Thank God!
“Yes,” I called back to the man bobbing in the waves. He went under to swim toward me and I noticed his dark red tail. At least I wasn’t going to have to phase back into a human.
When he surfaced next to me, I felt as if I was staring at Father Time. His long, gray hair matched his scraggly beard. Wringing the water out of it, he smiled and the lines about his face wrinkled even more. He reminded me of a character from one of the old movies my dad collected. Chong from Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke. I instantly liked this old man.
“Where are you headed?”
“I’m trying to get back to Vero Beach.”
“Vero? You’re a long way off.”
“I can’t even tell which direction it’s in.”
He pointed a withered finger to the direction behind me.
“What are you doing out here?” He asked.
“Trying to find my boyfriend.”
“Ah,” he chuckled.
“I’m Morgan.” I offered my hand and he shook it.
“Sam.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“You too. You know, you’re closer to Jamaica than you are to Florida.”
“What?”
He nodded and played with the wooden circular ring hanging from his left ear. “Yeah man, you’re pretty far from Vero. Most mermaids don’t get out this far, so I was surprised to see you.”
“Well, it’s by accident. I was trying to get to Neridia.”
“You’re a ways off course.”
“Great.”
“Hey, I’m on my way to Jamaica. You want me to take you there and send you in the right direction?”
Relief washed over me. “Yes, please. That would be great.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
We swam side by side and as we made our way, we talked. I listened to him tell me he was basically a nomad, wandering from place to place. He was making his way to Jamaica because he enjoyed the music and had a woman waiting for him. When he made me laugh, his eyes sparkled. He reminded me of a kind old hippie dude and I felt comfortable with him.
Sam’s red tail was fairly well scarred and his fins had a few rips in the ends. His aged body was tattooed and covered in wooden jewelry. When I asked him about his necklaces, I wasn’t too surprised to find out they were made from hemp.
When he finished talking, I filled him in on my life. Feeling at ease, I found myself sharing everything with him. He laughed when I told him how I’d found out about mermaids and he was concerned when I told him about the Dartmoth’s. I’d even described Thayde’s Judgment and he seemed angry.
“You know, that kind of punishment’s really not necessary. I don’t know why merpeople think that violence solves everything.”
“It’s not just merpeople, Sam. It’s humans too. They fight over anything and everything.”
We swam a while in silence.
“I think a war is brewing,” I finally admitted and Sam looked worried.
“Who’s involved?”
“My family and the Dartmoth’s. Akin threatened me today. He said that if it was a war we wanted, it’s a war we’d get. We don’t want a war at all. It’d be nice if they just left us alone.”
“Do you have any idea why they keep harassing you and your family?”
“Mom and Tammer say it’s because of a curse a sea witch placed on them a long time ago. Thayde says it’s because his family are prejudiced and think too highly of themselves.”
Sam snorted. “Do they really believe in curses?”
“I suppose so. They say history is going to repeat itself.”
“Curses have absolutely no power over you unless you believe in them. It’s all a bunch of hogwash.”
“Then how do you explain that it’s already begun?”
“Coincidence. But this Dartmoth family sounds like trouble. It’d be best to stay away from them.”
“That’s the problem. It doesn’t work.”
“Sounds like something needs to change.”
“Yeah, well nothing will,” I said sadly. “It’s been going on for centuries and I don’t see it getting better.”
We swam around a school of fish. The dolphin swam straight through them, catching a few in its mouth and when it appeared on the other side of the fish, swam hastily to catch up with us.
“You know, my mom told me we have a ruler who’s been out of the picture for a really long time.”
“That’s Troen.”
I nodded and continued. “It seems to me that if you cared about your people, you’d be there to help them and keep things nice between everyone.”
“Maybe he’s got better things to do,” he said.