“I am a warrior, you wouldn’t understand.” Manu looked at the merman, head to tail, his worm was not thick, it danced too much on her wrist. She preferred merman that possessed a fat worm, it was nothing personal, just her preference, really. She moved the hook on the left corner of her mouth with her tongue, and tapped it with her fingers. “I need a merman that isn’t afraid, just like me.”
“I fear nothing, do you like my fat worm?” He watched anxiously Manu touching the worm on her arm.
“It’s not that fat, but it’s cute and has a nice shape, thank you for the worm.” Manu handled it back to the merman she had forgotten the name. The sewers were big, and the oceans even bigger, she would find a merman with a better worm. She had decided not to settle for just anyone. The merman was clearly broken hearted. “Thank you, I will see you around.”
The merman looked at his medium, fine shaped worm, and placed it back on his own wrist. He had worked hard to find a worm that would please most mermaids, but Manu was of the opinion that the worm should be thicker, her loss. He held his tears and left, knowing many mermaids would appreciate it.
Manu was still on the quest to find her corner of the sewer, and finally meet her friend, Alex the rat. Being fished changed her outlook on life. Nobody, perhaps her late sister, would understand the fear she experienced. The human pulling her up, while she stood her ground, holding herself down, fighting the sheer strength of the two-legged monster that used fabric to cover his genitals. She lost her grip and the human pulled her up, to her horror, seeing daylight unfiltered.
The fisher pulled her half out, but she was too strong and slapped his face, stunned seeing a mermaid instead of a fish. She used the momentum to breake the line, and the hook remained on the side of her mouth, as shining trauma souvenir.
Manu shivered from head to tail, and could not concentrate into swimming, and decided to hide inside a hole, fluffy, with fat and feces deposited in the corners, she curled up and remained still, hearing her own heart pounding, bombing blood aggressively through her veins while she cried in silence, still with the ball of bread half molten inside her mouth. She spat it out as her mouth was bleeding, her tongue tried to access the damage, as she did not dare to move her arms. She spat blood another three times before jumping out of the hole, and swimming as far as she could from the aperture.
Long passed, the storm debris had decanted to the bottom of the dirt river she called home and the sewer looked much like its old self. Manu was hungry, but the more fish and mermaids she met around, meant less food was available. Nobody shared, she was living off tiny insects and algae, but the small fish were not for her. She tried to make friends, but the other mermaids were not interested in someone that had just been caught by a human, she had to lower her level and try her luck with mermen. But the bros were only interested in tightening their worm on her wrist.
“I am looking for my house, do you know the corner of the sewer near the…”
“Baby, I will be your home now, what do you think of my worm? Big, huh?”
“It’s nice…” Manu knew her sewer was up, near the waterfall, she would still have to swim north, but the sewers were a labyrinth, the help she longed for did not arrive from the males of her kind either.
“Nice? It is a huge worm, the biggest, you females… You know how deep I had to dive to get this worm? You are not even that pretty, a three out of ten!”
She ran up from the insulting merman, against the current, and hit a hard leathery thing, she patted her forehead and touched the hook on her mouth and the thing also complained. “Be careful where you swim! Mermaids think they are the protagonists of the sewers.” The thing clicked tongue and moved its head.
“What are you?” Manu looked at the dark green, dark brown eyes, thick tail and tiny legs, resting horizontally only with the eyes and nostrils out. The thing got up and Manu smiled, it was rare, but happened often, an alligator! “I am sorry”, she created distance from it, she knew too well alligators were obstinate animals, nobody could escape their bite.
“This is alligator area, you shall not continue.” The alligator moved its tail and opened its tiny arms. Manu laughed and jumped over him and slapped his face with her tail before continuing. However, she did not count on finding an entire part of the sewer exclusive to alligators, the chambers were bigger and the pipes gigantic, fish was plenty. Alligators would be inside and outside of the water, sunbathing on the rays that dared to cross the underworld. Manu observed, they were the smiley kind, with their teeth out, always smug.
She could feel the same scent, of grease and rats, she knew she would be near if she crossed the dangerous alligators in front of her. The water was cleaner, she noticed she could see her hands submerged in water, and the fish around them were small with big fangs. Being gray would attract too much attention, she decided to swim near the floor, as she noticed the alligators were on the surface.
However, even swimming carefully on the riverbed, she heard when the tiny guard alligator screamed to the rest there was a mermaid among them. To her horror, she heard splashes and watched the tiny legs multiply in the water. The heads slowly appearing down, scanning the water, hunting her. Lucky for her, the fish were scared to see many hungry alligators and agitated the water and lifted the dirt from the bottom.
The alligators enjoyed the moment to snack, she could see the mouths opening and clenching shut, she closed her eyes, scared, closed in a ball, holding her own tail, gathering all the courage she had and opened her eyes. The water was turbid with fish blood, fins descending to the bottom, the air bubbles and the noise.
She felt a snag and she was lifted up, by her tail. “Food!”
“No… I am not!” Manu cried and jerked her body sideways. “I am friendly, please, I just wanna go home” The alligators laughed, and slowly, they came to sniff the frightened mermaid contorting in the mouth of a big alligator.
“Please don’t shit in my mouth.” The alligator said with his voice muffled while he climbed the cement bank and rested its heavy body under the grill with few sunrays touching its hard skin. The alligator then spat Manu, that peed herself seeing all the alligators fixing their eyes on her. “The half human in you makes you rotten and entitled. You have invaded our house when little Robert told you not to!”
“I smell my home on the other side of your house, Mr. Gator, I want to go home, after the storm, look, I have been fished!” Manu showed the hook with a small piece of line on her mouth. “I have a merman with a fat worm waiting for me, and… and I have a treasure! It’s a big coprolite, it’s thick and hard, like a stone, I use to break shells, if you let me go, I give it to you.” Manu spoke between hiccups, as her fear took over her body. She was so scared she did not notice her body drying away, the scales of her tail curling and her skin shrinking and creasing.
“Do we want a huge coprolite?” The alligator holding Manu captive spoke up, and the other alligators laughed, they did not care one bit about the hardened poop the sewer mermaid had. “What do we want?” The alligators ceased laughing and bantering, they looked at each other, what else could they want from a dried mermaid? Soon the silence was disrupted only by the noise of water. “Do we want something from her, at all?”
“I would like to savor her!” Someone screamed in the back, to which Manu screamed in horror, then someone else repeated the same, suddenly, every alligator was screaming trying to claim a little bite of the mermaid. With the confusion set, the alligators began fighting each other, Manu used her dried hands to crawl to water, as far as possible from the fighting alligators.
She could hear, already inside a pipe, the alligators still screaming to compete in between them, the champion would eat the mermaid. She chuckled and swam ahead, she could smell home, it was near, palpable, she did not allow herself to cheer.
The water was becoming muddier, the mold was abundant, the grease stained the cement, she could hear the gossip, faster and faster she went, after a cross of pipes she was finally in her neighborhood. Instead of a warm welcome, the other mermaids avoided Manu, discolored, greasy, disheveled and with a piercing. She went home and behind the pipe she found her most beloved coprolite.
All was well, she was home, she combed her hair and whiskers, hydrated the membranes in her body with sewer grease, and looked at the water mirror and screamed, her regular gray had faded, she was paler, almost white.
“I’d rather be dead than look like this.” Manu heard that from her best friend.
“I’d rather be single than have this thin worm that barely closes around my wrist.” Manu screamed, she swam away to hide her tears, eyes closed and hit someone else. “Sorry.”
It was a merman with the biggest worm she had ever seen.
