I waited for a long while before I heard footsteps on the stairs leading down to the basement. I swallowed, hardening my resolve. All my present hopes were centered on this chance to win Daryl over. The footsteps briefly stopped and were followed by the sound of the basement door creaking open. However excruciatingly painful, I raised myself out of the tub, at least so far as to be able to observe Daryl without having him stand over the tub staring down at me like I was some helpless invalid, although in a way, that was exactly what I was. What I saw made me gasp and almost lose my hold on the tub's edge. I had prepared a speech to recite by way of apology when Daryl arrived, but on first sight of him all that I had planned to say vanished from my memory. What I saw was a broken man, a dark bruise on his jaw line and slumped shoulders, limping slowly toward the chair in front of his desk. My mind swam with confusion. Where was the confident, determined scientist from just a few hours ago? In his place was this new person, one that I had not had the chance to observe before. Daryl reached the chair and sat down heavily, his head in his hands. My carefully practiced speech completely deserting me, I was at a loss for things to say. I decided on something trivial, something that wouldn't sound overly forced.
"Daryl…what happened?" I choked out, struggling against my natural impulse, which was to turn my face to the wall and ignore his very existence.
He stiffened; I suppose my speaking at all after what had passed between us had come as a complete shock to him. Turning to face me, he fixed me with a stare that was attentive, though dazed.
"N-nothing happened. I just ran into a little trouble with some local hooligans on the way back."
"Oh. I only wondered because you seem to be in considerable pain at this moment." I shifted my position in the tub to get a better look at Daryl's face. In the Mermaid kingdom, there is a saying that a lying man can be discerned by his facial expressions. Humans, unlike some mermaids, are terrible liars. It has to do with the eyes. The eyes of a lying man are said to be desperate, almost pathetic in appearance. I had never really had an opportunity, or a reason, to examine the truth of this saying; but as I gazed into the eyes of the man sitting only a few feet away, I knew it to be true. For the pair of eyes I looked into were filled with a feeling I instantly recognized: Desperation.
"It's just a minor jaw and limb injury, I'll be fine." Daryl's eyes lost some of their dazedness as a fact dawned on him. "I thought you weren't speaking to me?"
"About that…I…I apologize." If only he knew how harshly every word of this conversation grated on me, until I feared I would break out in an indignant outburst, and let my true feelings on the matter be known entirely. I did not believe Daryl's story of how he had come by that bruise on his face for a minute, but I said nothing, wondering how long he was going to hang on to that lie.
"You do, hmmm?" Daryl propped his feet on the top of his desk and rested his hands behind his head. "And just why would you do that?"
I shrugged nonchalantly. "You rescued me and bandaged my wound, and for that I am thankful. After all your kindnesses, it would be foolish not to trust you." I smothered a grimace. "I have no proof that you are not a nice person and I shouldn't base my judgment on feeling alone."
"Well, thank you for admitting your mistake."
Admitting my mistake?! This scientist was close to being on my last nerve. If he sounded any surer of himself, I would…I would…Let's just say I had to powerfully resist the urge to slap his face. Not showing my vast inner struggle, I smiled at him.
"Daryl, when do you think I'll be well enough to go back to the ocean?"
At this Daryl sat bolt upright in his chair. "Go back?" He said incredulously. "Why would you want to leave?"
"I don't know…family, friends, and freedom? I put emphasis on that word: freedom, hoping he would get the point. "There are many reasons."
"Yeah, well, you won't be able to leave for a long time yet, so you'd best get used to things as they are."
So he hadn't thought even once about my feelings…and now I doubted if he had the capacity to. All that mattered to him was science, and being the first to discover a mermaid…What rubbish! I gazed at my limp tail sorrowfully.
"If I didn't have this, than I wouldn't be in this predicament." I said softly, but not soft enough for Daryl not to hear. At my words, his eyes started to gleam with a scheming, mischievous look. Preoccupied with my tail, I didn't see Daryl's expression. If I had, I would have suddenly been very, very afraid.
Daryl jumped up and scurried out of the room, in a great hurry to do something. I did not spare him a glance as he left. Nor did I care when the heavy metal door slammed behind him. As silence filled the basement that was furnished like a laboratory, I felt more alone than I could ever remember feeling in all my life.
