Manu observed the thin stream of yellow piss descending and mixing into the water, she moved the liquid around, dissipating it into the dark green sewer water, the sewer mermaid was painfully bored. Swimming into the putrid and hazy waters without anything but her ugly fish companions distracted her from the thought that her kind had been dwindling with the practice of sewer fishing. The sewer mermaids were very similar to catfish and were lured easily with shiny human stuff. Her dumbass sister fell for a piece of bread, she would have understood if it was at least chopped liver, bread was so basic, kids threw bread inside the storm drains all the time, Manu thought it was not a valid reason to die.
“Manu, dear, why are you looking at the pissing dog? Get out of there!” Her rat friend warned her.
“We all do it in water, why would it be different with land people, the color is nice” Manu moved the water. “Why are you hurrying this much?”
“I saw a storm outside, brace yourself if you want to stay here, hold tight or you’ll be thrown into the open sea.” Alex, the rat, watched her friend, clueless receiving dog piss on her face and being clueless about the storm.
“Oh no, I enjoy having a roof over my head, where are you going?”
“My cousin lives in a restaurant, the fancy one down the street, I’ll crash at his place until it’s safe to come back. Watch out for the sewer fishermen. See you soon, come for a kiss.” Manu stretched herself out of water and they kissed goodbye.
Manu made sure to reinforce her bra, last storm the current was so strong it washed her bra away and her nipples, uncovered, hurt with all debris. Alex, the rat, also gave her glasses that fell from a construction worker, despite being an adult, her kind of mermaid was slightly smaller than human beings, and the glasses hung from her face. She tied her hair around the glasses and then went back to her nasty nest to tell the others about the storm.
Inside the sewers, she swam fast to her grease trap room, it was her favorite corner, with many soft materials, cushions alike. Manu and her friends all enjoyed hanging out at the trap in that corner of the sewage. They would gossip about the males and the new mothers, always together with their restless fingerlings pulling the whiskers of their moms.
“Alex, the rat, said a storm is coming, we have to be careful!” Manu spoke hurrying to save the coprolite that was so precious for her. She glued it between a pipe and the wall, hoping it would be there when she returned.
The other three mermaids laughed at Manu and did not hurry to secure their belongings or binding their tits in place. She ran back to the running water pipes and grabbed all the food she could find, from trash, undefined organic matter, plants, other small fish and fit all inside a small pink bag Alex, the rat, had gifted her when her sister was hooked by a sewer fisherman.
With enough food, she passed through fish and mermaids casually living their lives and enjoying the bigger stream of water coming from the storm drains. She found a tiny corner and waited for the water to rise, she had a tight grip onto the pipe to stay safe, the other fish were just dumb, she thought.
Manu heard an explosion, she looked up and the manhole lid had just jumped up, revealing a piece of the sky, and then the sewage system began flooding, she held onto her purse with one hand, and on the drainage pipe with the other. As if the water wasn’t loud enough, Manu could hear the screams of the fellow mermaids and the fish being tossed around despite their effort to remain in the same place.
Families were separated, the sewer flooded out, erupted into the human world, invading the streets with their own dejects they insisted on hiding under the earth, as if they were mortified of what they produced with their guts. Manu held her breath under water and tried to count until sixty, but she stopped at thirty-seven and choked, she was terrified she would have to move from the chosen spot.
The screams of her neighbors had ceased. She could only hear the water bubbling and being spat up. She passed her thin arm around the pipe and kept her nose above the water, she allowed herself to feel relief, perhaps too early, because a huge mass she could not identify clashed on her and she lost the grip, Manu was carried away by the strong current.
Her salty tears mixed with the slurry water, filled with sewer and rubble from the human world. On her urge to hold onto something and avoid the open sea, she did not realize she had lost her purse with her food, she went up and cried, and then stopped, crying would make her lose her breath, she could cry only after finding safety.
After being carried away, she stopped at a place of the sewage system with slow current, she looked up and saw cockroaches and rats sobbing as well, the kids, without their families all screaming for their mom, she felt especially sorry for the cockroaches, as they were dumb creatures. The rats were already organizing, speaking in a circle.
Manu could still hear the storm and the clanking noises coming from above. She could even identify thunder hitting the floor. She placed her arms above the water and held onto the bank. She looked at her own gray shiny skin with her small fingers united by a thin membrane and wondered when a merman would put a worm on her wrist.
It was not time to daydream with mermen with nice fat worms, she needed to find her way back, the storm was ending and the water was slowly finding its own way and the sewers, revolved and dirtier than normal, and was slowly and painfully returning to its regular levels of dirt.
The panic arrived slowly, with a small doubt growing, a wrong turn, different fish, different mammals, Manu was lost. Her tiny heart couldn’t fathom not coming home to her friend Alex and the rest of her family, she wondered if they were already back home and she was the only one lost. Would someone come look for her or just deem her dead fish?
She asked for directions first to a water snake, the snake was also clueless, she repeated her questions to rats, but the rats also did not know the land where a rat called Alex lived. She asked cockroaches, but they were barely verbal. The local catfish enjoyed her panic and took profit of it to catcall the scared mermaid, she ran frightened again, holding her bra.
Manu found a dirty and crowded corner on a crossroad, the safest place to take a nap. She made way inside the wreckage of tree branches and human waste and curled to sleep. She woke up with a pat on her head, she opened her gray eyes and saw a young catfish, crying, also lost.
“Miss mermaid, could we rest together? I am tired and alone.” The catfish said, while digging a hole near Manu, not waiting for her answer.
“You are already doing it.” Manu smiled. “I am lost too, come, we will find our families soon.” She tried to encourage him and encourage herself as well, but she still was not familiar with that part of the sewage system, despite swimming for a whole day. “What is your name, little one?”
“I am Oliver, the young.” He said proudly, coming from a family of two hundred and thirty-seven thousand, eight hundred and forty-one, being the last one to hatch.
“Do you know where you come from, Oliver, the young?” Manu tried to extract a clue of the poor young boy.
“I live in a place with blue water and many like me!”
That could be everywhere but the sewer, Manu thought. Not only would she have to find her way home, but she would also be responsible for finding little Oliver his way home, with his other two hundred and thirty-seven thousand, eight hundred and forty older siblings.
However, before searching for their families, there was another urgent matter. She felt her and his stomach grumbling underwater. The sewer mermaid cried again over her pink purse but slowly came to her senses and began collecting some debris to eat, there was plenty. Manu and Oliver spent long eating, but none of the food was tasty or filling enough.
Oliver swam farther and disappeared, it was normal for them to stray away to search for the tastiest snacks, so Manu did not think much about it, she was also worried about nourishing her body, the plants from above made the water bitter and the food did not taste great.
Manu then approached the drain, saw a bit of sunlight peeking through, the freshest food would eventually come down, and she could eat it before it touched the bitter water, so smart! She caught insects and rejoiced, and then the biggest piece of bread descended slowly, as a miracle, she was so hungry she jumped at it, feeling the ball of dough melting in her mouth and a piece of metal she could not comprehend, there was no metal in bread.
“Ah.”
