I waited for him to reply, but he didn’t.
I waited for an uncomfortably long period of time, and I began to think he didn’t want me here and I was intruding. Lelas hadn’t asked him if it was okay if she brought me. She’d just left me with him.
He gave me another smile. If he felt the awkwardness, he didn’t let on. Then it hit me—Wrell didn’t talk. Didn’t or couldn’t, I didn’t remember.
“I forgot you don’t speak.”Well, that was a jackass thing to say. Maybe the next time I ran into a blind person I’d remind them they couldn’t see. Or blind mer, in this case. As much as I loved being in the sea, the thought of being blind in it sounded beyond terrifying.“Are you okay that I’m here?”
He nodded, and another sensation of warmth coursed over me.
I stared at him, putting two and two together much too slowly.“You’re doing that, aren’t you? Making me feel things?”
He nodded.
“Cool. So you do talk, just not with words and stuff.”
He didn’t make any motion to acknowledge or deny. Probably because I spoke to him like I would a kid or a puppy or something. Wrell had the body of an action figure, and the seriousness to match. He probably didn’t really appreciate my tone.
It didn’t help that I stood over him while he was buried under the sand. I became aware of my naked genitalia, this time looming larger than my head from his perspective. Both so I could be more at his level and, even more so, to hide my growing erection at the thought, I sat down beside him and positioned myself so my legs covered my arousal.
“So, ah, you’re doing okay now?”
The warm feeling again and another nod.
“Good, I’m glad.”This was going to be difficult. I had a hard enough time talking to new people when they were talking to me as well. How was I supposed to keep a conversation going with someone who couldn’t speak and only communicated in feelings?
“That’s pretty amazing that you’re able to make me feel stuff. I’d love for you to be able to teach me that one day.”
No response. Although technically, I guess I didn’t actually ask him a question.
When I realized I was beginning to stare at him, I forced my gaze back to the huge pile of rocks. There were many other piles of smaller rocks around it, scattered randomly.
“That is the strangest formation I’ve ever seen. It’s kinda like a small mountain. I can’t tell what formed it. It kinda looks manmade, but I don’t see any purpose to it. I’m not sure why anyone would make it.”
An image of a dead mermaid traveled through my mind. No sooner had she faded than there came a second image of several mers lugging one of the boulders onto the pile. That image faded suddenly as well.
I was a bit quicker on the uptake this time. I looked back at Wrell.“You did that too, didn’t you? You can make me see things?”
He nodded.
I thought back over the images.“This is a graveyard, isn’t it?”
His brow knitted in confusion.
“A place you bury the dead.”
He shook his head.
An image of the mermaid again, this time wrapped in kelp, almost like a mummy. A second image of a group of mers releasing her shrouded body into the open water.
“You don’t bury your dead? You set them out to sea. Release them to the elements?”That made more sense from what I’d seen of the mers.
He nodded.
Again, he sent me the image of mers struggling with the boulders, their faces sad and downcast.
I looked up at the formation, at the surrounding piles of boulders and rocks in seemingly random orientations.“It’s a memorial, isn’t it? A symbol of the ones who have died.”
He smiled and nodded, warmth flooding through me.
