FFF-4/18-The Mermaid

Word Count: Minimum 200, Maximum 400
Bonus Words: +100 if you can explain why she's wet... and wearing heels.
Required Word: Found
Forbidden Word: Lost
Extra Credit: How many men are in this picture?

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She had grown up watching the four boys.  When they were all young kids, she would sneak to the edge of the shore and play with them.  It had been easy then to hide her true self in the sand.  Their parents would laugh at the boys' tales of the mermaid that came to play with them in the sea.  Every summer they would show up and every fall she would watch them pack up and leave, the boys waving to her from the window.  One day they would all live in the big cliff house together she dreamed.  

As the years passed one or two of the boys would be away at camp or summer school, still she was there to romp and play and splash with them and their friends.  Then one spring her mother pulled her aside and gave her "the talk."  She was older now and things had...um...developed and her mother told her she could no longer go near the boys.  They were no longer children but young men and women and things could be dangerous for her.  Of course, like any rebellious teenager, she didn't listen.  

That summer her mother was right.  They had matured into four handsome young men.  Still she had to go close.  As she appeared out of the waves, she could see them stop their roughhousing and staring at her with mouths open.  No wait!  They were staring at her bare chest!!  The boys whooped and began chasing after her.  She swam quickly away.  What had happened to them, she thought.  From that summer on she would watch but didn't approach.  Then in her 18th year they stopped coming to the shore altogether.  Where had they gone she wondered.  For 6 summers, no one showed.  But she knew they would be back this year.  She had told them the secret of the 25th summer when they were kids.

She began making her preparations all that 24th winter.   Her dream would finally come true and she could go ashore and live for a year.  At last she could shed her scales and tail and wear gorgeous shoes and run and stretch her legs.  The morning of May 31 slowly dawned and she climbed out of the water and turned and waved bye to her mother.  She slid on the heels she had so long admired and began climbing the far side of the cliff above the house.  As she approached she knew she was right.  All four men were there going about their chores.  The men gradually stopped what they were doing as she approached them.  

"Hello boys.  Remember me?  I'm the mermaid."  

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Happy FFFriday!  I realized when I began writing that this was starting to remind me a bit of the movie, Splash, one of my favs from the 80's, so I had to change it up a bit.  Hope you all have a very nice Easter.