Winter's Mermaid (Mermaid Series Book 1)

by Dan Glover

  Winter's

  Mermaid

  Books by Dan Glover

  The Mermaid Series

  Winter's Mermaid

  Mermaid Spring

  Summer's Mermaid

  Mermaid Autumn

  Liza McNairy Mysteries

  Peppermint Soul

  Baja Blues

  Deadhead

  Philosophy

  Lila’s Child: An Inquiry Into Quality

  The Art of Caring: Zen Stories

  The Mystery: Zen Stories

  Apache Nation

  The Lazy Way to 100,000 Twitter Followers

  The Gathering of Lovers Series

  Billy Austin

  Lisa

  Allison Johns

  Tom Three Deer

  Justine

  Yelena

  Short Stories

  There Come a Bad Cloud: Tangled up Matter and Ghosts

  Mi Vida Dinámica

  Winter's Mermaid

  Dan Glover

  Published by Lost Doll Publishing

  Copyright 2013

  All Rights Reserved All the characters in this story are fictional. Any resemblance to the living or the dead is coincidental.

  Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

  To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee

  From darkness to promote me?

  [John Milton, Paradise Lost]

  Chapter 1—Coming Home

  The trip grew ever more difficult.

  Lake Baikal was blue crystal marble twinkling amid verdant tresses of trees fingering their way up the surrounding mountain sides in the dimming evening light of the day star.

  Natalia paddled in the arctic waters watching the scene unfold below her as Lily and Lauren, the Ladies of the Lake, danced and cavorted a hundred and fifty meters beneath its surface. Raising her head and looking back she saw Karen and Marilyn watching her from the shoreline with the People pressing around them to wade into the shallow end of the Lake.

  Though it was the middle of summer and a warm breeze graced the land the Lake water was so cold it drove needles and pins into her body. Natalia dove in all at once rather than wading in gradually as did her lovers. She found it easier to acclimatize herself in that fashion. Now, a hundred meters from shore and with three kilometers of water beneath her she peered into the depths marveling at the changes in the Lake that the years had wrought.

  The old paper mill that once spewed noxious chemicals into the waters had withered and decayed into a crumbling mass of ruins as did the villages that once dotted the shoreline as nature reclaimed most of the roads during the forty years since the Great Dying. Grumbling trucks spewing diesel fumes and laden with cut trees no longer lined up to dump their loads into the vast pulping vats. The rusted smokestacks had evaporated like early morning mist on the surface of the Lake.

  Chilled despite the exertion of continually treading water Natalia swam to shore where her son Nate met her with a warm fluffy towel. It was clear he was in one of his pensive moods as they sat and talked on the shoreline awaiting the emergence of the Ladies.

  "It is getting more difficult to reach the Lake every time we come here, my darling mother. Without upkeep in another hundred years the roads will disintegrate all together. What will we do when that happens?"

  Natalia understood to remain at Lake Baikal year around wasn’t feasible—the winters were too brutal—yet she also knew that the Ladies Lily and Lauren needed to renew themselves every seven years lest they began to diminish. She also realized that if the Ladies of the Lake faded away so too would this small band of humanity, all that remained of the billions who once raped the planet.

  "Perhaps we should learn to operate the train, sweet mother. It couldn’t be too hard. We have plenty of diesel fuel and I am sure I can restore the engine into working order."

  Nate was a tall boy still exhibiting the willowy musculature of youth but fast becoming a man. He wore his black hair long and loose. Natalia knew it was to cover his gills of which his human peers made constant fun of while he was growing up together with them. Children could be so cruel. He had her eyes. They seemed auburn in the shade and yet a sharp blue in the sunshine, full of mystery and mirth.

  He was handsome beyond words but then again he was her son. His Roman nose lent his face a sense of propriety. His jaw line melded perfectly into his neck and when he blinked a tiny twitch appeared on the ridge of his nose between his perfectly spaced and well formed eyes. She thought how he would never see that unique twitch and how more was the pity.

  He was the mechanic of the group, a grease monkey at heart. It was he who kept the buses running and scavenged the diesel fuel that enabled the People to traverse the wide continents from their home in Scotland to Lake Baikal. He had long advocated using the train as an alternative means of transport.

  "It is too dangerous, my lovely Nate. Lady Lily tells me how the rails are not to be trusted to travel upon. They have shifted and bowed with the hot summers and hard winters and no one to look after them. How much work would it be to inspect and repair six thousand kilometers of train track? Too much, I suspect."

  Natalia knew how Lily had a sixth sense about such things and most of the People followed her advice to the letter. Nate, on the other hand, was a bit of his own mind. He had to be subtly dissuaded from leaving the group to strike out on his own. Natalia was never sure if he would actually do such a thing but she watched him closely nevertheless always ready to alert either Lily or Lauren of his impending departure.

  "I don't understand why we all have to stay together like this, sweet mother. Perhaps if I were to set out when we return home I could start by scrutinizing the tracks... if I do a little each day, before long it will be complete and safe to travel upon."

  "If you were to leave Orchardton Hall by yourself, my sweetest Nate, you would perish from the Lake sickness."

  "Isn't that just a fable the Ladies tell to keep us together?"

  "You know better than that, my darling Nate. Remember... in the past others have left the group never to be heard from again. It isn't a fairy tale being told to keep you here. It's the truth. Without the presence of the Ladies the People cannot survive for more than a day. We sicken and die quickly and horribly. It is not something you want to experience first hand."

  "How do we know that for sure? I'm not like the rest of the People, my lovely mother. Perhaps I can survive on my own like the Ladies."

  "Perhaps you can, my sweet Nate, but please do not make a test of it in a foolhardy fashion... baby steps... just as you were saying about fixing the railroad tracks. You have probably heard this before but it bears repeating.

  "When I was young, my son, the world was full of human beings. There were thousands of great cities filled with buildings that reached up to scrape the skies. All those cities were besmeared with people. We flew through the air like sardines stuffed into metal cylinders with wings like birds. We traveled over the oceans in great iron ships. Our automobiles blotted out the land.

  "One day a kiss ended it all... yes, a single kiss. Would anyone believe it? No, I think not. Yet I was a witness to it. All those billions of people perished like trees that burned in a fierce sweeping forest fire. The only ones who survived were those who stayed by the Ladies of the Lake. They have the power to sustain life and yet they also have to power to destroy it. That was a secret the cleverest doctors in the world could never unravel.

  "We are the fortunate ones, my darling son. Please do not forget that. You will be tempted to test your mettle against the world soon enough. Enjoy your youth while you can... you will be a man for countless centuries to come but this time is only granted once."

&
nbsp; "I want to see the old cities of this world, my precious mother, before they rust away all together. I've seen pictures of wonderful works of art filling the old museums. All those great monuments that I read about in books must still be there, right?"

  "Perhaps they are there, my brilliant son, but those cities are filled with death and disease. Wild beasts have reclaimed all the land outside the fences of Orchardton Hall... they may not like us encroaching upon their domain."

  "Is it true that the People used to grow old and die, my darling mother?"

  "Yes, that was true, darling Nate."

  "We'll never grow old, will we?"

  "No, nor will we ever die as long as we stay with the Ladies."

  "Are you happy here with the People, my sweet mother?"

  "Yes, my gorgeous Nate... I am full of joy here. Have I told you the story of how I met Lady Lily and how she saved my life?"

  "Of course, my wondrous mother... you've told the story many times... but I love hearing it... tell me once again."

  "In the old world, people like me sickened and died horrible deaths. It was the way of my kind. I was one of those many folk who were sick with a disease they called cancer.

  "I worked in a building without windows in one of those cities you were just talking about... it was a dull and repetitious job but they paid me a lot of money and I was able to live in what I thought was a wonderful apartment.

  "Compared to our home at Orchardton Hall, it was a closet, however, and I was a slave working from sunrise until midnight every day. I thought I was so much better off than my Gypsy parents who had lived a vagabond life out of the back of a horse-drawn wagon.

  "I was so wrong about everything. But I didn’t realize that until one night while I was taking a shower and I noticed a lump under my armpit. It hurt. I couldn’t remember feeling it before but I put it off to my clothing perhaps pinching me too tightly in that area.

  "When I finally went to a doctor, he told me I was sick. He used all his powers in an attempt to heal my disease yet in the end none of it worked. I was told I would be dead in just a few months.

  "I didn’t want to die in that windowless office building or in a smelly hospital bed... I wanted to breathe clean air for a change and see as much of the world as possible before I closed my eyes for the final time.

  "I bought a ticket for a train. I rode it all over Europe... oh, my sweet Nate! You would have loved that journey! I stayed in castles and I walked along the wild ocean shorelines and I pretended I was a girl again seeing it all for the first time.

  "Then the pain started. The doctor told me it would but I didn’t know it would hurt so badly. I was dying when I met Lily. No, I was already dead. My body hadn't caught on to that fact as of yet, however. Lady Lily brought me back to life. I'll always love her. Being in the presence of the Ladies is something to be treasured, not shunned."

  "I love listening to your stories of the old days, my sweet mother. Do you ever wish you could go back?"

  "Never... those times were as dreary as winter in Siberia. Today we have all the time we need to revel in life. Back then, there was only time for work... only time for making money and more money. The world ran on money.

  "Oh, my darling Nate... if you had lived in those days, you would already be chained to a job you detested yet unable to break free of it."

  "I feel trapped here, my darling mother. I doubt if having a job could be any worse."

  "I know that, my sweet Nate, but that feeling will pass. Listen... why don't you look into getting that old windmill working again? We could have lights at night again instead of lanterns and running water when we turn on the faucets."

  Though Natalia missed little of the old days she often yearned for lights that came on when she flipped a switch and all the other little conveniences afforded by electricity.

  To think they would have to live out the centuries little better than animals often dampened her spirits though she told herself one day someone would come along and fix everything and make it right again.

  For months after the Great Dying the lights continued to work but one night they just went out and stayed out. No one knew why or what to do to fix them. It was easier to light candles and lanterns than to try tracing the downed wires or fixing the power station.

  Water was another matter. Without electricity to run the pump the People had to hand dig a well to haul water up in buckets. Toilets had to be filled by pouring water into the back before flushing.

  Without electricity to run the computers no one could access the data stored in myriad files. Recharging the laptops was managed with portable generators but they were noisy, they emitted fumes, and it was impossible to run power cords to all the appliances. It was as if they had returned to the Stone Age.

  One day Nate discovered a wind turbine atop a tower. By himself and using a winch he managed to lower it to the ground, to place it in the back of a vehicle, and to haul the whole contraption back to Orchardton Hall. But its intricacies baffled even his intellect.

  "Are you sure the Ladies won't object, my sweet mother?"

  His voice took on a tone of sarcasm though Natalia suspected it embarrassed him that he couldn't make the turbine produce electricity. She also knew a little kick in the pants did wonders for the boy and he'd be furiously working on it for days once they returned to Orchardton Hall.

  "Hush now, darling Nate. You know they love us. Please do try working on the wind turbine again. If you need help or advice, just ask. I'll do whatever I can."

  Lucy swayed past the two of them. Natalia couldn't help but notice how the girl distracted her son's attention each time she was around. From the time Nate was but a toddler the two of them played together but now those days were over. Lucy was a woman and Nate was a man and with that change a kind of meanness manifested between them that Natalia didn’t appreciate.

  "Tell me, sweet Nate... are you are still friends with Lucy?"

  "Sort of... she seems to enjoy fooling around with Drummond, though. She knows that I don’t get along with him."

  "That boy is a no good bully. Lucy made a poor choice. Have you explained to her how you feel? Do you know yourself how you feel about her?"

  Drummond floated closely behind Lucy as if tethered to her, making sure Nate saw him. One of the original members of the People, if the boy ever had a first name it was long forgotten. Natalia sensed that Lucy was using Drummond to create a friction of jealousy within Nate's mind and she didn’t like it.

  "She knows how I feel, darling mother. I don’t have to tell her."

  "You can do better than Lucy. Let her go, darling Nate. I've always heard how people alike make a pair. They'll spend their lives being miserable together. Be happy, my son."

  "But she's my friend, my precious mother. I should watch out for her. Isn't that what friends are for?"

  The girl wasn’t what anyone would consider pretty nor was she anywhere close to being the equal of Nate when it came to intelligence. She had a large crooked nose, her eyes were too small and close together, and her chin was too sharp for her face.

  However, in the way she walked she exuded a kind of raw sexuality that was uncommon among the girls of the People. Indeed, ever since the Great Dying all the children born to the People were females.

  "Some people cannot be helped, my lovely Nate. She will only use you to suit her own purposes and then leave you for that horrid boy."

  Natalia disliked Drummond. Though she couldn't help but think of him as a boy he was in reality a man slovenly in appearance, uncouth in action, and given to frequenting all the girls. He had no neck as his horse-sized head seemed to grow right out of fat slouching shoulders.

  He wore his greasy hair long and combed to the side so it often fell over his left eye. He was constantly shaking his head in an effort to see. Tiny arms sprout from his shirt with grasping claws for hands reminding Natalia of pictures she once saw of a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur. His pants refused to stay up as he had no butt to speak of
.

  He reeked of alcohol.

  "Lord knows what they see in him."

  "Did you say something, sweet mother?"

  "The way those girls flock around him that Drummond kid reminds me of a spider catching flies in his webs of deceit. What is it about him that they find so attractive?"

  "I wish I knew; maybe if I walk about looking like a slob, never taking a bath, beating up all the younger people, and ready to jump into bed with any girl who asks they'd like me too."

  "You're superior to him, my special Nate, and you know it."

  "I'm a twenty year old virgin, sweet mother."

  "And I couldn’t be prouder of you, my darling son. You have a special role to play. I promise you that your time will arrive and when it does you'll understand the whys and the wherefores of the long wait you’ve endured."

  Natalia couldn't help but notice Nate's eyes following Lucy as she sauntered away. She could only trust that he would follow his instincts, keep himself chaste, and await the time of his flourishing.

  Chapter 2—Free

  Lance Adams wasn’t a hundred percent.

  Lily'd been amazing... everything he dreamed. He was quite sure the multiple shots of vodka might well have had something to do with the moribund feelings on the morning after, or the thought that if they discovered what he had done he'd be sacked from a job he desperately needed and perhaps even criminally prosecuted, but there was more.

  A persistent and extremely uncomfortable itching had developed in his nether regions. It was nothing, he thought. Sexually transmitted diseases took more time than a few hours to manifest symptoms and besides, Lily had been in quarantine for the past seven years. He knew that for a fact as he was hired the same time his employers brought her into the institute for their studies.

  It was true that he felt empathy for the girl. He couldn't understand why she was kept apart from everyone, locked in a cold steel and glass cage that served as a prison. Though he was paid well for his duties he wasn't privileged to know the rationale behind Lily's imprisonment nor the reasons the Centers for Disease Control was so interested in her.