Shimmering Scales

         The sun was starting to go down on the horizon. I could see all the other little fish popping here & there under the glow of the sunset across the lake. A late night dip always clears my head when I can't figure it out on a daily basis. laying there floating on my back in the steady breathing mom taught me years ago to stay afloat.



I could feel the little fishies nibbling at my back and feet, the cirlce of life always made me smile. Meanwhile, as I lay there calm and collect in this somehow perfect motionless abyss, I witness something splash out of my periferal vision. Just as soon as I turned to reveal what it was, nothing but the sound of fizzy bubbles & the ripples running as fast as they can to tell the rest of the lake where they came from. I hear it again, only this time it was a few feet behind me, "Okay you really need to stop that now!" I called out, ruining the fact that I was in fact terrified at this point, Jaws had always scared me as a child, and I was not ready to be a cliche statistic.



I began to swim to the edge of the dock. There it was again, once more just out of sight, only this time, I swear I heard what was a faint giggling sound. My heart was pounding through my throat. "Please whatever you are, just don't kill me." I tried making myself laugh at these types of situations I have always claimed such an 'open mind' for, but they scared me just the same as everybody else. I reached the edge of the dock, I was panicing in my swimming at this moment.



Just as I reached the dock and put my hand out, I noticed another hand holding mine down. The hand was a womans, followed by a sound. The sweetest thing I ever heard, "Please don't leave me." I slowly kicked my feet to spin around to reveal a mezmerizingly radiant woman holding my hand and keeping me afloat. "Please don't hurt me." I didn't realize what to think, as I pleaded for my life not knowing what this woman was doing frightening me a this hour.



"I've been watching you." Her voice was not hurtful, as she traced her fingertips on my chest as we floated there like lovers in a pool. Her touch was electric and slimey, giving me chills to my bones in no way that a woman had ever touched me. She wasn't a regular woman. She curled her fingers around mine and then she let go and swam backwards a few feet. She seemed to have flippers on, where as her beautifully nude top half was exposed to her bellybutton. There must have been some way she was keeping afloat so high with such minor effort.



She shimmered in the gloss of the sunset. Her dark brunette hair seemed to be flowing as freely as it does underwater. She was nearly invisible when she was in the water.  I could see scales on parts of her. My heart skipped a beat, realizing what was happening. Just as I witnessed what color her scales were, she disappeared under the water to reveal a massive, blue & green glittering, extravagant monster of a tail and brought it down to splash me. I wiped my eyes and she was gone. I sat there in the water for a few minutes. "Hello?....Where are you?....WHO are y-" I was quickly cut off by soft, slimey, scaley finger shushing me from underneath.



I could feel her lips on my chest. She surfaced just mere inches from my face. I could smell the world on her. "I never believed in mermaids-", she shushed me one last time to kiss me. This kiss was like a shot of adrenaline that kept you calm, a hit of morphine that zanged you up, this kiss, was the kiss you were told about in fairy tales. The one that you always go back to when you kiss forever after that. She was soft and gentle.



Her tongue was the softest thing I'd ever felt. I felt like I was ready to sink and leave forever. The funny part, is that I wouldn't have cared at that moment. This kiss lasted for an eternaty, but once she stopped, she was holding my face and staring into my eyes. "Well we believe in you..", she whispered so soft I could hear the heartbeats of other creatures.  She never even bothered to say goodbye, she just looked into my eyes and flapped her tail into the air and I never saw her again. I never looked at a body of water the same  way for the rest of my days.