Ficlets

The Girl in the Surf

“I thought they killed the sea witch and lived happily ever after?” the girl asked.

“No, that was the movie,” Her mother said. “In the real story, the prince rejected her when he learned she was a mermaid. Her heart was broken, but she was human and couldn’t go home.

“So the sea witch offered her another deal. She gave the mermaid a dagger and told her that if she killed the prince, the sea witch would restore her as a mermaid and she would be able to return to her family.

“But the mermaid still loved the prince and couldn’t kill him. So she lay on the shore and wept and wasted away until her body became the foam on the surf.”

“But that’s so sad!” the girl cried.

“Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we thought they would,” her mother shrugged, “but that doesn’t stop the waves from trying to crawl back on the sand.”

So the girl lay on the shore, stretched her arms out, and tried to catch the little mermaid as she tried to crawl out of the sea and back to the prince she loved…

View this story's 21 comments.