Age anxiety and fish trouble - Chapter 14

Love in the Water

Friday

I wake up in the middle of the night again with a burning sensation in my leg and I am quick to stop the transformation. Today I will wait with the transformation until after work. After a while I fall asleep again even though I feel restless.

At 7 o'clock I get up as usual and eat my breakfast and then go to work. I choose not to bring any food because I finish at 14 and intend to take the bus to Verkö or thereabouts and change there. I know there are fish in those waters.

It's full of people in the museum on this last day before most of the permanent staff go on vacation. There is a lot to be done to make it as easy as possible for the interns to work. I show how the cash register works to whoever will be sitting there during the summer.

The janitor lubricates the elevator so that it makes less noise and some objects are dusted off. The eight-legged calf is moved to a new place where it is more visible and people can find it without having to look a lot.

I clean my office and make sure everything is in order. At 2 pm I finish and I wish everyone a happy summer. They wish me a happy summer back.

I go down to the bus stop in the center where all the buses go and then I wait for a suitable bus. It will be bus 3 and I get off at Gullberna. I go over to the forest that is by Gullberna and enter there.

It is green everywhere and several birds are singing in the forest. It is very peaceful. When I'm halfway down the forest walk, I see Lyckebyfjärden glistening. It is very difficult to reach where the water is so I choose to continue.

When I get almost to the newly built houses, I stop. Here there are several places where you can jump into the water. I put my key in the plastic wallet and hang it around my neck. Then I take off my clothes and put them in a bag. I hide the bag in a tree and if someone were to see it, I hope they leave it alone.

I go into the water but don't transform yet. Instead, I walk a bit and try to find a place that is reasonably hidden from view. Finally I find a good spot where you can barely see the path I recently walked on. This is going to be good, I think.

The transformation is really really fast. It's almost as if the scales and fishtail explode from me. It does nothing for me. Better it goes fast than really slow. Also, it doesn't hurt anymore. A little burning in the legs and then... nothing. It would have been difficult if it took a long time and also hurt a lot.

Once transformed, I begin to swim away from the path and out into the open sea. There are no boats out right now and I steer my way towards Knösöudden where I was bitten by that funny fish.

At Verkö, I see some boats driving around, but I dive further below the surface and they definitely don't see me. I actually hunt a perch and catch it and eat it. It is very good and I am happy with the first fish today. It doesn't take long for another perch to appear and I hook it up as well.

There you go. So the food was fixed.

I have good speed on the fish tail and soon I am at Knösöudden where Tony and I fished. There are a lot of fish in the water here but no mermaid. I sigh in disappointment. Just as if it would be that easy to find her.

I instinctively make a sound that I guess will attract the mermaid and then I wait. There will be an echo after a while or wait.. I actually got a reply! I shout again, A shrill sound that to human ears would sound like Jiiiiii. A fish swims by quickly and I'm going to catch it when…

- Mine!

The mermaid quickly grabs the fish and takes it into her mouth and eats it. Then she looks up at me and smiles.

- Hello there! I guess it was you I heard recently.
- Yes, it was me.
- What a nice voice you have.
- Thanks. You also have a nice voice, I think.

The mermaid crouches and seems to be happy. She is about the same height as me and has Brown-Red scales that sparkle even under the surface and a large fish tail that is dark gray. She doesn't have big breasts but that doesn't matter. I see she has gills at her neck just like me. The side fins seem a little smaller than mine.

- You are new here. Haven't seen you before.
- Yes. I was bitten by a fry of yours almost two weeks ago.
- Fry? We have no fry. We give birth to live young. What did it look like?
- Mostly like a normal fish but it was almost rainbow colored and had a head that looked like a human's. Me and another person fished near here and got it on the bait so to speak. The fish bit me and I dropped it in the water. I think it survived.
- I haven't seen a single one of us that has that color and as you describe it, it couldn't have been any extra people anyway.
- But what was it then? My transformation happened a week and a day after the bite and before that I had a fever and got these on my neck.

I point to my gills so she will understand.

The mermaid shrugs. She doesn't seem to have seen the fish in question.

- Oh well. Now you're here anyway and you seem nice and…

She swims closer to me and gently sniffs my scales. Her eyes widen like saucers and she seems to take a deep breath. After a while she is down by my fishtail and sniffs. She moves a bit jerkily with nervous quick movements of her tail.

Soon she is in front of me again. She gives me a really big hug and whispers; I have found my beloved.

- Huh What? Your beloved? We have just met.

The mermaid doesn't answer but smiles lovingly at me. She seems to think for a while but then shows a sly smile.

- Shall we swim in a race?
- Well, why not.

We choose to swim from point A to point B as fast as we can. Whoever wins gets... well, we haven't decided that, but there will be a little competition between us.
The mermaid makes a sound that means start and she begins to swim. I'm right next to her and start at the same time. I'm the fastest. She doesn't seem to take it negatively at all, but seems very impressed by my effort.

A few times she brushes against my side fins and I almost feel a little embarrassed. She also makes a sound reminiscent of a cat purring.

I show the mermaid my trick as I jump high into the air. She seems to have never done it before but after a few times she is really good at it.

We jump really high and both scream with joy. There is no one around so we don't have to take into account any ships and other things. A few seagulls scream in a race with us and we laugh a little at them at the surface.

While we are there at the surface, panting from the effort, I hear a funny sound coming from just below us in the water. The mermaid also reacts and we dive down to check what it is that sounds.

It doesn't take long before we find the cause of the noise. It's that fish I caught that bit me when I was fishing with Tony. I point to the fish so the mermaid looks and shows as a bite with her hand. We go up to the surface again.

- It was that one that bit me.
- We have to investigate and find out what it is. I'm good at catching things.

The mermaid dives down again and I don't know if I should dive after her but wait until she comes back. After a while I also dive down. The mermaid is chasing the fish there in the water. It takes a while but eventually she manages to catch it. Her claws accidentally puncture the fish's skin, but no blood flows out. We look at each other

What is this thing?

The mermaid grabs hold of the fish with her claws again and spikes it so it hangs on her claws and cannot escape. Then she swims towards a smaller island that is nearby.

Once there, she throws the fish up on land. It tries to get back into the water and the mermaid accidentally pops its stomach open. But instead of entrails, a lot of small mechanical parts of metal and plastic come out. It wasn't even a real fish.

Both the mermaid and I are shocked by what we see. She sniffs for a long time at the now "Dead" fish.

- It smells exactly like we do. It shouldn't be able to do that.

I inspect the fish's teeth and it looks like they have a tough mass on them. I show it to the mermaid. She sniffs the pulp.

- That's blood and gunk from a merman, just like you. They must have smeared their teeth with it but where did they get it from? I haven't seen a merman in years and yet I've been looking like crazy.
- How can it affect me so that I am transformed?
- It really shouldn't. A while ago I certainly wished that…

The mermaid falls silent and looks at me worriedly. It seems she can't say what she wants. However, I am calm and ask her calmly.

- What did you wish for?
- That I would meet a merman who would suit me and then finally get to mate and have children together and..
- But but but wait a little here now. Meet me I understand but kids? I don't know if I'm ready for that yet.
- Mating season starts tomorrow. We have to hope for the best, right?

She smiles happily at me. I don't really feel happy about what I'm hearing but I still want to be positive and not scare her away. It must be her fault that I was transformed but somehow I still have some positive feelings about the transformation. It has changed my life and not for the worse. I've started to feel things.

I stare at the fake fish lying there on the little rock. Then I catch sight of something and sharpen my eyes. Sure enough, it looks like there's something right at the end of the fish's tail. I pick it up and examine it carefully. Yes, it says something there.

Sverker industri Karlskrona LTD.

I recognize the name but can't quite place it right now. I show it to the mermaid and she hisses at the fish. She grabs its eyes and pulls hard. A small mini camera rolls out. Before I can react, she smashes the small camera against the rock. The camera breaks into a thousand pieces.

We both turn quickly and scout for any intruders.

- They may not have live feed on their cameras.
- Really can't hope so, but we shouldn't be here right now.
- No. They might start looking for their fish soon and then we shouldn't be here.

We decide to swim away from here and I have an idea. Together we swim towards Verkö. We see some smaller boats that are heading where we came from but we are still under the surface until they have passed.

Soon we will arrive at Gullberna, where I went into the water and was transformed. We chase each other underwater for a while but I'm starting to feel a little tired and excuse myself.

- You know. It was great meeting you even though you made me change but I feel like I want to go home and think a little and sleep. Maybe I can find information about the people who made the fish.
- Yes, but it's calm. I'm also going ashore to fix a few things. Shall we meet here tomorrow?
- Absolutely. At 10 o'clock?
- It will be as good as it gets.
- What's your name by the way?
- My mermaid name is Iiiiiaaa and as a human my name is simply Fia. What's your name?
- As a merman, I don't know my name yet, but my usual name is Kenneth.
- Nice name.
- So Fia. How old are you anyway?
- I,m 52 And you?
- I,m 50 years
- Good then.

I show her where I transformed and soon become normal again. She also turns into a human and together we go up to the path. No one has touched my bag and it turns out she also had a bag near where I had mine. We both giggle at the situation.

She walks away towards the newly built houses while I walk away towards the forest and finally the bus stop after the forest. I'm tired and almost doze off on the bus.

Once back in the town I walk with tired feet up to where I live. When I get into the apartment, I throw myself on the bed and it doesn't take long before I fall asleep. What day!