Unreal & Unreturned

Every step I took my feet sunk into the cold wet sand. The salt water lapped over my toes gently, the ocean exhausted from the last three days of crashing with fury against the beach. Nothing stood in my way. The debris was packed high on the beach above the receding storm tide, leaving me a flawless path along the water's edge.

As the clouds slowly dissipated, I expected to see the last colors of a sunset peek through. But above the fluffy dark clouds remained a light grey blanket to hide the sun's goodbye smile. Even though the torrential downpour had come and gone, a light mist lingered. The dusting accumulated as tiny sparkles in my wavy amber hair.

Then I saw him. At first I thought he was merely a corpse of a shipwrecked fisherman. As I came closer, the distinctiveness of his lower body halted my advance. Confusion, disbelief, and amazement pulled against each other inside my mind as I stared at the fairytale creature lying in front of me.

As the gentle waves licked the tip of his deep maroon, scaled tale he began to twitch. The only other sign of life was the muscular, ebony chest slowly rising and falling. Scenarios of the outcome of my next decision ran through my head as I determined what to do about the beached merman that should not exist.

Wrapping my hand around his shoulder and giving a gentle shake only elicited a quiet moan from the handsome stranger. The tide was returning and although he was meant for the ocean, the merman was in no condition to return to the deep blue. I wrapped my hands around his wrists and dragged him through the cold black sand until he was near the tide line of debris.

I sat and waited, watching the tide creep up the beach. Looking at the sleeping man next to me sent shivers down my spine, but I wasn't sure if they were from fear or attraction. The longer I waited, the stronger the emotions developing inside me grew.

Butterflies in my stomach, waves of electricity flowing through my extremities, and imagined conversations and experiences repeated over and over inside me. There were no stars to search for constellations and no moon to see the shimmering crests of the ocean's dance, yet the night was beautiful.

The romance of this night is baffling to me. How can I feel such a connection when I didn't even know this man existed hours before? The ability for the heart to create connection out of almost nothing is bewildering. I am falling in love with a merman I have created in my head, of which the one lying next to me is likely to be completely different.

As I gaze at his long dark eyelashes fluttering in his sleep, I wonder if I should stay and possibly be disappointed or leave now and forever have the memory of the most romantic night I may ever have.