Sam pedaled his bike down the street, in a hurry to get a good distance from his house. The evening air rushed past him, chilling him beneath his black jacket. The sun bathed the road ahead of him with its light, and he pedaled on into it. Everything began to fall away as he sped on down the cobblestone street, waving to no one, eyes fixed on where the road would end; the dunes outside of town.
The scenery flew by him. While he did have a good hour or two ahead of him, Sam did not want to waste any of it. With his life, where he was needed for just about everything at home, these few hours were precious time. So he was going to spend them the best way he knew how. A wonder waited for him at the beach, and he was determined to enjoy it.
The town fell behind him and the cobbled street turned into a dirt road as it went out towards the dunes near the shore. Sam picked up speed now. The bike flew down the road as it weaved through the fields of seagrass. This was a deserted place, where no one went. There was nothing out here but the dunes, with grass upon them, rolling on into the sea, that grey watery desert that stretched on across the world.
The road came to an end in a scraggly pile of dirt and grass. Sam jumped the pile and continued on. The uneven sand made pedaling hard work. But what Sam was going to do out here would require secrecy. It wouldn’t be a good thing if someone was to find his bicycle and by proxy discover him. What he was doing here could be considered damning in some circles.
There came a point though, when forward progress on the bicycle was no longer possible. Sam laid it down in the grass, making sure that he would be the only person who could find it. Then he continued on towards the sea. It wasn’t far; he could smell the salt in the air and hear the waves on the beach.
The sea came into view as Sam crested a tall dune. It was a dark ruffled gray beneath the setting sun. He looked back over his shoulder. The town sat where the forests met the dunes, dark and brooding. No spying eyes were to be seen between there and where Sam stood. He sighed and smiled, then started down the other side of the dune. A time or two, he’d been followed out here. But it had never been to see what he was up to, thank goodness. Every time it was because his mother required him at home. But tonight luck was on his side.
Sam tramped along a well-used path until he came to the beach. The waves rolled in softly. He walked out onto the wet sand and cast his eyes down the beach. He smiled when he saw that she was already there. The lazy girl, if she could be called that, hadn’t even crawled out of her skin yet. She was asleep on the beach, great brown eyes closed. Sam ambled over to her. He leaned over and nudged her with his foot.
“Hello, hello,” he said. “Is there anybody in there?”
She rolled over and looked at him, snorting in irritation. Then her skin split and the selkie eased herself out of it. Soon she was half out, naked from her waist up. Her brown human eyes shot Sam a look of amused indignation.
“Well, you sure do know how to treat your lass, don’t ya?”
“Don’t I?” Sam asked with a smile. “How are you, Muir?”
“I’m better and then a bit,” Muir said, her thick Irish accent making it a little hard for Sam to understand her. “I am a bit cold though. If you’d lend me your jacket, I’ll be just fine.”
Sam took of his jacket and gave it to Muir. She put it on and lay back down on the beach. Sam sat down beside her.
“I am glad you could come be here,” Muir said. She rolled over on her back, breasts to the sky. The wind blew her brown hair over her freckled cheeks.
“You aren’t the only one,” Sam said. He reached over into his jacket and pulled out a cigarette pack and a lighter. A cigarette was promptly lit, and he began to puff on it.
“I wish you’d quit that,” Muir said, waving some stray smoke away.
“Oh, I like it,” Sam said. “It’s the sign of a true man, don’t you know?”
Muir laughed and shook her head. Sam smiled with satisfaction.
“You’re a character, Sam McGree,” Muir said.
“Me? Look who’s talking. You’re half in a sealskin.”
“Ah, but that’s just me being who I am, lad.” Muir chuckled. “You’re still the character, coming to think of me as your lass.”
“Oh, so just because you happen to be so damn attractive, I’m the character?”
“You’re a daft one. Smarter men would have grabbed my skin to make me their wife.”
“Yeah, but those stories never end well,” Sam said. “This way, I can still see you around and you aren’t always homesick. It’s perfect.”
“Sure,” Muir said. Same turned to her. The tone of her voice had dropped. Sam had learned to pick up on those sorts of things, though not from Muir. His home life depended on it.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Muir didn’t say anything for a moment. She kicked around some sand with her flippers and stared up at the sky. Then she sat up and turned to Sam.
“You think that this will last us forever?” she asked him.
“Yeah, why shouldn’t it?”
“Things don’t work out that way, Sam,” Muir said with a sad smile. “They never do.”
Sam was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve put off marrying as long as I could. But I can’t put it off for much longer. I’ll have to choose a mate.”
“That’s fine,” Sam said. “We can still be friends.”
“No,” Muir said with a shake of her head. “When my kind marries, we are an exclusive bunch. I couldn’t see you again, Sam. It would be against the high laws of the Deep. And those who have stood against those have paid the highest price, no matter who they were.”
The cold wind whistled over the two of them, the boy and the selkie. Sam didn’t say anything. After what Muir had said, there wasn’t a lot that could be said. One could only sit and try to deal with it. But after a bit, Sam did say something.
“So that’s it. Isn’t it?”
“Most days, my lad, I’d say yes. But there’s a way today, Sam.”
“Oh yeah?” Sam asked. His interest was piqued. “What might that be?”
“There are many skins without owners out in the wild waters. There is one for you out there, Sam, I’ll set my watch upon that.”
Sam coughed. He picked his cigarette out from between his lips and tossed it away. Its red end glowed for a moment, then sizzled and went out. That was all right, he didn’t feel like smoking anymore.
“Oh, what’s your quarrel?” Muir asked.
“You aren’t making this easy on me,” Sam asked.
Muir’s eyes went wide with indignation. This time it had no hint of amusement. She glared at Sam.
“Easy? You say this isn’t easy? You must be daft, and this time I’m not joking! There couldn’t be anything easier! What I’m offering you is the best thing you could ever hope for!”
Sam gave a slight huff. This did nothing to improve Muir’s temperament.
“Don’t do that to me!” she said, taking his head and turning it towards her. “You’d be throwing away a life like no other! You’ve heard me talk about the lives of my people. You’ve heart me speak of the wonders we’re privy to! How can you turn your back on all that?”
Sam was a bit worried now. Someone was upset, and it was his fault. All of his homegrown training, learned from experience after starving experience, kicked in. Humor, laughter might work here.
“I wish I didn’t have to tell you this,” Sam said to Muir. “The truth is, I’m deathly allergic to fish.”
Muir glared at him. “This isn’t the time for jokes. I’m being serious when I offer you a life with me. You can be serious and tell me why you won’t take it.”
Sam grunted and fidgeted with a handful of sand. This wasn’t somewhere he wanted to go. Maybe later, when he’d had time to think of some good excuses, ones that weren’t the truth, he’d be willing to discuss it.
“You’re stalling,” Muir said. Sam looked away irritated at the way she was boarding his train of thought. “This must be something close to you. Something you don’t like to talk about.” Muir pressed on Sam and he shifted in position, getting uneasy.
“It’s a fear, isn’t it?” Muir asked. “That’s the one thing a lad would be hiding away. Well, what is it? Tell me now. What is it that Sam McGree fears?”
“Nothing,” Sam said, but that tasted bitter as he said it. A flush came to his cheeks and he knew he couldn’t hide it.
“Why do you try to lie to me, Sam?” Muir asked. “We took oaths to each other once, saying we’d have no secrets. I ask you to keep your oath, for my heart’s sake.”
But Sam still didn’t say anything. Part of him wanted to tell her the truth. But another part, the part of him that kept him safe at home, warned him not to.
“It’s a close fear, isn’t it?” Muir asked. “I ask you one last time what you fear, Sam McGree. If you’ll not answer me true, my lad, then I’ll not ask again. But neither will you see me again. Do you ken?”
Sam did understand. It was to his credit he did. The sheltering part of himself again warned him about telling her. But there was another part to him, a part that cared for Muir very much. It warned him of what a life without a chance at her would be like.
“We don’t know how it might turn out,” Sam said.
There was a silence. Sam waited for a response from Muir, looked at her to gauge her mood. That was nearly impossible though. She looked out at the waves as they rolled onto the beach. Finally, Sam spoke again.
“If you’re going to laugh at me, I don’t care.”
“No, Sam,” Muir said. “I’m not going to laugh at you. It’s a good reason. I ken this, and I know who has set your heart to fear. It’s that bitch who’s not worthy enough to have brought you into this world that’s to blame in all this.”
“No, don’t go saying that about my Mom,” Sam said.
“Sam, don’t be like that with me,” Muir said. “I wasn’t just born. I’ve been in the waters long before you were thought of.”
“Only by 18 years.”
“That’s not the point here, and you know it. I know what hold your mother’s got upon you, Sam. You’re bound by duty to serve her, though she is in no state of mind to tell you what to do. It isn’t right.”
“That’s just how she is,” Sam said.
“The grampus hunt my people when food is scarce,” Muir said. “That is just the way they are, but it doesn’t mean that we fear them any less. We hide, move, leave for the better places until it is safe to return.”
“So what do you do if it doesn’t get better?” Sam asked.
“Then we leave, and we stay away as long as we have to. That’s the way everything is.”
“I don’t think I can do that,” Sam said.
“You need to,” Muir said. “I will not tell you how to do it. I only ask you to remember the first evening we agreed to meet here. I’ll ask you to remember the way that both of us felt. And I’ll ask you to ken that there are an eternity of evenings like that one if you come to me. That’s what I can promise you Sam, If you’ll take my offer. You know I do not promise something without meaning it.”
There was silence again. Sam fidgeted with the sand again, squirming under the way that Muir was taking the conversation. Selkies weren’t ones to dance around the subject, that was for sure.
“Will you hold me to my promise, Sam?” Muir asked.
Sam looked down at the sand. He was caught between a rock and a hard place now. The part of him that cared for Muir told him to say yes, to hold her to that promise. But the other part of him, the part that had been hardened at home, asked him if he could stand against his mother’s wrath.
“Can you give me some time to think?” Sam asked Muir, dreading the response he might get. Muir sighed and breathed deep.
“I can’t give you long, for the time when I must marry comes closer still. But I give you what time I can, for I know you enough to ken you’ll not waste the time.”
Sam nodded. He put his arm around Muir and she leaned against him.
“I do love you, Muir,” he said to her.
“Yes, I know that,” Muir said. “But do you love me enough?”
That question tore at Sam. To tell the truth, he didn’t know the answer. Which was he going to choose: his love for Muir, or the duty that bound him to his mother? Both were strong in him, but which was stronger?
A look at his watch told Sam that he needed to be getting back home. While he still had a good half hour to spend as he wished, in matters of his mother it was always best to be early.
“You’ve got to go, don’t you?” Muir asked. Sam nodded.
Muir took off Sam’s jacket. Sam reached over to get it, but Muir put her hand on his. Then she slipped completely out of her sealskin and rolled on top of Sam. He opened his mouth to say something, but Muir put a finger over his open lips.
“Shush now, lad,” she said to Sam as she began to undo his pants. “I’m going to give you something else to think about.” They celebrated each other’s bodies until the end came in a fountain of joy. Sam lay on the beach exhausted. Muir rolled off of him, then gave him a peck on the cheek.
“Think on that, Sam McGree,” she said. “Remember, I won’t wait long, but I’ll wait anyway. Now get on. I feel like lying alone for a bit, being lazy.”
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