Abruptly, a gigantic wave trounced the plateau she was on and a large, glistening, reddish gray, dolphin-like tail lifted up out of the water and flipped back down several times. At first, I thought it was a dolphin that jumped out of the water and landed on the rock. Then it hit me and it turned out to be something far more phenomenal. My heart, my blood, and my sanity were on the verge of imploding…
I licked my lips in preparation for what I was about to tell my friend. “The tail was hers, man, it was hers.”
Victorio unconsciously sat up rigidly in his seat. He frowned, but didn’t say a word, except to wave his hand for me to go on.
“I know it’s crazy, but just hold on. I covered my mouth to suppress a rocketing scream… but it didn’t matter. The half-filled glass of beer I reflexively flung smacked against the rocks.” I moved my hand in the same crazy motion and watched Victorio’s eyes follow it.
“It shattered the spell. Her head whipped in my direction and she intently stared into the darkness where I flattened myself against the rocks. Whether she saw me or not, I’m not sure, but I’m sure she knew I was there.
“I heard a splash and glanced up to see a fish tail furiously battering the water as she propelled herself towards the open sea. Stumbling over wet and slippery rocks I maneuvered my way to the edge of the bank and stood there, motionless, and brutally cross-examining myself and trying to assess if it was my overactive imagination induced by a few beers.”
Victorio nodded slowly as if he were thinking the same thing, but still he kept his lips shut.
“I couldn’t bring myself to leave, man. Too many questions. I stayed on those same rocks long enough to watch the moon change places with the sun. As the sun rose, I finally got up and walked back to my hotel room. There I collapsed and fell into a majorly deep sleep. I didn’t wake up until the door clicked open and a frustrated maid poked her head inside asking when I was going to leave so she could clean up the room.”
Victorio blinked hard as he unconsciously rubbed his bottom lip with his index finger. He gazed out the window.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“Nope, not until you’re finished,” he responded, sitting back down with his arms and legs crossed.
“Look, I know it sounds farfetched, but Vic, she was as close to me as you are. I couldn’t leave Carmel until I could verify what I saw. This thing haunted me. I wish I’d brought my camera. Then I could have proved that I saw a mermaid to you and you wouldn’t be scratching your head with such a perplexed expression on your ugly mug.”
Victorio smiled. “Didn’t you have your iPhone? You could have taken a picture then.”
“Sure, if I hadn’t thrown it down the toilet after Kathy’s last text. I called you on the hospital phone.”
“I forgot. Yes, you did.”
“Anyway, each night after that, at the exact same time of evening, I went back to that same remote area searching for my mermaid.”
Victorio’s eyebrows raised. “Your mermaid? Wow.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly how I felt… crazy ain’t it?”
“Why didn’t you call me right away and tell me about this?” he asked, looking worried again.
“Would you have been more prone to believe me over the phone than you do now? You’re one of my closest friends and you’re looking at me like you’re ready to commit me to the psych ward.”
“It’s still undecided. So go on, what happened next?”
“After about the fifth night of finding nothing on those rocks and searching for other embankments in case I was wrong, I thought that maybe it had been the beer…”
I stood for hours scanning the ocean for movement, but all I got was nothing for my time. I finally gave up as any sane man would. The thought that she might just have been a figment of my imagination was too much to bear after that stressful night with Kathy. I wished I could blame Vic for slipping peyote into my beers but he wasn’t around to be my scapegoat.
The depression eased back in from Kathy and now this mysterious creature I feared I’d never see again. So that same evening I figured I’d go to one of the local establishments and drink myself into submission and laugh off what I finally figured was just some stupid illusion or simply me falling asleep on the beach and dreaming.
So I’m sitting inside this packed hotel bar when I see this sensationally gorgeous and exotic looking young woman sashay in wearing a very long and sexy sleeveless black dress. The front of it was V-shaped and subtly revealed her breasts, which looked like they were begging to be freed from their confinement. She had thick jet-black hair piled into a loose bun. She sat alone in one of the booths. I figured she must be waiting for a friend. I saw a few dudes immediately head over to her booth, but she gave them no play; not even a smile.
But she delivered a big one my way. And that pouty smile was so enticing I’m shocked I didn’t just combust and burn the whole bar down.
She loosened her bun and it seemed like a never-ending cascade of magnificent shiny and rippling black hair kept falling well past her shoulders. I swerved around to make sure she wasn’t looking at someone else, but when I turned back, she stared at me so intently my face must’ve been cherry red from the way my blood was rapidly coursing through my body. Then it hit me — it was her!
“Her who?” Victorio interrupted loudly.
“The mermaid.”
“C’mon, man, you’re not serious.”
“I’m dead serious.”
Victorio resumed tugging at his right earring with a big smirk on his face.
“Remember, you promised me…”
“You’re right… no judgment… I’d just like a taste of whatever it was you were drinking,” he said with a quiet chuckle.
“I’d just ordered a beer when this happened.”
“Yeah? Okay, well maybe she resembled the woman you thought you saw.”
“You mean the mermaid?”
Victorio eyed me blankly.
“I know what you’re thinking, but there was no doubt in my mind it was her. Whatever occurred that night to give her legs didn’t matter to me. The fact is she was as real as you sitting next to me. I mustered up the courage to approach her booth; she quickly stood up, gave me one more, ‘come hither’ look and walked out the door. I jumped up and had to sidestep people in the crowd to follow her. When I stepped outside she had vanished… and I’m talking nowhere in sight. I searched up and down the street… nothing… the woman disappeared.”
“Maybe she stepped into the ladies’ room and you didn’t see her,” Vic suggested.
“Nope. My eyes were glued to her. I didn’t lose sight of her until she walked out the door. I hiked back to the embankment where I first saw her and ensconced myself there for hours. Another full moon brightened the area like an enormous streetlight. And before you ask — no, I didn’t have more to drink — just nursing that one beer — soberer than I wanted to be, trust me.”
Victorio smiled and raised his hands in surrender.
“I was about to call it a night, until I once again heard that unusual whistle from a lone bird, her song. She was near…”
Abruptly, her head popped out of the shadows of the water. I acted calm, but my heart did a hundred-yard sprint. She bobbed in the water, warily observing me.
It was definitely the same face I saw in the bar. She was close enough for me to notice her eyes were kind of a translucent green. Her face was placid, but it projected a native intelligence. She had some type of magical or supernatural ability I couldn’t explain, but I felt it like a warm breeze rushing across my skin. I wanted to find a way to communicate with her because what was happening to me at that moment was unimaginable. I had become privy to one of nature’s greatest secrets and without a soul to share it with.