Mermaid in the Night

I woke up naked in the middle of a parking garage with only a small towel. Groggy from apparently drinking too much, I stumbled out to the street. I was stopped by a black dude who asked me for some changed. I held up my arms and told him I had less than he. He agreed and left me alone.

As I reached the first level of the garage to head to the street, three rather large dogs circled me and began to growl. It seemed they were gonna attack. I wrapped the towel around my right hand and forearm to keep the teeth of the anticipated bites from cutting too deep.

One of the dogs lunged and I caught his nose with a backhand and sent him running away and yelping. The other two followed. Left alone again, I headed out to find my way back home.

I couldn't though. At least, I didnt know how to get home. I was on a beach, though. A nice young lady offered me a pair of shorts as I walked by. I thanked her and sat with her a while to talk. She had an uncle sleeping off a drunken stupor on her couch. She began to tell me how she preferred when he was like that, because awake he does some rather unpleasant things.

I looked at her right in the eye. And like the song goes, "I saw forever". I stood and extended my hand. I promised to take her away from it all. She took it and followed. We walked along the beach for a while, finally stopping at a couple lounge chairs by a small cabana.

We met our new neighbors. A hick cop who had never left the island, an old lady with 7 young kids she says were her daughter's, three brothers who refused to look towards the ocean, and a tall man who refused to talk.

After some chatting, which made little sense. She stood, leaned to kiss my cheek and started for the water. She stripped down as she waded in. Then, as quickly as she came, she dove under a breaking wave and disappeared.

"Mermaid", the tall man said finally.

I nodded in agreement as I woke up.