What's the hardest part about being a Mermaid, you may ask? All the damn stereotypes. For starters, I don't have a fishtail, though I do gain scales and gills when I come in contact with salt water. I don't have a great singing voice, nor am I trolling around looking for sailors to seduce. The type of female who does that sort of thing is found in bars and clubs near U.S. Navy bases, not the ocean.
My name is Chia Gorek and I've got a story to share with you. If you were to look at me, you'd see a perfect replica of a five-foot-ten, curvaceous and fit, sturdy gal with dark bronze skin, long black hair and emerald eyes. I've been mistaken for everything from Puerto Rican to Moroccan, but I am none of these things.
My features, which vaguely resemble a blend of African, Arabian and European, are actually older than all three. I defy your racial classifications because, well, I'm above and beyond them. All of the aforementioned categories and ethnicities are human classifications, and I, dear reader, am more than human. Always have been and always will be.
What do I mean by that? I guess a history lesson is needed. Two hundred thousand years ago, when the human species was still evolving, a group of humans left the African motherland and wandered across the Middle East and parts of Asia, picking up others as they went along, on their way back to the Ocean. A cataclysm drove them to seek greener pastures, as the land they once called home was changing and increasingly besieged by human-like entities that were hostile to them.
Over the course of millennia, these Travelers mutated, evolving to adapt perfectly to their new environment. The Ocean is vast, nearly endless actually, and a truly wonderful place. Life began in the ocean, believe it or not, and if mankind doesn't stop polluting it, life on earth will end. Like the benevolent mother that she is, the ocean welcomed back the enlightened humans who returned to it with open arms. I am a proud member of that powerful and resilient species.
Homo Sapiens Aquaticus is our scientific name, so stop calling us Mermen or Mermaids or any of that antiquated, fantasyland crap. We are amphibious rather than exclusively aquatic but whatever. We've built a remarkable civilization at the bottom of the ocean, in places where humans, even with detestable submarines, can never actually hope to reach. The pressure at that depth would crush your tin cans to pieces, if you ever tried going down there.
What drove me, a native of the beautiful City of Atlantis, crown jewel of the Sea People, to leave my home for the City of Miami, Florida? Well, it has to do with politics. Politics is a dirty game among my species, and from what I've read, it's the same way among humans. Will wonders never cease?
The Sea People are ruled by the Supreme Council, of which my parents, Amok and Talia Gorek were once proud members. My uncle Amon Gorek seized power in a bloody coup, and decided to wipe out his opposition, of which my parents were leading members. I'm not sure what became of my parents. I fled to the only place where I knew the Cadre, my uncle Amon's ruthless militia, might not reach me...the surface world.
For untold millennia, the Sea People have shunned all contact with you humans, whom we regard as barbaric, ruthless and prejudiced. Now, driven by despair, I am forced to make a living among you. This is supremely ironic, because at my old school, the Holy Academy of Neptune, I wrote a forty-tome edict about human barbarism and advocated that my people continue our to maintain their distance from you.
I emerged from the ocean on a beach in Miami, stark naked, as is the custom of my people. I'd been swimming near the beach all day, among all the human swimmers frolicking in the water, reluctant to finally head to land because, well, it's taboo in my culture. Also, I was kind of afraid, alright? I was alone, far from home, facing a strange new world, with nothing but my wits.
People stared at me as I emerged from the surf, au naturel. Aside from certain religious ceremonies, we Sea People don't bother with garments typically. You should have seen the way people looked at me, as I walked about the beach, squinting in the early morning sunlight, stunned to see so many humans sunbathing. I thought the sun's rays caused them to fall ill at times. Maybe I was wrong.
"Lady, put some clothes on," said a six-foot-tall, rather robust young man with dark skin and puffy hair, clad in bright red trunks. This particular human had leapt from a type of perch overlooking the entire beach and come running toward me the moment I walked out of the ocean. Indeed, he came towards me as though he owned the place.
I looked the dark man up and down, and took the towel he handed me and wrapped it around myself. He sighed and nodded, then told me that the nudist convention at the beach wasn't till next week. I had no idea what he was talking about, but nodded as if I understood. Better to go along and pretend I was just an eccentric member of his kind, rather than what I truly am.
"Sounds good to me," I replied, amused by the way the tall, dark-skinned young man blushed, seemingly uncomfortable in my presence. Whether sea-going or land-bound, males were all the same. A beautiful woman affects them in ways they won't admit, and I intended to use that to my advantage.
"I'm Simon, and I go to the Central Florida Institute of Technology, you swim pretty good, lady, you should try out for the swim team," the young man said, and I smiled and nodded at that, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. Simon proved to be quite helpful. I just met the man and he provided me with all kinds of information, even going so far as to loan me some feminine clothing which belonged to a former co-worker of his.
"Simon, do you typically keep feminine garments around?" I asked him as we went to the main area of the lifeguard house, where he worked. Simon smiled and told me a story about how his former colleague Sophia quit in a huff the previous week and hadn't been back to claim her stuff. Fortunately for me, Sophia's clothes, consisting of a tank top and shorts, and sandals, proved a good fit for me.
"Ma'am, I'm a Haitian gentleman, we're always helpful to pretty ladies in distress," Simon said, and I smiled at this helpful young man, both amused and moved by his candor. Human males are so different from those from my world. As an unmarried female, I'm considered off-limits in my culture. If a young male is interested in me, he would approach the Matriarch of my Clan and gain her permission before approaching me.
"Thanks for all your help Simon, I'm Chia Gorek," I said, and hesitantly shook Simon's hand when he held it out for me to shake. Like I said, this was my first day in the human world, and there was much that I didn't know about human customs, or male/female interactions, for that matter. And just like that, I went walking around the City of Miami, crown jewel of Florida, on my first day in the human world.
It didn't take me long to figure out how things worked in the human world. These land-bound, slow-moving slugs who closely resemble my People are like us in many ways. You need money to function in the human world. I went back out to sea, got some jewels which I found at depths that human swimmers can never reach, and used these to exchange for human currency, and thus went about integrating myself into human society.
I approached a computer expert who dealt in such things, and thus with her help I crafted a new identity for myself. I became Chia Gorek, born in 1995, and enrolled at the Central Florida Institute of Technology with my new identity. I tried out for the women's swim team, easily outperformed their best women, and got myself a scholarship offer. Thus, I was firmly ensconced in the human world. I remained tight-lipped about my past, billing myself as an orphan.
Founded in 1985, the Central Florida Institute of Technology is a small school that only recently reached admission into the NCAA Division One. The school has seven thousand students, with a curriculum focused on computer science, engineering and other sciences. Only fields sports teams in men's and women's swimming, women's volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's golf, men's and women's basketball and football, course.
At a small school like that, with a lot of international students from Latin America, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world, I ought to feel right at home. Or so I thought. I'm a fish out of water, pun intended. I miss my home, my family and my world. Sometimes at night, I dream of the ocean. It feels weird to sleep on a bed in my dorm. So I go to the washroom, fill the tub with water and sleep there. It feels more...natural.
"Small world, fancy seeing you here," a masculine voice said, snapping me out of my reverie. As a Sea Person, I have enhanced senses of sight, smell and hearing far beyond any mortal's, but I am not immune to being distracted. I turned around, and found myself facing a vaguely familiar face. That of Simon, the lifeguard from the beach, the very first land-bound human whom I'd ever laid eyes on, and I smiled.
"Small world indeed, Simon, good to see you," I said, and shook Simon's hand. This time, he wore a red silk shirt and blue jeans, rather than the trunks he'd been wearing while lifeguarding at the beach. I must say, from what I've learned of human standards for male attire and style, Simon kind of looked good in them.
"I see you've followed my idea, Chia, you've been wowing them on the ladies swim team," Simon said, stroking his goateed chin, and I smiled and shrugged in a very human manner. I'd quickly learned to mimic the gestures and mannerisms of human girls, which are almost identical to mine, come to think of it. It's eerie how much my People have in common with the humans.
"Thanks for the tip, Simon," I replied, and then I started walking with Simon. I'd just come back from the swimming pool, my favorite place on campus, and it was actually good to see a familiar face. I'd been at the Central Florida Institute of Technology for three months and hadn't made many friends, especially among the girls. Humans can sense that I am different, somehow, women especially. I don't know why that is.
