The Tide

Chapter 15: Jane

Sage

“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

My head throbs at the pain of waking up. My joints ache from laying down for days at a time. Day three of not leaving the sofa. Pit and Marius both stay at my side catering to anything I need, but what I would really like would be to keep moving. I must be getting cabin fever but the thought of staying in this house much longer is driving me utterly mad. I know it is our safest bet to stay here and let me continue to heal. But I can’t stand it. Every day we stay here because of my idiotic mistake is another day we lose to get me to my home. And another day I keep Marius from returning to his home. I lift myself up onto my elbows and softly swing my legs over the edge of the sofa. My body feels like pudding as I stand up. Immediately my legs give out on me and I fall in a crumpled heap on the floor. The noise wake Marius who was sleeping soundly.

“Sage!!! I’m so sorry, are you alright? I knew I should have barricaded you so you wouldn’t roll off the bed in your sleep.” Marius exclaims rushing to my side.

“I got up myself I didn’t roll off in my sleep. Marius… I can’t stay here much longer. I think I’m going mad. Every time I close my eyes I dream of things that aren’t real.”

“Oh you can’t help that, we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” Marius smiles laying his hand across my forehead as if he was checking my temperature.

“Alice in Wonderland you quoted the Cheshire Cat. How could you do that..?” I ask completely astounded that he quoted one of my favorite books, my mother had no problem reading it to me since it was already a slightly grim and disturbed story.

“I am not illiterate Sage, I have read quite a few books in my lifetime.” He smiles.

“But how?”

“Oh Amor, every day we stumble upon something new I must teach you. We have books. Yes, books. Paper books that stay under the water with us. Our books are enchanted. They are unaffected but the water. Human literature is very entertaining and some of the human’s most beloved authors were part of the merpeople hierarchy. I’m sure you know who Charlotte Brontë is. She wrote Jane Eyre, she was betrothed to a merman, or mermaid I can’t remember. But it had to be kept a secret which is why many human historians thought she was a lone spinster. Your authors are weaved into the history of merpeople it is simply a secret.” Marius smiles.

I can do nothing but gawk at him. How many other writers were involved in what has to be the secret of the world, in which mermaids existed. How many other people aside from authors knew? Presidents? Celebrities? Artists? How many paintings of mermaids were actually just paintings and not snap shots of real life. How naïve everyone must have been. Seeing things that were true but not challenging the idea that it could be happening.

“Oh I see the gears in your mind turning.”

“This is just unfathomable. You quoted Lewis Carroll, then you tell me books can be enchanted so they can stay underwater. And as if that’s not enough of a surprise you tell me a writer which I love was to be married to a merman… or mermaid? I feel like I’m going to explode at the seams.”

So much information I have learned over the time I got hurt. All topics ranging from Marius’s family to enchanted novels. The mermaid world is even more complicated that my human world. With every new proclamation Marius reveals to me the more questions arise. I doubt I will ever know all that I need to about his world. But soon it will be my world to.

“I know what you were trying to do. You don’t want us to leave here. But we must. We will be safe in the truck. I need to leave this place.” The haunting memory of the infant corpse trickles into the back of my mind.