The Ocean's Call: Part One | ✔

Part Twenty

Part Twenty 

"What was it like for you to find out?" I ask, scooping a handful of sand and dumping it over my feet.

Austin sits in front of me, cross legged and is hindering instead of helping to bury my feet in the sand. For every handful of sand, I put on my feet he brushes it off.

"I kind of knew from a young age so it felt perfectly normal to me. As far as dad's go mine is pretty amazing, he is always there for me when I need him, and he loved talking about his world with me." He smiles at my feet, his fingers tickling the tops of my feet as he brushes the sand off.

"Do you miss him? Being so far away from him must be hard."

He nods. "I do but he checks when he can. He chooses to live in the ocean instead of on land."

I chuckle. "I think that's the most absurd part of this. How exactly does one live in the ocean? Is the real estate even good in there?" I joke.

He laughs. I scoop another handful of sand onto my feet, grabbing another one quickly when he goes to brush it off. "There are cities underwater you know, and the real estate is just as exclusive as up here."

I bite my lip to refrain from laughing more. I love that I can accept I'm a mermaid but I'm struggling to picture people, or merfolk technically, living underwater in houses. Do the houses look like the ones up here? Is life down there like up here? Are there even houses?

"I'm just having a hard time picturing the picket fences you know."

"No picket fences, only coral fences." He looks up at me, grinning.

I snort, picture coral fences in place of the standard white picket fence dream. "Is there an underwater city near here?" I glance to my left, the waves crashing onto the beach not far away.

"Not exactly close by but there are a couple people that live nearby."

I nod, resuming my task of burying my feet. "Do you live in the ocean?"

He shakes his head. "No, I actually prefer to live on land. I think it's because I've spent the better part of my life on land instead of in the water, don't get me wrong I feel pretty good in the water, but it just makes more sense to me."

I nod, I totally get that. I don't think I could go from living on land for the last twenty-four years of my life to suddenly living underwater constantly. Perhaps I'll change my mind after spending more time underwater but for now I'm happy to stay living on land.

"I get it, I think I'd prefer to continue living on land. Although I'm sure it would be cool to stay underwater for a night or two. I think maybe I already have actually." I shrug, scooping another handful of sand onto my feet. There is those pesky four months I don't remember.

"You really remember nothing during those months you were gone?"

I shake my head. "Nothing, I still can't register that amount of time passing between the moment I went under the water and washing up on the beach. I thought maybe you could enlighten me but apparently not."

He shakes his head, dusting my feet free of sand. "Unfortunately, no and nobody at work knows anything either. Someone has to know though. I know a few people who live nearby in the water, we'll go visit them sometime this week if you want."

My eyes widen. "Can we? That would be so cool."

He smiles, looking up from my feet. "We could stay overnight too."

I gasp. "That sounds even more exciting."

"You just tell me when you want to go, and we'll go."

I bite my lip, dropping the fistful of sand in my hands. I dust my hands off, drawing in a deep breath exhaling slowly. I look out at the water debating if I want to go for a swim, the air is humid enough to not to warrant a late-night dip. I have sand on my skin, and it would be nice to wash it off, but I don't know if I want to swim in dark waters right now.