Reddit Stories & Other Fiction: 2021

If You Hold It To Your Ear

Monday

She was nothing like what I expected, not that I expected much. When I first heard the rumors, I brushed it off as a joke. Even when the rest of the team stopped laughing. Even when my boss told me I'd be in charge of training her. He wasn't fond of humor, not in my experience, but he took great pride in subverting expectations.

The others gathered around her tank, reverted to children with their excited jabber. Whoops and cheers erupted every at erratic intervals and even the ear-shattering whistle from our boss couldn't part them.

His stern gaze could.

He shoved his way in front of the crowd, muttering what I could only assume were curses or complaints in his mother tongue. Each member fell silent as he passed, remembering, quite suddenly, that they were not employed to ogle at our newest member.

"Everybody out," he growled. The crowd grumbled but complied and had he not grabbed my collar, I would have followed. "Obviously, not you, Amy."

"Right." I chuckled nervously. Peering past him, I gazed into the dark waters. "Is it... Do we really have a mermaid?"

"Yes."

"Can I see her?"

"You have to."

"Right-" more nervous laughter - "I'm training her."

"Yes." He crossed his arms, letting silence fill the air. If I looked closely, I could see his mustache mimicking the movement.

"What exactly am I training her to do?"

"Whatever it can do, as long as we can sell tickets. You have until Friday."

My mind raced, trying desperately to parse what he said, but before I could even form a complaint about his proposed timeline, I found myself alone in the room and my hands full of fish.

"Okay."

I inched toward the tank, somewhere between excited and nervous. Part of me expected her to break through the glass and drown me. Somehow. Another part expected that this was - still - part of an elaborate prank and the camera crew would roll out once I started feeding fish to an empty tank.

I was wrong on both accounts.

She swam to me with mirrored caution. Her hair was a fiery red which flowed behind her as she swam and exploded from her scalp when she stopped. From the waist up, only the hints of silver on her skin, webbing between her fingers, and large pupils gave any indication that she was anything but human. The colors around her eyes changed with the light from red to orange and back. Yet she was a mermaid in the most common sense. Her body turned to fish where her belly button would be. Two pelvic fins jutted from where her white underside met her silver-grey back. She had more fins along her body until her tail became a caudal fin.

She was stunning and terrifying and beautiful all the same time.

A red scar ran from her neck to her hip.

She followed me as I climbed the stairs to the top of her tank, likely regarding me with the same curiosity, finding words to describe my legs and questioning if my clothes were part of my body or not. I felt my cheeks burn as she studied me and wondered if she felt any indignity about her situation.

No, she couldn't. Surely.

She was not human, even if half of her looked it.

I reached the top of the stairs and stepped out onto the deck and all at once we were really face to face. Her hair fell to the side of her face, darker out of the water. Sniffed the air a couple times and moved her gaze from me to the pail in my hands.