"Andrew? Were you even listening to me?" Sarah asked, arching an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

No.

"Yes, I just have a lot on my mind, with work and stuff" I replied, eyes forward, focused on the road as we drive to our cozy, new home.

"So no, you didn't listen to a single thing I said," she said under her breath, looking away from me and to the sea to her side, we are driving near the coast.

Yes.

"No-I'm just very loaded with work, I have two projects I need to deliver tonight by eight if I'm to get paid this week" I adjust the rear-view mirror, it was a little crooked. The sun is setting behind us and I glance at my deck boat.

"I'm gonna tell you again because I know you were not listening" she breathes in deeply before turning her body towards me "Look, they are already here!"

"Told you, there was nothing to worry about," I say as the engine of the car dies and I open the door. The stars shine brightly above us.

"It's even more beautiful up close," Sarah says dreamily as she leans onto me "I just hope they didn't forget to bring it"

"They live doing this, whatever it was it must be inside there," I say pointing at one of the two big trucks carrying everything we had from our town to this, our new, cozy, home.

"Whatever it- Andrew, I swear to God all mighty, if you can't tell me what I'm talking about after I told you twice on the road here, I'm gonna snap," she says, deadpan as she slaps her hands together. A single strand of auburn hair fell on her face from her pink beanie.

Luckily, I came prepared.

" You mean..." I drag my words as I pull out a small box from my brown leather jacket "This?" and I give it to her.

I see how her questioning eyebrow raises and she grabs the box, a tiny smile quickly growing on her face.

"No...what's inside?" Her mood changed, she smiles broadly as she leans forward, playfully eying the box.

"Open it and find out" I answer, leaning forward as well, our faces a few centimeters away as I tuck the rebellious strand of hair back inside the beanie.

With a giggle, she opens it and gasps, her cheeks reddening immediately on her fair, pale skin, green eyes shining with joy.

"Oh, Andy!" She jumps in my arms and we hug each other "It's beautiful! You shouldn't have, It must have been expensive" taking out the pearl necklace from the box she looks at it with pure glee before handing it to me and turning around.

"I can return it if you want," I say jokingly as I put the necklace on her.

"Nah uh! If we eat fish for the rest of the month is on you!"

"What?"

"I said, do you want to go to dinner with Carol and Jessy? The place is a little bit messy to invite them over tonight!" Sarah shouts from the bathroom.

"Sure, I just finished this anyways," I said pushing the enter button, sending the last chunk of the project to be reviewed. I close the laptop and leave the bed.

"They are very excited, and they tried to make Natalie come too but that woman never has time for anything" she adds before sticking the brush inside her mouth, wrapped in a towel with dolphins, her pixie cut still wet.

Oh.

"Maybe it's for the best, she will come to us when she has the time, no need to push her," I say wrapping my arms behind her and resting my head on her shoulder, she is so small, or maybe I'm too tall.

"All I'm saying is that we need a new mayor," Carol said before taking a sip from her glass of wine, her brown hair tied in a bun.

"Come on, it's the parents that need to change, and teach better things to their kids" Jessy replied, food still stuffed inside her mouth as she spoke, like a turkey "Back me up, Sarah!" she points at her with her fork, before sticking it back into the steak. She asked for medium rare, but that's just rare.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I say, if the teens want to study abroad and stay there, they should. Parents need to trust in their teachings and the judgment of their kids, everyone needs the freedom to pursue what they want in life" Sarah replies with an affirmative nod, before turning to me "What do you think?"

"I think, everyone is free to pursue what they want, but not everyone will be able to achieve it. Some, simply have to accept what little they have and conform" I say looking at my glass of wine.

"I can't believe you didn't back me up," Sarah says, dramatically placing a hand on her forehead as she put effort into not laughing, pushing me with her free arm "I will never forget this betrayal, Brutus"

"It won't matter if we both die, so stop pushing me when I'm at the wheel" I replied, smiling at her.

"Wouldn't it be romantic? Two young lovers, just beginning their lif- Uhm, just moved together! And now they are dead" she adds a choking sound at the end.

Smooth as sandpaper, Sarah.

"Well, that would be unfortunate"

"I will be very grumpy if they forgot it" Sarah then yawns and kisses me on the cheek "Goodnight Andy," she says jumping to bed and quickly hiding beneath the covers "Don't stay out too long, it's very dark out there and you may get lost, foreveeer"

"And that's just, perfect"

I whisper, staring a the endless ocean all around me. Second thoughts creep in momentarily, I have experience navigating alone, but going as far as to lose complete sight of the shore may have been a mistake on my part.

Still, I have a GPS and a bar or two, so I should be fine. Wasting no more time I finally sit down on the bench, turn off all lights, and cast my line into the deep, dark unknown.

the only light is the large moon in the cloudless sky. Like an all-seeing eye watching over the entire world from the stars.

It is a beautiful night.

What a long day it has been. Striking gold allowed us to purchase this home, the perfect little piece of heaven to grow old and raise a family. Ideal for your regular type of people.

I wanted to buy tickets to Italy or Turkey. Maybe purchase an RV and travel to the United States, living on the road for as long as possible.

But everyone said to be smart, buy a house and who knows, move in with that cute girlfriend and see where things lead. I swear parenting is just a set of rules to get rid of your children as efficiently as possible.

My cellphone vibrates and one look at who is texting is enough to make me groan.

"Not even in the middle of nowhere can I get some peace" I grumble as I turn off the cursed black square of brain-melting talent.

At least this view is, phenomenal.

The way the waves constantly move, the white moon reflected on them, and the sound all around me give me the sensation that I drift away into the unknown, into a mystery the likes of have never seen or heard before.

Who knows what I could find if I searched hard enough, if I turned on my boat and kept moving towards the moon, would I take off and fly to it? Meet the edge of the world and fall?

No, the truth is that there is nothing to be found, besides even colder weather, and probably ice.

But even if I know such a quest would be like planting seeds in a barren wasteland, I look at the horizon, hoping I will find an island that wasn't supposed to be there. Or I will catch fish that has never been seen before.

At this point, I wouldn't mind if I was swallowed by a whale.

Well, maybe a little, this was an expensive boat after all. And most of the money I got by fixing the code of the engine the team had been working on for weeks is gone now, buying a house, even in a small and forgotten town in the middle of nowhere, is so expensive I doubt I would have gotten one before my forty years of age.

"Ah, what the hell" I reach for the small ice box on the floor near me, open it up, and take out a can of beer "I'm not even married and I already turn to alcohol"

I slowly drink the contents of the can, until I finish it and take out another one, then another one, I'm down my sixth when I think it may be too dumb of an idea to get drunk at night in the middle of the ocean.

"And not even a single dammed fish bites my bait, this day is just, great," I say throwing the can as far as possible.

My life ends here.

There is no need to live anymore because the rest of my story can be seen from miles away. Sarah gets pregnant and we marry, we have a pair of devils and struggle with them, they study abroad and either stay there or come back for a few months before leaving for good.

Lastly, we grow old together and I die of a heart attack or something.

"But at least, I get this view," I say looking at the ocean in silence.

But it's time to leave, so I turn around and prepare to turn the boat on when something hits me on the head. I shout and first I look up, thinking I got scammed and a part of the small roof just fell on me, but everything is there.

Then I look around to find the object that hit me and after turning the lights on, I find it.

I blink several times, there is no way that this is what I think it is. Reaching down I hold the beer can in my hand completely dumbfounded. Quickly I rush to the ice box and open it up, counting the beers that I had drank, five of them as they should.

Raising my eyes I look all around me, the surprise has gone, and now, a sense of worry creeps in. Why the peaceful ocean suddenly feels so...menacing.

I turn around to turn on the motor and head back to shore when I freeze. At the corner of the boat, someone is looking at me. But before I can make sense of what I see, the person is gone.

And I know it left, not vanished, because of the splashing sound its body made when it submerged underwater. Now seeing enough I turn on the boat and guide it to shore.

I can't help but look behind me one last time, and this time I see it. Someone, or something, is watching me leave, their head and shoulders above the water, nothing more than a dark silhouette lit by the shine of the moon above them.

And I watch it intensely until it vanishes beneath the water once again.

Did I see a mermaid? No, that's impossible, there are no mermaids.