Mermaid: Epilogue

All my life it’s been:

“Don’t go near the water Lev!”

“Stay away from the ocean Lev!”

“No Levy! We’re not going to the beach!”

Ever since I could remember I have been forbidden to even come within 10 feet of water. As a child I was okay with this, having heard many stories of the terrors that roamed the depths of those liquid bodies. Many a night, my father would tell me tales of sharks able to swallow me whole and electric eels able to kill me with a single sting. And so, to avoid a horrible death by one of these creatures, I dutifully kept away from any mass of water that wasn’t the blow up or public pool.

But as the years went on and girls started becoming desires instead of terrors, so did the sea. Along with the longing for kisses and soft caresses came a longing to feel the cool clear waters rush over my feet, the sand seeping through my toes. I wanted to feel the rise and fall of the current beneath me, the tickling of seaweed beneath my feet with a gentle roar of the ocean waves filing my ears. I yearned to experience the calming and refreshing sensation of being surrounded by water that smelt like salt rather than chlorine... 

I desired to discover the mysteries of the sea.