Chapter 2

What with all the heavy bags and moving about from one boutique to another, Ben was dog-tired when they got home, but Tara was still as energetic as ever. He wondered how she did it. She prepared dinner, served it and sat beside him to watch the latest episode of Merlin. She loved such films and would never miss them for anything. While she concentrated on the TV, Ben was trying hard to stifle yawn after yawn. At last, he couldn't hold it in anymore. He felt it would be disrespectful to fall asleep beside her, so he had to speak out.

"Hey darling, I'm really sleepy." He murmured tiredly.

"Oh Okay. Just hold on for a few minutes, the episode will be over by then and we can go to bed, Okay?"

"Okay dear."

Just few minutes? I can do it, he said to himself. He widened his eyes and kept them fixed on the bright television screen as Merlin said 'Tospringe'. Not that he really cared what the 'young warlock' was doing. His goal was just to remain awake and to achieve that, he had to find something to engage his attention.

It felt like ten hours had passed when he heard his name being called and his cheek being pinched.

"Hmm?" He looked around him drowsily.

"You fell asleep, baby. Let's take you upstairs."

So he had fallen asleep. Hmm, so much for widened eyes and 'Tospringe'. Wordlessly, he allowed Tara lead him up the stairs to his bedroom. The house was his. He'd never visited Tara's yet. She had told him to hold on for a while. She had just gotten a new job, so had just moved to a new area. She was a banker while he was a computer programmer. Both were in their early twenties and they were madly in love.

Ben rolled over on the bed, throwing his arm on the other side hoping to feel that lovely body, but instead, he felt just the bed sheet. He flipped open his eyelids to confirm. Yes, Tara was not there. Well, he was used to it by now. Anytime she stayed with him, she always left sometime during the night. The next time he would see her would be the next morning. He had always wanted to ask her why she never stayed the whole night at his place, but that was easier said than done, because immediately he caught sight of her, everything in his mind just went out the window. All he thought about was her, her and her alone. Sighing deeply, he closed his eyes, making a mental note to talk to her about it the next day, but as he drifted back to sleep, he knew that that was a mission that would never be accomplished.

Swimming gracefully through the blue water, the girls raced each other. It was a race to see who would get to the coral reef first. They laughed as a small school of fish rushed between them, forcing them to swim further away from each other.

"This is unfortunate." Aaanlisha said to her sister when they came side by side again. "Those fish have given you a few inches lead."

"Oh stop it." Aaantaarana said with a swish of her tail against her sister's. "You're only looking for a cheap excuse. Catch me if you can!"

Suddenly, she shot forward, her arms at her side and her tail flapping rapidly. Her beautiful face was turned up while her flowing hair steamed behind her in waves of jet black. Her sister was trying her best to keep up with her, but she didn't need anyone to tell her that she'd lost the race.

"Yayyy!" Aaantaarana shouted as she reached the reef.

Aaanlisha soon joined her, swimming in sharp, fast strokes.

"You cheated, you know." She pouted as she came up beside her older sister.

"How?" Aaantaarana shrieked.

"You swished my tail!"

"Oh please. Stop giving excuses. Just admit it, I inherited Mom's extraordinary swimming abilities."

"You always think you inherited all of Mom's abilities." Aaanlisha complained.

"Oh no. At least, you inherited one... nagging."

She giggled and then suddenly became serious.

"Let's hurry up and finish up here or Mom might begin to miss us."

"I'll tell her that you called her a nagger."

"Nagger? Is that even right? Anyway, she'll never believe you."

Aaanlisha gave no reply, instead, she grumbled something about 'oppression by seniority' and angrily went about picking beautiful plants and algae.

"Be careful with the corals." Aaantaarana shouted back from where she was.

Aaanlisha grumbled some more, but her sister ignored her.

After spending some time gathering sea beauties, the young mermaid soon became bored and was in need of someone to gossip with.

"Say Rana, are you still fooling around with that land-man?" She asked as she swam toward her sister.

"How's that your business?" Aaantaraana murmured, still concentrated on her work.

"Well." Aaanlisha shrugged as she absently picked out little pieces from the fancy algae she had harvested. "It's my business when my sister is going contrary to our culture."

"I'm not going contrary to any culture."

"Of course you are. You're having an affair with a land man!"

"Oh please shut up. What do you know about such things?"

"I do know Mom would be angry though. What do you think will happen when she finds out or what would you even do when one of our men comes to ask Mom to allow him marry you?"

"I'll handle that when the time comes."

"Hmm."

There was a moment of silence while both continued with their different styles of picking, then Aaantaarana glanced at her sister. What she saw made her gasp in surprise.

"What on earth are you doing? You've picked those things and now you're taking them apart? Aaanlisha!"

"Come on, it's only a few."

"A few is very useful, Lisha. Come on, let's go."

Aaantaarana led the way and her sister swam after her as they headed home with their beautiful burden of corals, seaweed, flowers and algae that would be used for the decorative setting in welcoming their guests.

"You girls took your time, didn't you?" Their buxom mother said when they reached the underwater enclave they called home.

"Sorry Mother." Aaantaarana apologized. "Lisha was too stubborn and careless. She lost everything and we had to start all over to pick for her."

"I wasn't stubborn and careless." Aaanlisha grumbled. "I was only trying to avoid a motorboat."

"If you hadn't stubbornly disregarded my advice and decided to swim too close to the surface, you wouldn't have had to av..."

"It's okay, girls." Their mother broke in. "This is not the time to bicker. Our guests will soon be here. Get your sisters to help you, we need to finish the decorations quickly. I'll get food ready."

The girl-mermaids swam further into the enclave in search of their ten other sisters. Some were sleeping while others were playing, but Aaanmaalina, the intellectual of the family was busy peering at a paper in a bottle.

"Oh Rana, you're here. I can't make anything out of this. You're the one that always loves to go on the land. Come see if you know the language."

Aaantaarana swam towards her while Aaanlisha went to join the players.

"I get to go on the land because I'm much older than you are, so wait till you get to my age. Let me see that."

She took the transparent bottle from her sister and scrutinized the little paper that could clearly be seen inside.

"Hmm. I don't know this language. Must be Spanish or something like that."

"Doesn't your land boyfriend speak it?"

"Aaanmaalina!" She chided in a harsh whisper. "You would shout to the whole world that I have a land boyfriend, wouldn't you?"

"Oh I'm sorry. I..."

"No time to be sorry. We have work to do."

Moving over to the sleeping mermaids, she shouted to rouse them.

"Okay everyone, wake up! We have work to do! Come on, Lina help me wake these sleepy heads."