Twenty years down the road, Kevin Moore, once a little boy grew into an average masculine young man. However, he had no single idea about shaving the thick beard which covered around his face.
Him and his mother still enjoyed swimming together in the deep waters of the sea.
Different natural forms helped these two deep water creatures, Meg and her son Kevin, to perfectly tell time.
One fateful night, inside the ancient cave, grown-up Meg showed up from under the water through the pond and relaxed her elbows against the rocky ground at the edge of the pond. She then placed her lower jaw on palms and both hands worked as support poles on which her head relaxed while she waved her pink mermaid tail under the water.
In a specific direction she had her eyes fixed. Here Kevin was, busy crafting rock stones into beautiful pieces of art including a statue of her mother with a fish tail, hanging on the side. It was indeed beautiful.
And since years had passed already, Kevin had a variety of art pieces made and displayed all around the cave. Different kinds of deep water species like a crab, an octopus, shark, whale, an electric eel to mention but a few, were crafted out of the rock material and displayed in the cave.
A pretty smile quirked corners of Meg's mouth while she watched her son busy.
She seemed to have something special on her mind to communicate to him.
"Have you felt anyhow special today?" Meg, asking aloud, she raised a humble question.
"Oh, mom...! Didn't know you where behind there. How do you mean I felt special today?"
"Um, signs which usually occur on the day you were born?" She replied.
Kevin relaxed his busy arms and posed for a moment from crafting. He then turned his curious face towards his mother in a pond were she was, and suddenly he sprinted out of the cave, so as to check on those signs he knew so well never to have missed.
This time round, on top of water outside, surrounding the small rocky island on which he stood to watch was a flock of enormous sharks. Looking at tens of thousands of these Sharks relaxing on top of the sea made him happy. He smiled and ran back inside the cave to meet his beloved mother.
"I almost missed to spend precious time with my shark friends", he told her.
Blissfully, Meg couldn't wait to see Kevin make his wish as it was his best moment on his special days. However, Kevin didn't seem willing to open up his mouth in any wish making this time round, in as much as he loved doing it on his special days.
"Uh... Mom, am sorry I've got nothing on my mind to wish for this time," on a downcast face, he turned to walk away.
Meg became so uncomfortable and began to make panic movements within the water pond.
"Is this about me, or something you don't want to talk about here with me?" She became worriedly concerned.
"...."
After afew seconds of total silence between mother and son, as she shot a serious eye at him, Kevin got his head up straight and asked;
"Which kind of being was my father? I really would wish to know mom."
"He can't be serious about that right now," she whispered to herself as her sharp pink bright eyes shrunk away from him.
The strong desire to hear her son's wish on his special day died. Pretending to be hot, Meg began to splash water on her upper body, in a bid to dodge the question.
Kevin, when he noticed his mother's sudden change of conduct, "I knew it", he said and calmly turned his face away disappointedly.
"See son..., before you go," Meg softly spoke and Kevin slowed down to hear what she had to say.
"it's not that I don't want you to know about your father but, his matter got too heavy for my heart to handle... Please, don't make it difficult for me!"
"Besides, your father is not like us," Meg's voice tone raised up in deep emotions as she spoke, "and... that is exactly why he has never been here with us."
"But you promised to consider my request! Did you start lying to me?" Kevin Moore busted rudely with eyes of rage. "Anyways," he calmed his temper down, "this is the second time I go wrong with you, still on the same issue...! Let's just forgot all about it."
Looking so sad and disappointed, Kevin walked right at the station where his did his art work from, grabbed his tools, and made himself busy again.
The plague of a son to bond with his father had already eaten Kevin to the bone that, he was now out of control. Life was never going to be the same again at the sea.
Speechlessly, Meg noticed the painful desire of her son to know much about his father through his conduct when she looked fixedly at him. Memories of joyful moments shared with her son for years spark her consciousness.
She realised that Kevin was now an adult.
Suddenly, Meg dived into the water pond and left Kevin alone in the cave. After some good time of her absentia, she emerged back with an object in hands which was stuffed with deep water residues around it.
With a hand palm she wiped off the residues, and this was an old version computer monitor she seemed to have kept for a very long period of time.
"Come here," Meg politely asked Kevin.
Consumed into his craft, Kevin didn't bother to respond to his mother's summon. It was so obvious that he was still in a bad mood.
"Look Kevin, am sorry. I just want you to see what I've got for you."
Sad on his bearded face, he hesitantly turned to see what her mother had this time to deceive him with. It was something he had never seen before.
Intrigued, he stood up and walked slowly with his eyes on the object towards the water pond where his mother was.
"What is this mom?" In a lazy voice tone he asked.
"It's your birthday gift," Meg answered with a smile, "something I got from your father when we had just met."
"I thought maybe I can bring back a smile on your face with it!" She added.
So willing and eager to know, Kevin recieved the object from his mother.
"Your father's name was Sean Moore," Meg began to narrate a catchy story from her past for her son to know.
"Like I told you before, he was far different from us, let's say... he never had a tail, scales and fins on his body like we do."
"He was a human."
"Who is a human?" Eager to know more, Kevin asked.
"Humans are creatures which somehow resemble us, however, their two lower limbs are permanent."
Kevin looked a little bit out of his mind.
"For simplicity, what I mean by that is; their legs don't shift into tails like yours and mine; to add on that, humans can't even breath under the water..." Meg's facial expression glowed while she explained.
"Are humans bad creatures?" Kevin asked.
"Your father and his friend Gang Du were wonderful to me. Only that, when he promised to come back he never did," on a downcast face she said, "how I wish I knew much who humans really are."
During the narrative, Kevin got so cought up. Another stubborn idea beyond listening to the story about his father popped up in his head.
Kevin: "Mother...."
Meg: "Am all ears."
Kevin: "I would like to go and find father, please permit me."
Meg: "What! No Kevin, I can't accept that! Besides, where are you going to find him you stubborn child?"
Kevin: "Now that I know his name, I can go around the world asking. Also, think about it mom, this is for both of us."
Meg: "No..."
Kevin: "Within your voice; the butterflies in your smile when you talk about him, It's obviously written all over you that you deeply miss him so much."
Meg: "I said NO Kevin! Forgot about it. Do you even know the risk behind what you're talking about?"
Kevin: "Please mom!"
Meg: "No Kevin! No...! You can't do this to me...."
?...??...???
Since she never wanted to see her son sad, in a heap of thoughts Meg had to make a decision. Question marks multiplied around her face as she nervously looked at her son.
"You're an adult now", she said, "you have your own path to take and if this is the right time, then so be it."
As soon as the permission was granted, like a goat off the rope which has been tied around its neck for a long time, Kevin jumped into the water pond and hugged his mother with too much excitement. It was high time for him to make his own decisions as a man.
"Thank you so much mom," he showed gratitude.
However, the world out there was another complicated puzzle to solve, especially the human world.
"My first minutes with your father were tough. I had to confiscate this object (computer) from them because they had come to our home and disturbed our peace."
"And I remember your father arguing with his friend;
Gang Du : I told you we leave before things worsen, now we're about to loose all data we've spent months collecting in a blink of an eye... we can't go back to Capricon city with nothing Sean.
Sean Moore : On the sea! How far do you think the yacht can run before the coming storm ruins our lives? What's more important is to sail back to the South East safe.
So, go to Capricon city in the South East as my messenger and take the object back to them."
"When I bring father back home, don't ask him why he never returned to see you before giving him a very warm hug," Kevin flattered.
"For all the years I've lived, you've been my only treasure. I cherish you my son and, I don't regret that moment I spent with your Sean Moore. Make sure you return home safely for me," with her unwavering parental love, as she held into his palms Meg passionately spoke.
Affectionately, she hugged her son and both smiled their approval.
Capricon city
In the slums of a city named Capricon, in the twilight between full night and sunrise, a young lady named Pinky together with her father Jonathan found themselves on the waterfront working hand in hand, picking fresh fish from fishnets where it was stuck while they put it into a boat.
In heavy jackets, Pinky and Jonathan covered their human bodies to protect themselves from very cold early morning weather while they worked.
Jonathan was a fisherman who casted his nets in the night and came back very early in the morning before twilight to collect the catch. Usually his daughter Pinky accompanied him to the waterfront. Her main job was to collect fish from her father and sell it at a retail price down at the local market.
As a poor family of four people namely Jonathan, Pinky, Jonathan's aunt and Jonathan's mother, this is how they survived in the slums on their hand to mouth business.
One fateful morning, a wave crushed on the waterfront with Kevin Moore in a full human form and left him laying down unconscious without a single cloth on his body.
As their daily routine, Pinky and Jonathan were busy at the waterfront sorting their catch. When Pinky stood up straight from over bending to stretch her back, her eyes accidentally saw a human body laying at the waterfront, just a few metres from where they had stationed their boat.
"Dad!" Frightened, Pinky called Jonathan who was squatting in the boat, busy picking fish from the nets.
So focused on work, "let's try to be fast... you wouldn't wish to miss morning customers at the market," Johnathan said to Pinky with a purposeful attitude.
"Dad! look, there's a dead body right at the storefront!" Pinky anxiously pointed a finger.
"Dead what?!" Jonathan startled, standing up straight with a weird look on his face.
Thank you reader .