Lovesick Little Read online

  She pulled her new feet in closer so they wouldn’t get hit by waves. All the loud noises of the air seemed to amplify under the hot sun, and they made her feel sick again. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a tall figure walking towards her, with several little furry things surrounding it on the ground, all being drawn her way by the commotion of the feeding frenzy. The furry monsters began barking wildly and running towards her with their tongues hanging out. Terrified, she struggled to stand up but her new legs were weak and she clumsily fell back down, hitting her temple against a stone. In that moment of kaleidoscopic clouds, barking dogs and spinning suns, she felt so nauseous she thought she might spray her insides out through her nose. Her eyes rolled back and she blacked out once again, collapsing in a tangled heap of hair and seaweed.

  A while later, she awoke in a big, sunny room all alone, lying across a soft leather couch with a damp cloth resting on her forehead. The room was all painted yellow and on the wall above her head, pictures of smiling faces hung scattered in pretty, mismatched frames. Her eyes were blurry and her skin felt tight and dry as she stared groggily up at the ceiling fan, likening it to the propellers that would push the boats she used to watch from below. She reached her hands out to it the way she always used to, back in the days when she never thought she’d get to see the inside of a real human home. On her arms, she noticed the soft, plaid sleeve of the flannel shirt she was wearing, and had no recollection of how she came to acquire it. She sniffed it; it smelled just like Gabriel! She knew she must be in his home, and began to pant with the anticipation of seeing him. When she heard footsteps in the hallway getting louder as they got closer, she began to pant so hard she thought she might faint once again.

  In a sudden panic, she scrambled to free her legs from the blanket they were under and went to stand once again but just stumbled to the floor with a thud. The footsteps in the hall started running towards her and in a last-ditch effort to appear composed and lovely, she pulled her legs in and arranged her long hair to fall prettily over one shoulder.

  Expecting her prince to dash into the room, she was let down when she caught sight of the short, round and bespectacled man who rushed in to check on her. “Oh good, you’re awake!” he said while crouching down to press the back of his chubby hand to her hot forehead. “Caught a bit of sun stroke, didn’t we?” The man spoke with a scruffy voice and his breath smelled like cherry chewing tobacco, but the little mermaid didn’t know what that was, and just thought he smelled sweet and fruity.

  Right behind him, Gabriel’s mom sashayed in with a mug of coffee in one hand and a glass of water in the other. “What a relief!” she said with a smile, passing the water to her. Gingerly, the mermaid accepted the glass but was very careful not to spill on her lap. “Are you feeling okay, dear? It looks like you bumped your head.” The little mermaid smiled back at the nice woman, who was most definitely Gabriel’s mother because she had the same dark brown eyes and perfect white teeth as he. She began to wonder where her love could be hiding.

  “I’m Lucia O’Faolain and this is Doctor Twiddy,” said the nice lady. “What’s your name, dear?” The little mermaid opened her mouth to speak but when no sound came out, she remembered and lamented her new voiceless condition. Her face saddened and she pointed to her throat, shaking her head. She cringed at the memory of the witch’s nasty lips against hers, sucking the wind out of her pipes.

  “Can you not speak, child?” asked the doctor. “You gave us all quite a scare, out there passed out with no sunscreen on!” he said authoritatively. “And, I know how you young people deplore tan lines . . . but unabashed nakedness might give the local boys the wrong idea!” The mermaid couldn’t understand what he meant by that, when she was pretty sure being naked in front of Gabriel would give him an idea that was exactly right. She smiled shyly at the doctor but kept looking past him and over his shoulder, praying her love would soon appear. “Let’s get you up slowly, shall we?” The old doctor offered his hands to her but when she tried to stand, her legs felt like dead weight and she flopped right back down to where she was sitting. She picked up her sore feet with her hands and rubbed them down, trying to massage the pain away.

  “What’s the matter with her legs, doctor?” asked Lucia. “Do you think they’re just exhausted from the swim she must’ve had?” The doctor patted down her legs gently to feel for injuries but she didn’t flinch once. He picked up her bare foot and checked it out but nothing seemed out of the ordinary there. “Well, it appears her legs are just fine. However, I highly doubt she could have swum from very far, take a look at those legs! I’ve seen better musculature on coma patients! Brand new babies, even.”

  “What?” asked Lucia disbelievingly, inspecting the girl’s legs for herself.

  “They’re so soft and weak, they look like they’ve never been used before,” noted the doctor. For a brief second the mermaid was fearful of being found out. “Well they’re very pretty, anyway!” he said kindly, and the topic was dropped.

  Doctor Twiddy sat down next to her and put his stethoscope to her chest. Her heart rang out steadily; tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump. “Besides those baby-legs of hers,” he said, “she seems quite healthy to me!”

  Just then, Gabriel walked into the room with a full breakfast tray in hands. Tha-thump! Tha-THUMP!! THA-THUMP!!! THA

  THUMP!!!! Her young heart sped up like a champion racehorse. There he was! He was there! “Oh my, now your heart’s racing!” teased the doctor, pulling the stethoscope from his chest. “Well, young lady, you’d be welladvised not to get too taken by Gabriel here, you’ll have to get in line behind every other young lady on this coast,” he said, snickering as he packed his things back into his house-call bag. The mermaid looked up excitedly into Gabriel’s eyes, hoping that some part of him remembered her from the night she saved him.

  “Stop it, Doc. If it were that easy, I wouldn’t still be single, would I?” said Gabriel as he winked at the pale and pretty stranger he had carried into his family room that morning.

  “Well, son, you can’t shoot the fish in the barrel if you won’t even take out your gun!” said the doctor, half-joking and halfserious.

  “Yes, so I’ve been told,” replied Gabriel, rolling his eyes. He was used to getting teased for choosing to abstain in spite of his apparent sex appeal, but he could never quite understand why everyone and their uncle seemed to be so interested in his love life. “Thank you, doctor, I will keep that in mind,” he replied respectfully, with a gentle backhand of sarcasm. He turned back to the girl on the sofa, and apologized for the family’s five rescue pugs having scared her when they came out and found her. “They really are the most harmless monsters you’ll ever meet,” he assured her.

  The mermaid sat still on the couch, intoxicated. She could not believe she was there, in his house, less than a few feet away from where he stood carrying a tray of something that smelled strange yet so delicious it made her mouth water. And, the cherry on the cake was, he appeared to be bringing it just for her. It was all too wonderful to wrap her little head around. She tried to imagine what was under that serving lid.

  Gabriel cleared his throat, and she gapped back in from her delectable daydream. “I didn’t know what you’d want to eat so I grabbed you a bit of everything,” he said. Without a second thought, she jumped up onto her feet and dashed towards him until she was standing right in front of him, her chest pressed against the tray of food, breathing in the euphoric scent combination of food/him. “Okay, good! Glad you’re hungry. I’m Gabriel;” he said. Her heart jumped. She knew his name. Oh, how she knew his name. “What’s your name?” he asked. Her bright smile faded back to a frown.

  “Gabe, honey,” explained Lucia, “I don’t think she can speak.” “Oh really?” he asked. He had never known a mute person before. “Whatever, I’m not really that great at it either,” he said with a smile. “Talking is overrated anyway.” She melted, understanding he was being kind and fell even more in love with his easy nature. Fe
eling her temperature rise from deep inside her hungry, empty belly, she wondered how many other human girls were so lucky to have such a gentleman as her soul mate. An overjoyed smile crept across her face.

  “At least we know she can walk now, which is good!” remarked the doctor.

  Gabriel looked down at her white and dainty little legs. It was true; they did look brand new, without so much as a single scar, freckle or blemish on them. It was as if they’d been kept in glass casing her entire life and she had only just chosen to break out the pure, white legs that morning.

  The little mermaid remembered that the witch had promised that her new legs would be the most graceful pair in the world, so she decided to get them working for her right away because every second spent in his presence was another chance to make him fall for her. Pain shot up from her toes to her brain but she endured the sensation bravely, not wanting to ever lose points for poise.

  “Are you hungry?” Gabriel asked, lifting the lid from the plate. She smiled at him and cautiously poked at the different foods, all so new and foreign to her. She picked up a piece of bacon with two fingers and brought it close to inspect it. Steam rose from the crispy strip and it smelled so delightful, she just had to lick it. The saltiness of it made her salivate for more.

  “Well, that’s one way to eat it, but most of us just bite into it,” he said, making biting gestures to show her what he meant. She stuffed the whole piece into her mouth and looked up to him for approval. “Yes, you got it! And now, chew…” he said, encouraging her to chomp down on it. Its dripping, warm fat seemed to romance each and every one of her taste buds. She closed her eyes while she stood there, just savoring, wondering if everything in the upper world tasted so lovely. Once it was swallowed, she opened her eyes and scanned the plate for the next delectable item to try. “I’ve set you a place out on the patio; come with me!” he said, glad she was interested in the breakfast he had fixed for her.

  “Good idea, darling; get this poor girl fed!” said Lucia. “I’ll run upstairs and find her something to wear.”

  “Well I think my work here is done,” said the old doctor, yawning. “Lucia, a pleasure as always; Gabriel, all the best; and lil’ miss, best of luck to you . . . I think you landed in the right place for now,” he said as he tipped his hat and headed outside to his car, a loud little brown vintage hatchback.

  When they got to the porch, Gabriel showed her to her seat and she ran her hands over the top of the clean white tablecloth. Humans have such grand decorations, she thought to herself as he set her plate down in front of her. There was cutlery next to her plate but she ignored them, opting instead to go straight for another piece of greasy bacon with her fingers. She picked up a chunk of hash browned potato and inspected it closely and from all angles before popping it into her mouth, tasting it with her eyes open, then with her eyes closed. Next she went for a slice of buttered toast, biting only the corner of it off then inexplicably setting the remainder of it down on the seat next to her. Everything was so tasty and warm and felt so nice in her mouth while she chewed. Gabriel watched her enjoy every single bite with complete fascination, observing from across the table while she ate as if she had never enjoyed a cooked breakfast before. While she was concentrating on the meal in front of her, he let his imagination run wild as he speculated about where she could have come from. Perhaps she had just escaped from a slave ship where they didn’t feed her, or perhaps she had been lost at sea, surviving on canned bait. He gapped back in again when he noticed she had stopped eating, and instead was staring down at her plate in wide-eyed wonderment. She had discovered the most beautiful surprise hidden for her under the second slice of toast: a beautiful, miniature yellow sun!

  She beamed at him with her sweetest, most appreciative smile. There was bacon and spinach in her teeth and he considered telling her, but she looked like she was having way too much fun so he decided not to bother. The wonderful sun she admired was simply an egg fried sunny-side up but to someone who had never seen such a thing before, it represented everything magical in the world. She glanced out over the balcony railing to the sun over the water and closed one eye while she traced the perfect circle with her finger, and then did the same to the little sun on her plate. She leaned forward to smell it and felt its warmth rise up to her nose and cheeks. She touched it right in the center and under the weight of her finger, the yellow sac burst. She watched as the pale orange yolk streamed out over the whites like hot lava and as she licked her yolk-covered finger, she decided that mornings taste far better on the dry Earth than they ever did under the sea.

  Once she had all but licked her plate clean, Lucia came outside to fetch her. “I found you some clothes to put on, dear. Not that you aren’t stunning in Gabriel’s old flannel; I just thought you might like something prettier and in your size.”

  The mermaid grinned. She wanted to be as pretty as could be! So she stood up to follow Lucia inside. Her feet still killed her when she stood upon them, but somewhere between her first few failed attempts at standing and the present, she had discovered the lovely, graceful strut the witch had promised her. She began to feel wonderfully feminine as she mastered the art of gliding, maneuvering light as air upon her tiny, lady-like feet. She could feel Gabriel’s eyes on her as she disappeared into the doorway, and that alone made the steps worth their pain.

  Lucia led her back into the living room, where she had awoken from her blackout less than an hour prior. Sitting on the sofa was a yellow sundress; beside it was a cotton bra and panty set. The little mermaid picked them all up and inspected each piece curiously. “They’re fresh, I promise! See? The tags are still on.” The mermaid looked at her with a blank, clueless expression as she dropped them back onto the sofa. “And if I had to guess, I would say that they are your exact size!” said Lucia as she picked them up and put them back in her hands. “Go ahead, try them on!”

  The mermaid still stared back at her blankly. “What, have you never worn a bra and panties before?” she asked incredulously. When her mild laughter was met with yet another clueless expression, she realized that the girl must really have no idea of the function those garments were meant to perform. Lucia was dumbfounded but considered that the strange mute girl could perhaps still be in shock from whatever circumstance had left her on the beach naked and alone in the first place, and decided not to make a big deal out of it and just help the girl into the clothes.

  When the panty set was on, the girl stood in front of the large mirror that hung on the wall behind the sofa, taking in the new sight of her new body. With the bra on, her modest breasts sat higher and looked fuller than they had before. Curiously, she cupped them with her hands and turned to check them out from the side. Then her gaze moved downwards and she checked her legs out in the mirror. She stood to one side, then to the other, watching every muscle flex and contract. It still hurt so much to stand, but she bore every second of it with grace. She leaned forward and reached down to feel her leg from the highest point on her thigh to the lowest part of her ankle. She could not believe how soft her legs felt; a pleasant, smooth expanse of skin where her shiny scales once were. Her bottom half felt strangely naked and she wondered if perhaps this is what her tail actually looked like when it wasn’t bound tightly in scales; perhaps she had had legs all along, two white pillars just waiting to be freed. She wanted to show Gabriel how pretty she looked in the bra and panties, so she began to skip towards the door…

  “Darling!” called Lucia, sensing that the girl was about to run out in her underwear. “You’re only half-dressed! Let’s get this sun dress on you.” She motioned for the girl to raise her arms so she could slip the dress over her head. The mermaid complied. “There! Just as I suspected, a perfect fit.”

  Just then, Gabriel knocked on the door. “Are you decent?” he asked. The little mermaid perked up enthusiastically at the sound of his voice.

  “Come in, Gabe, she’s dressed now,” replied Lucia, and in he came, stopping dead in his tracks when
he saw her.

  “You look gorgeous,” he said as he looked her up and down. She looked lovely in a way that he’d been missing but hadn’t realized. There was something incredibly comforting about seeing new life breathed into his sister’s long-forgotten clothes, and his happiness at the sight was written all over his face. The little mermaid never felt so good.

  Lucia turned to her. “I have a few things to take care of today; our youngest returns from boarding school this aft and we’re throwing a soiree in her honour. Everyone will be here and I have a million things to do today so now that you are fed, dressed, and lucid, I must excuse myself and get back at it!” Lucia jumped and began to dash back to the kitchen when she heard the oven timer go off. “Come find me if you need anything!” she called from the hallway.

  Once again testing out the grace in her new feet, she rocked back and forth upon them before rolling up onto the tips of her toes as effortlessly as a principal ballerina who had spent her entire life practicing. Gabriel clapped for her, amazed at her incredibly surprising talent. Then he reached into his pocket to pull out his cell phone to hand to her.

  “Go ahead and dial your family, and I’ll let them know you’re safe here,” he said. She took the gadget in her hands and just cradled it in her open palms, staring down at the baffling piece of technology with sad eyes. “Is there no one you can call?” he asked. She looked him deep in the eyes and shook her head. No, no there wasn’t.

  Gabriel felt for her in a way that felt very new and peculiar; part of him was suspicious about the girl who couldn’t say where she was from and had no family to call but at the same time, he could not remember the last time he wanted so much to care for another living thing. The stranger in front of him appeared spirited and strong-willed but still vulnerable in a way that made her dearer to him already than most girls he’d known his whole life. He took the phone back from her hands and slid it back into his pocket.