The Last Mermaid

~ 20 ~

You long for the ocean

So why drift from the sea?

One place she goes - the pool on a randomly cold day. Being under constant cloud cover reminds her of being in the deepest trenches of the ocean. She swims there and doesn't have to think about what ends to be done, nor about what's important in life. 

No, she simply takes a deep breath of air before swimming underwater once again - seeing if, this time, she can stay underwater for longer. 

It's a silent prayer as she does this, with nothing but her beating heart. 

"It's only a pond" they said, "That should be enough to keep the mermaids from wandering away from the city."

It's true - theres a PS4 upstairs, books of Psychology, business, and marriage downstairs, the neighborhood kids with their toys (and are they cooler than mine?)

There's the school designed to look like a cheap knock off of Hogwarts, the sushi and Mexican restaurant, the mountain where people run up and down, the Church nestled between the woods - a welcome respite of comfort and inspiration to "Just try harder."

What is wrong with her? Why won't the pond work for her? Why can't she just be normal? And why did she ever fall in love with a prince that could never see her worth?

Because, she's not part of the system. She's failing it - from the moment she stopped wanting to be liked and dared to be her authentic self. 

But the city is no place for a mermaid - in spite of toy unicorns, magic gardens, sprawling country lawns no, she will not be content with a cave. 

She'll start obsessing again as she always does - doing things to hurt herself out of spite for boredom. 

"He doesn't love me" she'll say to herself, "And why wait to be the worth society told me I have to be?"

She wants to watch her university burn itself to the ground.

To hell with her funky face, her lack of job, unsupportive friends, and misunderstanding dates. 

She'll nestle by the water like a baby suckling her mama's tit. She'll make love to the ocean as the waves crash upon her. 

Someday, she'll swim too far, finding the fins beneath her giving way.