Thirteen
BRETT WRIGHT
Beforewe could return, I had to catch my breath. I was exhausted. Exhilarated but exhausted. Lelas didn’t look like she’d done more than swim a couple of laps. Her cheeks were flushed, but other than that, she probably could have gone a couple more hours before showing any signs of slowing down. In all actuality, I probably didn’t need to catch my breath. As soon as I went under, I’d breathe like a mer once more. However, I wasn’t sure if I would mentally be able to allow that to happen. As hard as I was breathing, I would suck up half the ocean before my body convinced my brain I didn’t need air like I’d always thought I had.
Lelas inspected me curiously, holding her hands in front of my face to feel the warm air as I exhaled in quick pants. She laughed as it tickled her hands.
She truly was captivating. The most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. More beautiful than Finn. In some ways, even more beautiful than the tattooed merman somewhere below us. For the briefest of moments, I wondered.Could I? Could I learn to love a girl, a female, a mermaid?My grandfather’s tirades returned to me. If loving a girl were possible, all the pain and conflict would have been for nothing. I wouldn’t have had to be cut off from my family for so long. I was willing to bet Grandpa would have accepted me falling for a mermaid light-years before he would have given his blessing to me loving a man. Even as the thought formed in my mind, I dismissed it. She was beautiful, yes. Kind. Full of life. Magical, whether she was truly magic or not. However, that was it. I loved her. I was certain of that, but it was a love reminiscent of my love for Sonia. Thoughts of the handsome merman below, thoughts of Finn did things to my body, to my heart, that she would never be able to do.
It drove me crazy that these old voices continued to haunt my mind.
“What are you thinking?”
The distinct concern in her tone brought me out of my thoughts.“Oh, nothing. It’s okay.”
She drew closer, her hand once again tender on my chest. “You did not appear fine. You looked in pain.”
“No, I’m really okay. Just lost in the past for a moment.”
As she seemed always able to do, she lent me her support without pushing or prying. In that, she was different than Sonia.
“You know, back to our conversation about how you mers speak to each other…”
I paused to let her mentally catch up to the change in topic. She nodded her encouragement to continue.
“Well, you mentioned you figure my ability to communicate to specific mers at my choosing will increase over time, kinda like a child.”
“That is my assumption.”She gave a shrug.“I could be wrong, as I have never seen the process in an adult.”
“Actually, that’s exactly my question. I haven’t seen any children in the tribe, and I think you said you’re the youngest.”
She nodded again.
“Well then, how do you know about how children learn to speak over time? Is it just common knowledge, or do you remember learning?”
Lelas’s face fell, her body lowered deeper into the water, and her gaze left me to wander across the dark horizon of the sea.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was asking something I shouldn’t.”
She shook her head, the tips of her hair causing the water to ripple around her.“No, it is fine. You would not have reason to know.”
“You don’t have to explain. It’s okay.”
Her tongue darted out to lick her lips, again causing her to appear human. Then her voice touched my mind.
“I do remember parts of learning to communicate in the full way of the mers, but not to any great extent. I recall being able to exchange secrets with my mother when my father was around. I felt so special and grown up. However, that is not the source of my knowledge.”
She paused again for such a long time I decided that was all she was going to say, but then her words tumbled forth.
“His name was Ventait. His mother, Miline, was only a couple of decades older than me. We were very close. She was my dearest friend, in fact. Only you have rivaled her for my love. I was a little over forty years old when Ventait was born.”A smile touched her lips, then quickly faded.“I guess that means I am around the age Miline was when Ventait was birthed. I had not thought of that before now.”
When she paused once more, I nearly told her she didn’t have to tell me the rest, but I couldn’t make myself.
“Ventait was the first child born since my birth. Before Miline’s birth, which was so close to mine, it had been over a century since a baby had been born to the tribe. There was such a celebration at his birth. Three children in less than eighty years.”Her eyes met mine, as if she was sharing something commonplace and expected me to be awed by the knowledge as well.“Such a thing had not occurred in centuries! Everyone was so happy. I do not recall a more wonderful time before or since.”
Again she searched the wide expanse, eyes occasionally flicking up to the stars. Searching.“He was such a darling child. So sweet and innocent, as I assume all young are. He had bright-red hair like Miline but a thick, robust frame like his father, Riendt. Which, as you know, is very unusual in mers, at least in our tribe.”
I thought of the tattooed merman, his massive amount of muscles. He didn’t seem to fit the norm either. Before I could ask about him, Lelas moved on, lost in the past.
