Like something out of a fairy tale.
The sun was disappearing behind the horizon as Aki and Alexander made their way inside, accompanied by a few other men of their crew that also found strong liquor to be the solution to aching muscles and long days spent at sea.
The place was well taken care of. A fire was burning – it was warm outside still, but something told Aki the nights could get chilly. A few patrons here and there, most of them with sour faces, drinking their troubles away; it was too early for anybody else to be there, but no doubt the place would be buzzing with activity in a few hours.
As such, the girl behind the counter had a bored expression. Brown, big eyes and red curly hair, like fire. A round face with full lips and pale skin. She was saying something to a man. Aki couldn’t see him very well, only his back and hair; the former, broad, the latter, curly and dark.
He approached the conversing couple. It was his official duty as the first mate to introduce the crew when the captain was not present, and his unofficial one to buy a first round for everyone present. For their hard work, as a way to keep their spirits high. Aki didn’t care. He was well aware he would get most of his money back later on, when they started getting too drunk to play cards properly and their bets turned riskier and perilous.
‘Here for a drink, I assume?’ The young woman cut him, raising her brows and muttering numbers under her breath. She was counting how many of them there were, and her dark eyes only returned back to Aki after doing so.
‘Thirsty for what, exactly? Beer, something stronger?’
‘Something stronger!’ A voice behind him, laughter at seeing a woman who was not even in her thirties so… commanding. A curious and strong personality, she had. Aki found himself smiling.
‘Something stronger, yes. We have spent days at sea.’
‘I can tell,’ she simply said, with a crooked smile, putting bottle after bottle at the counter, and tankards beside them. As she was busy doing so, Aki turned to Alexander, hoping to find amusement in his friend’s young features. Instead, Aki saw him looking wide eyed at the young woman, as if he had found a magical creature instead of a mischievous girl.
‘Forgive her, she’s always like this,’ the man who the bartender had been talking with had been the one to talk. He was handsome, with a strong nose and jaw, heavy-lidded eyes and tanned skin, probably as a result of days spent working under the sun. A fisherman, perhaps? He had callused hands, so whatever he did for a living, was certainly physical.
‘Oh, sir, don’t worry. You have a beautiful wife, and beautiful women are allowed to do this sort of thing,’ Aki replied, guessing their relationship… wrong, apparently, because both the man and the woman looked at each other and broke into laughter.
The man shook his head. ‘We are siblings. As if anyone could put up with Cass long enough to marry her.’
Aki didn’t know about that. One look at Alexander told him the young blond marine was more than willing to, at the very least, try.
In fact, as much as Aki would have liked to speak with his friend now that the ground was still beneath their feet and they could do so without being surrounded by at least five other men at all times, Alexander only had eyes for Cass. Words for Cass. He made her laugh a few times and he looked like the proudest person to ever have lived.
It wasn’t long until Hércules – that was the curly-haired man’s name – substituted his sister behind the bar, Cass leaving with Alexander somewhere else. Last Aki saw of any of them, their lips were already pressed together.
‘A rare occurrence. As I say, most people can’t put up with her.’ Hércules laughed, rolling his eyes at watching his sister disappear with a stranger. His tone was, however, earnest and affectionate. The man clearly had a lot of love for his sister.
‘Alexander is a patient man.’ Aki shrugged, also smiling. He could respect a man who loved his family. ‘I guess getting to know someone must be difficult around here. Most of them leave after a couple of days, I assume.’
‘Yeah, that, or the mermaids eat them.’
Aki tilted his head towards one shoulder and squinted his eyes, about to choke on his drink. The mermaids? Was Hércules teasing him? Was this some local running joke that Aki knew nothing about? No. The man was serious. Drying a tankard with a piece of fabric with an expression not different to that he would have had had he been talking about the weather.
‘Yes. Do you want to see them? They will come, if I ask.’
Aki thought about it for a second. Was this man going to take him to the beach and rob him? No, the tavern seemed to be doing well, these people did not need money. Then, what was it? Was this offer… real?
Aki wondered once more if someone hadn’t slipped something on his drink. If he now got drunk with four or five beers, instead of the usual ten, if the months at sea had taken their toll on him.
But no, there was something in the water. Scintillating scales, the colors of the rainbow, and something above them… algae, certainly. Then, why did they look so much like the honey blonde hair of a naked woman?
‘Andro is not around today,’ Hércules said, giving Aki a flask filled with liquor. One that burned his throat, one that made him cough and spit.
‘Our older sister. The Sea Witch, Airi… that, right there, do you see her? She turned her into what she is now. A mermaid. It’s a long story, perhaps for another day.’
Aki nodded. He still couldn’t be quite sure that these were no the delusions of an alcoholic, or a drug addict, or simply a person whose mind wasn’t healthy. But the truth was that there was something in the water, and that that something climbed a rock, and stared right into his eyes with ones equally as dark as his, of unfathomable depth.
And afterwards, only one question burned brightly in Aki’s mind – would her lips taste like sea water?
Months passed. Cass was pregnant.
‘We didn’t expect it, but she told me the news and… I have asked her to marry me,’ Alexander had told him, with the brightest smile Aki had seen on a man. He was still a sailor, but he now went on shorter trips, always stopping at the tavern where his beloved awaited his return.
Aki had felt very happy for him. For them. They deserved such a thing – both of them had lived hard lives, until then, and the fact that they had found each other, well. Every man deserved hope, and warm arms to return to.
‘The mermaids will take care of you, my love. Come back to us,’ Cass had whispered after hugging Alexander goodbye, with a hand on the lower part of her belly. Not low enough that Aki hadn’t heard.
And, turned out, it was true. The mermaids followed the boat. The mermaids sang the storms away. The mermaids controlled the winds so that they would reach their destination as soon as possible, so that Alexander could return safely and before the baby was due. A black-haired one captaining them, beautiful and deadly, with eyes like an abyss and sharp teeth. Most days white. Some, stained with red.
He sometimes saw the blonde one, too. The one that had been plaguing his dreams. The one whose lips he could still conjure on lonely nights. Airi, Hércules had said.
Aki would find himself going to the ship’s bow and whispering it. Airi, Airi, Airi. Like an incantation, just to see if she appeared.
When she did, Aki wasn’t ready. But how could someone prepare to meet the love of your life?
The following one, when they had docked the boat in some small coastal town and as Aki walked through the beach, a shared kiss, that tasted of salt and iron and a little too much to drink.
