I have lived a life on land for many years, choosing to forsake my watery home and luminous tail for the challenge of walking on land. Not all mer-people choose to make the trade and walk on two feet, but my family did. I think they only meant to stay a short time, to give my brother and I a taste of the ground. But the land required roots, which my family grew. The deep joyous waters of the sea seemed like a memory, and at times a threat. Our visits to the shore grew more sporadic and shorter in length. My family knew the sea was calling to me, and that I craved nothing more than the touch of the waves on my skin.
But I stayed on land and built a life....but I never truly grew roots. I did the land based things that people do...earned degrees and titles, bought a house and filled it things like a good human hunter-gatherer should. But mermaids do not gather degrees or titles or containers or supplies. Mermaids live and dance at the junction of the sea and the sky and the sand.
I am going to go home. The sea calls my real name. But just in case you think I am depressed or fearful, that I am running away from obligations and commitments, that I just need a vacation or a day on a sail boat, let me tell you the rest of the story.
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