurred tome that the ocean wouldn't harm me in the slightest. It was incapableof harm. I could only harm myself, by not having enough knowledge ofit. There had to be solutions for whatever I wanted to do. I just hadto learn how to survive in the open-water environment. And, if Icouldn't survive, I had to learn the risks. Once I learned the risks, Icould figure out their weight versus the weight of the rewards theybarred. Then, I could accept consequences.

As I rose to the top of a wave, the rolling ocean was illuminated asthough it were mid-day. A massive lightning bolt struck the water justto my west. The thunder shook my skull. Was my body a better conductorof electricity than the ocean water? I decided not to find it out.

I dove below the water. I checked my compass and was glad to see that Ihad kept going east. It was midnight. I was tired. My body felt sore.I'd been swimming for sixteen hours. I yawned in the water. I ate somemore mussels. I wanted to sleep. I decided to just doze a bit as Iswam. With some effort, I found that I could keep finning as I zonedout. Dream images danced through my mind, but I was somehow able tostay conscious of the disposition of my body. It was almost as if Icould pre-program my body and then let my mind wander. If the slowfanning of my tail faltered, or I felt the water passing over my bodyat an angle, I would wake up briefly and make a correction.

The mussel caches were a serious pain, though. It was difficult to

maintain level flight with their constant drag downward. Once I startedgiving into their pull, my downward slope accelerated. A few times Iawoke after losing a couple hundred feet of altitude from the surface.

It was a form of sleep, but not true rest. By the time the watersstarted growing brighter, my body's rhythms kicked in, and brainstarted waking up to the day. I felt like I'd slept, but poorly. I wentup to the surface. The waves were calm again, and the dawn star wasdirectly ahead of me in a sky of deep blue tinged with salmon clouds.It blazed like a polished diamond laid on velvet. No wonder the


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ancients worshipped Venus, and gave her feminine traits. I could lookat her until the brightening sky hid her beauty.

Inwardly, I moaned. My body ached. I had underestimated how strenuousnon-stop swimming would be. I decided to slow my pace down a bit. Iswam on my back and with both hands bundled the fat around my middle.Before setting out, I could pinch up a roll as thick as a donut. To mydespair, I had already dropped considerably. I used to run track inHigh School, and I had always been a fast runner in the Marines. Frommy studies of sports I knew that a sprinting pace consumed about 900calories an hour. However, I didn't know much about how much energy wasexpended in swimming. My metabolism seemed to be crazy, and no doubtbeing in the water constantly had everything to do with it. I guessedthat I had packed on about thirty extra pounds in two weeks of non-stopconsumption. Before that, I might have had maybe thirty pounds of bodyfat between my torso and my fish body. At 3,600 calories per pound offat... Say about 600 calories an hour in the water on average... maybeover 2,000 at my burst speed for hunting, so about 700 calories perhour on average every hour...

I calculated as I swam. I figured that I had to be burning about 14,400calories per day. At first the number seemed ridiculous, but I finallyrationalized it by thinking of lifestyle. On land I was using about2,300 per day, but I could sleep for eight hours without moving, my

body didn't have to fuel itself against the thermal effect of coldwater, and I couldn't swim faster than a mackerel.

'I should have gained 100 pounds for this trip,' I thought to myself. Ireally hadn't done the math before setting out. Lack of prior planningproduces piss-poor results. That's what I had always been told in theMarines. I consoled myself with the fact that I was dealing with someunknown quantities. That settled my mind for about three seconds,before I thought of what my sergeant would have said: "Excuses arelike... Everyone has one and they all stink."

As I had a breakfast of clams, I wondered if their extra drag hadmerely offset the calories they provided. I decided to simply finish

them off, which I did. Once they were gone, my buoyancy was fine. Ishould have just planned to hunt for food the entire time. Live andlearn.

I kept swimming. I could sense no land, and heard no game. The lack oflittle fish eased my mind concerning sharks, but it meant I had nothingto hunt, either. The water was warm and still. I swam on the surface onmy back. It grew boring, and my entire body hurt. I stopped finning andcoasted to a stop. It felt good just to be still for a moment. Theswimming was different from walking long distance. I couldn't get anyblisters, or crotch rash, or barking dogs or achy joints. Instead, itjust felt like every strand of muscle in my body simply wanted to stopmoving.

After a moment of rest, I started up again. I didn't want to rest toolong and find that it was harder to restart than it was to not take abreak in the first place. The ocean was unusually still, and I hadswitched to air breathing. Dark Side of the Moon was playing in mymind, and I thought about how much I would love to be able to listen tothat able. I tried to recreate all the sounds in my mind. I wasthinking about the voice of the girl in 'Great Gig In The Sky' and howbeautiful it was, just a voice used like a guitar. I could mentallyhear the piano and the slide guitar leading up to her solo, where her


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voice, the drums, a bass guitar, and an electric organ would all kickon at once. The song started repeating in my head, and again I heardher part start. This time, I decided to sing it myself.

"Woah oh, oh yeah," I sang, and then stopped. Holy crap, that soundedalmost just like the real cut off the album. Granted I probably forgotthe exact way she was singing, but I remembered the melody. I triedagain. My voice rang out above the water, and it sounded alien to me.But, it sounded damn good!

My newfound talent woke me up a bit. I tried to reproduce the entirecut from that song, and felt I was doing really well. So, I could sing.It felt odd singing with a girl's voice, but it had great range, andplenty of duskiness if I wanted as well.

Mermaid 3 by KeikoJade

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Transcript of Mermaid 3 by KeikoJade