She was
back.
He still
remembered the first time he saw her. She stood on the other side of
the warm ice that never melts – glass as he had since learned to
call it. Small as she was, her eyes looked at him with a mature
earnestness he only came to appreciate later. Later, when he grew
sick of the gawking faces staring at him, pounding on the glass to
make him move. He was forced to endure their staring, as his prison
allowed him no privacy.
His
brother had done well in making sure that he could never return to
reclaim what was rightfully his. Cast into the net of the
earthwalkers he had been taken from his world to be put into this
prison, a captive, and an object of ridicule and disgust.
It was
the second day of his imprisonment only, when she walked through the
exhibition. He was confused, disoriented, and weak from the dead
water. He had only hatred for the earthwalkers who had put him into
this pond of ice. But the small earthwalker's serious gaze touched
him beyond his hatred. He looked at the creature, with her blond hair
and her ugly, ungainly body. Later he learned that the strange
shapelessness around her lower part were skirts. He did not
understand clothes, but as time went by he understood that the little
earthwalker was a young female.
She
looked up at him, stretching herself as if trying to reach to his
level. Finally she smiled, and put her hand on the glass. Then she
ran away and he was left with a strange sense of loss.
The next
day she was back, and the next and the next. They used to stare at
each other as if trying to read their minds. Then she spoke. He
initially did not understand the strange sounds out of water.
Merpeople sang and their melodies conveyed the meaning. The strange
blubbering the earthwalkers created held no sense for him, until the
girl began to teach him. He never talked much, finding it hard to
speak, but he understood well enough and enjoyed listening to her
chatter.
For many
days the girl came every day. Suddenly her visits ceased. He waited,
worried first, then in anger. When she came again he pretended not to
see her.
„Triton.
I am sorry. My grandmother became sick and Mother and I went to see
her. But now I am back. Triton?“
He
allowed himself to drift around to look at her. She smiled but he did
not smile back. Finally her face fell and water flowed from her eyes.
„Triton?
Why don't you speak to me? I am sorry but I could not tell you,
Mother would not allow me to visit you before we went to see Granny.“
Her
distress was so evident that he relented.
„What
is that water coming from your eyes?“
Her
lower lip wobbled. „Those are tears.“
„What
are they for? Merpeople do not have tears.“
„We
cry when we are sad. Sometimes we also cry when we are happy.“
„That
is a useless thing then, if I don't know why you cry.“
She
laughed at his incomprehension. After that her daily visits renewed.
His jailors, as he thought of the zoo keepers, sometimes joked about
her and as she grew older he understood that they made derogatory
jokes about her. The zoo keeper never learned about his ability to
talk and understand.
„Triton,
I won't be able to visit for a long time. I am going away to study.“
She looked excited at the prospect. He greeted the announcement with
silence. Her excitement was incomprehensible to him, he only
understood that she would no longer come to visit him.
„Do
you understand that?“
„I
understand, you're going away.“
„Yes.
But I will come back, I promise.“
“I
have to believe you.” He knew he was ungracious and he had no
reason not to believe her, but he felt, that something was different
this time. She had grown tall in the past years and now stood at his
own eye level when he raised his head above the surface. He thought
that her pale hair was lovely even if it lacked the green tint
merwomen's hair had. And with the clothes encasing her legs closely
she had almost as shapely a body as a mermaid. He also noticed that
male earthwalkers seemed to find that too – some things were
universal about all males. The way they leered after a female was
one.
He had
learned to reckon the time after earthwalker standards. He knew that
his imprisonment had already lasted fourteen years. He was almost old
enough to take the challenge – but his brother had seen to it that
he'd have no competition. Even if his people knew that Triton was
alive, they would consider him dead.
And now
she was back. Another three years had passed and he immediately
noticed the way she had changed. He also saw the way her companion, a
young male, kept looking at her. There was one who considered her
his.
The
merman lashed with his tail, sending waves crashing through his tank.
A spray hit the young man in the face.
“Triton,
that's Kent. He is a student friend. Kent and I have a plan. How
would you like to return to the sea?”
For a
moment he pressed his hands against the glass. Back to the sea! How
he had dreamed of that possibility at the beginning of his captivity.
But he had resigned himself years ago to its futility.
“I
would love that,” he said, making it sound like a favour. He wasn't
about to let on how much he desired it, not in front of this
earthwalker male.
“Kent
and I will get you out. But we haven't yet been able to find a tank
big enough to transport you.”
“I
don't need water to breath, just to keep my skin wet. How far away
from the sea are we?”
“Two
hours driving.” Kent smiled at the girl and put an arm around her
shoulder. “I will drive you there.”
Triton
made a flip backwards and considered this. He didn't like Kent and he
could sense that the earthwalker didn't like him either. So why would
he want to help him? Then it hit him and he almost smiled. Jealousy.
For whatever reason, Kent wanted him out of the way. Which was fine
with him.
It was a
foolhardy thing to do, but several nights, a wheelbarrel ride and a
truck drive later Triton could smell the salty tang of the sea. The
girl flipped the heavy plane aside and there she was, glittering
under a pregnant moon – his world, the sea. He heaved himself
across the wooden floor of the truck to the back. The truck stood
right at the edge of a jetty, and Triton just needed one flip of his
tail to catapult himself into the water.
Its
cold, its life, its freshness came as a shock and for a moment he
just drifted. Then, with a few strong stokes of his tail he shot off,
cutting through the water like a dolphin. His burst of speed,
however, was short lived, as he rapidly tired. His captivity had
taken its toll on his fitness. He turned back toward the jetty, where
the girl stood, crying.
He
raised himself on his fluke. “Why are you crying?”
“I am
happy for you. I am sad. I don't know.”
Triton
suddenly felt a similar confusion. He should be only too happy to be
back where he belonged. But now that he was here, he understood that
this was a final goodbye.
“Will
I see you again?”
“No .I
don't think so. I will move to another town far away from the sea.”
She looked at Kent, who took her hand and smiled at her.
“Goodbye,
Triton.”
They
turned away and got into the truck. Triton watched them drive off and
then with one flip of his tail arched out of the water, turned and
raced out into the open sea.
She
didn't come back again. Triton stayed in the vicinity of the bay
while he built up his strength. He needed to be in prime condition
when facing his brother. But he dawdled far longer than necessary and
only the upcoming competition got him to leave.
But once
every moon he returned to the jetty, telling himself he did so only
out of remembrance.
Almost a
year later, when his head broke the surface he already knew that she
was sitting there, on a stone bollard, her feet dangling, tears
dripping into the sea.
He was
strong now, having bested his brother, so he rose on his fluke until
he was face to face with her, She opened her arms to him almost the
same moment he opened his. She fell, and he caught her, pressed her
against his wet, cool chest.
“Take
me with you,” she whispered. He sank back to the surface, and then
swam, on his back, his arms wrapped around her until he felt she was
getting cold. When he sat her back onto the bollard she protested.
He
smiled. “There is still a barrier between us. As much as I would
like it to go away, it will always be there. But I will be here
whenever you come to see me.”
She
moved to a house on the cliffs and turned writer and illustrator. Her
stories about the sea and the creatures living in it became famous.
In time she found another man and Triton mated with a merwoman. Their
children played together in the purling surf and then her
grandchildren with his children.
On a
balmy night in summer she climbed down to the beach, painfully and
slowly. Her beautiful pale hair had gone white long ago but her face
bore the ravages of time gracefully. Triton awaited her, still
looking as young as the day she met him.
“Show
me your world. Once I wish to see what you have told me about.”
“You
cannot survive down there.”
She just
smiled at him. “I know.”
She held
her arms out to him once again and he wrapped her in his embrace. He
took her into his world, and from time to time he kissed her,
breathing air into her lungs. But he could not warm her against the
bitter cold of the sea. Way down, amongst the glimmering creatures of
the ever dark deep they exchanged one last kiss.
“Thank
you.” The air bubbles carried her final words away. Triton sang her
onto her last voyage and laid her body to rest among the corals, to
become part of the world they had never shared while she was alive.
Copyright text and images Pat Piper
