the mermaids
I’ve left the title and the photographic bait, Even though they have nothing to do with what you are about to read ( assuming you keep reading. You may only be here for the sideboob.) They were to be put with a story which had arisen over a couple of my mother’s chemo sessions. There is a stretch of time to fill as the life extending poison is carefully eased into the cancer cells and incidentally, everything else ( causing delayed volcanic diarrhea and fatigue, among other effects). It must be that the caustic substance coursing into my mother’s system as I sat nearby, scribbling into my notebook, had some influence. I had written what was meant to be a funny yet sharp clawed take on a group of mermaids who also happened to be, well, sort of awful. These fat tailed beings inhabited a backwater swamp, twitching and shrieking a lot, exhibitively shallow and dismissive of anyone who wasn’t them; merciless carnivores. Except the protagonist, of course, the calm impartial obse
