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It, was THREE hours later, they stumbled out of the lift, totally relieved to be free.
M was pleased to see Frank the security guard as he insisted they both had a sit down and a hot drink !
HE begrudgingly obliged, something on his mind ? She sensed there was and yet, thoughts too, within hers.
“Well I can’t say it was a pleasure meeting you !” He started to grin, that inane ‘Cheshire’ cat grin again. Trying to hide beneath it the truth of how he really felt ? Resisting the urge on her part to give him a slap that would wipe that stupid grin off his face!
“I liked your optimism re the idea for a story, however “ He paused to grin again “ Fictional it is “
He reached into his pocket, withdrew his wallet and removed from it, a business card to pass to her
“Thats my website, take a look, let me know what you think, phone number is on the card and of course my email just in case you want an excuse not to phone. Though I doubt if I ever will, hear from you again .. ships passing in the night ... “
He started to stand up, she could hear him muttering under his breath. “I won’t be holding my breath...”
The thought crossed her mind, to prove him wrong..
She never did phone him. It was another place, another time, when it suddenly dawned on her, that he had been right, too many other distractions YET sometimes she had been tempted, but not summoned up the courage ? Perhaps tainted by the same reluctance, to accept the truth, that he had been right ? Relationships, too much hard work ? Too much, to have to surrender, of your own space ? To learn to compromise ?
Summer, the long hot days of summer, soft cotton wool clouds drifting lazily by.. the heads of poppies bobbing in the breeze as she walked with her daughter along the headland towards the beach ? Had he not told her, this was, she knew his favourite place, over there his favourite spot? Described by him and visually almost exact. OK, some movement of the rocks due to the erosion of the headland ?
Arriving at the beach, her daughter sat down on the rock. As she joined her, M looked around, her eyes looking for the large flat rock, he had talked about ? Sure enough, there it was ! Some fifty yards away from where they were sat ? She got up and moved towards it, as her daughter followed, somewhat intrigued by her mothers sudden moves to where ?
There on the rocks, she recognised a similar shirt to the one he had worn ? It was, without doubts, the same tie ? Clothing neatly piled on the rock ? Laid on top, underneath a stone, a short note ? it was him, yet could she believe what the note was telling her ? Madness or a sanity beyond comprehension ? The thin line, between reality and fantasy ?
They never found him.. They had not seen him, pile the clothes, then walk into the water. The other form in the water, of the Mermaid ? She had whispered to him, to come join her, not for the moment, not for the brief encounter they usually shared that left them both lonely ? For all eternity.
The liquid she had in her shell, handed to him to drink, had tasted bitter ? The sensation of being devoid, of any sense of llosing anything human, of the desire to fufill his love for her, to completion. To always be with her, in every sense of how he felt at last, to be FREE ?
The welcoming waters, the all encompassing waves, that vanished the further out they swam, until she took his hand and dived, the splash of her tail and the overwhelming flooding sensation ? Something in the water, separating from the form that once was all that was human, perhaps the soul released in another form ? To join with her, to be with her ? With it, the final sense of feeling loved, of being wanted, of finding peace at last.
What was it M had said?
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