He ran out the front door as fast as his legs could propell him forward. He flew down to the cove below, falling and tripping in the sand along the way. He frantically searched the waves running out into the water. The waves crashed heavily into him, forcing him down, but he could hardly feel them. Suddenly, from a distance away, he saw her rise to the surface, as if she had been going for a short swim. Relieved, he started out towards her.
She turned and faced him, her face held a shocked expression. "Wait!" she called out to him. He stopped, feeling the water, or was it his heart? pounding at his chest. "Do you really love me?"
He stared at her, unable to believe his ears. "Oh god, Morgan, with all my soul, I love you," he cried out to her.
She nodded, and motioned for him to come closer.
He obediantly swam out to her, treading the water as he came closer. He looked at her, confused. Her hair floated around her, swirling in the waves. He noticed that she had somehow managed to relieve herself of her clothing. Below her, something flashed and he squinted his eyes to get a better look. A tail of silvery-blue swayed methodically beneathe her, fanning out in a large gossameer tail. Opalescent streaks of light sparkled at the sun hit the scales.
Confused and frighted, he swam back a bit. "What...?"
"Now do you understand?" she asked. She looked at him, her expression showing worry and fear.
"What do you want with me?" he asked, his voice cold and stern from fear.
"Nothing but for you to love me," she replied softly.
"Why did you..." he stuttered, unable to finish his thought.
"For thirteen years I have watched you surf. I had never seen anyone like you. Just watching you was like watching a dream. I...I fell in love with you. I just knew that if you had the chance to meet me, I knew you'd feel the same way I did. I just wanted to be with you, and love you, and have you love me in return," she explained, her eyes seeming to beg to him. "Do you still love me now?"
He swam there in silence. Inside, his heart crumbled away and he closed his eyes from the pain. "I...I can't."
She looked away saddly.
"Morgan..."
"No..Now it is my turn to understand," she replied. "I was warned that this could never be..." she trailed off. She swam up to him, placing her arms around his neck. "I love you Kevin. I never meant to hurt you." He could hear sobs in her voice as she kissed him. He wasn't sure if it was the salt of the sea or her tears that he tasted.
Her hands slipped down into his. She turned one over and placed something within it, closing his fingers around it. With one final look into his eyes, she said, "Goodbye," then turned and began to swim away.
Kevin, looking in his hand, saw that she had given him her necklace of shells. "Morgan!" he suddenly called out. She stopped and turned around.
"Remember me," he heard her voice as it was carried in on the wind.
"But..."
"One day, perhaps..." she retuend then disappeared under a wave. The last he saw of her was her tail rising above the surface of the waves, shining electric blue in the afternoon sun, then slipping below the water.
Every Sunday, Kevin goes to his favorite spot on the beach and walks along the sand. He sits on the rock where they first met and as the waves break around him, he hums the song that mermaid mothers sing to their children, unable to remember the words. He holds the necklace of shells, remembering. He knows that she is out there, watching him from the water. But one day has not yet come. So he waits until she returns.
