Excerpts Of Stories That Don't Exist

The Mermaid

I hear the noon bell whistle as I run down the deck. Breathing hard I push myself harder as I can see the boat slowly moving away.

Going for it I take a deep breath and jump off the deck and wait for impact.

With a thud I groan and turn over onto my back. Looking up into the blue sky as the sun shines into my face.

"You're late boy!" Cap yells as I stare up at him craddling my right arm. "I don't know how many times I have to tell ya!" He kept on as he went under the boat. I could hear his muffled voice but the words didn't register as I sat up.

Looking back at the harbor I smile as I realize I made the jump. Standing I look over at Ray. He's one of three crew members on this old fishing boat.

The name on the side has worn over the 35 years its been in the water but it did say Queen of the Sea at one point. Now all it says is Quen f h sea. It doesn't matter anymore though, no one uses boats here anymore. Not since the battle of Dunkirk.

Even though it's been almost 30 years, we were still rebuilding. Our cities, our homes, and most of all our hearts.

Anyway, back to the present. Ten miles from shore I threw my net over the side of the boat. Ray was throwing his over across from me and Mike, the third member of our crew is controlling the boat.

I'm the youngest, only 17. The others have their own families to take care of. I'm only here to get money so I can take care of my mom, she's sick, and I'm all she has left.

You see, my father faught in the battle of Dunkirk, but he didn't make it. They told us that he was hit by one of the many bombs dropped on the beach.

Sighing I look over the waters edge and grab the rope pulling up the net. Dumping out the entirety of the fish I had I turn and put the net back in the water. Looking over the top of the water I thought I saw something moving in the underneath. Peering over the edge of the boat I search the water.

Jumping back, I trip over the rope that's tied off on the floor of the boat. Mike and Ray turn to look at me.

"What the bloody hell!" Ray shouts walking towards me. Grabbing my arm, he helps me up. "What in God's name are you doing!?"

I point to the water, and he leans over looking for what I could have sworn was a face. "I saw, a face. A girls face? I said looking over to Mike, and back to Ray. They share a look and Ray smiles.

"Come on kid. Stop messin' around and get back to work."

"I'm not messin' around. I'm being serious." I exclaim as they both go back to their posts. Ray pulling up his net, and Mike controlling the boat. "I swear!"

"No you don't kid!" Mike yelled over his shoulder.

Ray smiles as he looks in my direction. "We're 15 miles from shore kid! You ain't seeing no girl in the water."

"How do you know?"

"What are you ignorant?" He looked around us arms extended into the air. "No man or women could swim 15 miles from the beach and still be alive right now."

I turn back to my net ignoring Ray's comments. He didn't she her, so why would he believe me." I pull up the net and pour out the fish. Sighing I look back over the boat and place the net in the water.

It seems that it got caught on the side of the boat, so I reach down into the water. Grabbing the net I yank on it, but to no avail does it come lose. I let go and the net stays underwater.

"Hey, Ray!" I yell leaning back over into the water pulling on the net some more.

"Hey kid!" I shake my head as I can hear him walking over to me. "What do you need?" He asks as I stand back up, withdrawing my hand from the murky depths of the water.

"It's stuck." I exclaim.

"What's stuck?!" He yells confused as he leans over the boat.

"The net."

"You mean this." Ray stands up and hands me my net. I watch as he smiles and heads back to his side of the boat.

Looking over the boat into the water I can see what looks like a girl smiling, but it can't be...right? Shaking my head I tell myself that I'm seeing things. That I hit my head a little too hard when I jumped into the boat.

"What do we got?" I stiffen and turn to see cap coming up from the bottom of the boat. So I quickly dump out my net and throw it back into the water.

When I look back at the water she's gone.

"Kid. What do you got?"

"Eighteen, Cap!"

"Ray!? What about you?"

"Twenty two, sir."

"Ten more minutes. Then we're heading back."

I turn back to my net and pull it out of the water dumping five more fish onto the deck. As I put the net back into the water I stood up and the boat started to rock.

"Hey Mike! Keep her steady would ya!" Ray yells from behind me.

Sighing I turn to start putting the fish into the buckets, when the boat moves right out from under me.

I heard a splash and then silence as water fills my ears. Opening my eyes I see the bottom of the boat, and then girl I had been seeing.

Only she was only half of a girl, the other half was a fish. Her long brown hair was in waves around her. As she smiles at me I swim towards her only for her to swim away. She tilts her her in confusion, but swims a little closer to me. Touching my face she looks into my eyes.

"Your a boy." I panicked and swim away from her. Needing air to breath I swim to the surface.

Gasping for breath I can see Ray looking over the edge of the boat. "Mike! Over here!"

Mike ran to the edge of the boat and was helping Ray lift me out of the water.

Taking in deep breaths as I lay on the deck looking up into the sky. I think back to the girl, she spoke to me without even speaking. How is that possible? How is she possible?

All I know is that, I need to see her again. I need to find out what she is, and how.