A Swimmer's Tail

Noley wants to play a trick on her father who is fishing on a large dock nearby, she swims out into the deep end and into dangerous waters. She is soon meets a human with a tail.

 

A Swimmer's Tail

 

On days that are not too hot and not too cold, the beach really feels like paradise. When bare feet touch the soft sand, it sinks and feels massaged every time one takes a step. One steps, and steps until the sand gets harder, then wetter. It is not possible for it to feel any better, but when it is wet it feels like a mud bath at the day at a spa. When you take the feet out, they feel refreshed.

 

Noley stood in a hole of wet sand just when the water reaches the shore, she was looking up at the clouds in the sky and feeling the sunshine kiss her skin. She then smiled slightly and looked at the waves; then it happened, she ran into the water to have fun.

 

As Noley enjoyed her time, she looked up at a far away dock where her father stood fishing. She had a thought in her mind, should she swim over and surprise him? They say be careful when going out that far, one might not be able to get back. Noley knew how good of a swimmer she was, she was not afraid.

 

Noley turned in the water and did a back stroke out to deeper waters heading for her father. She thought up fun ideas to play tricks on him, seeing her out there was not enough of a shock. She thought of grabbing his line and teasing him, she also thought of climbing up the dock's ladder and coming up from behind him; she was not sure of what she would do, but it would give him the scare of the day.

 

She remembers thinking of him, what to do. She was never afraid going out farther than the markers, she was not afraid of not being able to touch the ground nor was she afraid of any creatures from the deep that may come to check her out. For all she knew, a shark could be silently waiting underneath the surface thinking of her as his latest meal; she was never worried at all.

 

Her mother, before she passed away a year ago, was a champion swimmer. Her mother earned the rights to teaching her how to swim on her own, Noley learned at the age of two to float, at three she swam like a pro. Her attitude was always doing something with perfection and not worrying about the consequences, because she knows how to do it.

 

This particular time would be difficult for her, even though Noley was a champion swimmer like her mother, there was a dark secret in those waters that will almost catch her life. She had no idea that millions of fishermen would come to fish, some of them would be too lazy to throw their things away properly; things such as, a fishing line.

 

As Noley approached the dock's legs, she felt something strange when she kicked her legs; she kicked something and as she kicked more it became tangled around her ankle. She turned to look down, but could not get free and what was worse is that slowly she realized it was pulling her down. What could it be? was her first thought, what was pulling it down? She struggled to get free, but it would make her more tangled so much so that the line caught her other leg and suddenly pulled her straight down into the deep.

 

Noley, having taken many swimming lessons, held her breath and kept calm to keep her air longer. Her fear was rising, however, and she tried any possible way to remove the line that was tightly squeezing her legs. Another blow and the line forced her down faster, she screamed into the water and let out most of her last breath.

 

Noley could not reach her father up above, she saw the light of the surface and said a few last words that her father would be alright without her; she knew she was going to die.

 

It is funny about how things work when someone thinks something will happen to them, sometimes they are right and sometimes they are wrong. Noley was certain her life was over, but she was wrong. As she began to accept that her life was over and she closed her eyes, feeling light headed and sleepy, she felt the line untangle as quick as it grabbed her. Then, in a flash, she felt what it was like to breathe again.

 

More importantly, she felt somebody holding her. Before she turned to see who, she thought it may be her father who may have seen her try to sneak by. If not, she hoped it was one of those cute beach ball guys that may have seen her go under while taking a quick swim. She may have been wrong about her death, but that did not mean she was immune to being wrong again: It was actually a woman.

 

Noley turned and saw a beautiful woman, probably in her late 20s, holding her weak body up. The woman had long hair, curly hair and tan skin; she wore a polka dot halter top and a smile that matched. Noley first thought, with her vision blurry from salt water, it was her mother coming to rescue her from the dead. She hugged the lady who saved her tightly, the woman kindly held her.

 

"That was dangerous," the woman spoke, Noley pulled back and smiled.

 

"I know, thank you so much for saving me. How did you?"

 

"Lines are easy to break. It was no problem. I should get you back." Noley lightly kicked her legs as the woman glided her over until the two came to close ground. The woman never stood up, but stopped just before shore. Noley could sit down without going under, but she did not want to leave the woman without offering her anything.

 

"What can I do to thank you? I should invite you to dinner."

 

The woman was hard to negotiate with, she shook her head and would not accept anything. "All I need from you is a promise that you will never go there again. You almost died, not even fish like to go over there. It is full of junk." Noley nodded her head.

 

"I promise."

 

The woman nodded her head back, "I better go." She turned to swim away and Noley felt a twinge of strangeness from the comment, she stood as the woman began to swim and would not let her leave yet.

 

"Please, wait," Noley said, breathing heavily. The woman stopped and turned to her, she saw something twinkle in the woman's eyes and before Noley could stop her again she ducked under and disappeared.

 

Before going her separate way, Noley saw the woman's beautiful blue-green tail sprout out of the water as a sign of good-bye. To Noley, it was also a sign of, 'Be safe.'

 

After the encounter, Noley risked getting into trouble with her father by telling him the tale of the mermaid who saved her life. As her father knelt by her in the bathroom of their sea side condo, touching the wounds from the line with a cotton ball, Noley described the woman as a brave and courageous mermaid who risked her own life and existence to save a human child's. The father had a hard time believing her, he even let her off the hook for swimming all the way out there, but Noley never stopped believing and even visited that same dock years and years later, but she never once saw that tail again.

 

The End.

 

Author's Note

I only got 3 reviews on this one in fictionpress... :) Everybody enjoys how I wrote it the most and the mystery behind the woman.

Reviews

[Matthews Reggie]

When I started i wasn't expecting much... But I as I kept reading I was astonished by the clarity of events, good use of language and eventually drawn into the theme.. Wonderful work, splendid climax... Keep it up...