Two Worlds

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