Ina remembered little of the previous night and was confused as to where she was. The sound did not originate in the water. She rose to the surface to see she was back at the beach. Ina wasn’t thrilled that the shouting was coming from that boy. “I know you’re out there! Hello? I just want to talk. I swear! I’m sorry!” His voice trailed off but was punctuated with a loud confused “Thank you?” Ina had been creeping closer, moving with the water to disguise herself, she could now hear him talking out loud to himself. “Thanks for saving me, uh… I’ll just wait over there… In case you want to show.” He inhaled and shouted, “I won’t do it again! I promise.” Ina was startled by the sudden change in volume but he still didn’t notice her. He settled into a level speaking voice. “I just…I just want to know I’m not crazy. Right and I prove to myself that I am not crazy by shouting at the ocean and expecting it to talk back. Yeah. I’m just crazy.” He reached the rock he had previously indicated. I didn’t know that terrafolk were capable of such complex thinking. Ina was being sarcastic but also slightly impressed. This rock in particular extended from the beach into the ocean far enough to reach the mini drop-off. This meant that if she were to approach, she could remain comfortably in the water and talk to him while he stayed dry.

Ina could see his gaze was fixed close to the horizon and took this as an opportunity to sneak up on him. He was in his signature pose. Ina was right in front of him. “Hi.” She said in a quiet but firm voice as she bobbed above the water. He screamed and flinched. He would have kicked her in the face had she not ducked back into the water. “Oh. My. God. I’m sorry! Come back, don’t go!” he gathered his wits as he scrambled to his hands and knees looking into the water. Ina’s head broke the surface and he flinched but subtly this time, a large smile grew on his face. “You’re real. This is great, I’m not crazy.” “You are definitely crazy.” “I guess I haven’t made the best impressions, have I?” “No.” “Well, I’m Daniel.” He shoved his hand out to Ina’s face then retracted it saying, “Oh, I don’t know if you know the gestures of my—” Ina thrust her hand out of the water. “Yes, I am aware of the handshake. You are strange.” “Oh.” He shook her hand. It looked like human skin but didn’t feel like it. It was slightly scaly like a lizard’s skin. The rest of Ina looked humanish. Her hair was the color of the ocean, not too strange to see presently but her skin also had a blueish tinge. “You can call me Ina.” Her words broke his stare. He released her from the handshake that had been too long. “It is nice to formally meet you, Ina.” “What baffles me is that I can speak perfectly in your English and you think I don’t understand what a handshake is? How do terrafolk even entertain the idea that the6 are the smartest species on the planet?” Daniel opened his and no words came out, but he tried again. “If you’re so versed in our culture and mannerisms, why call a human a terrafolk?” Ina rolled her eyes. “You call us mermaids, merfolk to be neutral, so you, people of the land, are terrafolk.” She raised a finger as Daniel opened his mouth and continued, “We do not refer to your species as humans because we use the word humanity as you do and the actions of so-called humans show no sign of it.” “I did not expect to get political with a mermaid today. Not all terrafolk are bad, some have humanity.” “Not the ones at sea.” “Oh, I didn’t even think about who you might have met. Most of the sailor stories don’t bode well for the mermaid.” “Hmph. You might be the most considerable one I’ve met, well you’re the only one I’ve talked to really.” They fell silent, just staring at each other.

“So… Do you live around here? You got family? There’s not really much information about mermaids and what we do have is fiction, well I’m assuming it is fiction. Like, no one has ever proved that mermaids exist.” Daniel was rambling to fill the silence. His nervous but eager questions made Ina smile. “Well, I live with my colony in an underwater cave system. It’s about a 30-minute swim to the shore, for me at least.” “Woah, and you swam that for months just to see me?’ There was a hint of coyness in his voice but the words caught Ina off guard. “What! No. I have a perfectly reasonable reason to be out here… there are different fish species. I quite like hunting by the bluff.” Daniel laughed then became serious, “But you did come right? You were here every day since I…” “Was an idiot?” “Yeah, we’ll go with that. I could feel something, someone watching.” “Fine. I was here. But only for observation and research.” “Isn’t speaking to the thing you are supposed to be observing bad practice?” “Shut up. You weren’t giving me any answers by just sitting on the beach or even your miserable attempt to swim. Did you think you could find me? The ocean is huge and you can’t swim.” Daniel’s face grew hot from embarrassment and was contemplating telling her the real reason for his actions. He began softly, “I do know how to swim.” Ina wasn’t exactly sure why but she kept quiet. What am I? Respecting a human? Her thought was sarcastic but accurate, his tone made it seem inappropriate to cut in. “I couldn’t think of a better way… You saved me once so I thought…” This reasoning set off Ina’s temper. “I’m not your personal lifeguard, Daniel. I’m not going to save you every time you’re in trouble. What would you have done if I didn’t show up? Die?” Daniel was not use to her anger and her directness unsettled him. So, he mustered a sheepish response. “Yeah, I guess that would have happened. I promise you won’t have to save me again. Ever.” His words were punctuated by beeping. He stood up as he spoke. “Crap. I have to go. Can we talk again tomorrow? Please tell me you’ll be here.” “I’m so done with you.” Ina’s retort was her attempt to hide her indecisions about Daniel. He was hurrying back to the trees, turned back to Ina, waved and yelled, “Same time and place! See you there.” His cheeky response made Ina smile as she turned to swim away. He was wild and confusing but Ina knew she would be at the rock tomorrow. She wanted to know more.