Lance Mcclain. An average Cuban boy. The beautiful beaches, beautiful people, and the language of romance and mystery. Lance was a package of everything and nothing at the same time. A playboy with no playtoy. A single tango, dancing out towards beaches, towards the sea. Lance was a boy mesmerized by the wonders of the sea, despite loving where he was. He would not leave Cuba for anything, but he was dreaming of the sea. To see what lies beyond the horizon line. But for now, he was a simple Cuban boy. A Cuban boy whose mother had asked him to go collect crabs at the beach. His mother was a great cook and could make a good dish with crabs. She needed them first though. There was absolutely nothing Lance would not do for his family. He loved them and protected them. His parents. His siblings. Everyone. They meant everything to him.
Reaching the beach, Lance started picking up crabs and putting them in the metal bucket he had brought with him. It was a chore, but one he did not mind. He was close to the water, and the beach sometimes had weird stuff washed up from the sea. He shook the bucket every now and then to prevent the crabs from climbing out. They were smart enough to stack on top of each other to escape. They sacrificed each other so that one or two could escape. Such a waste. Lance followed the beach and grabbed a crab every now and then. They had to be bigger after all.
That's when he heard it. The sound of meows. A cat? Well sure it was, but why was there a cat on the beach. Lance walked towards the sound until he reached the more abandoned part of the beach. Nobody came here, so why would a cat. He peeked over a rock, to reveal a cat sitting by the water, meowing. It looked like it was meowing after something or someone. However, there was nobody around. It took the cat a moment to notice Lance, but once it did, it started meowing at him.
"Hey, there gatita..." Lance put the bucket down and sat down on his knees. The cat did not seem shy at all. It came up and sniffed the hand Lance had reached out.
"What are you doing out here alone, girl?" Lance started petting the cat. It seemed friendly, not to mention very clean. It was either owned or had not been out for long. Which again lead Lance to be confused as to why it was there. Lance stood up and walked over to the white box. Inside the box was a tiny blanket, and an empty bowl. Lance frowned slightly. Someone must have left the cat out, or abandoned it. Lance was quickly pulled out of his thoughts when the cat started walking around his feet, begging for attention. He smiled as he started petting it. Before long, Lance found himself playing tag with the cat around the white box. He was having fun. Till the cat's attention suddenly turned back to the water.
"What's up, gatita?" Lance said as he walked up behind the cat, and looked in the direction the cat was meowing in. If Lance had been too slow, he might not have noticed the splash of something or someone sinking into the water. That was all he saw though. He stared in the direction for a while, but whatever went down was clearly not coming back up. Lance finally looked down at the cat. The cat did not seem to mind sitting by the water and wait. Lance frowned slightly confused as he went back to the white box. In the end, he finished collecting crabs and went back home. He had tried to take the cat with him, but the cat had absolutely refused to be taken away from the spot at the beach. So he had promised to bring it food whenever he could. Not that the cat would understand. But it was worth promising. His mother was happy to receive the crabs and went to war with the dinner straight away. Meanwhile, Lance spent time with his siblings.
Lance cut down on his own food intake, in order to bring the cat at least a little bit of food every day. He probably should not have, but he liked animals. He was not allowed to have any pets, but there were a few strays around he could pet and play with. The cat seemed thankful for the food, however, it never moved. It was always by the same spot, meowing out towards the water as if it was calling for something or someone. It did not take long for Lance to figure out where he could hide, just to catch a glimpse of whatever it was the cat seemed to attached to. Lance was more confused than ever the first few times. Despite hiding well, and making sure to look as if he had left, nothing had come to greet the cat. It had just been the cat, alone, by the water. Meowing to whatever was out there.
After two weeks of bringing the cat food every day, the cat had become happy to see Lance daily. It had definitely grown day by day. It seemed healthy despite living on the beach, in a box. Lance grabbed a little bag of meat from the kitchen and made his way to the beach to feed the cat again. Something seemed different this time though. Usually, the cat would meow but today it was silent. Lance got slightly worried as he hurried towards the abandoned part of the beach. However, getting closer he heard splashes. Could the cat have drowned? or was it currently drowning? He stepped closer and peeked over a rock. His eyes went wide with confusion. There was a boy in the water. Or was it a boy? It was definitely not a boy, though it looked like one. It had a tail. Not a tail like a cat or a dog would have. He had a tail for legs. He had no legs. His tail was bright red, with fading spots. Black hair. Lance wanted to see more, but he was scared to move at this point. It did not seem like the boy had noticed him at all. Not yet at least.
"Stay... Staaaay" the boy repeated to the cat. The cat, however, did not listen and continued attempting to follow the boy into the water. The 4th time of bringing the cat back to shore, the black haired boy sighed. He then laid down onto his stomach with his head resting on folded arms. The cat sat down in front of him with a meow. The black haired boy looked more defeated than anything at this point. It brought a smile onto Lance's lips. It looked kind of cute.
"You are such a strange creature. You can't swim, so why do you keep trying?! Now you're all wet and weird looking" The black haired boy sighed.
"Miowww... Miow Miow!" The cat responded.
"I can't understand what you're saying" the boy then sat up.
His red tail was now in view. Lance's eyes went wide in shock. A mermaid? merman? Something along those lines. But there was no way. His older sister Veronica had told him that mermaids were made up for fantasy purposes. This was exciting for Lance though. He was seeing a real live mermaid, and it was interacting with the cat he had been feeding for weeks now. Every single aspect of the place suddenly made sense. How the cat never left the beach. The thing that never came up from the water back when Lance had first found the cat. The mermaid had watched him and the cat play. The thought of that made his cheeks turn slightly pink. A mermaid had watched him. Perhaps even watched him every day? Lance smiled turned wider as the thought. He rubbed his neck gently before turning his attention to the mermaid and the cat again. He made sure to be as quiet as possible. He did not want to scare the mermaid away, which was clearly very easy. The mermaid had not shown himself a single time for the last two weeks. Lance considered himself lucky to finally see what had been going on at the beach. He continued to secretly watch the mermaid.
The black haired boy stared at the cat before raising an eyebrow. The cat lifted its paws in the air as if it wanted to be picked up. The boy did nothing though. It was clear that the boy had no idea how to interact with the cat. But it was somewhat cute to watch.
"What..." the boy questioned.
"Meow" the cat answered. The boy shook his head confused before turning his attention to the white box, which the cat called home. He slowly dragged himself over to it and peeked inside.
"Funny how you can still fit in this thing..." the boy frowned before sitting up straight again.
"Miooooow" the cat followed the boy to the box. The boy gently started petting the cat. He must have stayed with the cat for a long time because he did not seem surprised at all at the sudden pouring sound coming from the cat.
"How big do you intend on growing? You'll become bigger than a seal if you keep this up" the boy chuckled slightly. The cat meowed happily in return. They had good communication, despite the mermaid clearly not knowing what the animal even was. The boy sighed as he watched the cat.
Looking closer Lance could conclude that it was, in fact, a mermaid. There was no way this boy had glued a tail onto himself. The tail looked attached to his human skin. Scary but fascinating. Lance studied the mermaid carefully, but he was not happy with what he saw. The boy had bruises around on his skin. Huge scratching marks. Not to mention he looked starved. All this time Lance had only focused on feeding the cat. There was really no helping it since he did not even know the mermaid was there. But despite the wounds and bruises, the mermaid was beautiful. Mesmerizing almost.
A rumbling sound came from the mermaid and the cat, which pulled Lance out of his deep thoughts. He watched as the mermaid boy wrapped both his arms over his stomach. The rumbling was his stomach? The mermaid was hungry. The cat meowed and jumped down from the boy. That's when Lance remembered. He had brought a bag of meat with him. Did mermaids even eat meat? He had intended to give it to the cat but wanted to give it to the mermaid more. Lance watched as the mermaid pulled himself off the sand and into the water.
"Now stay... I need to go get food. Stay...Stay..." the boy repeated as he slowly but steadily swam backwards. The cat did as told and stayed. It sat down in the same spot where Lance usually found it. It made sense now why the cat was usually just sitting there. It was waiting for the mermaid to return. Truth be told Lance did not want the mermaid to leave yet. But it was too late. A splash indicated that the mermaid had already dived back into the water. Lance stepped out from behind the rock and looked around on the water, hoping that the boy was not gone yet. With no luck. He was gone. The cat, however, had finally noticed Lance.
"You should have introduced me!" Lance smiled gently at the cat. The cat meowed as an answer and walked over to Lance. By now it probably knew that Lance had food. Cats were smart like that. Lance went over to the white box and placed the meat into the little bowl in the box. The cat quickly jumped into the box and started eating. He watched it for a moment before his eyes looked back out on the water. If only Lance knew what the mermaid ate, he could bring him food too. He sighed and sat down on the sand beside the box. The cat peeked up from the box with a meow.
"Yeah..." Lance answered absentminded, "He was pretty."
The strong features of the boy haunted his mind now. The red colour of his tail. The black semi-long hair. Even the many bruises on his body and face were somehow beautiful. Though Lance did wonder about them. He would have to find a way to get in contact with the mermaid. He wanted to know more, but more than anything he wanted to know the boy's name. Did mermaids even have names? Probably a very weird name. One that Lance could never pronounce. And yet. Despite smiling and talking to the cat, the boy had a sadness to him. Why? Lance pondered about that for a while.
Lance took a deep breath and looked over at the cat. The cat stared at him for a moment before meowing. He nodded and stood back up on his feet. He was determined to take care of the boy from the sea. First things first, he needed to figure out what the mermaid ate. With a smile on his face, he left the cat to its food and returned home to do some studying. Perhaps Veronica could help him figure it out? After she had her laugh and called him crazy, obviously.