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“You’ve grown up.” She said into the seashell, and he nodded his head. “I’m not a mermaid.”

“What?” He said, lowering the shell slowly. She raised his hand and placed the shell back against his ear.

“Mermaids aren’t real.” The woman like creature said, she was still very much naked in the light of the moon and unashamed. He wasn’t sure what she was or who she was. She looked like a woman but then again most women didn’t have gills or webbed feet and hands and they damn sure didn’t turn into water. 

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“I...it won’t sound right...not in your language.”

“Spell it.” He said and she wrote her name in the sand, it wasn’t in English or any language he could recall. She pronounced it slowly, a click, a high pitched squealed followed by two more clicks. He repeated it back to her. 

“That’s very good.” She said into the seashell.

“I looked for you.”

“I had to find the shells of remembrance.” She said, and held up the dark blue shell in the light. “You waited all this time?”

“Everyday.” He said.

“That’s very sweet.” She said, she leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. When he close his eyes it was night but when he opened them it was the middle of the day, the shell was still pressed against his ear and he was sitting in the sand. He looked around slowly trying to recall how something like this could happen. When he looked out to the sea he saw her and she waved, he waved back slowly before she turned into water again.