I sighed as the last employee left the now deserted aquarium. I closed the door, and locked it, before turning to walk down the darker halls, mainly lit by the softly glowing tanks of fish. The aquarium itself never really got too dark. There were lights that didn't go off in the aquarium tanks themselves, and the like most buildings, some lights just stayed on, regardless what switches were turned off. The building was like an entirely different place in my mind. I was literally the only thing walking in this building.
It was my first time on the night shift. And there was reason. I was simply put here. The past week had been crazy. I had come back from a small vacation, only to find out that there was a new attraction in our tanks. And she was bringing in tourists from all over the world. I still could hardly believe that she was even still part of the aquarium. While I was on vacation, apparently some fisherman had stumbled across a mermaid. Yeah, a mermaid. I still couldn't wrap my mind around it. The fisherman I guess pretty much sold her to the aquarium, and now, we were making up whatever amount they paid by showing her off in the biggest tank we had.
Thing is, she wasn't exactly the most friendly person...or mermaid. Her first days here, she attacked dive crews who take the job of cleaning the interior of the tanks. It's basically what I do. Tank maintenance. It's a daily and nightly job. So this mermaid, obviously wasn't too fond of her new home, or of the constant strangers. I'm guessing the people who constantly swarmed the tank in hopes of seeing her weren't her cup of tea either. Honestly, I don't know how she thinks.
However, the day I returned and found out the surprise (rather abruptly I might add), I was told that she actually wasn't that aggressive toward me. Now the first time she met me...she was aggressive. And I flipped. Talk about fear taking over the system, all I could do was just think of old legends and myths of sailors who had been lured to a watery grave by the beauty of sea sirens and stuff like that. If she was being aggressive with other divers, perhaps there was some truth to such legends. However, she didn't seem that harmful or aggressive with me. And the managers took notice of that.
They told me I would be moved to the night shift until further notice to do the maintenance on the big tank. Honestly, I don't know why. The tank is huge. There is no way I can finish it on my own in one night. If I were to guess, they just prefer the night crew to be as safe as possible, and seeing how I'm the only one this mermaid wouldn't attack or bother, I was the logical choice. I don't know.
I walked through the hallways, into the employee grounds. I came across a computer, which I sat at for a brief moment and began to play some music through it. The computer was hooked up to the speakers around the main tank. The speakers were both in and out of the water, and were used primarily for performances by underwater dancers or whatnot. And it worked. It was weird, but it worked. The dancers could hear the music underwater almost as well as one could out of water. Can't begin to imagine how much such a system is worth, and technically, I wasn't supposed to touch it or use it. But every night shift used them.
I put on some soft classic rock (Southern Cross by Crosby, Stills, and Nash came on first), and headed for the locker room. There I stripped my normal clothes off, and put on my short-sleeved wetsuit. The wetsuit was black, with blue lining. I wore it whenever I dove the waters of the tank. The water was warm, but some people probably wouldn't appreciate a half-naked man cleaning the tank while they watched the fish of the world swim around. I put it on, grabbed my fins, and mask, before I headed to the equipment room for a weight belt and SCUBA tank.
I won't lie, I love this job. Does it have it's dirty moments? Yeah. I am after all cleaning up the waste of countless fish and other aquatic animals. But the underwater environment to me is just my ultimate escape. When you submerge beneath the waves, you drown out the other world. You can't hear anything of it. It's beyond peaceful and relaxing. I'll go out on a limb and say that perhaps the ocean is Heaven. You can't live in it because you're not ready. Okay that was silly, but in my book it's a close second. I just feel relaxed when I'm underwater...
I will say that in the recent days, any relaxation has been replaced with nervousness and anxiety. I can't exactly say that I've been feeling okay knowing that perhaps she is just biding her time with me. I don't know how to feel anymore. Not that I can help it. I'm on the night shift now, and I got a job to do.
I sat on one of ledges near the entrance of the tank on the catwalk as I put my fins on, and strapped on the equipment. The tank is huge, one of the largest in the country if I say so, myself. I work at a small aquarium in Australia. I'm from the States, but found small work here. Don't know how long it'll last me, but for now, I'm enjoying the quiet life out here. The tank I work in, this huge tank is big. It houses a man-made and natural reef, as well as a small kelp forest and the length of the walk to see it in it's entirety is quite a walk. I guess it's a local attraction. A diamond in the rough if you want me to get poetic.
I strapped on the tank, and put my dive mask over my eyes, before I slowly slipped off the ledge and pushed myself out amongst the surface of the water. I floated freely for a moment before I lowered my mask and loosened a valve on the vest of the tank, to allow me to sink below the surface. I placed the regulator in my mouth, and breathed comfortably, a torrent of bubbles escaping my mouth with each breath I took. I drug my cleaning equipment along as I sank and eventually got to the glass wall. The first thing I would do was scrub the tank walls. It mainly cleared the algae off the glass, which if left untampered, could grow and obstruct the views of customers. It was our job to keep it clear of the glass. A relatively simple task.
For a while, as I continued to work and listen to the music, I began to relax. I'd caught a glimpse or two of the mermaid, and she knew I was there. She really hadn't done anything to me. Maybe this was just a way for the aquarium to settle her. Maybe she wouldn't bother the day crews tomorrow? I didn't know.
My thoughts were interrupted when I was suddenly pulled down towards the bottom of the tank. The tank depth varied. It could be shallow in some areas, only ranging to twenty feet, or go as deep as 300 feet. Deep. I was being drug down to around eighty feet, and I knew who was dragging me as her tail was in my sight. I began to breathe hard into the regulator. Was she finally going to make a move to attack or harm me? I couldn't do anything, as I didn't have my dive knife or any method of protecting myself against her. She brought me to the bottom and, pressed me against the sand.
She sat over me. I just continued to breathe as my eyes were fixed on hers. Length-wise, she was much longer than I was. Sure, her torso was pretty much the same as me, but her tail outgrew my body, giving her a length of maybe seven or even eight feet. Her torso was the color of a human woman of course, but at the hips, it began to change into a deep blue. There were a couple fins on that tail which were lighter blue, and her flukes were the same color. On her chest around the rib area, there were gill slits that of course helped her breathe down here, but her anatomy to me was a mystery beyond that. Heck, everything I knew of the ocean kinda pointed to the fact that mermaids were nothing more than myth. Now I was in a tank with one. Go figure. Her dirty blonde hair draped across her shoulders, and covered her breast area. She had been given a bikini top to cover her breasts which weren't that big, but a public place was a public place. She couldn't just swim naked when there were children perhaps present. Her emerald-green eyes looked down at me. She gave me a small smile, before she reached for the regulator in my mouth.
She began to pull it out, but when I realized what she was doing, my teeth clamped down on it. I didn't know too much, but she had to know that I lacked gills. I could not breathe down here, and I wasn't gonna let her take my only air supply. She tugged, and I bit down, bubbles escaping to the surface with each rasp breath I had. I shook my head rapidly, but she just looked at me with a calm look. As if telling me not to be afraid. Like that was possible. She tugged again, and the hose came off the regulator, rendering it useless. I began to look for the hose as the air began to rush out of it, and I spat the regulator out, holding to what little air I had. The mermaid however, pushed me back and grabbed my hands, as if trying to calm me. I tried to break free of the grasp, swim for the surface, get out of this tank, but she had me pinned. I wasn't going anywhere.
Never before had I ever had the experience of nearly drowning, and obviously, I really didn't care to find out how it felt, but my body began to kick out the stale air my lungs had. I couldn't hold on much longer. I grunted and tried to thrash and break free. But she held me, and even let go of one of my hands and put a finger to her mouth as if telling me to shush.
I grasped my throat with my free hand as I felt my lungs give in and I took a watery inhale. Immediately, my body recognized the foreign liquid and tried to cough it up. More bubbles escaped my mouth as I coughed again and again, only inhaling more water. I can't remember much about how it felt, but after a few more coughs, the bubbles ceased, and all I could do was take weak and small gasps which didn't help me breathe. The mermaid then smiled and leaned closer. I barely clung to my consciousness as she got closer still, and put her mouth over mine, in a small, but deep kiss. In my blank state of mind, I couldn't exactly do anything to return the kiss, so it was mainly her giving the kiss, and me just kinda laying there, But as soon as she broke the kiss, I felt my lungs inhale, and...I felt my strength return. My eyes opened wide as I began to comprehend what was going on. I was breathing. I was breathing underwater!
This wasn't possible! That thought was put to rest. I was in a tank with a mermaid. I guess anything was possible now. I took another watery inhale, ad a few stray bubbles that were in my lungs slowly escaped and raced for the surface. Finally, she looked at me, and in one of the most divine voices I'd ever heard, she asked, "Are you okay?"
She spoke to me. She was speaking to me. No one in the aquarium had known if she was able to speak or communicate in any way. And now, she was speaking to me underwater, in my language no less. How? How did she know our language? How was I breathing? How was any of this even happening? She spoke again! "I know, you're likely a little confused, and scared. I'm sorry I startled you...it's just that I cannot speak to you unless you breathe like me."
I finally decided to break my silence, or at least attempt to. I opened my mouth, and found that I had to put a little more effort into my speech. My vocal chords weren't exactly used to speaking underwater. "How...how is this possible?"
