"I'm a liar? I hate when they call me a liar! I'm not a liar! I really did see one! I saw one, I did! A mermaid! I saw a mermaid! She was right there, but I didn't have my camera! Damn it! Damn it all!" a loud voice rang throughout the town.

It wasn't really that loud, actually, but Avery had the misfortune (or fortune) of having walked out of that seamstress' store just as the man known as Jacob Fischer's rant reached its highest note. She had been intrigued by what he had been saying too, and while she was listening intently, the two of them had made some unintentional eye contact; once that unintentional eye contact was established, it went without saying that she couldn't very well just turn around and enter back into the seamstress' store as though nothing had happened nor could she quickly escape by speeding off somewhere else. She had no choice but to approach him and ask him what was wrong, and what mermaid he was talking about even though she didn't really want to get involved. Avery didn't have much of a conscience but she supposed she was intrigued, even if it was only somewhat.

What he told her really did make her curious. It wasn't as though she actually believed him, although there was a part of her that wanted to. I mean, mermaids? Did such a thing exist out of fairy tales and myths and stories and legends? If they did, then that would have been very, very exciting, especially for her but she supposed half the magic was in the fact that nobody was really sure. If they suddenly became common knowledge, Avery supposed she would have gotten bored with them or something. She wanted mermaids to be magical,, not some creature or specimen that could be examined, analyzed and studied. They had to maintain mysterious but he supposed just helping Jacob take a picture of one with his magic polaroid camera wouldn't do that much to dim the magic of her fantasy of mermaids and things such as mermaids.

He seemed genuinely grateful that she was willing to help him snap a picture too, and while that smile warmed her heart slightly, there was another part of her that thought this guy was an absolute crazy cuckoo. Not that she could say any of this to his face, though. "I first saw the mermaid just a little bit off the coast of the city. We should go there and stake out.... if it shows up again, that's probably where it will be," he sounded sure, but there was something in his voice to suggest that he didn't actually trust Avery all that much. It wasn't unreasonable, she had to admit, then there was probably a part of him that was suspicious of her; he could very well have been thinking that she was thinking that he was some sort of crazy cuckoo bird, and while that wasn't wrong, she had the genuine intention to help him snap up a picture of the mermaid, if it existed.

520/1000

Avery and Jacob Fischer donned their ''out to sea'' gear and headed onto his small dingy boat, the kind that you were surprised to see was actually able to get away from the dock and into the sea without drowning. She wasn't really afraid of the water, and was a pretty good swimmer but didn't relish the idea of having to save someone else from drowning, if the boat somehow sank. She supposed she wouldn't actually be obligated to have to save Jacob if the boat did sink, so there was always the off chance that if the boat started going down, she would abandon ship without even bothering with him. After all, if mermaids did exist and they were able to sense his deep admiration for them, then they'd probably save him from drowning or something like that; she quickly realized that she was getting completely out of hand and was thinking way too much about something that probably wasn't even going to happen. Fortunately, like she began to tell herself, the boat didn't actually sink and after ten or thirteen or fifteen minutes out at sea, they had reached the point where Jacob Fischer had supposedly seen the mermaid. Still, Avery remained skeptical as the two of them waited out there for the mermaid to make a reappearance. It was completely possible that the mermaid actually did exist, but knew that Jacob had seen her here so if that was the case, it was likely that it wouldn't come out anymore lest it be caught on camera again.

After an hour had passed, Avery made an offhanded comment about how they should probably give it up since it didn't seem like she, as in the mermaid, wasn't interested in showing herself today. But, of course, Jacob Fischer didn't want to hear it, and in her defense, Avery mentioned something about how the mermaid probably did exist but wasn't interested in showing herself because she didn't want to be caught on camera, and was wary because she had been seen by him before. Jacob Fischer seemed to consider that for a moment, thought about it in his head as hard as he could before accepting it. He gave a deep sigh, deeper than the one that Avery had sighed earlier, and began to venture the boat back to the Hargeon docks. He seemed to appreciate Avery's encouraging words though, and was happy that she said that she believed him, rewarding her with the money that he was going to give her if they had snapped the photo. She looked behind her as the boat began to pick up speed, and as she did so, she could see a tail dip back into the sea.

Dolphin or mermaid? She guessed it didn't matter now. Once they got back to land, she would tell Jacob Fischer about what she had seen, or she would keep quiet. If he was told, he'd probably enlist her help again but might not pay her since he had already done so. If that was the case, then it was probably better for her, but not for him who wanted a mermaid picture, to stay quiet. Yeah, she decided; that was exactly what she was going to do.

1062/1000