Whispers Beneath The Waves (Boy x Boy) [Shortlisted for The Wattys 2018!]

Chapter 14 - Imagine

Hi guys!

So sorry for the delay of this chapter, I got really sick last week and it put me behind! Hopefully this installment will make up for the wait...! ;)

I am so proud that Whispers Beneath The Waves made the Shortlist for The Wattys 2018! Sadly it didn't get to the final round (maybe because it was not finished?) but thank you to everyone reading and supporting it, I'm so happy that it got as far as it did :)

Let me know what you think of this next chap, and enjoy the beautiful song above to go with it!

Becky xx

Chapter 14

Imagine

We ambled in the village for a few hours, going nowhere in particular. I wanted to show Kye the place where I grew up. The cobbled streets I knew so well, the rows of thatched cottages and the fish market that set up every day on the streets just before you hit the beach. This was all mine. The salty tang in the air and the sound of seagulls on the breeze. It was part of my core being. And now I wanted it to belong to Kye too.

As we walked, I wondered how many others were out here without me even knowing. Merpeople. How many had Mum helped over the years? How many still lived here? And would they take one look at Kye and know he was one of them...?

Eventually, we found ourselves back at the little wooden gate that led to my own ramshackle cottage. Mum wasn't back from her stall quite yet so we had the house to ourselves for a while. I went straight over to the kitchen. "Hey, are you hungry yet? I'm feeling like I could eat again, but I don't know what."

"If it's as good as the breakfast this morning, I'll have anything you want," Kye grinned. "I'm totally getting the taste for all this human stuff now."

I decided to make some sandwiches, feeling more than just a little pleased that Kye was taking so well to everything I was showing him. The food, the places, the people. Well, hopefully the people. It was only a few hours until we were due to meet Keiko and I hoped they were going to get on with each other.

When I returned to the living room, Kye was crouched down by Mum's record player, gazing at the big wicker basket of vinyl records she kept beside it.

I placed the sandwiches on the coffee table behind us and joined him. "What are you looking at?"

He was touching a particular record, running his thumb along the title printed at the top. "Lennon... That's you."

I laughed, somewhat surprised he could read the words. The magical merman language skill clearly extended to reading too. "That's John Lennon. He's one of Mum's all-time favourite musicians. She named me after him."

"Wow. That's amazing. So this square is music?"

I plucked the album sleeve from the basket and pulled out the faded black record from inside. It had been played so many times that it was starting to get scratches. "Actually, this is what the music comes from. It's a record. People don't really listen to them anymore, they're old-fashioned. But Mum still loves playing them."

"Can you show me? I want to hear who you're named after."

"Sure." I lifted the lid of the record player and carefully placed the album down. "I should give you some context first. John Lennon was from a band called The Beatles."

"Water Beetles?" Kye asked, tilting his head to one side.

"No," I smiled. He was too adorable. "Beatles, like the beat of a drum. They formed a long time ago in the 1960s and they were the biggest band in the world. John played guitar and sang, he was a peace activist. But he was taken too soon. He got shot at age 40."