The Key Between Stranger Realms - Day Four

On this ordinary morning, there is one peculiarity. I swap my usual cup of espresso for a smoothie because I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I’m eager this’ll help. At the smoothie shack, a man just departing holds the door open for me. On his wrist, hangs a macrame bag full of various knickknacks.

“Thanks,” I say, grabbing the door.

“Hope your day goes swimmingly,” he says with a kind of slow-motion wave.

And with that, I have discovered his secret life: a merman on the hunt for treasure at the base of the bluffs, who has seen many strange things this day like a flying gray saucer, and tries to make sense of the gigantic bird plunging off the cliffside. No, not a bird. It is a person.

In the ocean, it feels as if I am suspended between times and realms. The icy taste of mixed berries lingers in my mouth, but the salt of the sea washes it away.

“Are you insane?” the merman asks, clutching his woven, seaweed bag to his bare clavicles as if protecting rare jewels.

“No, but I am running from insanity,” I explain, breathlessly.

Peering up at the cliff, I can just barely hold in blurred vision the knight shucking off her mismatched armor.

“Is she going to attempt flight as well?” the merman observes.

“Please! If she finds me, I will die. Can you help?” I plead.

As if truly kindhearted, the merman takes my hand, no further questions, and secures his bag on his hip.

“Hold your breath,” he suggests.

I am already exhausted from the plunge, but I know this may be my only chance for salvation. So, I take in a wholesome, motivated breath, and then we are suddenly below the surface, traveling at a speed I cannot comprehend.

Heads above water again, we are in a cavern surrounded by a maze of illuminated sea caves, a whole collective of merfolk lounging in the shallows.

“How did you do that?” I ask, wiping stinging salt from my eyelashes.

“I can open hidden passages throughout the world,” he explains.

I think of the Oracle and her prismatic eyes. Oddly, I know what he means, although I still cannot begin to understand how exactly I am here.

“Come, meet my family, and you can tell us the story of your eager flight,” he advises.

We make friendly introductions, and I think of kindred souls. My thoughts linger on the runaway king and his tigress companion. I cannot seem to shake the sentiment that he loves me, somewhere, somehow.

***

Hello, wanderer!

This is part of a daily series:

xoxo,

for now,

-your friend, lost in thought