I laid there, upended, floating on my back, and drifting. I thought, ‘Leonard — swim, kick, flail your arms… do whatever you’ve got to do to get the fuck out of here!’ But I kept sinking in and out of consciousness, mainly because the salty seawater continued to torturously revive me. And even though I was disoriented, I felt her swimming circles around me and under like a damn shark… nipping at me, treating me as if it was a game… almost as if it were foreplay for her.
Pure terror seized me when she landed on top of me. Now my heart beat furiously for a completely different reason.
I paused and leaned back against my pillows, feeling those sharp teeth of hers bit into my skin again.
“You want to hear something funny, Victorio? She smelled fishy; just like some stinking, decaying, and nasty fish that sat out in the sun for days. I became entangled in masses of seaweed, no, not seaweed — it was her hair! And it had a life of its own. Strands of it reached out to me like fingers,” I said and acted it out, stretching my own as he watched. “Touching my face, stroking my head, poking inside my nose and ears. She was in total control, one second letting the hairs brush against my cheeks, the next teasingly withdrawing them. I felt about as helpless as one of those tiny fish trapped by a sea anemone.”
Victorio’s eyebrows furrowed so tightly it looked like a hairy snake settled over his eyes. “So wait a minute, Leo… are you telling me that…”
“Hold on, Vic, I’m almost done.” I took a deep breath to steady myself and went on with what happened next.
Her fingers were normal earlier, but they were no longer that way in the water. Her fingers were webbed, and the nails were as sharp as stilettos raking down my chest, ripping flesh. The saltwater buried deep into my wounds stinging the hell out of me. But it didn’t make a bit of difference at that stage. I was too busy gurgling the seawater that rushed down my throat, and flooded my nose and ears.
Before she went down on me, she flashed that grin one more time and she wasn’t mimicking my smile that I thought frightened her. Her enraged face elongated, baring rows and rows of teeth like a goddamn barracuda! All that fantasy crap about mermaids protecting their little fishy friends is the biggest bunch of horseshit. I saw crab and fish fragments hanging from her rancid blue tinted gums.
I was on the verge of blacking out and I was thankful that I was about to be relieved from suffering further pain because I had already accepted that my imminent death was forthcoming. But I was premature.
The most excruciating and unbearable pain I ever experienced rifled through my body. Her teeth sank into my leg like it was a cube of butter and I screamed until I was hoarse, then I kept screaming anyway. And then it was over. Just like that.
I drifted through huge billowy dark clouds for what seemed like an infinity. When they parted, I saw a woman peering through her glasses at me.
“I’m sorry Mr. Goldfarb,” she said. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Welcome back.” She smiled. Her voice sounded light years away, as if she were speaking through a cellophane bag. “Don’t try to talk, just nod your head if you understand what I’m saying, ok?”
I nodded, every muscle in my neck screaming in pain.
“Good. I’m Dr. Patel and I’m here to take good care of you. You’ve been through a pretty harrowing experience. But you miraculously survived. Some kids found you on the beach in a little alcove. I must say, you’re a very lucky man, Mr. Goldfarb. From what we gather, you met with a very hungry shark.”
She paused as her smile lessened and she glanced down towards my legs.
“However, I have to be upfront with you, you’ve lost your leg in the fracas. Nevertheless, the main thing is you’re going to be okay. And we’re going to do our very best to help you successfully move on healthily with the rest of your life. Maybe, when you’re ready, you’ll explain why in the world you were swimming in those waters on such a cold night. But save that story for another time. Right now, the key thing is I want you to rest up, got it? Good.”
I nodded again and let my head hit the pillows, letting the painkillers do their work.
I was surprised to see Victorio’s eyes well up with tears as I finished my tale.
“Damn, man, I’m sorry, I was trying to be strong,” he whispered and rubbed his eyes.
“Vic, stop… it’s really okay, man. I just need you to be my friend. I’m going to be all right. I’m blessed to be alive, brother.”
“All right, buddy,” he said, sucking in a deep breath. “I’m here for as long as it takes.”
“Thanks, man,” I replied. “But now I’ve got to ask, and be honest — do you believe me?”
Victorio sat down on my bed, unconsciously placing his hand in the area where the lower portion of my right leg should have been. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts before he finally sighed and said, “Man, I must be as fucking nuts as you, but dammit, I do believe you. My instincts tell me you just aren’t smart enough to make up a story like that.”
“Thanks.”
“But it’s more than that,” he added. “There are many Blackfeet like myself that have always avoided eating fish like it’s a plague.”
“Now that I think about it, all those years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you eat fish. I just assumed you didn’t like it.”
“No, it’s not that simple. And we didn’t do the canoe thing either, traveling over the waters. I’ve never had a bite of fish in my life because my parents never allowed it. In Browning, the lakes and rivers were stocked with some of the largest trout around. Many of us believe that Underwater People called the Suyitapis inhabit the rivers, lakes, and after listening to you, the oceans. This incidence you experienced may have been a run-in with one of those supernatural beings who didn’t want you there. That may have been why she left you alive — as a warning. Shit… now I’m talking like you, they’re gonna lock me up with your ass,” he chuckled.
I pondered what he said about the Suyitapis as I stroked my now almost full beard that had grown since I had been in the hospital.
“Leo… do you think she’s still out there?”
It didn’t take me long to respond. “No. She’s far too intelligent. I think she’s moved on. And that thing you said about being a supernatural being, I believe she has those special type of powers. She had the prowess to take my deep-seated fantasies and make me believe she was that woman I saw in the bar, in my dreams, and that beautiful mermaid I was in awe of on the embankment. But in reality, her true physical self was that horrifying creature I saw in the water. The bitch that stole my leg.”
“Yeah, I believe that, too, Leo.”
“You know what’s really scary? I guarantee you I wasn’t the first and I doubt I’ll be the last. She’s done it before. She’s a predator. The rapacious noise I heard prior to passing out was a being that enjoyed eating human flesh. The look she shot me in the end was not curiosity, it was triumph.”
A shivered passed over both of us and I gripped the bed harder.
“She was born with a carnivore’s cunning and instinct, and a human’s ability to reason. She’s a hunter, Victorio, a temptress. She set her sights on me while I was walking along the shore, before I ever discovered her. It was no accident. It was a setup. She sensed my loneliness, vulnerability, and recognized I was an easy prey.”
“It’s alright, man,” he assured me, but I shook my head.
“She played me. The irony is, she exhibited the patience of an old fisherman and I got hooked. I took the bait and she reeled me in.”
Victorio gently asked, “So now what, buddy?”
“Let’s just say, I’ll never go fishing again.”