Lily,Lily,Lily

The next morning he went down to the beach again, wondering if he would see the mermaid again. He stopped his walking now and then to look out onto the waves of the wide sea. They came rolling in much stronger than the day before. The moon was still shining, the sun did not even think about coming out of hiding. The beach was very empty, he saw the moon diamonds on the waves and a little splash. Maybe it was just a dolphin, hunting for food. There, a little splash again, a little bit closer now. And then a wave lapped at his feet and the mermaid rolled onto them.

Moon reflecting on the water.

“Oh, my.” she said in a clear voice. He bent down to see if she was still sand, to his surprise he found her to be more of a solid nature. More like a human would feel. He smiled at her and said:

“Hi little sea girl, how are you? What is your name?”

“Lily”, she replied.

“Hmm, I just thought about it, and my sandy” and she giggled “skin turned into a human skin. I do not know how it happened, but here I am.”

So now he bent down again and helped her to sit on the beach. Her tail had become transparent, like something he had never seen before. She draped it around herself and looked at him with probing eyes. Suddenly she started to shake, her tail split into two and legs appeared, instead of the tail. Pale pink legs grew out of her body, she looked like a human now. Her hair was still sea weed though.

He felt sort of bad, he did not know what to do with her. He addressed her again:

“Lily, I know that you just came out of the water, you just went into it, but now, I do not know how to think about that nor what to do with you.”

She tried to stand up, it was not easy for her, Sandy supported her, one hand under one arm, the other under the other one. He walked with her and her walking improved. She walked right in front of him, she reached up to his shoulder. The sea weed hair blew around and tickled him in his face, but he was so full of amazement, he hardly noticed. He took off his shirt and gave it to her. At first she did not want to wear it, but then she saw all the other people with cloths on, so she gave in and put it on.

Slowly they walked toward his house, a cottage by the sea. Sea-foam color with white trim, it sat right by the dune surrounded by sand and sea oats. The heavy sea oat heads swayed in the breeze. He opened the door to the porch. Both of them walked in together, she could not walk on her own yet. He sat her down on a wicker sofa, he seated himself on a chair across from her. He was painfully aware of her, shy about it as well. He wanted to fix his usual breakfast and asked her, if she would join him. She asked what breakfast is and he explained it to her. She rolled her eyes and said: “I have never eaten breakfast, I just was built yesterday. The boy who made me never gave me breakfast.”

“You are going to love it, Lily.”

He went into the kitchen and started to cook the bacon, made some coffee, fried some eggs and warmed some nice bread. He came back to the porch and presented the plate to Lily. The cinnamon that he had sprinkled on the bread spread a very nice aroma, which Lily got very exited about.

“Wow.” So she picked up the food with her fingers. The fork and knife that were laid there beside the plate, she ignored. The spoon looked tempting to her. But the fingers worked well enough. Sandy tried to explain the silver to her, but she just enjoyed her own way. When she had eaten all, she licked the plate clean. She felt very satisfied.

“That was good Sandy, I like this breakfast.”

“Well, thank you Lily. Do you think that we should try to walk again?” It would be good after this meal. I am amazed how you liked my food. Since you have never eaten anything like it. What did you eat while you were swimming out there in the water?”

“Nothing.” said Lily.

“Ok, let me give you a fresh shirt and pants. You might like this. You might want to use this room over here to change into those cloths.”

“Why do I have to go into this room now?”

“Well, I am a man, and you are a woman…”

She did not understand, but went into the other room to change.

When she came out, she had put on the pants on her head, she had made a sort of turban out of it, the shirt she had encountered before, so it was put on right.

Sandy had to laugh, it seemed so silly. But, how could she know? And so they stepped off the porch onto the beach again. She still wore her head-pants and just looked delightfully innocent to Sandy. Her walking had improved, she could do it now without help. They strolled on the water’s edge and stumbled onto a sand sculpture of an elephant. That was something Sandy did not even want to think about. But Lily bent down to it and whispered. The elephant came alive, still bound to the sand on the beach though.

Sand Elephant.

He lifted his trunk and trumpeted a greeting to her. Lily started to dance in circles and clapped her hands. It was very obvious that she enjoyed this. And like she had turned into a real girl, the elephant started to lift off the sand, stood up and fell over again onto his side. But soon after he stood and looked around. He joined them at the water’s edge and Sandy just wondered about this. The elephant had skin like an Elephant now, it all happened much faster than he could grasp. The odd group of three walked together and they saw another sculpture of sand. A castle. a strange castle Sandy thought. But it had been built by a boy the day before, he was not an architect. But it looked like a very imaginative building. Anyhow, Lily touched it, it grew and it grew so large, that it stood there with it’s walls stretching to the sides, uneven sides and massive.

Symbol of waves, stars, sun, seahorses. Divider.