A Murky Memory

The lone sailor let his head settle on his chest, stubble scraping the bare skin as his head bobbed asleep. Ninety-seven days on the sea had exhausted him thoroughly, and yet set him into a calm which he had never before experienced. Solitude was not his choice, but his fate. His wife of seventeen years, Meredith, had died at the hands of pirates the day before he left for sea. A beautiful, joyful woman with long, auburn red hair. A collector of treasures on the beach, in her daily spoils for seashells and pearls, one day she had accidentally brought home a pirate's medallion. The pirates had come and killed her violently two days later When he found her.... well, now he was going to avenge her.

Twelve days at sea in his rowboat he had cried salty tears into a salty ocean. The next twenty days he was silent, his face chapped red and dry from the sun. Somewhere around the seventieth day he had finally experienced a calm thought. Alone with his thoughts and meager rations the whole time, there was nothing but to think. The steady whipping of the sea and waves seemed to prohibit any one thought from sticking too long- for which he felt blessed, otherwise a single thought of his lost wife would surely overwhelm him.

The sea had, at least, lulled him into a soft calmness, and for the past twenty days he merely drifted at sea, existing, breathing, one with the ocean.

It was on the ninety-seventh night that he saw a light at sea. At first he feared the worst- pirates, come to take him to his own watery grave. He began to backpedal, rowing as fast as he could. But in minutes his weary mind realized that the light was coming from underwater.

How strange.

Mesmerized and confused- he knew of no life under the sea, no human civilization nor fish that produced a light- he stared at the light. For hours it did not move, and he watched it with his face drooping into his palms. At some odd minute he fell deep asleep.

The next day, he was sure he had dreamt the light. Exhausted, sun-baked, and ill-fed as he was, this made the most sense. Onward he drifted, his only company the steady sound of the wind and sea and his pocketknife forming an outline in his shorts.

He fell asleep knowing the same calmness he had been gifted, and was grateful for it. It was a kind of numbness, this lack of strong feeling.

The light came once again that night. Soft and dim under the murky sea, it hardly wavered in the light. Convinced he was dreaming, he pinched himself. Nothing happened, so instead he settled in and watched the night again, dreaming that it was a candle at that he was at home in his bedroom, reading by the candlelight, with his wife beside him...

The light moved closer. Hand shaking, he grabbed at his knife. Perhaps he had read about a kind of glow-fish that lived deep underwater- a carnivorous one.

The light retreated, and gradually he put the knife away and fell asleep once again.

On the third night, he found himself crying as the sun set, for reasons he could not understand. Perhaps he was not out of tears after all. The ocean cared not, and merely added his tears to its endless supply of salt water. Exhausted from his emotions, he was fully asleep when he was awoken by a bright, bright light.

He exclaimed aloud, covering his eyes. Blinking, he realized the light was not as bright as he thought, but rather a warm glow. Before him sat a lantern, balanced on the edge of his boat, and holding it, an impossibly real mermaid with flowing auburn red hair. Her skin was tinged with green and her shoulders glistened with water. He simply stared at her, his mouth gawking. She grinned at him. Her perfect teeth glistened as well in the light of the lantern.

"What are you?!" he exclaimed, crawling backwards in the boat.

She shook her head. "I am no threat to you, my dear." She lifted her other hand in a gesture of peace. Her fingers were long and smooth as seaweed.

He regained himself. "How can I be sure of that?"

She grinned again. "Wait one moment."

She pushed off from the boat and dove back into the water with a splash. The boat rocked, and he gripped the sides to steady it. He glimpsed a great gray fish's tail rise and dash beneath the surface. He could not believe he was at sea with a mermaid- surely he was again dreaming? He was briefly alone with the lantern, and as he stared at it, he faintly thought it could be the light from the water he had been dreaming of.

She appeared again as quickly as she left. Leaning over the side of the boat, she stretched out a hand with a closed fist, until it was a foot from him. Inside her open fingers was a large seashell made entirely of pearl- the most beautiful artifact, like nothing you could find on the beach.

"It looks like something Meredith would have loved."

She grinned wider than ever as he said this.

Confused, he suddenly had a thought. The way she called him "my dear", the color of her hair. "It couldn't be." he shook his head slowly. "Are you... were you my wife?"

The mermaid peeled her head back and laughed. The laugh was joyous, and oh so familiar. The man was frozen. Meredith hoisted herself all the way onto the ledge of the boat, and reached for his face with both hands. Tenderly, she pressed her wet lips into his mouth. "My husband." she said. "You have been out on the ocean far too long. Cease your revenge. You have found your fate here."

Kissing him, they both laughed joyously, and she pulled the sailor into the ocean.