A Merman's Tail

Chapter 25

A week into normalcy there was a huge storm out in our bay.  It seemed like everything was perfect and picturesque as usual the following morning, but we were about to find out that everything was far from OK.

Mitch and I were out in the bay heading for a small island in the Lab's speedboat when we had an unexpected visitor appear alongside the boat. 

"Fitz?" Mitch suddenly said loudly and I eased back on the throttle.  He sat on the side of the boat and then a voice from the water spoke.

"Sire." The voice said.  "Your Father is missing.  He named you his heir before the storm came and we lost him."

I stopped breathing.

That title meant that they had no hope of finding the King.  That Mitch was now the King of their community and had to return to the sea.  Mitch turned to me with anguish covering his face.  He appeared torn between me and his people but I knew there was no question he had to return.  "Go." I said shaking my head.  "You have to go Mitch.  Find him."

I wanted to help, but two people disappearing at sea and leaving an empty boat would bring nothing but unwanted attention to the reef system.  I watched as he threw off his clothes and ran a rushed hand through his hair. 

"Scott, I..." He stood shaking in front of me, concern flashing across his face.

I pulled him in to my arms and hugged him fiercely.  We kissed tenderly and then I whispered, "Goodbye." In his ear before he dove into the water.

He came up for a breath and waved, then dove for the ocean floor, his tail making one last splash on the top of the water before he disappeared into the blue.

My face crumpled and couldn't help the tears that began falling down my face, it felt like I'd been punched in the stomach and I couldn't keep my footing anymore.  I slid to the floor of the boat and sat there, my head hanging on my chest and my hands clasping empty air as I tried to clasp my last happy memories of Mitch.  I'd known this day was coming.  I'd tried to prepare my heart to accept the loss of Mitch.  But I hadn't known the hurt would be so intense.  As if someone had ripped me open and pulled out the part of me that loved him then slapped the two halves of my flesh back together again and expected me to survive.

In that moment I didn't want to.

I lost it, raising my face to the uncaring sun and shrieked out my anguish.  "Miiiiiiittttttttttcccccccchhhhhhhhhhh."

But of course there was no answer.

There had been a mediocre police investigation into the disappearance of my friend.  One suspicious Cop had tried to pin his disappearance on me, but everyone came to my defence and assured them I wasn't to blame.  When my sorrow neither changed nor left me, they accepted my explanation.  That Mitch had been swimming while I had been taking samples and had been taken by a shark.  I couldn't bear to throw his clothes overboard, so I'd given them a plausible explanation for him taking them off and another plausible explanation for him not being on the boat with me when I'd returned.

The Coroner returned a finding of "Death by Misadventure" and everyone expected me to get on with my life.

But I couldn't.

I holed up in the beach house and hoped for news.  I'd heard none of the calling birds reporting on the search for the missing King.  I neither knew, nor understood the language of the fish or the crustaceans that walked on the beach whispering of the destruction of homes under the reef.  There were more than one missing merperson after that fateful storm and though some had been found alive, there were also some who had been found who weren't.

Of the King there was still no sign.

As time passed, my hope of news grew more dim.  I stopped paying attention to myself and just sat on the beach, watching the horizon all day.  My mother showed up three weeks later, took one look at me and dragged me by the ear into the house.  She stood me in front of the mirror and made me take a good look at myself. 

The man in the mirror was a stranger.