I don't know what drove me to buy the ticket to Aqua World. I stepped in the cool aquarium from the hot midday of the June weather. I slid my backpack off to take out my ticket I purchased online and walked to the check in desk. I slid my ticket under the plastic pane to the receptionist, a woman with long black nails. She boredly took my ticket, scanned it, and gave it back to me. She went back on her phone and waved me away.
I quicken my pace through the familiar exhibit tunnel, I kept my head down, avoiding to stay in the tunnel too long. Will the merboy still be there, I wondered. Will he remember me? It had been a week since I last saw him last Saturday. Will he remember my face after seeing more than a million faces from all over the world in a week to see him? I had to avoid bumping into people as I made my way to the mer section–the largest section here and I turned right, stepped into a giant, glass globe. I felt like I stepped inside a giant snow globe, but instead of snow, mers floated around.
I walked over to the familiar spot where I last saw the merboy, but he was nowhere seen. Disappointed and slightly worried, I searched around the massive aquarium. There was a huge crowd gathered before a trainer in a scuba suit, submerged in the aquarium. In this part of the globe, it was closed off with acrylic panes on either side of the trainer, isolating only the trainer and a small mergirl. This prevents the trainer from being attacked by older and stronger mers.
The trainer was commanding a young mergirl to do a flip. The mergirl obeyed. She performed an elegant back roll. Her hot pink tail trailed back over her long blond hair then righted herself up. Everybody cheered and wow-ed. The trainer smiled broadly and mimicked a bow underwater, as if he performed the trick himself and not the mergirl. The young mergirl did not bow, but stood still and stared at the crowd with uttered sadness on her face. She was so young... I would guess she was just six or seven years old. She was just a child...
A movement occured out of the corner of my eyes and I swiveled to it.
There he was.
The merboy was floating before me in the aquarium once again. His black hair moved mystically and his sea green eyes gleamed with curiosity. He swam up to the glass pane methodically and floated down to meet me at eye level. I sucked in a breath, forcing myself to breath. He was close, closer to me than he was last time I was here, and he was beautiful, inhumanly beautiful. Up close, I could spot a small cluster of translucent blue scales on his cheekbones and on his broad shoulders. He was no boy, but a young man. A merman. He looked maybe a few years older than me–older than seventeen–but no older than twenty.
The man studied me hesitantly. He must not trust me. My stomach lurched from that thought. Why should that bother me? My kind, the human race, captured them and forced them to live in glass prisons. We stole their freedoms.
I moved closer and smiled somberly. I hesitantly waved at him. He waved back. I jolted in surprise. I hadn't expected him to wave back. He remembered me. I'm probably smiling like a total goof.
He scrunched his brows and gave me a quizzical grin. Probably thinking how stupid I must look now. I wish he could talk, but according to scientists that studied them and the Aqua World's brochure, mers cannot speak nor be able to respond to any form of communication. That didn't stop my curiosity when I shrugged off my leather backpack and set it next to me when I sat on the bench that faced the aquarium. I rummaged into my pack, searching. The merman floated closer out of curiosity. I pulled out my worn sketchbook and a pencil.
I twisted my back, casually checking around to make sure nobody was paying attention to us. The crowd was too occupied with the trainer and the mergirl. I opened my sketchbook to a clean page and began to write.
The scientist had basically stated that the mers were just animals with no coherent communication skill. But I did not believe that for one second. When I looked into the merman's eyes, there is undeniable intelligence. I set my pencil down and checked around me once more. Safe. I raised my sketchpad for him to read my message.
'Can you read?'
My hands tightened. It could go two ways; one, he can't read or two, he doesn't want to reveal the fact that he can read. Why would he have any desire to even dare to communicate with a silly human girl? I snuck a peak at the merman. His sea green eyes scanned the sketchpad and then he stared at me, watching me intently. The hairs on the back of my neck stood erectly.
What was I doing? Of course they can't read. They couldn't have been able to acquire humans' reading materials such as papers and books under the sea much less learn to read them. I felt like an idiot with this revelation. I sighed heavily as I withdrew the notebook. Just as I was closing the notebook, the merman waved his hands with a controlled urgency, enough to avoid attention from bystanders, but enough to catch my attention. I lifted my eyes to meet his green ones.
He nodded.
My breath hitched and my eyebrows in shock. Yes? He can read? I grinned at my discovery as I quickly turned to a new page on my sketchpad. A thought occurred to me, just because they can't have books doesn't mean they don't have other sort of reading materials. They must have come across artifacts from hundreds of shipwrecks. The mers must've learned our languages. Some scientists predicted that mers have existed before the human race was ever born... My erratic thoughts trailed off. Maybe we, humans, learned languages from the mers. I shook my head, attempting to squash my overly thrist to knowing everything.
Eagerly, I began writing on a new page and jotted 'My name is Meredith. What is your name?' I showed him my question. He smiled. Good god... That smile made his face - if possible - more stunning. He bowed to me. I flushed as butterflies fluttered in my core. He opened his mouth and his lips moved. Was he saying something? No... they can't talk. He was lip-syncing something. He was trying to tell me something. I focused harder at the way he mouthed his words and harder to not be distracted by his plump lips.
His mouth slowly shaped the words. "Nice to meet you too." He neared even closer to me and his lips moved. I squinched my eyes as I tried to make out what he was saying. Maybe he was trying to tell me his name... I desperately tried to lip read and I was so focused that I didn't realize we were no longer alone.
A group of family shuffled between merman and I. I quickly casted my eyes away from him and feigned interest in my sketchbook as I casually flipped to a new page, hiding my previous message. I looked under my eyelashes at the merman. He had his eyes closed as he dozed away against the coral that held him like a cradle, pretending to be asleep. The family snapped their photos of the merman with their phone and the two little girls pressed their faces against the glass pane, staring at him.
After ten minutes and a dozen photos of the merman later, the family finally left. I left out a sigh in relief that they hadn't suspected that I was communicating with him. The merman slightly cracked open one eye and when he realized that the family was gone. He uprighted himself and sighed, expelling a trail of bubbles that floated to the top. His eyes searched for me as he neared the glass and met mine. He smiled.
My stomach somersaults and I smiled back.
I pointed at him and mouthed, "What is your name?" I had really wanted to know his name. I wanted to put a name on his face. Knowing a person's name can make them instantly feel real and take a permanent part of your life.
The merman puckered his rosy lips, contemplating. His face lit up with an idea. He beckoned me to come closer. I stood up slowly as to not attract attention as I looked over both my of shoulders to make sure no one saw him waving me over. Everybody was too busy looking through their phone screen.
I turned to him and he waved me over once more so as he floated to the sand at the bottom of the aquarium. He grinned mischievously. My knees weakened. How much closer does he want me to be? I lightly snorted. If he told me to run into the glass of the aquarium with that smile of his, I would gladly run into it.
The merman turned his attention to the sand at the bottom and dipped his pointer finger in the full sand and began to drag his finger in the dunes. He was writing his name. I barely contained myself from smashing my face to the glass to eagerly read his name. His floating body blocked his name so I waited till he moved away.
"Tristen."
It read Tristen.
I grinned as I curtsied to the merman, Tristen. I mouthed his name. "Tristen."
Tristen grinned back, little bubbles then escaped his mouth as his shoulders slightly shook. He was chuckling. He then swam closer which sent butterflies in my stomach in an erratic frenzy. Tristen laid his palm on the glass pane.
I raised my hand and lay it over his, just as I had the last time I visited him.
He smiled softly.
I smiled back.
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Model: Toni Mahfud
Designed by me (Added filter with photoshop and typography with Illustrator)
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