Up to now this has been a collection of old stories. This is a brand new one. Inspired by a weekly write-in prompt, it quickly grew beyond the 500-word limit. But it still qualifies as short. See what you think of it.

The Mermaid's Kiss

Chad and Nora were deeply in love, newly engaged, and looking forward to a long married life together. This day they were walking hand in hand down a balmy beach, as much basking in the glow of each other as in that of the summer sun. Near the end of the stretch of sand, a small rocky point jutted out into the gentle waves. Chad drew Nora toward the rocks, saying, "Come on, let's explore for tide pools, see what we can find. There will be barnacles, mussels, maybe crabs and starfish."

Nora, not very sure of her footing on the jumbled-looking rocks, released his hand and let him go on ahead, following cautiously as he clambered over the outcrops to where the receding tide had surely left its treasures. Disappointed in the first small pool he found, Chad looked forward and saw a better prospect ahead. Looking back at Nora, he made sure that she was following, if slowly. He would find a good one and wait for her there.

Nora fumbled her way forward cautiously, using her hands as well as her feet to keep her balance on the treacherous surfaces. She looked up to see that Chad had moved on from the first place he had stopped and was climbing another outcrop. He was clearly intent on what he might discover ahead. Nora followed doggedly.

Chad stood atop the rock, looking ahead from the slight vantage it gave him. Eyes scanning along the shore, he glimpsed an unexpected motion ahead and focused his attention there. Shortly a head appeared, wet golden hair glistening in the sun. She was looking down at something, and soon leaned forward out of sight, apparently to get a closer look at what she had found in the pool. He briefly debated turning away and looking for a different pool, to avoid invading her privacy, and so he and Nora could have what they found to themselves. But the chance of her pool being a good one was too tempting. He quickly moved ahead to see what the girl had found.

As he arrived at the pool she looked up at him and smiled. She raised a hand to show him a small crab. Without a word, she broke off a leg and started sucking out the tender flesh. Chad stood and stared. There was something entrancing about the girl, aside from the fact that she was naked above the waist. She was beautiful, her small breasts round and firm. She had clearly come from the sea, was in fact mostly still in it. She apparently had drawn herself up then rolled to a sitting position on a submerged rock by the shore, so she could reach her hand into the pool. He thought he could see a green bathing suit below where the water rippled around her slim waist.

She pulled off another crab leg and offered it up to him. He hesitated only an instant before squatting down to accept it from her. He sucked on the end as he had seen her do, and found it delicious, better than the best sushi. As he savored the crab meat, Chad settled lower on his haunches. The girl offered him another leg and he savored it like the first, while she ate one or two more herself. A gentle sea breeze carried the scent of her golden hair to him. It had an enticing salty tang.

Enjoying the exotic atmosphere, still savoring the taste of the crab, Chad allowed his eyes to close. After a moment he felt the light touch of her hand on the back of his head, rocking him forward. His eyes opened as she drew him into a kiss. Her tongue was cool as it found its way between his lips and into his mouth. His own tongue responded. He had thought the taste of the crab exquisite, but this was infinitely better.

Reluctant to let go of the moment, his arms reached to draw her closer. As he did this she leaned away, and toppled backward into the water. Her hand behind his head pulled him off balance, and he could do nothing but tumble after her.

Instead of surfacing right away as he expected, she went deeper, and drew him with her. He was frightened for a moment, but the moment passed, and the experience became dreamlike, magical.

Nora arrived too late to witness anything but the tumble. Chad was a strong swimmer and she expected him to surface almost instantly. When that didn't happen her mind began to replay the tumble. She had not really seen the girl, but now hints of her came back, and with them the thought that if she was really there then maybe Chad dove in to save her. She clung to this hope, but minutes passed and still he did not appear. She began to contemplate diving in and attempting the rescue herself. She was not that good a swimmer, but Chad was everything to her. She stood, ready to risk it, when suddenly he broke the surface very close to shore.

"Chad!" she cried. "Are you okay?"

"Um, yes, I think so."

"I'm so relieved. You were down there so long! What happened?"

"It's hard to explain."

"Are you really okay?"

"Not exactly."

"What do you mean? Here, let me help you out." She took a step toward the water. Chad backed away from her a little.

"Um, I can't get out. There was a girl here."

"I thought I saw a girl. Were you trying to save her? Where is she? Is she still down there?"

"She was here in the water. Sort of leaning out to reach the tide pool. She had caught a little crab and was eating it. She offered me a leg. I ate it. It was delicious. Like sushi, only better."

"So, what happened? Where did she go?"

"Instead of surfacing after we fell in, she swam away, under water. I followed her. Swimming under water, weightless, is always sort of dreamlike, and this was like that. It felt like I didn't even need to breath."

"Adrenaline will do that."

"So I decided to follow her as long as I could, to see what she would do. But then I knew you were here, watching, and I needed to tell you I was okay. So I stopped following. She stopped too, and waved, signaling that I should go back to you. So I did."

"But I never saw you!"

"Yeah, that's where it got strange. Before that, I hadn't even realized that I wasn't breathing, or how fast I was swimming. When I started thinking of you, and turned around, I began to notice."

Nora was puzzled, and growing impatient. What was he talking about? Why didn't he get out of the water and go back to the beach with her? If the girl was okay, he could tell her all this later.

"You know how, in a dream, things happen that can't happen in real life? Like you're driving a car and then suddenly you're riding a bike? It was kind of like that. Except that this was real. It felt like a dream, but it wasn't. I really was swimming underwater without needing to breathe. I really was swimming very fast, as if I was wearing giant swim fins and doing a dolphin kick. Except that wasn't quite right either."

Nora was getting more impatient, almost exasperated. Why was he stalling, going on with this foolishness? Then she noticed for the first time that he wasn't wearing his shirt. Well, of course that was the first thing you would do if you fell in the water and wanted to swim. Pants too. She stared at him, wondering if he had also lost his undershorts in the process. And he didn't want to get out of the water naked. "Is that it?" she said. "You don't want to get out because you're naked?"

"No, not naked. I've been trying to tell you. I can't get out because of this."

He took a stroke backward and raised his legs. Except that what came out of the water was a huge fish tail. He gave the tail a flick and darted about twenty feet farther away.

"Nora, I don't know what to do!"

Nora stared, simply dumbfounded.

"The girl that was here, she was a mermaid. And she...changed me." His voice broke as he said this. "Nora, I can't come home with you." His face crumpled in anguish. Hers did the same.

Through streaming tears she said, "Maybe it's only temporary. I'll wait here with you until you change back."

Chad looked doubtful. But then a faint hope came into his eyes and he said, "I'll go find the girl. Maybe she can change me back."

With a flip of his tail he disappeared beneath the gentle waves. Nora waited.

And waited.

The sun began to set, and the needs of her body were making themselves felt. The tide had been rising and was beginning to cover the rocks. So she crawled back to shore, promising herself that she would return in the morning to resume her vigil.

Which she did. She went as close as she could get to the same tide pool, and watched all day as the tide rose and fell, exposing the little pool again.

She came again the next day, and the next. Chad didn't come. Then, as the sun began to set and she stood to head back to shore, he surfaced.

"Chad! I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too, Nora. But I couldn't find the girl, so I had to keep looking."

"Did you find her then? Are you okay now?"

"No." He raised his tail to the surface as evidence. "I've got to keep trying to find her."

"You've been alone in the sea all this time?"

"Yes. But it's not so bad. Still like a dream. Lots to see, and plenty to eat if you like sushi. I dove pretty deep, way deeper than I could go before. I was hoping to find a mermaid city or something. But it got too dark to see and there was nothing.

"Nora, I want this to be a dream, and pretty soon I'll wake up in bed with you. It's still so dreamlike, being like this."

"Maybe there's a way I can get you home. I can drive the car down close to the shore, and help you get into it."

"I can't do that Nora. I don't want anyone to find out. Better for me to keep looking for the girl."

"Have you seen any other mermaids?"

"No. But I don't really know where to look. Better to hope she'll find me again. It's only been a few days, really. So I need to stay around here, to be here when she comes."

Nora was crying now. She couldn't help herself. It seemed so hopeless.

"Go home, Nora. You don't have to come and wait for me every day. When she changes me back I'll come to you. I found my shirt and pants and hid them in the rocks here, so it will be easy."

Nora sobbed. "Okay," she said. "But I'll come back on Saturday. I want to see you as often as I can, to talk with you. Promise me you'll be here?"

He smiled and raised his arm to show that his waterproof watch was still on his wrist. "It's a date!" Then he dove and was gone. Nora cried all the way home.

She came back to the rocks on Saturday and waited all day. Chad didn't come until nearly sundown. When he did show up he just said, "Hi Nora," as if nothing was wrong.

Nora couldn't scold him, she was too glad to see him. She just said, "What happened?"

"I found her! She did come back. And she showed me where the mermaids live. There are dozens of them! It's the most amazing place."

Nora got excited. "Did she change you back? Is that why it took all day for you to get here?" But then she realized that if he was back to normal he'd have been swimming on the surface.

"No," he said. "It's just that the place we live is not very close. It's a big sea cave, Nora, the kind kayakers like to explore. But hidden on a wild stretch of the coast so not likely to be found. And it's so beautiful. The mer people transplant all the most colorful sea life there, so it's amazingly gorgeous. We still breath air, but our metabolism is cold-blooded. So we live near the surface but don't need to come up very often."

Nora hadn't heard much past "place we live." She said, "So, you like it there. You feel like one of them now."

"I am one of them, Nora. They can't change me back. But it's okay. It's a magical way to live, really. There's no point in being bitter about it."

Nora began crying, and wailed, "No point in being bitter? I've lost you Chad. We were perfect together. We had our whole lives to look forward to. I've lost everything I cared about! How can I not be bitter?"

She sobbed on. Chad said, "Nora, please, listen to me. You haven't lost me. You can join me. Come here, in the water, and kiss me. Kiss me like only you can. Then you will change too, and we can swim away together, to the magical mermaid world."

Nora shuddered physically at the thought. "No," she said, "Don't even ask that of me. I could never live like that, no matter how magical you say it is."

Chad's face fell. "Please, Nora," he said. "Don't give up on me. At least come back and see me. On Saturdays?"

Nora was still sniffling, but agreed. Reluctantly, Chad swam off.

But he did come back, and Nora was always there. They would reminisce about their favorite times together. And Chad would tell her more about mermaid life. He said the mer people didn't speak, because they spent most of their time underwater, and couldn't speak without losing air. So they used a sophisticated form of sign language. Chad had quickly learned the rudiments, though he feared he would never master the subtleties. But when they were together in the main chamber of their cavern, they would sit on the rocks and sing. He said it was the most amazing, beautifully emotional music he had ever heard.

Weeks went by and they met at that same rocky point every time. Nora learned to keep track of the tides, and she would wait until they were low so she could walk on dry rocks, and he would be there. Until one Saturday Nora didn't come. Chad waited for her until dark. He came again the next Saturday, and the one after, and finally she was there. Something had come up, she said, and gave him her heart-felt apology for not being there, and said it would never happen again.

But it did happen again, and they finally agreed to meet once a month, and then it became once a year, on the anniversary of the summer day they had been torn apart. Always Chad would ask her to join him. Always Nora would say no. But Chad told the most amazing stories about his magical existence, and secretly Nora was tempted. She didn't tell him much about her surface life, because it wasn't the happy life they had foreseen together.

Then Chad came and Nora was there, dressed in a bathing suit. She had been crying, but when Chad appeared she jumped in the water with him, before she lost her nerve. "Kiss me, Chad," she said. "I can't stand it anymore."

So he did. It was a long kiss, a deep kiss, a passionate kiss that both of them had been denied for too many years. Finally they separated, and Nora said, "Oh Chad, it didn't work! I haven't changed."

He said, "It did work, Nora. Just not the way we expected." He leaned back, and lifted a very human leg out of the water.

They climbed out of the water together. This time it was Nora who was sure-footed on the rocks, and Chad who needed help. But he wrapped Nora's towel around himself, and they made it back to the beach, and to the rest of the life together they had for so long been denied.