Author's Note:

Dear Readers,

I hadn't meant to post again so soon but as it turns out...books like to write themselves. So, here's another update! It will probably be a little while until Chapter 2 because while I know where I want to go, I have to figure out how to get there.

sarahlet2999

P.S. I don't own the song that is in the last part of this chapter. I'm sure y'all know but I probably should say that.

▪▪▪  

"Sarah, you can't be serious!" Her fiancé of two years exclaimed as he leaned forward across the dining table. Their date had been a lovely affair, lit by candles, with wine and fine food until she had spoken up.

"I am completely serious, Heath. I believe I must postpone our wedding one last time." Sarah Williams looked up at him and sighed, setting her napkin and the empty plate aside for the waiter to remove. Folding her hands before her, she frowned.

"Why? I thought we had it figured out. We found a time that would work for both of us. Why must we find another." Sarah glanced down at diamond ring on her left hand. Turning the item of jewelry, she admired how it sparkled in the candles.

"I received a message today from an oceanographer friend of mine who found the ship that is believed to have been the one which took my mother."

"Oh." Her fiancé looked appropriately ashamed.

"I've always wanted to know what happened that night. I don't remember much but what I do remember is quite fantastical! Before I settle down with you, I want to know."

"I suppose I can understand that. Do you want me to come with you?" Sarah shook her head and moved her hands to her lap.

"No, I want to go alone. I shouldn't be gone more than a month or two."

"This isn't just another reason to make us wait, is it? I know you've never been particularly excited about our wedding." Sarah laughed a little and nodded politely at the waiter as he took away their empty dishes.

"You're right about my anticipation but, no, this isn't a ploy to make us wait." Their relationship had been one of a ten-year duration and, while their passion wasn't very great for each other, they did love each other. After all, Sarah, at thirty, and Heath, at forty, weren't getting any younger and time was running short if either wished to marry and still have a lengthy future with their partner.

They easily imagined themselves happy together.

"Well, then be careful. You don't know I don't like the sea!" The pair shared a laugh as he paid for their meal and stood up, handing Sarah her cloak.

"I know! I shall keep myself from getting eaten or drowned." She lightly leaned up and kissed his cheek before pulling the cloak around her shoulders. "Thank you for understanding. I had hoped I wouldn't have to move the wedding but it was unavoidable."

"Of course. When are you leaving?"

"I booked the earliest flight I could tomorrow. I must pack this evening."

"Call me before you leave. When you return, we can plan a new date to be as soon as possible." As they left the restaurant, he offered his arm which she accepted with a smile.

The walk to the cars was a quiet one as little needed to be said between them. After an acquaintance of ten years, they rarely ever talked much, a fact that was comfortable to both of them.

When they arrived at her car, he stopped and opened the driver's side for her.

"I'll suppose I'll see you when you come home?" She nodded.

"I'll call when I leave and when I return. Keep out of trouble." She chuckled and lightly kissed his lips before getting into the car and driving away.

Soft music hummed in the background as Sarah drove through the streets of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, a tiny town with less than a thousand people. The town had been her home since she had graduated from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution eight years previously and been hired on as part of the staff.

Parking in front of her apartment complex, she fished out her key to her mailbox and checked the mail before hurrying to apartment. Many times she had been encouraged to find another, larger apartment that was more befitting her means but Sarah had never considered it worthwhile. Her relationship with the landlady was pleasant and the placed served the few need she had. No need to flaunt her good fortune.

As she entered her home, she set her purse down on the kitchen counter, before walking into her bedroom whose walls were completely covered in pictures of merfolk, drawings and real pictures of fakes. Several hypothetical models stood in one corner, peering out at her from their empty, glass eyes. books on the subject of merfolk cluttered her desk and were jammed into a shelf that bowed beneath their weight.

Multiple times she had been laughed out of the room for even mentioning that merfolk might exist somewhere in the world. Few, if any, wanted to devote money towards research on the subject as it wasn't scientific to look for mythological creatures. And, so, Sarah kept her studies to herself, spending extra money to learn what she could.

Her most prized possession of her merfolk things hung above her bed.

An artist's rendition of what had happened when she had been ten. Together they had spent hours talking through her memories and he had developed a composite of paintings that told the story she remembered at the time.

Staring at it, she shivered beneath the piercing gaze of the merman in the picture. All she could remember about him was blond hair with sea-green eyes, one pupil larger than the other.

His gift had been the cloak she was almost never seen without.

That scrap of cloth itself was quite the oddity. Never exactly the same color from one moment to the next, varying with the weather that blew through the coastal town. Grays, olive greens, navy blues, and whites tinted it when a storm ruled in the ocean, and deep blues and light greens colored it when the sun was out.

Several of her friends who put up with her obsession for merfolk offered to test the material in the lab but she refused. Long ago she had decided no information she found would be released before proof had been gained.

Her cloak was no different.

After all, she needed to know why its chemical composition was the exact same as sea water.

▪▪▪

"Are ya all packed up and ready to roll?"

Sarah chuckled as she laid back on her bed and answered the phone.

"Hello, Jolene. Yes, I am. Why do you ask? Hoping to tag along with me?" The reply was a hearty laugh from her decidedly southern friend.

"Nah, ya know I can't. You may be able to leave for a month or two whenever it strikes ya fancy but I can't."

"Poor, unfortunate you. Perhaps when you're in my position you'll be able to."

"Like that's goin' to happen any time soon. Remember, ya promised to bring back pictures for me. I doubt I'll ever have the money or courage to go 'cross the Atlantic."

"Who knows. Maybe one day you will."

"Dear, it took me long enough to up among ya Yankees. I don't think I could go back to the old country. But enough about my troubles, when ya leavin'?"

"Seven-thirty in the morning."

"Well, you're certainly leavin' in a hurry. I'll keep you in mind while you're gone. Call me when you get there."

"Okay. I'll tell you everything that happens."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Then I'll let ya go. You're probably wantin' to sleep. Adios!"

"Adios, amigo." The phone clicked in her ear and Sarah restored it to its set before slipping out of her dressing gown and into her nightgown, smiling at the thought of her friend.

Jolene had been a transfer from a two-year junior college in the South to WHOI five years previously and had struck up a friendship with Sarah Williams; something that the latter credited to the completely polarity of their personalities, one being a studious and thoughtful brunette and the other an untamed redhead prone to 'winging it' in her studies.

The thought of the slightly mad woman left Sarah chuckling as she tucked herself into bed, the cloak laid around her shoulders.

▪▪▪

Her mind was in a complete fog as the incessant ringing of her alarm woke her from her sound sleep. Groggily sitting up, she dragged herself out of bed and quickly brushed her teeth. As soon as her eyes were open, she walked over to her radio and turned it on, the soft music of 'Absolute Beginners' flooding the apartment. Without thinking, she began to sing along,

"If our love song could fly over mountains, could laugh at the ocean, just like the films. There's no reason to feel all the hard times, to lay down the hard times. It's absolutely true!" After finishing the chorus, she laughed to herself and fixed herself a quick bite to eat, nothing too strong should there be turbulence.

Years of flying had taught her well.

When the meal was over and the music had changed to songs she didn't care for quite as much, she turned it off and went to dress. Simple comfortable clothes would be her attire for the long day before her.

After confirming she had everything she needed, Sarah called a cab and went to the street with her things to wait.

By nightfall, she would be in the United Kingdom.

"Perhaps then I shall know the truth."

Her eyes closed and on their lids she saw turquoise eyes.