Chapter 4: Ash
"Like I said, it was a mermaid!" Why can't anyone just believe me?
I'm soaking wet but I could remember vividly what happened just now. I saved Roxanna and got flunked off the yacht. Then, I remembered everything from I was small, till the day I wanted excitement. I wondered if this is really the excitement I want. I struggled till I was tired, just as I was about to give up, someone lifted me up. Then I was blacked out.
Afterwards, I was woke up by a voice, a voice that was light and clear, it sounded like a canary and it seems to drive off all my troubles. I looked around me, I thought I was dead. I could see the Sunset. I looked into the direction of the voice; it was a beautiful girl with a head of fiery-red hair. It was breath-taking. I studied her while lying down, and noticed that she had fish tails! I remembered very clearly! Then I saw, a dolphin rising up from the sea. It talked, but I don't understand its language. The mermaid seemed to understand. She grabbed a stick at her side and wrote something, the dolphin was… was scolding her? The tone sounded harsh.
"Writing my name," the mermaid talked. I heard her voice, and sooner after, she sang again.
I wanted to sit up and talked to her. I want to know this mermaid more. Who is she? I sat up but felt a sharp pain on my chest which sent me groaning in pain. Before I know it, she was gone, but I can sense her somewhere. Her name, she said she wrote down her name.
I stood up, while clutching my chest and walked towards the written words. It's mostly washed away by the sea, but I can still see some letters. Soon, I figured out. Her name is Amber.
"Ash!" I turned and saw Elvis and the rest running towards me. Suddenly, I heard a splash and looked into the vast blue ocean. Though it was only a moment, I saw a fish tail. I'm convinced, it's a mermaid. I told the rest, but no one seems to believe.
"Did you knock your head or something?" Roxanna said worriedly, but I don't have the time to be bothered about her.
"It's true! It's a mermaid!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Mermaids don't exist! Ash, I didn't expect you to believe in mermaids seriously!" Elvis joked, a joke which I took it seriously.
"Fine!" I strode off angrily. I could hear them calling my name repeatedly but I refused to turn back. Some kind of friends I have there.
"Ash! What happened?! You're soaking wet! Oh, my, let me see you, my darling." My mum grabbed me and started drying me.
"Mum," I called her; her face was one of those that flashed through my mind when I was drowning. It is true, at your deathbed, the faces of your loved ones will flashed through your mind.
"Hmm…?"
"Do you believe in mermaids?" I asked her.
There was long pause before she started speaking again. But before she spoke, she glanced over to my dad whose mouth was opened wide as if he was in shock. I could hear the steady breathing of my mum, until she started speaking again.
"No, dear, of course I don't! Why the sudden question?" She smiled, looking away, averting my eyes.
She's hiding something from me, but I'm not in the mood to argue.
"No, nothing. I'm just asking." I replied before retreating back to my room.
I sat on my bed, started picturing the mermaid that saved me – Amber, the fiery red hair of hers, I couldn't see her eyes, but she have a canary-like voice. She also has an orange tail which resembled a lot like the Sunset I saw by the beach. Is that why her name is Amber?
Without knowing, I drew out the scenery I pictured in my head with the mermaid that saved me. I wonder why, I've only seen her once yet I felt that I'm very much in love. Is this the excitement I've been pursuing all my life?