by Nikki Andrade
Chapter 1
Love Sueños
I am Neptune,
an empty vessel again swaying in the wind, the heart beat of the ocean gliding against our hips, tik Tok, wish wash - "I’m sure she’ll come back again." I think a thought as I stare out into our ocean.
And in that moment a mermaid lifts herself out of the lagoon with ease and gracefully plants her seat on the bow of our dreams.
"Do you think she’ll ever come back again? Mrs. Phibs?" I ask her.
“I don’t think she ever had a reason to stay - you know we all find our own way, eventually in time. Could be today. Aren’t you going to sail away? In search of her?" says the mermaid now turning herself to look through the bow's window into the captain's empty vessel.
"No, silly sweet, in essence of her," answers Neptune.
"But I am just a boat, and a boat needs a crew, a captain and enough emergency stock for in case a torment rocks us too hard."
"All things come in hard structures and terms," Neptune answers us from a voice in the distance.
And then the mermaid sings, " have you ever felt the wind underneath our wings and the song of our birds calling you in? The ocean is too calm, baby, we'll just have to sway back and forth. Wishy wash."
"Take me away. Can you?" I say.
"I could pull the whole boat without using an ounce of force, didn't you see the way I lifted my breast out of our mother, without a single moment of hesitate tainting our way? I am extravagantly powerful, they all say. So, let me carry you away." she whispers.
"Why can't you just stay? Here. With me in this lagoon."
"Because we were never meant to live this way, tied up to shore, what a bore, you buffoon."
"Be open, let me carry you to shore," I plead seemingly convincingly.
But the mermaid does not concede. "And trade myself in? To be sold, bought and shipped off to create yet another's dream?! I think not."
"You have a good point," I sigh.
"You'll need to take this risk with me if you ever want to be me again," the mermaid speaks but the whole heart of our ocean leading her voice.
I sway in contemplation, wish wash, wishy wash. But I can't contemplate such an easy decision for long. "I'm all in."
And with a kick and a jump the mermaid frees herself from the anchor of our responsibilities, tattooed on her fathers heart. "Can you imagine being young again?" The mermaid touches my bow with her delicate hands.
"We never aged in the first place," I say feeling my ships body come alive, and out of the water. The mermaid fosters the rope to her hip and begins to dance through the current, out past the bay, further past the neighboring artist cove's, out and away.