| Coming to Terms |
| I woke in the middle of the night. But then again, I don't know if I was actually asleep. My mind swarmed, preventing sleep from ever really taking a hold of my weary body. Could it have been her that I saw? Or was my mind merely playing tricks on a yearning heart? I gazed down into the angelic sleeping face of my new bride, her facial features relaxed and beautiful. I caressed the alabaster skin tenderly and placed a gentle kiss on the perfect rosebud-colored lips before carefully crawling out of the bed and slipping on a pair of shorts, a wife-beater, and my still damp sandals. As quietly as I could, I left the dark room and headed toward the familiar beach in the hopes of understanding. Was I hallucinating or did I really see her again? I parked the car and walked down the bluff to the space of sand in front of the rock the held so many memories. There I sat. As I had done four years before on the night I discovered mermaids did in fact exist. I waited and waited, watching the stars twinkle in the vast blackness above me. Watching the white-capped waves crash against barriers they encountered. Watching for the silvery-blue tail to peek out of the water. I laid back on the sand, staring upward at the heavens. "Please, God. Give me a sign. Am I going crazy?" I prayed to the Man above. I heard a small splash in the ocean and sat up quickly, my eyes scanning the surface. There in the water a head bobbed with the flowing current. An arm rose from under the waves. "Thank you, God,' I whispered. I chucked off my sandals and careened toward the mirror-like ocean before me. "Seraphina!" I cried as I plummeted into the cool, night waters. I pulled myself forward in long strokes until I reached where the head bobbed. But as I should have known, it bobbed no longer. "Seraphina!" I called again. No answer. I wiped my wet hand down my face and sighed. "Nick, you are in desperate need of therapy," I muttered to myself. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Slowly, I turned around. A beautiful face greeted me. But it was not that of my mermaid. Long chestnut hair floated in the water around her, slicked back away from the golden-hued face that I gazed at. But this person did not have the ocean blue eyes of Seraphina. She had sparkling jade-colored orbs that shined like precious stones. She touched my cheek gently, long fingers dancing across my sun-flushed cheekbones. I grasped her hand in mine. "Who are you?" I questioned. "Femali," she answered in the lovely Ocetal language that I'd missed so much. "You are Nick," she stated. It wasn't a question, or even that of a half-question, but a direct statement. She knew who I was. "How did you know that?" I inquired, my eyebrows knitted in confusion. "There isn't much that a sister does not know about the man with whom her sister falls in love with," came her answer, a delicate smile playing on lips that looked so much like Seraphina's. "How is she?" I asked, taking Femali's other hand in mine. Femali cast her eyes downward to the rippling water around us. "Gone," she whispered. "What?" I questioned in disbelief. "How do you mean 'gone'? She's not dead, is she?" I searched Femali's face for answers, lifting her chin up so I could gaze into the twinkling emerald eyes. "No, Nick. Seraphina is not dead," Femali began. "But she might as well be," she finished. "I don't understand," I said. "What do you mean?" "She has been banished from Ocetal," she stated in hushed tones. "Banished? Why?" I inquired, holding Femali's head between my trembling hands. Soft fingers touched the onyx stone that dangled around my neck. "This," Femali said. "It's because of this that Seraphina in now banished from her homeland until her dying day." That's when I noticed the similar necklace hanging around Femali's slender neck. The dark black pendant sparkling under the light of the moon. I picked the ornament up between my fingers and looked at it carefully. Black. Nothing else. Just black. No scene of love or excitement repeated within the stone's interior. "How could this be the cause of her banishement?" I asked, once again searching Femali's facial features for answers. "These pendants are special to a mermaid. Each female merbabe is given this necklace at birth. Black with nothing special held with in the magical stone. When a mermaid takes a husband, a scene of momentous joy etches itself in the black ornament. It may be a kiss shared between the new couple. It may be one particular moment from the wedding celebration. Whatever it is it means much to the mermaid. At the end of the celebration, the necklace is taken from the mermaid and placed around the neck of her new husband. Forever binding them," Femali explained. "And since she gave it to me, she lost everything," I muttered, my eyes falling away from Femali's face. "Yes. She gave it to you knowing that she would be banished. She gave it to you because she loved you like she knew she couldn't love the merman that my mother would choose. She gave it to you to remind you what you passed up when you chose land instead of sea," Femali replied with bitterness in her voice. "Femali, tell me where she is. I have to see her," I ordered gently. She shook her head. "Please, Femali. I have to. To tell her how sorry I am. I never meant to hurt her and I never meant to be the cause of her banishement," I begged. "No! I will NOT tell you where she is, Nick! I can't!" Femali snapped. "You hurt her. Destroyed her really. And in the letter she had me deliver to you, it sounded as though she understood. But understand me, Nick. Seraphina will never understand why you just pushed her aside for a life that you didn't seem happy with." She paused, taking in a deep breath and glancing down at the dark waters. After a few mometns, she brought her gaze back to my eyes. Her eyes were sparkling with tears, a few sliding mutely down her cheeks. "When you hurt her, you hurt me. My sister has been banished and my mother forbids me to have contact with her. The only times I can see my sister are the times I sneak away from Ocetal under the penalty of my own banishment if I am caught. I can't have you destroy us anymore than you already have." Before I could say a word, she dove under the water, her bluish-green tail splashing the water in her wake. "Femali, I'm sorry!" I called after her, hoping she heard me and would give me the chance to see Seraphina and explain my remorse to her. I waited in the calm waters for a while longer, hoping beyond hope that Femali would come to me again. But alas, she did not. I trudged through the salty waves toward shore, my shorts clinging to my lower body and slowing my trek to the sand. So many thoughts overwhelmed my mind. And I didn't even know where to begin to sort through the swarm of delusions. To make some sense of everything that had happend in the last 24 hours and the last four years. With all these thoughts and the knowledge that sleep would not grace me with its presence tonight, I meandered down the white sands until the sun started peeking up from behind the ocean's horizon. The dawn grew brighter, the sky blossoming with beautiful shades of pink and violet, before making my way back to the car and back to my still slumbering bride. Quietly, I opened the heavy oak door to the honeymoon suite where my wife continued to sleep in peace. I placed my damp sandals by the door and rid myself of the sopping clothes that clung to my body. Slipping a pair of fresh boxers over my hips, I slid back into bed with Brynne, placing my arm across her body and feeling the soft rise and fall of her methodical breathing. "You okay, Nicky?" she murmured, stirring slightly under my renewed touch. "Fine, sweetheart," I whispered, kissing her temple lightly and stroking the soft flesh of her upper arm. "Where did you go?" she asked, her big azure eyes fluttering open to gaze into my eyes of the same color. "Just for a walk. That's all," I answered. Brynne nodded and leaned upward to plant a loving kiss on my lips. "You'd tell me if something was up,' wouldn't you?" she inquired, propping herself up on one arm. "Of course, Brynne. You're my wife. I wouldn't hide anything from you," I replied, pulling her close to me. I felt her snuggle closer to my chest as my heart was racked with guilt. 'I wouldn't hide anything from you?' Bullshit. I was hiding one of my biggest secrets from the person with whom I was bound to for the rest of my life. We cuddled together until my eyelids grew too heavy and I finally welcomed sleep. But even in slumber my dreams were haunted with images and memories of Seraphina. I could feel her lips against my fevered skin. Could feel her petite hands caressing my chest. Her tongue tracing patterns on my stomach follwed by a moist kiss. Her fingers running through my strands of saffron hair. My eyes opened to warm breath against my lips. Opened to the piercing blue eyes of Brynne as she tenderly woke me with a kiss. It wasn't my mermaid's hands or lips I felt on my skin. It was Brynne's. I kissed her back lightly, her tongue teasing my lips so they would part for a deeper kiss. I complied and for a few moments, we lost ourselves in the passion our kiss contained. "Join me in the tub?" she asked breathlessly when the kissed ended. I nodded dumbly, still swooning from our passionate lip-lock. She pulled herself upward off the bed and slowly slid the thin straps of her nightgown down over her sculpted shoulders. The silky material fell from her frame and pooled around her ankles in a puddle of floral cloth. I couldn't take my eyes off her. The slope of her neck to her shoulders. The ample breasts positioned perfectly on her chest. The flat, tonded stomach that lead to her slender hips and eventually her long, flawless legs. I watched her as she stepped one tiny foot into the bubbled water of the personal hot tub. Watched as she slowly submersed herself in the jet-filled tub. The legs disappeared. The curve of her buttocks sank out of sight. Only her shoulders still peered out from the frothy surface. I rose from the bed and shimmied out of my boxers, the material landing beside her discarded nightgown. I could feel her eyes drinking in my nakedness as I, too, submersed myself in the thrashing waters of the hot tub. She greeted me in a warm embrace, her lips delicately tasting the flesh of my neck in gentle kisses. I pulled her closer to me, my masculine hands caressing the satiny skin on her back, dlivereing my own kisses to her shoulders. My hand found her breast and I masaged the tenderness gently as she crushed her lips against mine. Her tongue fought to gain entrance into my mouth, our tongues battling each other's in a wild display of erotica. "God, Nicky. I love you so much," she gasped against the kiss. I sighed in agreement. Of course I loved her. And I would try to block the memory of Seraphina from my mind from now on. After all, it seemed as though I would never again see my mermaid. I had come to terms with the fact that she was out of my life indefinitely. I wrapped Brynne's legs around my hips and pushed her back against the hot tub's edge. I sought her out. Sought to be inside her. Sought to fill her with unexplainable pleasure. We moved together, our moans and pants, grunts and screams of ecstasy sounding like one in a chorus of impassioned emotions. The orgasm racked my body and I buried my face in the crook of Brynne's neck as she succombed to me. We returned to the bed where we both gave into sleep. Sleep that would replenish us after our exuberant display of love. Sleep that when I woke would change the course of our lives. |