The Mermaid of London

Chapter 6

Before long, Adrianna, Tommy, and Miles were out in London with Leya serving as a bodyguard, making sure to be on the lookout for the Marapax. They enjoyed the sights of the city, looking at landmarks like Buckingham Palace, the House of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus, and Big Ben among others. They took a short break to enjoy a bag of crisps (potato chips for you folks from the US) and a soda. Tommy and Miles got a bag of ready salted crisps and a can of Chill-Cola, Adrianna got a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and some Citrus Charge, and Leya got a bag of cheese and onion crisps and some Mountain Spritz.

"Hey, Tommy," Miles asked his son, "What happened to your left arm?"

"Adrianna and I were swimming last year," Tommy replied, "and a robot shark showed up and bit hard on my arm, breaking it so bad, it had to be amputated."

Miles was very displeased upon hearing that.

"If I was there when it happened, I would have found its creator and beaten the tar out of them."

"You don't have to worry about that, Dad."

"The guy who built that shark was a mad scientist who kidnapped us and tried to kill us," Adrianna interjected, "He's now serving a life sentence in prison."

"Well, that's good to hear," Miles quipped, "If he manages get out and if I ever see him, well...let's just say things would get very ugly for him."

"Huh," Leya quipped, "That's pretty violent coming from a laid-back guy like you, Miles."

"Well, I'm a dad. And dads are supposed to protect their kids, aren't they?"

A short while later, the group were all riding in the London Eye, a ferris wheel in the city with 32 passenger capsules, each one capable of holding up to twenty-five passengers. Adrianna and Leya were looking outside the capsule, admiring the view. Meanwhile, Tommy and Miles were sitting on a large bench in the center of the capsule talking to each other.

"So, Dad," Tommy began, "What was Mom like the first time you met her?"

"Oh, she was beautiful," Miles remarked, "First time I saw her, found her on the beach while I was getting ready to surf."

The year was 1992. Young Miles was out on the beach in Carmel-by-the-Sea, enjoying the warm Summer afternoon when he spotted something...or rather someone sitting in the sand near the ocean. This individual was a redheaded girl around his age in a white dress with no shoes. Miles slowly walked up to this girl so as not to startle her. He extended a hand to her to help her to her feet.

"When I first met her, she came off as rather standoffish. I guess she wasn't very familiar to humans, not helped that she was raised by Ceto at the time."

"That's what Mom told me," Tommy chimed in.

Teresa looked at him with contempt before turning away. Miles was not deterred, as he knelt down to his future girlfriend and continued to be friendly with the princess. This finally made the princess warm up to the boy. She allowed him to help her to her feet.

"But it didn't take long for her to warm up to me, and before long, we began dating. The whole time, she had an air of regalness and elegance to her, but she gradually changed for the better."

For the next year or so, the two dated and enjoyed each other's company. Miles helped Teresa understand the human world, who found it interesting, and began to renounce her "mother's" views on humanity. Around mid-to-late 1993, they discovered that Teresa had become pregnant with a baby...a boy.

"One day, she had you, and while we were nervous about it at first, we decided to commit to it and be the best parents we could be."

After months of preparation, Tommy was born in the Spring of 1994. Miles and Teresa were at the hospital, the latter was in a hospital bed, holding her newborn son in her arms. Both admired the new life she and her boyfriend had created.