Ocean Blue

Chapter 2

"Anything happen while I was gone?"

Keith hesitated. He liked Shiro. He wanted to trust him. The question was, could he? "There was a lost circus that passed through. I helped them get to the road."

"Oh?"

"They had a mermaid. Merman. Whichever."

Shiro snorted.

"What?"

"Mermaids aren't real, Keith."

"Then how do you explain the one in their fishtank?"

Shiro waved a hand. "There's always a trick to it. Probably a person in a suit."

"Underwater?"

"Double walled glass. They pour water in the crack in-between, and it looks like they're underwater."

"He was swimming!"

"Sure. There's a platform in the tank, also made of glass. It holds him up, he does some swimming motions, and presto, you have a mermaid."

Keith crossed his arms. "It was real."

Shiro gave a little laugh. "Alright, then. Why are you so determined to believe in the mermaid?"

"When... when I was out on the ocean... floating on that bit of wreckage... I saw..." Keith hesitated, unwilling to admit to what he'd been fighting himself on. "I saw a merman. At least... I thought I did. I wasn't sure. It was pretty far along, and- well, I might have been hallucinating, but..."

"Sure. Okay. You saw a mermaid."

"I think it's the same one."

"I think you're reading too much into this."

Keith smiled wanly at him. "Sure. You're probably right."

"Just forget about the mermaid. If you want, you can come out on the ocean with me tomorrow."

"Sounds great."

Shiro smiled. "Right, then. Get some sleep, okay? I'll be waking you up at the crack of dawn." He yawned and stretched. "I'm beat. See you in the morning."

"'Night."

Keith waited until Shiro's breathing turned to snores, then opened the door quietly, slipping out and latching it behind him. "I'm sorry, Shiro."

He moved like a shadow across the beach, clambering up the cliff paths and slipping into town, silent as the wind. He snuck into the circus tent, quickly finding the fishtank and knocking on the glass.

The merman surfaced, resting his head and arms on the side of the tank. "What do you want?"

"I know you, don't I."

The merman flipped his tail casually. "I don't know. Do you?"

"You were out on the ocean, and- it was you, I know it! You remember me?"

The merman gave him a bored look. "All of you humans look the same to me. Pudgy, pink, tailless freaks who kidnap innocent mermen just minding their own business and shove them in tanks." He gave Keith a glare. "And then wake them up when they try and sleep in said tanks, which is hard in and of itself, thank you. You're no different from the rest to me."

"Fine. I'll be leaving, then." Keith wheeled around to go.

"No, wait, don't leave!" the mermaid sounded a bit panicked now, "Come on! I pushed your stupid bit of wreckage to the port, you owe me one!"

Keith paused. "What?"

"Yeah, fine. You saw me out on the ocean. I found you a couple of days later and pushed your stupid raft to shore. Favor for favor. Get me back to the ocean, and we'll call it even."