The Boating Incident

Megan swam through the icy waters of Luna Lake, carrying her woven basket in her hand. She was rather proud of it, as it had taken her weeks to create it, with dozens of failures. Fortunately, despite the cold weather, there were plenty of reed stalks along the edges of the lakeshore, and she had been able to use them for the crafting. Now, carefully stowed in the basket's center, were four delectable lake trout and one small bass she had surprised under the thin plating of ice. Most of Luna Lake remained unfrozen for most of the year, but the edges of the lake sometimes accumulated ice and snow.

Coming to her small home, she swam down and placed her basket next to the massive log that served as her home. The weeks of work here had changed it considerably. Smaller logs had been dragged back to the site and placed around the main log to provide a break from any current that came along. Reeds had been used as primitive rope to lash the ends together to make them more secure. Junk from the surface world had been collected to provide a few homey touches to the place. Here a vanity mirror that someone had pitched into the lake, a series of boat hooks taken from a small wreck near the mouth of the river made nice holders for her basket and hampers of food, plus actual silverware from the same wreck gave her a feeling of elegance. She smiled as she entered what she called the Grotto. Man, she had loved that movie as a kid!

Taking out one of the trout, she went up to one of her hampers she had fashioned, and selected a fork and knife. Swimming back down to where a log had been laid out in the center of her clearing, she set the fish down on a plastic plate she had placed earlier. Fortunately, not much in the way of silt had been settled on her plate, but she still turned it sideways to slide what had off. Setting the fish down, she began cutting off the tail and head. It was slow work, but when she was finished, she began eating. Using the knife to cut off sections of the fish, she pulled the piece up to her mouth with the fork and popped it in, bones and all. Blood billowed away from her kill, but she wasn't too worried. There were no pike in this lake, so there was nothing that could really hurt her here.

After polishing off a second trout, she waved her implements vigorously in the water outside to clean them. Wishing she had a rag or something to wipe them off better, she used a handful of leftover reeds to scrape off the scales and detritus and replaced the tools back into her hamper.

Pushing the table out of her center, she refashioned it to the wall. Settling calmly in the center of the circle, next to the large log, she closed her eyes to sleep. Her stomach felt full, and her body tired from all her swimming. The black oblivion of sleep soon claimed her.

The sweet face of Cindy swam up to her. "Hey girl. The boss want's to let you know…you're fired. He's asked me to take your place. That's not going to be a problem is it?" leered the face. No, that wasn't right. Her friend was solid. She would never attempt to take her place.

A smaller face came up next to her. One she hadn't seen in a very long time. "Sis, why did you have to leave? I couldn't manage without you. I needed you, and you weren't there." Sobbed the face of her younger sister.

"I had to leave." Megan cried. "I couldn't stay. There was no money. We needed this job in the city if we were going to survive!"

The face floated away, only to be replaced by one of a dark-haired, stern-faced elderly man with solid grey eyes that seemed to bore into her. "You were always a disappointment." It sneered. "Look at you, lying at the bottom of a lake, rooting in mud and thinking that it's the "good life". Now I guess you're where you belong."

"Go away." Megan begged. "Leave me alone!"

Now all the faces were chasing after her. All were jeering and moaning at her. "Go away!" she shrieked. She jerked upright and hit her head on the log.

"Owww." She muttered, rubbing the aching spot and glaring at the silent log. The memory of the dream rushed back in at her and she curled her tail up to her chest. She had to think, she had to get away.

Taking off from the bottom, she swam as fast as she could. Suspended particles swirled madly in her wake, a startled perch was pulled along and tossed away, other lake fish sensed the pressure wave speeding ahead of her and darted away. The surface of the lake came in sight, and she flung herself against the liquid ceiling with all her might. She burst out into the starry night sky, soaring into the heavens. Her tail flung water droplets out of there as she reached the top of her arc, the fins more than four feet from the surface. Her eyes stared out at the dim shoreline, just visible in the waning moonlight.

The icy blackness of the water beckoned her back into its embrace. With a slight arch in her back and a flick of her tail, she dove back into the water with a grace an Olympic Diver would envy. The force from her jump propelled her several feet into the depths. Turning around, she swam hard towards a lonely rock near the shoreline. It offered an unparalleled view that she found soothing.

She found herself soon sitting on the rock, her tail drawn up to her chest, thinking in the frigid night air. The shoreline was covered in thick white snow that reflected the moonlight clearly, brightening the night. To her very light-sensitive eyes, it seemed as if it were midmorning instead of midnight.

Jumbles of thoughts raced through her head. Memories of her time as a human; an ice-cream cake her mother had gotten for her twelfth birthday, a night at the bowling alley with her little sister, the pain of her father leaving, and the further pain of having to leave herself to find work. The pain of that memory alone filled her with a pain she would not have thought. Especially when she had had to get down and tell her baby sister that she was leaving.

She was startled to hear soft, lilting words fill the night air. She began to look around to see who was singing, when she realized that it was herself! She listened to the words as she sang her heartache to the world:

I sing of pain, of those lost long ago,
Of friends and family gone,
Where I am now, I do not know,

The world twists ever anon

Of the past I sing, of times faded fast
When the bluebirds sang, and children played,
When I thought happiness would always last,
And hope would never fade

The world twists ever anon.

Those times didn't stay,
They faded away,
Like a bluebird's song,
Which is never long

The world twists ever anon

My future is dim, I cannot see
What my world will be.
There is no hope, no time to mourn,
I am left all forlorn.

I have a tail, a siren's wail,
And gills instead of lungs,
Hands of scale, with talons long,
I hunt beneath the sun

The world twists ever anon

I am not the same; I do not seek fame,
As I did not so long ago
A life to lead, under this inland sea,
Is this all I have to go?

The world twists ever anon

The sound of a boat motor interrupted her song, and she whirled around towards the sound, cursing under her breath. What slack-jawed idiot would be out on the lake at this time of night?! Voices came in the darkness, indicating that they were getting closer. A quick scan soon showed a small motorboat that was puttering towards her rock. The boat had come from behind her, which was how it had gotten so close.

Light from a small flashlight snapped on from the bow of the boat, its beam skittering across the water. Odd reflections as small chunks of ice reflected light in all directions. She had to get out of here before she was discovered!

Quickly slipping off from the rock, she plunged back into the water. The light snapped over to the rock and played carefully over the water. She breathed a welcome sigh of relief as she realized she had gone in on the backside of the rock from them. By the time they spotted her ripples, it would be diffuse enough that they would not be able to find her.

She was about to leave when a sudden curiosity over took her. What were they doing out so late? Should she investigate, or simply leave well enough alone? She chewed her bottom lip as she tried to decide. Finally, curiosity got the better of her, and she surfaced behind the boat to listen in on the three men in the boat.

"Any sign of her?" asked one, near where the wheel would be, she thought.

"No. Could she have fallen off the rock?" Came the quiet reply of the man at the bow. He was sweeping the light carefully over the water, searching for her.

"I don't think so. That water has got to be just above freezing. No chick would be crazy enough to go swimming, even if she was frightened." Wheelman said.

"I'm not sure she was even human." muttered the unexpected bass of the third man. "I've never heard anyone sing like that. Made me feel as if it were the saddest moment of me life."

"What, as if you had run out of beer?" came the derisive snort of wheel-man. Flashlight-man laughed aloud and Bass-man muttered something uncomplimentary back to wheelman.

"Yeah, with your mother." was the unruffled reply.

Slowly, the boat moved on, and Megan sank back beneath the waves. She had gotten a good look at the back of the boat, and had seen the fishing gear. So, early morning fishermen on the lake then. She thought it seemed too late in the season, but perhaps they were ice fishermen. Shrugging it off as a question for later, she returned to her home.

Curling up near the log, she chuckled as she thought of the poor men, freezing their cans off in the early morning while searching for her phantom voice. With a last, wistful thought that it had been nice that her song had caught their attention, she felt the exhaustion roll over her and she drifted off to sleep.