The Secret Lives of Fish - a sequel to The Thirteenth Year

Epilogue

The day was one of those kinds of days where you wished time would stop. That if you could, you would freeze every moment and burn all the sensations into your memory. The smells, the view, and the feeling of absolute happiness.

Sitting in the sand, his toes dug into the grit, and leaned back on his arms, Cody was perfectly happy and content. The sun was hours away from setting and the clouds were offering just the right amount of shade. Next to him, laid out on her oversized beach blanket, Sam had her nose buried in a book.

"Daddy!"

A raucous laughter echoed up from the surf and he sat up straight, a hand raised over his eyes to help him see against the glare of the ocean.

In the blue, shallow water, stood a little brown-haired girl, triumphantly holding up a starfish in her hand.

"Come show me, sweetheart!"

Laughing again, the little girl, no more than five, ran haphazardly up the beach until she stood, drenched and dripping, in front of her father.

"I found a stawfish," she beamed.

Cody smiled and gingerly pried the poor little creature from her strong grip. "Yes, you did Lilly. How clever you are!" He reached out and ruffled her hair.

Laughing, Lilly grabbed back the starfish and then plopped herself next to her mother. Sam had put down her book and was now unpacking the picnic basket they'd brought along.

"Look mommy!"

Sam tickled her daughter. "Look at my smart little girl! Way to go!"

"Let's go put it back, Lilly. It's probably ready for lunch too." Cody grabbed his daughter's free hand and gave Sam a knowing smile.

'Thanks,' Sam thought to him. She would have lunch spread out without incident before they got back.

Skipping, Lilly half dragged Cody to the water. The cold surg hit their toes and the little girl laughed in shock and joy. She was definitely a water baby. Cody let go of her hand as she bravely splashed into the ocean, sinking beneath the gentle waves.

Shaking his head in amusement, the merman sunk below the surface and spied his daughter just a few feet down, carefully putting the starfish on a small outcropping of rocks.

'Come on Lilly, let's go see what Mommy brought for us to eat.'

Rising to the surface, father and daughter raced up the sand, laughing as they sat down in front of the peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches Sam had laid out on napkins.

Their daughter sufficiently distracted, Cody pulled Sam to his side and kissed her cheek softly.

'Now, none of that,' teased Sam.

Gently, he placed a sea-worn hand on Sam's extended belly. His mother and both their parents were convinced that this one was going to be a boy. Placing her smaller hand over his, Sam snuggled into his side.

It had been ten years since Cody and Sam had been handed the whole world. Ten years since they'd been given the amazing gift to be able to be together – be it on land or in the ocean. So much had changed for them since then, but so much had also remained the same.

The day after they had graduated from high school, Cody had asked Sam to marry him. They'd already been together for nearly five years, and he couldn't wait any longer. By the time they were starting their first semester of college that fall, they were newly-weds. Now Cody was working towards a degree in tourism, and Sam had a degree in conservation.

Little Lilly had come along nine months after they had been married and both loved her to pieces. Cody had been anxious the whole pregnancy. He had known Lilly would be born looking human, like all merfolk did, but they didn't know if that meant she was actually human. Both had hoped she would be like them. They had gone to the Elders repeatedly, searching for stories not only in Cody's pod but in others who passed through. If there had been a story at some point, it was now lost. Their family's story would be recorded in its place.

Both had been overjoyed when Lilly had laughed for the first time. Not because of how perfect her laugh was to them, but because it had also echoed in their minds. The older she got, the more and more she represented perfectly what it was like to be a child of the ocean and of the land.

Rubbing his wife's belly gently, Cody stared out over the horizon. His life couldn't be more perfect.

"Cody?"

"Yes, Sam?"

"We're pretty lucky, aren't we?"

The merman smiled and then kissed his wife.

"Ewww!" cried Lilly.

Laughing, Cody picked up his sandwich, taking a huge bite.

'Sam?' he thought to his wife.

'Yes?' she thought back.

'I love you.'

'I love you too, Cody.'

And there the little family sat in the early afternoon, resting on a secluded beach that they had swum too. A merman and his family, ready to embrace whatever the future might hold. On land, or in the sea.

-TSLOF-