**10 YEARS AGO**

The next day after Oscar went to the library, he took some books down to the beach along with a tent that Isaiah had bought him so that he could read in peace without worrying about being fried by the sun or sand getting into the books. He brought a chair with him to read in and his water gear just in case he wanted to get in the water. Isaiah was going to be busy with fixing up the spare bedroom and so Oscar had the corner of the beach all to himself again. He set up the tent (which took way too long in his opinion) and then unfolded the chair inside of it. He was hoping he could see Mer but after about an hour or so reading over the mermaid encyclopedia and flipping through one of the sign language books he had checked out, he got bored and decided to go take a small swim in the water.

He grabbed his gear and waded into the water about waist deep. He looked around for a moment.

"Mer?" He called out. "Mer, are you there? If you are, don't be afraid to come and see me. You know I won't hurt you."

There was silence, of course, and Oscar made a face. A sudden epiphany struck him.

"I wonder if I say his name underwater, will he be able to hear me? Oscar, you're a genius." He said, praising himself.

He laughed at his own prowess and dunked his face into the water to see if maybe he could see Mer. He yelled Mer's name underwater, floating on top of it to keep himself balanced.

*****************

Mer emerged from the water a little ways out and looked on the shore to see if Oscar had returned. He knew he would never just leave without saying goodbye... right? As he scanned the shoreline, he spotted a strange color floating on the water. He squinted to see a little better and realized that it was those things that humans wore when they went swimming. He swam a little closer when he remembered that those things shouldn't be doing that. If they did that then that meant... Fearing the worst, he made a squeal and swam over quickly. If those leg things are on top of the water, doesn't that mean humans are dead?! he yelled in his head, pulling the owner up from the water by their pants.

Surprised by feeling something cold and tickling on his backside, Oscar went to scream but sucked in water, coughing on the way up. Mer frantically swam with Oscar under his arm to shore, practically throwing him on land. Oscar coughed hard, turning on his side as he threw up the water he had taken in. Mer hovered over him, panicking. Oh no, he's dying! he screamed in his head. Oscar finally sat up, hitting his chest as he tried to settle down. He looked over at Mer, who looked very upset and concerned and Oscar laughed.

"Hello to you too..."

Relieved his new friend wasn't dead, Mer jumped him in a hug, rubbing his face on his with worrisome affection. Oscar smiled and pushed him away.

"I'm okay. You just scared me. Why did you grab my pants like that?"

Mer pointed at the water and then breathed in deep and pointed at Oscar and shook his head. Then he put his hands around his neck for 'choking' and then 'dead'. Oscar laughed as he moved his hair.

"I wasn't dead. I was yelling for you underwater." Mer turned his head. "Can you hear above water?" He nodded with a curious look. "I wasn't sure if you could hear me from above the water so I thought maybe you could hear me underwater."

Mer bit his lip to try and keep from laughing as Oscar frowned.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know?" Mer kept smiling. "I guess it is a little silly..." Mer nodded. "We went to the library today and I got a whole bunch of books on sign language." Mer turned his head quizzically. "It's where you make words with your hands. I also got a kid's book that teaches you how to write letters and stuff. That way we can communicate better... or well, at least I can understand what you're saying. By the way, are all of your people mute or just you?" Mer turned his head. "Can't talk."

Mer nodded in understanding and pointed at himself and held up one finger.

"Oh, I see... Do you have a special way you speak to them?" Mer motioned writing. "Oh, you write on paper." Mer nodded. "Well, I guess you'll have to teach me the merfolk language because I didn't understand a single word you wrote before."

Mer's mismatched eyes lit up and he nodded fervently.

"That'd be pretty cool to know how to speak Mermish." Mer made a face like he smelled something bad, "What? Is that not what it's called?" Mer shook his head. "Well then let's start learning sign language so you can tell me all about you and your people. That's why I got these books, we can communicate better. You teach me Merfolkian and I'll teach you English words."

Mer made another face at the 'merfolkian' but let it slide as Oscar got up and ran up the shore to get one of the beginning books. He ran back and slid in the sand beside Mer and opened up the book.

"See, these are the letters of the alphabet. Sometimes there isn't a sign for something or it's just easier to spell it out. These are the basic things we need to communicate. The same with the writing that I got. They have letters as well and you have to learn them so that you can spell things out."

Mer scooched beside Oscar to look at the book as he laid it down on his legs.

"Let's practice some letters. So, you do an A like this..." Mer followed the directions and held his hand up for conformation. "That's right! Awesome! Let's keep going..."

********************

By the time Oscar was called in for the night, him and Mer were still learning the correct way to sign as well as simple greetings and responses to each other. They had migrated up to the tent to keep the setting sun off of them and Mer ended up taking over the chair while Oscar was on the ground. Oscar sighed as he laid down over his book.

"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought!" Mer nodded in agreement. "Well, I guess the best thing to do is to practice the letters first. If we can spell, then we can get somewhere, you know?" Mer nodded enthusiastically. "There's this girl we have to study about in school named Helen Keller and they say that she was blind and deaf, but this nice teacher taught her the letters of sign language and she learned to talk."

Mer made a noise that sounded like a bird. Oscar wasn't sure what they meant but he seemed interested in hearing the rest of the story.

"Anyway, there was no way for her to know the actual signs like here, so her teacher signed the letters into her hand and then had her touch what she signed. They called her 'the miracle worker' because she gave Helen a voice."

Mer looked excited and motioned for Oscar to hand him a pen and paper. He started to draw, trying to make it look like what he hoped it would... He handed the paper back to Oscar and he looked at it, seeing only a triangle with some stars on it.

"What's that?" Mer pointed to his head. "A hat?" He nodded. "I... don't understand."

Mer huffed, so ready to learn this hand talking thing so he could say something... Oscar smiled sheepishly.

"I'm really sorry..." Mer shrugged. "I have to go but I'll come back tomorrow so we can learn more, okay?"

Mer pointed to the book and then to himself and gave a questioning look. Oscar didn't know what he meant either. Mer pointed to his head and sighed out ABC.

"You... want the book to keep learning?" Mer nodded enthusiastically. "If it were my book I'd let you borrow it but this isn't my book. Besides, the pages would disintegrate in the ocean." Mer looked dejected. "I'll be back tomorrow." Oscar said with a laugh.

Mer crossed his arms and Oscar shoulder butted him.

"Hey, I promise I'll come back tomorrow so we can learn together. I can't wait to be able to talk with you, so we can't miss a single day. Let me help you back into the water and we can meet right here again, okay? I'll just look for you at that rock."

Mer nodded and Oscar helped me get back to the ocean. They waved goodbye and Oscar went home.

**********************

Mer swam back to his home, not really happy with a lot of things that happened that day. He found out that the stupid elder merman was right and that Oscar wasn't going to stay at the beach all the time. But, Mer was happy to know that he was also right because Oscar told him that his father owned it and so they would come all the time. Knowing that no one else would come there was comforting. Lost in his thoughts, Mer didn't realize someone was behind him until he swam past a rock and saw a shadow from above. He turned around and found a young mermaid glaring at him.

"You're not very observant if you just noticed me." Mer frowned. "The elder told you not to come back and see the humans but I had a feeling you would come anyway."

Mer rolled his eyes. The mermaid rolled her clear eyes back at him.

"Don't act like it wasn't something you were thinking about." She swam closer to him, her pearlescent white hair flowing mystically behind her. "What's so great about these humans that you would willingly show your face to them again?"

Mer motioned to the ocean floor to write his answer.

OSCAR = FRIENDhe wrote, realizing that there wasn't much he could say to get her to understand. HE IS NICE AND IS GOING TO HELP TO TALK.

She lifted an eyebrow. "Help you talk?"

WITH MY HANDS. he said, with a smile.

"How does that work?"

READ BOOKS THAT SHOW PICTURES AND REMEMBER.

"A language you can use with your hands when you can't even speak the same language as him?"

I UNDERSTAND HIM, HE JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND ME.

"Seems like a silly idea just to get close to a human who won't be here again for a while."

IT WOULD HELP HERE TOO.

"How?"

LEARN THE LANGUAGE AND I DON'T HAVE TO WRITE ALL THE TIME. he said with a smirk.

"Seems like a win for you, not for us. We have to learn a whole new language just to accommodate you."

Mer's smile faltered a little and he swam away, not wanting to hear it from her. He knew he was a nuisance...

"Hey, wait, I'm sorry." She said, swimming in front of him to stop him from going. "That came out wrong. I meant that you writing to us isn't a big deal but if we have to learn this... hand language, it will be."

Mer swam back to the ocean floor again and wrote in the sand.

OSCAR IS BETTER BECAUSE HE <U>WANTS</U> TO HELP ME TALK. NO ONE WANTS TO TRY. I AM ALONE.

The mermaid really didn't have an answer for that and finally just sighed.

"How much does he know about us?"

Mer made a 'little' sign with his fingers.

"How much do you plan on telling him?" Mer turned his head in question. "I mean, there's a vast amount of information that a human wouldn't know about us."

TALKING IS HARD. TAKING LITTLE STEPS.

The mermaid looked at him pensively, trying to understand what was going through his mind. She wasn't necessarily Mer's friend but she had a soft spot for him ever since he lost his parents and ended up being all alone. He mostly kept to himself and didn't cause any issues, but he just had a mysterious air about him that she couldn't quite ignore Everyone seemed to push him to the wayside and ignored him most of the time unless it was grandiose enough to call attention to him, so having one person give him the time of day was a privilege.

"I know we're not the best of friends, but I'm still worried about you. I know the others don't treat you right but it sounds like you're just trying to get validation from someone." Mer frowned. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

SO FAR, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO HAVE HURT ME HAVE BEEN MY OWN KIND. I AM A NUISANCE. OSCAR MAKES ME FEEL VALID... THAT I'M NOT STUPID.

"Who said you were stupid?" she growled, punching her hand into her other hand. "I'll beat the shit out of them."

Mer shook his hands in dismissal. IT'S A GENERAL THING.

"I know you don't really care for me, but I want you to know that I'm here for you." Mer pulled his hands back and gave her an accusatory look. The mermaid smiled a little. "I'm allowed to worry about you, Mer. Someone has to..."

I AM FINE. I DO NOT NEED YOUR SYMPATHY. he wrote, dotting the sentence harshly and making his finger go deep into the sand.

What would she know? She was the daughter of a high-ranking merman elder while Mer was an orphan with nothing to his name but his name. Even if they were friends, she couldn't possibly understand.

***********************

For the next few days, Oscar and Mer would meet up at the beach in the tent and pour over the books Oscar had gotten. Mer was learning quickly and had pretty much mastered all the letters. It was now a matter of learning how to use the letters to make human words. Oscar decided to start with their names, Mer's first for simplicity. By the end of the day, Mer knew how to spell his name and Oscar's name and also knew how to write them in English. The writing was like a small child learning his letters, but Mer was happy with each improvement. Mer also wanted to teach Oscar his language, and so wrote down simple words as well for Oscar to practice. Oscar would take a picture of it with his phone and then work on them later in the night to try and get the spelling and pronunciation write. He was impressed with Mer's learning speed but felt he was a little slow...

***********************

"What are you writing?" Isaiah asked at dinner as Oscar put the new words into his notebook.

"So, I'm teaching Mer sign language and English and he's teaching me his language. It's called uh..." Oscar flipped the page in his spiral. "Rah-skah-nuh... Apparently there are different versions of Raskaana and so he was teaching me the one he can understand, which is called..." He scanned the page. "Low Raskaana. I dunno what that means."

"May I take a look?" Isaiah asked.

Oscar nodded and handed his notebook to his father. Isaiah was impressed with how much detail he had over this fantasy language and how much thought he put into it.

"I wish you'd put this much thought into your homework when you were at school." Isaiah said with a chuckle.

"If school was as interesting as learning from a merman, I would."

Isaiah laughed again and then cleared his throat. "So... that boy you met in the courtyard the other day whose father I called about setting up a day... The father called back and wanted to bring over Jeffrey and Trent."

"And... did you tell them no?"

"No, I told him yes."

"Dad!"

"I know this isn't ideal, but the fact of the matter is that I called the other specifically to have you all hang out without really knowing what was going on. I understand now, but I can't just turn back on the initial invitation. Just do it this once and I won't set up anything else."

"Well what about Mer?"

"I'm sure Mer will realize that you have company. It's only for one day, Oz."

Oscar sighed but Isaiah was right and he didn't want to embarrass his dad. He just had to spend one day with them and then never invite them over again. Seemed simple enough... or at least, that's what he thought.