Spindrift

Chapter Five

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Marisol sat alone in the garden of the estate, a cold wine glass in her hand as she listened to a recording to dolphin and whale sounds.

"I am going to bed, darling," Kent said, coming to the entrance to the patio sitting area.

"I'm not sleepy," Marisol said, tapping the glass. "I will join you when I am ready."

Kent did not leave her like she expected, stepping out into the cool of the night.

"I truly enjoyed our flight today," he said. "This planet - have been here since the day I was born, and still, after all my years, it still manages to amaze me."

"That's the intriguing part of life," Marisol said, sipping her wine. "We get bored, then it becomes really no point to live."

"Are you bored, Marisol?" Kent asked, sitting on the edge of the couch.

"Why are you even asking that?" she asked.

"You would rather not discuss certain things. Certain things that are very important to me," Kent said.

"I told you in the beginning exactly what I thought about Nereid – Human relations," Marisol said. She shrugged, and stretched to put the glass on the coffee table. "I think you were actually being rather rude, and looking for a fight since I don't agree with you."

She stood and stretched a moment.

"That pilot, though," she said. "He was certainly wise, for a human."

"Wisdom isn't just limited to Nereids, my darling," Kent said. "And I believe that it can take many forms in our lives. There is wisdom we are given, and wisdom that we hone through hard work, study and life experiences."

Marisol turned to look at her husband. "Despite my youth, I am not one of your children, in need of a lecture," she said.

"That was not my intent, although I understand how you would come about feeling that way," Kent said.

"Then stop," Marisol said, leaning on the pavilion support to slip the anklet off her ankle.

Kent was silent for a few moments. "My dear, I do believe your whole demeanor towards me as changed since the conversation with the captain this afternoon. If I truly bothered you with talk about Nereid – human relations, its best if we speak of it."

Marisol slid her panties off, intending to go for a swim in the pool behind her.

"You know how I feel, and yet you wish to discuss what isn't discussable."

"I, like many hundreds, thousands of other humans, was born on this planet," Kent said. "I think its beyond time to stop segregating ourselves into human and native-born categories."

"Humans do not deserve the same rights and treatment as the Nereids," Marisol said. "Simply put, this is our world. You invaded. You saw a world with an abundance of water and life, and found out a little too late that the oceans of this world were filled with your mythological creature the mermaid."

"Which have proven themselves neither myth, nor truly maids," Kent said.

"'The titan Prometheus bade his son Deucalion to build a chest large enough for himself and his wife to lay upon, and line the outside and the inside with black pitch. Into this, he bade his son to enter with his wife Pyrra before the rains fell from the heavens.'

"'Into the boat they went, Deucalion and Pyrra, not knowing how the world would be when they would emerge. It rained for nine days, nine days did it rain. And on the ninth day, lured by the singing both heard out of the chest, Deucalion cautioned a peep – and saw sunning themselves upon the surface of the water deep, the daughters of the sea god Poseidon'."

Marisol shrugged.

"Thus, as we are," she said. "Reduced to lures of men's temptation in the greatest trials of life."

"The story you tell is ripe with errors," Kent said.

"Pyrra has to slam the lid of the chest closed and take hold of her husband's cock before he can overturn them both into the sea, beheld at the beauty he sees."

Marisol held her arms out wide. "I do not think I get the story wrong."

"Then why did you marry me?" Kent asked. "My proposal was not a mistake."

"And my acceptance was not, either," Marisol said. She shook her head. "But I have no wish to discuss this now. I have an important meeting -."

"At nine-thirty at night?" Kent asked her.

Marisol shrugged. "That's when they want to meet with me," she said. "Good night."

She turned and continued out from under the pavilion to the garden near the pool. The house had a beautifully sculpted in-ground pool, made to have a grotto and waterfalls. Water poured from the cap of the grotto, and lights illuminated the space so that the colors of the plants were as vibrant as during the day.

Marisol stepped down the stairs into the water, pausing in the reflective moment as the salts teased and soothed her flesh. She felt the filaments and skin that became her tail loosen and realize yes, they were still alive.

She floated on her back in the water, letting the whole of her tail merge and form. Then she exhaled, flipping from back to stomach and submerged, diving down to the bottom of the pool.

If people truly understood what it meant to be in the water, to be a Nereid, then they would understand that to be human would mean the impossibility to native to this world. The water simply did not flow through their bodies, around their bodies in the same way.

She felt movement in the water; yes, she felt the currents and the flow of the water, but this was different.

This was the displacement of water in the body. By a body.

"Where are you, Marisol?" a male voice said, echoing through the water as only a Nereid's voice could.

"I'm here, Neu," she said, pushing away from the bottom of the pool.

He emerged from the lagoon, flipping his tail languidly. The movement was enough to propel him towards Marisol in the water.

"You're late," he said.

"I delt with my husband," Marisol said. "He is on a power trip again."

"We will deal with the matter of how he feels about Nereid and human relations. We are so close."

"Why did you call this meeting, Neu?"

"There are pieces coming together. Now we need you to keep up your end of the bargain."

Marisol flipped and slowly swam in a circle around Neu; he followed her movements, so much so that from the air they would look like a near perfect circle.

"What do you need?" she asked.

"Ten thousand," he said.

"Do I want to know what for?" Marisol asked.

"Perhaps, this time, it would be better if you don't know," Neu said. "By the weekend."

"I will get the money," Marisol said.

Neu slid out of her presence the same way that he came in.

Marisol hovered for a moment in the water, hoping that she could feel him.

Then, once she sure she couldn't, she swam into the lobe that took her into the grotto. She exhaled and emerged from the water, pulling herself up the steps in the grotto to the shallower pool. She laid in the water, and laid her head back on the step of the pool.