“Look, I…” Blake paused, carefully parsing over his words.“While I want to honor your wishes, I don’t think it would be right for me not to try.”In fact, giving up and letting Marin die was themostmessed up thing Blake could possibly do in this situation.
“How about this,” he proposed.“We try to find out who you were before you died—I’ll do everything in my power to fulfill those conditions, so you’ll have the option to change your mind if you want to.The poem even says something about ‘choosing to stay or part’ at the place where you died.”
Blake did not add that one of those conditions was completely out of his hands.The last stanza of the poem about proving his heart—or being worthy of Marin’s love—was vague at best in comparison to the rest of the verse.He had no idea if it was a general litmus test of his character, or if it was something he couldachieveby fulfilling the other two conditions.He stored it away in his mind as “extremely important information to figure out later”.
“That sounds amenable to me.”Marin dipped his head in thanks, murmuring: “Sorry to be a bother.”
“Not at all.”Blake smiled, trying his best to mask his anxiety.He changed gears, glancing over at Celeste.“Okay, so how are we supposed to help get him out of the park?”
Celeste groaned.“I hadn’t thought of that.Ugh.Well, we can’t exactly wheel a giant fish tank in here.Is he gonna live in the wave pool?”
“We are not going to make him live in the wave pool!” Blake told Celeste, tone brooking no argument.He pressed his palm against his forehead, trying his best to think.His brain was sticky with conditions and rhyming verse.“Maybe I can swing by Walmart and get a big storage bin, then rent a UHAUL to stick it in?”
“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Marin said, using his hands to crawl through the shallows of the splash pool.He pulled himself up the spongy ramp and onto the concrete—then a deep gash appeared in his fins.
Celeste and Blake started, the latter reaching out for the merman in horror.Marin’s expression remained as calm as ever as the gash moved up the middle of his tail like a seam.The fins and tail shrank and retreated, splitting into two long legs peppered with powder blue and lilac scales, sparkling with water droplets.Marin reached up to brush his hair behind his ears—they were webbed with blue fins, like a dragon, but as Marin tapped them they eased back into a rounded human shape.The scales were gone, replaced by swathes of tan skin.For all intents and purposes, Marin looked like a normal human college kid with dyed hair.
“See?”he said, turning to face Blake and Celeste.
How did he know how to do that?Blake wondered, but before he could voice his confusion, Celeste cut him off.
“Well, that certainly saves us some logistics,” they sighed in relief.“But now your butt is out.”
“I—uh.I-I’ll grab him a spare uniform from my locker,” Blake stuttered, averting his gaze from Marin’s nude form; the last thing he wanted was to make the merman feel uncomfortable.He turned on his heel, heading back towards the castle.
“You can’t just leave him out here!”Celeste snapped.“What if someone drives by?!”
They had a point.The kiddie pool was in full view of a major road right off of the freeway and in the direct line of vision of an apartment complex on a hill above.Blake hadn’t noticed any cars yet, but someone could very well drive by them at any minute.Two adults climbing over a play structure in the middle of the night was suspicious enough, but a naked man sitting in plain view would definitely warrant a call to the police.
Blake held his hands out towards Marin, completely out of his depth.“Can you walk?”
“I…” Marin stared down at his feet, flapped them a little, and then stared up at Blake, helpless.“I don’t know?”
“Okay, uh,” Blake said, crouching down next to him.He extended his arms, thought better of it, and then asked.“Is… is it okay if I carry you inside?”
Marin nodded, still serene.“By all means.”
“Here, I’m gonna scoop you up by your legs,” Blake said, slotting his arm under the bend of Marin’s knees.“Put your arms around my shoulders so I can support you better.”
Marin assented and Blake stabilized him by his back, picking him up in a bridal carry.Underneath the cup of his arm, Marin’s skin was plush and warm—far more human than he’d been only moments earlier.Breath hitching, Blake tried to readjust his grip so that he was handling Marin as chastely as possible, catching an amused quirk at the corner of the merman’s mouth.
Blake had a lifetime of giving his foster siblings piggyback rides to help strength train—and he’d had to bring lots of kids and teenagers to first aid like this before.But not someone full-grown.Or naked.His heart leapt up into his throat as he met Marin’s coy gaze through the veil of his bangs.
As he carried Marin back into the castle, Celeste trailed behind them with a contrite expression.
Yeah, you better be sorry, Blake thought at them as he scaled the stairs to where the break room was.Marin peered around Blake’s chest as they passed the party rooms, looking up at the images of Walter the Wacky Water Wizard that had been painted there by someone who wasclearlyon drugs.
The mascot had a big, goofy smile, his upper torso a wizard robe and lower half a massive green mermaid tail.In his right hand he held a wand that sprayed out water, the other throwing up a “hang loose” gesture.On the front of the robe “COWABUNGA” was written in bold yellow letters.
According to staff lore, there had once been a statue of him in front of the castle, but the local high schoolers kept stealing it for their senior prank.The statue now lived in the backyard of Lovepreet’s uncle.Blake would hate to see a pygmalion ofthatthing.
“That mural is horrific,” Marin observed with deep repulsion.“What kind of mer-person is that supposed to be?”
“An unfortunate one,” Celeste sniffed.
They stepped into the staff lounge and Blake hesitated before setting Marin down on the couch, reassessing the hygiene of the situation.Lord knew how many high school and college students had banged on that thing over the past two decades—in addition to Blake’s friends and coworkers.He grabbed a beach towel from a nearby pile, lying it across the old, beaten cushions before plopping Marin down.
“Is this place even up to code?”Celeste asked, picking at the peeling edges of a CPR instructional poster.“I think some of this furniture is older than me.”
