Surface Tensions

by Jordan, G R

  After a walk of an hour, they rounded a hillside entering a new loch. In total, the expanse of water was about five football pitches, and although the wind was calm, Donald saw motion on the water in excess of that which was expected. Kiera sat down and took off her wet shoe.

  "Nothing here Donald. How far do you think she is expecting us to go?"

  "Dunno, Kiera," answered Donald, eyes peeled on the water. There was a sense in him of a false stillness, like one made rather than natural. The birdsong had disappeared, at least from the immediate area. The butterflies stirred in his stomach.

  "I'm exhausted, Donald, maybe a wee wash will help me." Kiera stepped forward to the water and bent down hands cupped ahead of her and splashed water on her face. Keeping her eyes closed she let the fluid fall down her face and breathed in deeply. It felt good.

  "Kiera don't move." Donald's voice was firm and deliberate. Kiera opened her eyes and stared into another face. Long, wet, black ringlets framed a fierce face which fixated on Kiera. Her eyes wandered past the gills on the neck to the powerful bare shoulders. A waxy chest of the same translucent skin as Tink's then gave way to the water. It was Kiera's first merman and he was very impressive.

  His arm shot out and grabbed Kiera by the throat. Caught in his vice-like grip, Kiera immediately put two hands onto his wrists and tried to prise his arms apart. She heard Donald shout followed by the splash of his feet racing through the water towards them. Pain rather than a lack of air was her major problem, and she felt her throat might be literally crushed to nothing. Throwing himself from five yards away, Donald performed a high rugby tackle on the merman knocking him backwards. The merman's grip remained tight on Kiera, and she toppled into the water as well.

  The loch hadn't appeared very deep, but it was at least deeper than Donald was tall, for he found no footing and had to kick for the surface. As he broke the water, something thumped him hard across his hip, and he lashed out but found nothing.

  Now struggling for breath after the tumble, Kiera found her throat suddenly released and a pair of arms pushing her. She broke the surface and grabbed a rock beside her. Turning back to the water, she saw two heads, the merman and Donald, some twelve foot apart glowering at each other. Panic struck her as Donald was struggling just to keep himself above the water-line, clearly in no shape to take on the creature.

  A head broke the water in the middle of the stand-off. Kiera recognised Tink's hair and then her face, as she turned toward the merman. Without fear or panic, she nuzzled her head under his chin before wrapping her arms around him. Noses touched and eyes met which seemed to calm the creature down. Who knew what was happening under the water, but this was working.

  "Donald, swim over here now, get out of the water."

  Like I need an invite, thought Donald as he gave it his best front crawl to the shore.

  Kiera had hauled herself up by the time he joined her, and she helped him until they fell together on the grass just clear of the loch. For a few moments, they just breathed hard, lay on their backs watching the mer-couple carry out an intimate exchange.

  "Donald, look at that. Just beautiful."

  "Yeah and he clocked me a gorgeous one in the side too. That's going to bruise up. Are you okay?"

  "Shush. Look at that. We're the first people to see that, mermaid love. Wish I had my camera."

  "Kiera, your throat is well red. That's probably going to bruise."

  "Would you shut up about this stuff? Look at them. Just look. So like us, really, so like us."

  Except for the tails, thought Donald, but decided his opinion was not ready to be received at the moment. He was engulfed in a surprising but deep kiss by Kiera, which he was just about getting to grips with when she broke off. He saw the merman looking at him.

  "Hold me, Donald, hold me."

  "Sure, you frightened?"

  "Just hold me."

  Donald shifted his backside in an unattractive waddle until he was sat behind Kiera and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned back and kissed him. When he saw the merman again, Tink had placed herself with her back to her partner and the mer-man was wrapping his arms around her.

  "So like us, do you see Donald?"

  Donald saw but was having trouble reconciling this with the mermaid who had eaten so many fish over the last few days and made such awful sounds. So like us, he thought, yet so unlike us. I'm more confused than a British electorate.

  There was definitely some form of smile on Tink's face, Kiera believed, and she was feeling warm inside despite being wet to the core. The last few days had held so much pain, yet it was being coupled with so much wonder that it felt like a true explosion of life. Watching Tink begin to effect that howl which made no sense to a human, Kiera wondered what she was up to. The lens of her eye starting framing pictures of this joyous moment.

  The surface of the water erupted and a multitude of heads broke the surface. Kiera couldn't count them all but there were at least fifty. All were mer-people, evident from the skin colour, and a few were males. The majority were, however, females, and all held something cradled in their arms. Flapping small tails led onto tiny torsos before emerging into slightly oversized heads. Some were bald, some with thin hair, others with the thickness of a gorse bush.

  Jaw dropped, Donald gasped at the sight, trying to process what he was seeing. His first sense was one of wonder and excitement as he looked at each tiny face, feeling a man's protective drive coming to the fore. Then his brain countered with the thought of discovery of this nursery beneath the water. If people find this, there'll be television, scientists, and all sorts of exploitation. And then if others find them first, they'll be nothing but a dead generation of mer-people. One mermaid in a bath tub was a near impossible to keep secret, this is something else.

  "This is a privilege, Donald, such a privilege."

  "It is Kiera, God knows it is." And God told us to take care of the animals.

  23

  Narrowing of the Sights

  Hayley was scanning in earnest across what little water she could see in the increasing fog. The blanket of wispy fluff that previously surrounded the hills, had descended so that the horizontal line of sight was now a few hundred meters. Looking upward, the hillsides were still visible, set in the dank, grey clouds of drizzle.

  Hacked off behind her, Tommy reflected that if he didn't know the woman in front and hadn't been deeply interested in furthering a relationship with her, he would have waved goodbye some time ago. As it was, he was feeling damp, a little cold, and fed up. Didn't she realise he had a job to go back to, assessments of damage to make? How did he end up here when it all started with a night of supposed raunchy fun? Not that it hadn't been fun at times. But at times it had been brutal. As he watched her perfect cheeks wiggle in stride, he acknowledged he was going nowhere.

  You're smit, Tommy my son, smit.

  "Where is she? Tommy, anything, can you see anything?"

  "Keep looking, babe. She'll turn up. Just keep looking."

  Tommy's mind wandered off Hayley's backside, and he looked ahead, fearing any impasse to their progress. Often at these rock-sides there would be places of small sheer cliffs which would require a detour, not long in distance but with a decent climb. They'd been past two already and he was waiting for the next one to further spoil his day.

  Then out of the mist came a pair of figures. Seeing only the tip of a shotgun extending past a person's shoulder, Tommy instinctively grabbed Hayley and drew her close. His hand shot over her mouth before she could complain, and as the figures gained more definition, he sat on a rock, pulling Hayley down onto his lap. He tilted her head so as to kiss her, but kept his eyes on the advancing men. A brief exchange of pointing between the men told Tommy they had been spotted, and he swept his hands under Hayley's top.

  Breaking the kiss, Tommy whispered in Hayley's ear, "There's two guys coming with a shotgun. When I start to talk to them, adjust yourself to make this look real."

  "Feels pretty r
eal to me."

  Tommy ignored the jibe and focused on the men. The bright orange waterproofs that they were wearing reminded Tommy of those he had seen on the fishing boats. The man on the left was significantly older with a bushy beard, while the other was a younger man, maybe even a teenager given his spotty complexion.

  "No need to perve," hissed Tommy as they approached.

  "Romantic place to take a woman," goaded the bearded man. "The dump not open today?" His laugh made up for the lack of anyone else finding it funny.

  "It was until you interrupted," frowned Hayley, reaching under her top and adjusting as requested. "No need to bring guns out to go snooping on couples anyway."

  "We're hunting mermaids, not snooping," said the young man, fixated at Hayley's movements. A dig in the ribs from his partner soon drew him back.

  "Where you going to find them ‘round here? The news said it was a fishing boat that found that one,” asked Tommy.

  "Don't you worry about that, son," said the older man. "Take it you ain't seen one then."

  "Got my hands full with Kate here. Don't need another woman however they show themselves. If you don't mind." The older man turned away, but the younger one lingered before following. "I wouldn't mind, Davie, would you?" was heard over the shoulders, and Tommy embraced Hayley again.

  "What do we do about them?" whispered Hayley in Tommy's ear.

  "Just keep up the pretence for a few more minutes in case they are watching."

  "Bet that younger guy's watching."

  "Hayley, just keep up the façade. We need them to move on."

  "Did you see how he…" but Tommy had got back into full acting mode. It was five minutes later when he broke off and looked around him. Satisfied they were alone again, he tapped Hayley's backside indicating she should rise but she stayed put.

  "Tommy, they had shotgun."

  "I saw. This is getting dangerous, very dangerous."

  "They're heading to where Tink was earlier, Tommy, if they see her…" Hayley was starting to shake a little now and was staring at Tommy hoping for some solution.

  "I don't know where she is. We are as blind about this as they are. Hayley, what do you want to do? I mean is she likely to be back there. Or should we just continue on ahead."

  "We could track them. Stop them before they do anything."

  "Hayley, they have a bloody shotgun. I mean you don't go out hunting mermaids every day with a shotgun. A net's normal but a shotgun?" Tommy's mind pointed out to him that his use of the word normal with mermaid hunting was a worrying development and any further links like this could require him seeing someone professional.

  "Tommy, they'll kill her. Just kill her."

  "So you think we should trail them?" queried Tommy.

  "Well, I'm going to."

  "No way, you're as subtle as a toddler in a paddling pool. No way. I ain't having you get shot on me."

  "Stop me then." Hayley went to walk off but Tommy grabbed her to him.

  "I'll go. Come with me until we get near to the car and then you get in, get somewhere with a signal and get the police, okay. They won't want some vigilantes walking around with shotguns."

  Hayley looked into his eyes and then kissed him gently on the lips. "Thank you. She's worth it. She's a beautiful creature."

  "She's not the beautiful creature I'm doing it for." He took her hand and led her back along the shore.

  ***

  "Look at them, Donald. Barely a few days old."

  "How do you know that? They could be any age."

  "Well they look like a few day's old human baby. Except for the tails of course." Kiera had been fawning for the last two hours and kicking herself for not having a camera with her. Donald had long since begun to dry and sort out their clothes, but they were still wet through. They were both in their underwear as Donald tried to slap the clothes on rocks and wring them to a drier state. Theoretically helping, Kiera was too engrossed in their discovery.

  Tink was swimming in amongst the other mermaids, but her attention kept refocusing on the merman who had attacked them earlier. Kiera and Donald, whilst on friendlier terms with the creature, were maintaining a distance from the edge of the loch. The animal instinct for survival in all humans conquering any reconciliation attempt they felt they should make.

  "Heck, Davie, all the freak shows are out today."

  Kiera turned and saw a young man looking at her in his orange waterproofs. Instinctively, she covered her underwear with her hands, fending off his eyes with an angry stare.

  "Hell, Davie, mermaids!"

  The young man ran up to the water and was being followed by an older man with a bushy beard. The man took a bemused look at Kiera and Donald in their underwear, before spying the mermaid nursery.

  "Damn, McCreedie's going to love this."

  Kiera was surprised to see the man then fall forward, hitting the ground face first. Tommy was stood behind, holding a large rock but dropped it immediately to grab the shotgun, now on the ground. The young lad turning, watched Tommy aim it right between the young man's eyes.

  "You ever touch my girl, and I'll blow your balls off, mate."

  "Tommy, thanks. Where's Hayley?"

  "Gone to get the police. We came across these two hunters and thought we had better track them. Sounds like there's a lot more of them too. What have you two been up to? Where's your clothes?"

  "We found Tink, Tommy," answered Kiera. "Tracked her here. Unfortunately, her boyfriend got a tad angry at first, and we ended up scrapping in the pool. But it's sorted now, though I wouldn't go too near the edge."

  "You guys must be cold. Hey, you who was perving my girlfriend, take the waterproofs off and throw them to her. Nothing funny or I'll shoot." Tommy had a face like thunder, and Donald was worried he might actually carry out the threat. Standing in his boxers, he didn't feel like he could give a steadying word without looking totally ridiculous. Turning the man with the beard over, Donald stripped him of his waterproofs and dragged him to one side.

  "The big man's rucksack, Donald, check it for rope," instructed Tommy.

  "Yeah, there's some here." Tying up the young man first, followed by the larger man, Donald then tied their shoelaces together. Kiera was sat on a rock with a worried look on her face.

  "You think there's more, Tommy?" asked Kiera.

  "Well, he mentioned a McCreedie. The dead man was McCreedie. Could be there's a posse out, after all you saw how hot the temperature was at the leisure centre."

  "That makes it complicated. Looking after one mermaid was hard enough, but we got whole families here. Or shoal or whatever we call them."

  "Do you think we could shoo them away?" asked Donald. "Seems to me the safest place to be is the sea, far out and deep."

  "I don't think they want to go," Kiera said, standing and wrapping her arms around Donald. "After all, they chose here to have babies."

  "They spawn here," asked Tommy wide eyed. "How come no one's ever seen them before?"

  "Maybe this is their first time," postured Donald. "Maybe something's brought them here."

  "Bit X-files with that thinking, mate."

  "And mermaids are normal how, Tommy?"

  "Hayley would have a better guess, Tommy," said Kiera, "Best wait until she gets here, she shouldn't be long if she was only popping to the car."

  ***

  Watching the yellow plane land from the terminal, Laura felt herself fortunate that her husband hadn't been going away on the return journey. The yellow beech-craft with their twin engines served the islands as air ambulances, supplemented by helicopters as the need arose. Laura was welcoming a girl she had just gotten to know. Poor Alyssa with her dreams of modelling glory smashed apart by that troubled boy. Still, James had been good to her.

  I hope there's more to it than troubled times, thought Laura.

  Making her way to the apron where the aircraft would park, Laura could see the ambulance waiting to take Alyssa back up to the local hospital. Once there, she wou
ld probably get discharged within an hour or two if all was well. The beech-craft taxied onto the apron, its engines disturbing the windless day before shutting down, and Laura watched from the perimeter fence trying to get a glimpse of her guest. The door that flipped down to provide steps opened and a medic, followed by James, stepped off. Laura was surprised to see Alyssa exit the aircraft unassisted. James was quickly to her side providing support, but as they approached the ambulance, they were ordered back to the aeroplane.

  There was little protest as the blue lights of the ambulance started to flash and its siren wailed to the air. Within a minute, the vehicle had exited the airport heading for its new cause. Standing next to James, the medic seemed concerned and was pointing at the various buildings in the airport. Constantly waving for their attention, Laura finally made a connection with Alyssa. She nudged James, and he began to walk over to Laura.

  "Hi, how are you, Mrs. McKinney? Everything okay?"

  "Hi James, good to see you and also Alyssa on her feet. I take it you have seen the news?"

  "Yes. The riot seems like a bad do altogether. A few hurt they said."

  "There was, and my Murdo was one of them. Got kicked to pieces by the crowd as he covered an animal rights activist. But he'll live."

  "No way! That's dreadful. There's too many things kicking off. Anyway, we have a problem. The ambulance has just had a 999 call, and apparently they are coming back here to put the patient straight on the plane. The other ambulances are busy, so we are going to have to wait. It's a pain because basically once up there, Alyssa is going to get discharged to come back in for day clinics. I think we are going to sit in the terminal."

  "Can I take you up? Would that be alright, save you sitting around?"

  "Thanks, Mrs. McKinney, I'll ask."

  "Good, and it's Laura, James. No need for any of the Missus nonsense."