The Myth of Delicate – Part Two

March 30, 2013 by Debb Stanton 4 Comments

She felt an electrical sensation course through her whole body, almost as if she had been zapped by an eel.  She went to scratch an itch on her thigh, but her thigh wasn’t there anymore.  Neither was her other leg. 

What is this? she murmured.  Scales?

“But I don’t want to be a mermaid!”  Delicate screamed to the pounding surf.

“WHY NOT?”  the sirens swam to her from behind a large rock.  They, of course,

found themselves to be perfect and wanted to be mermaids, nothing more, nothing less.

“Because I don’t want to lure people to me so they can crash into the rocks.  I have to be different!  Maybe I could save people from storms…”

The older, gray-looking mermaids clucked their tongues and found it hard to believe that this person was sooooo sweet.  And why would she want to help people?   They took tail and set off for the other shoreline.  Anything to get away from this weirdo!

Delicate decided to plunge to the deepest sea level she could get to, somewhere where she could sit and do some deep thinking.  She reveled in the fact that she didn’t have to hold her nose when she swam underwater now.    She was like a…..

“FISH?”  Delicate tried to stand up but something held her back.  It was…

“A TAIL?  I have a fish tail?  Am I a mermaid?”  Delicate became more and more happy about being someone new.  Maybe this way she could swim out to where her old love was, on the sea, and she could talk to him again.  Oh, if only!

As Delicate grew older in years her tail became an irresdescent hodge-podge of bright colors, 100 times brighter than a rainbow trout.    This helped sailors to see her and avoid the rocks in times of great fog.  In fact, her sunny, positive influence on anyone around her made the foghorns sound beautiful.  Instead of one deep tone followed by an even lower tone, the horns sounded a high note and then an even higher trill.   Her presence was unmistakeable.

Ah, yes, you are wondering if she found her man?  That she did.   He swam with her every day and usually was by her side.  Though he did not become a merman, his lung capacity increased by 50 percent.

And if you are ever on a dock on a sunny day and the silver trim on a boat catches the sunlight and pratically blinds you, you too will know that Delicate and her man are around.    It is during these “silver episodes” that they are loving each other and celebrating their reunion – because they will never be separated again.

The End