Mermaid Calling

Welcome to The Spot Writers. This month’s challenge was a story using these words: leftover paint, mermaid, tide, sun, chilly.

In December 2018, Phil (using his Alan Kemister pen name) published his most recent novel. Tilting at Windmills, the second in the Barrettsport Mysteries series of soft-boiled police detective stories set in an imaginary Nova Scotia coastal community is available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Tilting-Windmills-Barrettsport-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B07L5WR948/. He’s currently working on a saga about the hazards of ignoring climate change.

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Mermaid Calling

by Phil Yeats

That afternoon he ran several errands and took useless leftover paint to the recycling depot. He’d just finished his last supper in the house that had been his home for fifty years. Tomorrow, a neighbour with a cube van would arrive to cart the furniture and other possessions he wanted at the assisted-living center where he now had an apartment.

Until this year, he’d spent many summer and fall evenings sitting with his wife of forty-nine years in their Adirondack chairs watching the sun set over the far side of the bay. Their children grew up here on the Atlantic Ocean shore, but they were all gone now, to homes of their own. It was unclear what they’d do once the house was theirs.

Today had been a fine fall day, sunny but chilly, as it should be at this time of year. And the tide was high, which made the waves lap invitingly against their dock pilings. He was alone, as he’d been every day since she passed away in the spring. He remembered their good times and the antics of their kids, until, as he often did on these lonely evenings, he fell asleep.

He awoke when the mermaid poked her head, as she had so many times since his wife died, above the waves lapping against his dock. She was young, with long brown hair, and cute, like the girl next door. She reminded him of fifty years earlier when he and his wife lived like vagabonds exploring the world, doing exciting and sometimes outlandish things. So long ago, before careers, marriage, and children changed their priorities.

“Come,” she said as she flexed her powerful tail and propelled her torso from the water. She propped her elbows on the dock. “Your duty here is done. Come with me. We can reconnect with the carefree life we abandoned so many years ago. It’s our time to enjoy ourselves. The kids will be fine without us.”

He sighed, thinking he was too old for the enticing image she presented. His mind wandered, and he imagined being young again, exploring the world together...

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The Spot Writers—Our Members:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/