-Excuse
me.-said Tray, polite as ever.- Did you just say sea people?
-Yes,
sea people.They don't come out of the ocean very often. And they've
never hurt anyone. Of course, most people can't contact them, imagine
the reaction of the people of the town if they knew what was really
happening. The town would be flooded with media. For some reason they
trust me, they feel safe.
-So,
you met them the last time they came?- Dana asked.
-I
did more than that. Let me explain you my story. When I was
twenty-four I was a willful young woman, with a head full of dreams
and a fierce sense of independence. I was orphaned and my grandmother
raised me, she had an unhappy marriage, and she always told me not to
get married until I were completely sure about it. As a result, when
my friends were already nursing children, I was still free of any
compromise. I used to live at night, I would roam the beach, looking
for small treasures the ocean left there. I would also go out fishing
on the fishing boats, learning invaluable skills, and also more than
one scar. But it was my love for the sea at night what allowed me to
met the sea people. They came in spring that year, I used to swim
naked at night and, one day, suddenly I was no longer alone in the
water. Even now, I'm surprised at how calm I was about it, I had
heard the legends and I had the feeling that they didn't want to hurt
me, so we swam together for a while. There were three of them, two
men and a woman. Their skin was covered in dark blue scales and their
eyes were dark yellow, with no white parts. One of them allowed me to
touch him, it was completely smooth, but also a bit sticky, like the
skin of sharks. From that day on they kept appearing, they wouldn't
say anything, we only swam together, staring at each other. With the
days I started to differentiate them, there was an older couple, the
woman and one of the men, and then there was the one who had allowed
me to touch his skin. I started calling him Nemo, like the captain in
the book, later, he told me his name, but it was nothing I could
pronounce. Nemo was obsessed with my hair, when I was young I had red
flowing locks that I used to wear untied, but he was too ashamed to
touch it in front of the others. One day he started coming alone. The
first thing he did was timidly reach his hand for my hair. I laughed
at it, and he laughed back, his teeth were pointy like a shark, they
had to be to eat raw fish. There was a full moon that day and I could
see his gills at the side of his neck. He started speaking a strange
English, asking me things about live above water, and I explained him
a lot of things, however, as usual, as soon as the first lights were
visible on the horizon Nemo would leave. This lasted for weeks, and
we fell in love. He was young, even younger than me, but I didn't
mind, I knew it was real love, even if I knew it was impossible. I
said we fell in love, but, apparently they fall in love instantly,
they know who their partner is going to be the moment they lay eyes
on her. It wasn't unusual for a sea man to fall in love with a human,
but those used to go to a confined place where they would end their
days alone. It was a sad future, and we didn't want to think about
it. We kissed all the nights, and one day we decided to go one step
further. I was still a virgin, people in here were still very
traditional and sex before marriage was frowned upon. We swam all the
way back to the beach, his first time on earth and lay down on the
sand. Nemo explored every part of my body, I was a bit ashamed at
first, but he was so curious, smelling, licking with his rough
tongue, that I soon found myself on his body doing the same. When he
got inside me it hurt, I'm not going to lie, but it was also the best
thing that has ever happened in my life. He wasn't warm, but there
was a warmth in it. He didn't come the next day, or the day after,
only on the third day he appeared with the older couple. They were
very angry, speaking fast on their language. Nemo translated me all
of it. Apparently, they had banned him to go alone, but he had
ignored orders and came regardless. But that was not the worst, Nemo
told me that I was pregnant. I remember laughing at it, what would
you do if someone told you something like that? But he was very
serious, he told me that he would be there for the delivery, which
was supposed to be after 3 months, but that he wouldn't be able to
see me anymore. And that I wouldn't be able to keep my son, how would
I explain it, anyway? I cried and cried in his arms, the salt water
mixing with my tears. But I accepted their terms, I had loved at
least once, I had found real love once, I could find it again. When
Nemo translated my agreement to the older couple they just nodded and
swam away. Nemo and I made love to each other for half of the night,
the second and the last time that our bodies would touch. Before
sunrise I promised him I would go to the beach each night, and he
promised me that he would be there when the time came. Those months
were miserable, I craved raw fish because of my pregnancy, but I
couldn't have it, so I had to settle with all kinds of cooked fish. I
also felt the need to spend more and more time inside the water, but
I had things to do. At least, my pregnancy didn't show and I didn't
have to suffer the suspicious stares of the town women. Exactly three
months after I first made love with Nemo I felt the urgency to get
inside the sea. At first, I shook it off as one of my strange
cravings, but it was as if the ocean was pulling me. So I left
everything I was doing and walked down the beach, I stripped naked
and looked afraid at the sea. It was particularly wild that day, and
there was still some daylight, so I knew Nemo wouldn't come for at
least a full hour. I entered inside the water, feeling it pushing my
belly, trying to get my son out. Nemo came as soon as the sun set and
embraced me. We stayed together inside the water holding each other
until I gave birth to our son. It wasn't traumatic, he was barely the
size of my hand, but already fully formed and covered in the same
scales his father had. Nemo took him lovingly and placed him inside a
special bag over his stomach, sea people fathers took care of their
children. I made him promise that he would name him something
beautiful, and he told him he would name him Shore, in their
language, because it was the place where earth and sea meet. He also
promised me he would send me messages, so I could know they both were
fine. And like that he left. He kept his promise and sea shells and
other nice underwater treasures would appear in our beach every now
and then. I meet a really nice man some years after that, and I
married him, he accepted me as I was, with all my experiences,
telling me that I had two husbands, one in the sea and the other on
earth. Yet, he left me too. People die. And now, I'm the one who is
dying, that's why Nemo and Shore are coming to visit me every night.
Dana
was crying silent tears, clutching to Tray's arm. He was shacking his head in disbelief.
-Can
we stay tonight?- she asked.
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