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A week has passed since I first met _______, but I have yet to see him again. I've been to the beach every day since to try and find him, spending my whole day on the sand watching and waiting. As you may guess, this has resulted in a few sunburns and a decent tan. This is one area where I feel superior to my brothers; if any of those ginger prudes tried to spend this much time in the sun, they'd look like a bunch of lobsters and would likely be immobilized by the pain.

Anyway, I had finally decided to try a proactive approach. If _______ wouldn't come to me, perhaps I can go to him. I unloaded my things on the beach in the same spot I had that first day, except this time I was here in the late morning rather than six or seven A.M. I've learned my lesson about swimming too early. Goggles secured over my eyes, I waded out and finally began swimming away from shore.

After about five minutes of swimming straight out, I had reached the reef where the shark attacked me. I took a deep breath and dove below the waves. I reached the seafloor, which thankfully only housed small fish this time, and looked all around me. There were millions of sea creatures, but no mermen.

I went up for air and quickly dove below again. I swam laps around the reef, looking in every spot I thought _______ could possibly be hiding. But there was no sign of him. Then I spotted something hiding in the sand that caught my attention. I plucked it out of the seabed and saw it was a spear! The body appeared to be made of a whale's rib, the tip was a stingray tail fastened to the rib with seaweed. I knew that this had to have been what _______ had used to spear the shark and, if this was here, that means either the merman or the shark had to be nearby. I was both excited and frightened at the same time, not sure who I might run into down here.

Suddenly a silhouette formed in the far distance. It was far bigger than the fish hanging around the reef right now. I could pick out a dorsal fin and a long tail. At first I thought it was _______, but I noticed the creature moved differently than my aquatic friend. It had to be a shark! I quickly swam for the surface, watching the figure move in my direction. If I had to fight off a shark by myself this time, I didn't want to be without air again. I breached the surface and saw a gray dorsal fin slicing through the water, coming at me like a torpedo. I grasped _______'s spear, ready to strike.

But then the creature stopped in its tracks and poked its' head out of the water. It wasn't a shark, it was a dolphin! It clicked and squeaked at me happily, reminding me of how _______ first tried to introduce himself. The dolphin then poked at the spear in my hands with its nose, as though it recognized the tool. It then turned its back to me. It made gestures with its head for me to grab hold. I took hold of its dorsal fin and one of its flippers, being very careful not to cut the creature with the spear. Once it felt I was holding tight, my new companion took off like a bullet and pulled me along for a ride.

Further and further away we went from shore until I couldn't even see land any more. I was beginning to think this was a bad idea. Suddenly I was pulled below the waves, nearly forgetting to take a breath before plunging below. There were few fish out this far, and all those that I did see were all huge compared to the little reef fish by the shore. In fact, some of these fish dwarfed the shark that attacked me.

I looked down and was thankful that the seafloor was still in sight. It was a relief to know that I was at least not far out enough that the seabed was gone. The dolphin pulled me to a large collection of rocks. I recognized where we were now; this was advertised in the town brochure. Nestled in these rocks was an old sunken warship. People could pay to be escorted out and scuba dive in the wreckage.

Sure enough I was escorted down to the wreckage. The dolphin swam me over to the large rocks before slipping free of my grasp and quickly darting into the wreck. I was about to resurface, thinking that the dolphin was finished with me and leaving me to swim back myself, when I heard it clicking and squeaking. Then there were clicks and squeaks responding to it. Perhaps it escorted me to its pod? The next moment, it reappeared followed by a friendly, familiar face.

“Well well well,” _______ chuckled, “This is a surprise.”

I stupidly opened my mouth to reply, forgetting I was underwater. The last bit of air escaped my lips and I quickly clasped my hands over my mouth.

“Didn't think that through, huh?” _______ smirked. He took my hand was jetted me back to the surface in a flash thanks to his powerful tail, allowing me to fill my lungs with air again. Before I could speak, he said “Out here is probably not the best place to talk; the next tour group will be here soon. Hang on, I know the perfect place!”

I took hold of his shoulder and he pulled me along just as fast, if not faster than the dolphin. Speaking of the dolphin, it was following closely behind. As I was pulled along yet again, I noticed that _______ sported a new accessory, a satchel he cleverly wove out of a fishing net. And inside that satchel were several fish and crabs, each having been recently killed and bearing large punctures on their bodies.

_______ pulled me to a small island. It was a peculiar little island; a blemish on a scape that was otherwise was nothing but sea. It was made from coral piling up on the seafloor until it broke the surface, where it collected sand and seeds until it became what it is now. When we reached a spot where I could walk, I let go and waded to shore. _______ and the dolphin stayed in the shallows, careful not to beach themselves. _______ wasn't much of a concern seeing as he had two human arms to pull himself back into the water, but his finned friend would really be stuck.

Now that I had a moment's peace, I finally remembered I had been holding _______'s spear this whole time. “Um, I-I think this belongs to you,” I stuttered out. He smiled at me and took his spear.

“Thank you,” he said. “I didn't think I would see this again, and it's so hard to make these. Whale bones are becoming harder and harder to come by.”

“So it is a whale bone then?” I asked, sitting in the water next to him.

He nodded. “Yes, and a stingray tail for the tip. Stingrays are easy enough to find, but whales are another story.”

“You hunt whales?”

“Of course not!” he said indignantly. “We use the carcasses of dead whales to our advantage. A mer-person would never, never hurt or kill a whale!”

“We?” I raised an eyebrow. “You mean there's more of you?”

“Sure, lots of us,” he said. “Not as many as you humans, but I'd venture to say there's two humans to every mer-person.”

I did the math quickly in my head. “But that would still mean there's at least four billion mer-people in the world!”

“That sounds about right,” _______ replied.

“If there's really that many of you in the ocean, how have you all eluded humans for so long?” I asked.

“Like this.” He slid below the water and pressed himself against the sand. Then I watch his skin and tail change color to blend in with the sand! I did a double take; if I didn't just see it, I wouldn't believe it. He just vanished before my very eyes! Even his hair changed into a lime green color, making it look like algae or seaweed. I lost his shape in the sand and I wasn't even sure if I was looking at him anymore. But then he changed back to his natural coloring and sat up next to me.

“You can camouflage yourself!” I exclaimed. “Just like an octopus!”

“All of us can do that,” he said. “There have been plenty of times where scuba divers are within arms reach of us and they don't even know it.”

He smiled quickly but then pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes slightly. He leaned in causing my face to heat up a bit. He then reached his hands out and began touching my eyebrows. “You have the biggest eyebrows of any human I've ever seen.”

I pulled my face away. “I put up with enough cracks from my family about my eyebrows, I don't need you to start.”

“I wasn't mocking you, I was merely stating a fact,” he replied. Then he smiled, “Besides, I think they look good on you.” His compliment made my face heat up more and my cheeks blushed. He gasped and held my face in his webbed hands, squishing my cheeks slightly.

“I didn't know humans could change color, too!” he exclaimed excitedly.

“I-I-I'm not ch-changing color!” I retorted.

“Yes you are,” he said back. “Your face is all red. And look, it's getting redder and redder. Like a lobster.” I pulled my face away as he kept talking. “Not a very effective color change, though. I mean I suppose red is effective for warding off danger to an extent, but it doesn't really blend in with anything. If you ever need to hide, you're really stuck.”

I really wanted to change the subject right now. “Uh, s-so, I noticed you caught a lot of fish?” I pointed to his fish net satchel.

“Yup. That shipwreck is full of fish trying to hide from sharks and other predators. Unfortunately for them, I was the one hunting them today,” he said. He reached into the netting and pulled out a fish, tossing it to the dolphin who caught it mid-air. He then pulled out another and bit right into the flesh, chomping right through the scales. He offered one to me, but for obvious reasons I declined. He shrugged and tossed it to the dolphin.

“How did you spear those fish?” I asked. “I mean, I had your spear, and I didn't see you holding one down at the wreck.”

“Not spear, just puncture,” he replied, reaching into his net and pulling out a stingray-tail knife. He then pulled out another fish and tossed it to the dolphin, who this time caught it while doing a flip.

“So I take it this dolphin is a friend of yours? Or a pet, maybe?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not pet; companion.

“There's a difference?”

“Of course! A pet is a title given to an inferior creature who you merely care for, regardless whether or not it takes care of you. To mer-people, dolphins are friends and companions. We see them as equals and we communicate and cooperate with them to hunt and migrate and survive. This particular dolphin has been my closest friend since I was a pup and he was a calf.” The dolphin swan up and nuzzled his chest.

“Does he have a name? An English name,” I added that last bit remembering the response the first time I asked this question.

_______ thought hard again, trying to piece together the translation. “Well, the name gets rather butchered in translation...but as best I can figure, his English name is Zuga.”

The dolphin named Zuga then spoke to _______, who replied with squeaks and clicks of his own. After a short conversation that I didn't understand in the least, Zuga swam off into the sea. “What was all that?” I asked.

“Xuga told me he was going to tell the pod where I am and feed them a lie so they don't know I'm with a human,” he replied, leaning back on his arms. “My pod always worries about me.”

“Why?”

“Because they think I get dangerously close to humans,” he shrugged. “I don't know why; I've always been careful. No adult human has seen me other than you.”

“'Adult human'?” I quirked a brow.

“Mer-people love to interact with human children,” he explained. “Not just me; I've seen plenty of members of my pod and other pods interacting with surface children. Children are innocent and imaginative and playful. They're usually more likely to keep a secret and, even if they don't, parents usually don't believe them when they cry 'mermaid'.”

“Alright,” I huffed. “If that's true, what makes me so special? Why do you allow me to know you and no one else. Why talk to me and not, for instance, my cousins?”

He only shrugged and smiled. “I don't know. I guess I just like you.” His word made me blush yet again. He gazed deep into my eyes. “Do you like me?”

“O-of course I like you!” I blurted out louder than necessary. God I feel like an idiot right now. Is this what Alfred feels like all the time? No, wait, he's too stupid to realize he's stupid...

_______ smiled bigger and said, “Well there you go. We both like each other. That means we're friends and I have every reason to talk to you.”

My face was a burning red color hearing this. _______ noticed this and took it the wrong way. “I've just noticed,” he frowned, “You always turn red around me...” He leaned in closer, scrutinizing my features. “But you just said you liked me...were you lying?”

“What? No! No! Of course I like you!” I defended.

“But red is a color of alarm,” he said sadly. “Creatures only turn red when they're angry or scared or in danger...And the closer I get to you, the redder you get...”

He kept leaning his face in closer and closer, which only made my uncomfortable blush darker and darker to prove his point. Soon his nose was practically touching mine and his lips were so close I felt his breaths on mine. His arms were on either side of my body, effectively pinning me to my spot in the water. His (color) eyes stared intensely into mine. And of course, being in this awkward position made my blush as dark and as red as possible. If anyone uninvolved saw this, they might think it was romantic (until they noticed one of us was a merman). But the tension in the air right now made the scene anything but.

“Do I make you angry?” he asked.

“No!” I exclaimed.

“Do I make you scared?”

“No!”

“Do you think I'm dangerous?”

“No!”

“Then why are you red?”

I didn't know what to say. He honestly didn't understand blushing! How could I explain something like this?! On the one hand I tell him what it means when someone blushes and he gets offended because I feel attracted to him. But on the other hand, I don't tell him and he thinks I don't like him and I never see him again! What's more, how can I be sure he'll understand if I do explain it to him. What would a merman know of biology or anatomy or basic human functions? The only world he truly knows is the ocean.

He took my long silence as a rejection and pulled himself off of me. He focused his attention on his tail. “This was a mistake,” he said sadly. “Maybe we shouldn't speak anymore.”

He was about to return to the sea but I caught him by the shoulder. I couldn't let him leave (mainly because he was about to leave me on an island in the middle of nowhere and no one knew where to look for me). I had to be honest with him or lose him forever.

“Please, _______, don't leave,” I begged. “I...I'll tell you why my face is red...” He sat back and stared at me expectantly. “Turning red...uh, humans call it blushing, first of all...”

“Blush...ing?” _______ rolled the new vocabulary on his tongue a bit.

“Y-yeah, blushing. A-anyway...I...we...humans blush when we're embarrassed--”

“So I embarrass you then?” _______ frowned.

“Please, _______, let me finish.” I took a deep breath an continued. “W-we blush when we're embarrassed...o-o-or...or...”

“Or...?”

“Or...or when we...when we like someone. Like, really like someone...” I finally said it. I watched his face for a reaction. His eyes went wide and his frown transformed into a huge grin. Suddenly, I was tackled into a hug and the young merman was laughing into my ear.

“Is that all?” he laughed. “Why didn't you say so!”

I was astonished. “Y-You mean you don't mind?”

“What is there to mind? I don't know why you were so reserved about blush-ing. Now I'm glad you blush!” he released me from the huge and smiled at me. “Now, if I ever think you don't like me or we're not friends, all I have to do is get close to you and when you blush, I know you still like me!”

Of course; the naive merman thought I meant 'like' as in 'friendship'. He was so painfully unaware of the truth it was giving me a headache. But, as a wise man once said, ignorance is bliss. He got the answer he wanted, so I'll live the lie for now.

At that moment, Zuga returned to us and relayed some kind of message to _______. It obviously wasn't good news, as the merman frowned again and let out a sigh.

“I forgot...I was supposed to be collecting food for the pod.” He turned back to me and gave an apologetic smile. “I'll have to take you back to the town and return to my pod. Hang on tightly.”

I took hold of his shoulders again and off we went slicing through the ocean waves back to town. _______ couldn't take me all the way to shore; it was late afternoon when we returned, so the beach was crowded with tourists. He dropped me off about thirty feet from shore, which was plenty fine by me. We said our good-byes, then I watched his skin change into an aqua color to blend in with the water and he vanished in an instant. My only indication of where he might me was Zuga's movements that seemed to follow a moving shape through the water.

Upon reaching the shore again, I was 'greeted' by Mathew, who stood in front of me tapping his foot in the sand and in uncharacteristic scowl on his face. “Where were you?!” he hushed-yelled.

“...Swimming?” I referenced my sopping wet body.

“Oh swimming, eh?” he scoffed. “Where? To infinity and beyond?! I've been standing here for two hours trying to find you, eh! I couldn't see you anywhere out there! How far out were you? And don't try to tell me you were holding your breath under water all that time, eh!”

“Mathew, calm down. Why were you trying to find me? Did something happen?”

“No, you've just been missing since nine o'clock this morning so I decided to check up on you, eh. It's three o'clock now, and you haven't called, texted, e-mailed, nothing to tell me or any of us that you're alive! For all I know, you could've been attacked by another shark!”

“Mathew, relax,” I placed a hand on his shoulder. “I'm alive, okay? I'm done in the water for the day. Help me bring my things back to the beach house.”

He huffed. “Fine.”

We picked up my things and walked back to the house. On the walk back, Mathew asked, “So where exactly were you all this time?”

I gave him half the truth. “Well, I swam out to that shipwreck, the one the brochure advertised, remember?”

His jaw dropped. “What?! Arthur, that's over a mile off shore, eh! How did you manage to swim out that far?”

I scratched the back of my head. “I'm...just a powerful swimmer, I guess...”

“Did you see anything else out there?” he asked.

“...I saw a dolphin.”