Wednesday Fiction

I'm trying out a little fiction story-tellin. 

Let's see how it goes.

In a dream I saved your life. We were sailing in your father’s sailboat along a rocky edge of the Atlantic coast when there was a sudden tip of the boat. I watched you fall backward into the water where luggage from a recent plane crash was washing ashore. The moment your body disappeared beneath the water, a fin skimmed toward it and attempted to play with your body like a pull toy. 

I pulled a gun out of my vest pocket and shot the shark twice. The first bullet was successful. The second bullet was just for style. I leaned over the boat, reaching my hand out to you. You climbed out of the endlessly ebbing and darkening water onto safety and in your attempts to catch your breath you started heaving. It was then that I saw a girl had crawled onto the boat behind you. I recognized her from one of your photographs. You started sputtering out sea water and words about how our relationship had changed. I watched as small fish fell from your breast pocket. 

The girl just stood on the boat now, soaked and dripping with a dark thick substance. Maybe she was a mermaid, I reasoned. I suppose that in times of an emergency and pending panic you often lie to yourself to stay alive. To stay afloat. The thick liquid covered her legs making them glisten like the back of a dolphin. It wasn't completely unreasonable.

Your camera rested a few inches away from my feet. Our gazes all rested on it at once. I snatched  it  up first with one hand, the other hand still holding the smoking gun. I peeked into the view finder and directed it to the overcast sky. There it was, as I expected, a past picture of this girl who now stood sodden with a mysterious substance. I remember now, I said quietly, lowering the camera from my eye. I looked over at the girl and she seemed to be bleeding but I couldn’t tell from where the origin of her wound was. I looked at you. You stood there helpless. I threw the camera over the edge into a sea of open luggages and floating pieces of clothing. She followed after the camera and, as if you had all been tethered together, I watched you fall back into the water and disappear. The wind shifted to the west and I set up our sail.