Fishes

6

Emil looked over to Francis, who shot him a warm smile. They say with Michelle on the dock, the former kicking his legs for the final time. Lukas, Ion, and Andrei stood quietly behind him. They had given Emil their share of hugs and kisses. In his room before leaving, Lukas had wrapped the boy tightly in a blanket, and whispered harshly into his ear to never quit talking to him, far apart though their worlds may be.
Francis gave him a slow nod before beginning to hiss a slow, guttural chant. Michelle mouthed silently along. As he raised his hands, Emil felt himself begin to change. Webs bound together the fingers that were clutching, white-knuckled, to his blanket. Gravity slowly seemed to increase its power. His skin faded to a pale, lustrous silver. His eyes fell shut. When they opened, he could see everything, every leaf on every tree crowning each of the distant mountains. His neck was cloven into gills as blood vessels slid over each other, rearranging themselves. His legs fused slowly together into a long fish tail, a thin, transparent fin blossoming from its scaly end. His ribcage shrank as his lungs contracted. Fins erupted from his hips, back, and ears as his skull changed shape, nose shrinking, eye sockets widening, and teeth growing long, sharp, and jagged.
He looked down into the water below him. Staring back was the merman whose form he had taken for twenty-eight years.
"You look gorgeous," whispered Michelle, before he threw off his blanket and slipped into the cold and salty water. She followed. Nobody payed any regard to the humans gently brushing errant tears from their eyes.
The three gentlemen walked slowly off the dock and down the beach in silence, at last knowing Emil's decision to be reality. Fabricated visions of smiling mermaids, rotting bodies of wealthy traders, and masterfully presented platters of fish darted through their minds.
Ion broke the silence. "It was what he wanted." After receiving no reply, he continued. "I mean, we're still gonna see him."
He would be turning eleven in a manner of days. A cold breeze blew across the beach, its gentle sound serving as an accompaniment for the crunching of their footsteps. A flock of geese flew overhead in V formation, squawking noisily. A solitary raindrop fell. There was hardly a ripple upon the steadily churning sea.