Excerpt: Mermaid

From Chapter 1 - The Wedding [brackets added for clarification]

Merrick stood there, looking quite conceited. I thought he was supposed to look happy on his wedding day but his mouth formed a look of satisfaction for oneself. Oh his smugness. I can hardly stand it now. How can I stand to spend the next eighty-one years of my life with him?

The wedding coordinator started. “Merrick of Delta Marisol, do you take Nerin, also of Delta Marisol, to be your wife until you both depart this form and again become foam of the sea?”

“Yes,” Merrick said.

“And do you, Nerin of Delta Marisol, take Merrick, also of Delta Marisol, to be your husband until you both depart this form and again become foam of the sea?”

I stood there, and blinked. How could I? I was leaving one miserable home for yet another. I was leaving my crazy Mother and emotional brother for the smug Merrick. How could I do that?

“No,” I whispered.

“Speak up,” the wedding coordinator whispered to me. I must have said it softer than I had thought.

“No,” I said louder, much louder. “I will not take Merrick to be my husband,” I said to the coordinator. “I am sorry,” I turned to Merrick, “but I really do not think we are supposed to be together. I hope you find the one you are supposed to be with and that you live a happy life together,”

Merrick’s look of satisfaction for himself turned into shock. I left as fast as I could back down the aisle I had come from and went straight to my small dressing room, locking the door. I hadn’t even looked at my Mother’s face. I am sure it was a look of horror.

It wasn’t two seconds before my Mother came to the door. “Open up, Nerin!” she shouted, “You must marry him,” she insisted.

“Or what? Surely you will take me back into your home, Mother. I am sorry but I just can’t marry him,”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Surely you can see why. He’s so arrogant,” I said, the truth coming out.

“You are so ungrateful! You get out here, you are getting married,”

“Leave me alone, Mother,” I begged, “Just leave me alone.”

She began on another rampage, which I ignored. Meanwhile, Amaya [my best friend] came around the building and tapped on my window. I unlocked it and let her in. I put my finger up to my mouth, signaling her to be quite. She nodded and we sat down and I started softly crying into her chest. She patted my head and stroked my back as my Mother continued on her escapade.

“Fine,” my Mother at last began to wrap things up. “If you don’t want to marry him, then you will have to find another husband, and soon. I am giving you two years. And that’s being generous,” she said, as if she was doing me a favor, and then she left