MERMAID
Chapter 2
GOOD NIGHT MOON
A month later, late one night, Seema
was barely asleep, and it wasn’t quite sleep but exhaustion that had taken
over, when somewhere between the ragged shores of faltering awareness and
stupor swam a mermaid in the cold waters of
Seema’s subconscious mind. The mermaid had been in the deep, deep waters
for days too many to count. She had no clue if there were people on the
riverbank, what day of the week it was, or if it were morning or evening. She
could see it was dark. Bored, she darted about aimlessly.
Suddenly, she
found she was much closer to the surface than she had thought when she looked
up for no particular reason. Like gold dust in a pan, sparkles shot about in
the dark waters. She was mesmerized by the patches of light that danced up
there and made a sequined quilt of the surface. She had gazed upon the star
spangled sky sometimes and loved it. This was intriguing. Up, up, up to the
surface she rose strongly. The circles of darkness grew bigger, around them the
rings of light brighter. When she broke surface she saw as far as the eyes
could see a million diyas (little clay lamps that are lit for the festival of
lights) bobbing gently in the slowly flowing river.
“Wow! I wish I had
known sooner. I almost completely missed it. I think I’ll just stay here and
pretend I’m a diya on the water too. When this vision of beauty is taken away I
won’t lament its loss. I’ll lose myself in its beauty forever never to be found
again.”
The mermaid sat at
the bottom of the stairs going into the water, half-submerged. Her eyes grew
heavy-lidded and she slept half-sitting leaning against a balustrade. Down,
down, down the steep steps of the riverbank in the dark before dawn walked a
lonely figure in white garb, dark shawl, his head bent in deep thought,
measured tread, sadness, light, and finality his aura.
“I have to go
now,” he said, turning away to return by the way he came, and disappeared into
the darkness.
The mermaid
stirred thinking she had heard some one say something to her but there was
nobody around. It was really, really dark, but for the few diyas that floated
about still aglow. As her eyes grew used to seeing in the dark, a small shiny
object a few feet from her on the step at the water’s edge caught her eye. She
leaned across to get a closer look. It was a golden key barely reflecting light
from a passing diya. She instinctively reached for it but caught herself
mid-motion and decided what was not hers she might as well leave alone. If the
real owner did not find it first it might delight a little child for a while
until perhaps he would be chided for playing finders keepers. Thunder rolled in
the distance and by and by gentle rain began to fall putting out the remaining
diyas. Dawn would break through the clouds and mermaids don’t wish to be
discovered so this one was back in the water in one gentle splash, down, down,
down to her home deeply rested from her sojourn into the airy world. She swam
round and round in quick bursts expending excess energy.
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