THE LONELY FISHERMAN
By
Lilith Kinke
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Lilith Kinke on Smashwords
The Lonely Fisherman
Copyright © 2012 by Lilith Kinke
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David had always loved the sea. The cold spray caressed his face, as if it knew he was thinking about it. He sighed, figuring he was being overly romantic again. His brawny arms tugged on the heavy fishnets, pulling them in. The catch yesterday had been good, real good, and he was hoping to get a good price at shore.
The whole last week better than most, but he still had to pull in a lot to make the big bucks this year. The new licenses hit the small fisherman the hardest, the big operations able to pay off the right people. Life was sometimes like that. It wasn’t an easy life, but it could be rewarding.
David had once spent an entire year on the land, never stepping foot at the ocean. He had done it for a girl that he didn’t love, trying to fit in a life he never would. When he was away from the vast deep, he didn’t just miss it, it felt like he spent every moment holding his breath. The time away from the calling sea was infinitely more lonely than he ever felt now. He inhaled, tasting the salty air.
His love-hate relationship with the ocean had been strong for as long as he could remember. His very first memory of it was exploring tidal pools along the coast as a child. They told him that before his adoptive parents had taken him in, he had been found on the beach as a baby swaddled in a blanket of kelp and seaweed. They laughed and called him a child of the ocean, but never let him swim. They were afraid of losing him, they said.
David had one memory of swimming in the sea. It seemed strange that a child who loved the sea would never swim in it, but he had only managed to get in once, declaring he was going to drown himself under the waves. He had never gone in again. Even as a fisherman, he had never fallen in. It knew him.
He looked out into the horizon and sighed again, feeling the ocean swell gently rock the boat. He never wanted to admit it, but he was afraid. He was afraid of how much he loved the sea. He dreamt of swimming under the waves forever, of casting himself into the blue ocean until he never rose again. It scared him, but here he was, unable to stay away.
It was inevitable that he ended up choosing life as a fisherman. It brought him close enough without ever coming close enough. It was a lonely life, and many had expressed regrets for him, but he had never really noticed. Not until today. Usually the work exhausted him, kept him from thinking, but today his mind wouldn’t stop buzzing.
The sea drove a restlessness inside him that hummed in his blood as he worked. He threw himself into it, hoping effort would take it away. The sun shone down upon him, but he felt cold. He tasted sea spray upon his lips.
He heaved the rope higher, feeling it weigh heavy, and a fierce grin spread across his face. This haul would be good, he could feel the heaviness in the net. He grunted, pulling it over the side. The nets fell apart, and where he expected to see fish, he found a man instead.
David’s first thought was that was dead and he had dredged up a dead body, but then he noticed that half this man was fish. Where he should have had legs, was a tail that was covered in large, golden scales. They shimmered in the sunlight with a slight iridescence and a strange depth. Merman. The phrase perched on his lips but he didn’t say it aloud. He bent down to take a closer look.
His face was creased in pain, and David suddenly felt tender. His long blond hair lay scraggly, some of it tangled in the nets. He painstakingly worked it out. As the mysterious man dried, David stared in wonder as his tail began slowly splitting into legs. It was almost a little grotesque, but definitely magical.
David studied his chest and body as his legs changed slowly. He was toned, but slightly more slender than David’s husky figure. He was beautiful, with high cheekbones and looked as if he, when awake, was a fierce person.
It wasn’t long before there wasn’t any sign of there ever having been a mystical creature on his boat deck. Now, he was only a man. A very well endowed man, David noticed and blushed. He felt himself responding to this unconscious man in ways he hadn’t felt in years. Since he had given his life to the sea.