Thirty Nine Minutes (COMPLETE)

Chapter Two: Craig

Webbed fingers pressed against the glass as the merman scrutinized her from within the confines of his lit and glowing tank. He was too far away to see the color of his eyes but his body was incredibly trim and built. Helen was a little taken aback.

"Seriously?" she said.

"Very serious." David went to stand by the tank, and the merman's gaze turned to him. "Craig came to us maybe ten years ago, found tangled in a net. We think he was around twelve."

"No, I mean his name. Who called him Craig?"

The water surface broke, and Craig leaned over the edge of the tank with his elbows. "You got a problem with my name?"

Helen nearly fell back on her ass. Words attempted to form but they just jammed in her throat like toffee. Craig grinned at her.

"He can talk?"

"Very well I'll have you know, miss." He rested his chin on the palm of one hand. "I'm dying to know what you expected, actually."

"Well...not what I see in front of me, that's for sure."

The merman huffed and descended back into his tank, splaying himself out on the glass floor. This prompted Helen in turn, to rise and unashamedly stare at what she saw before her. She knew this job had been top secret, and all the disclosures and consent forms she had signed just to get in this room, but her brain couldn't really keep up.

"Mermaids?" she said finally. "Fucking mermaids?"

"Well...not maid, obviously," said David.

"Whatever umbrella term you wanna dump him under, I don't care right at this second. Could I get a glass of water please?"

"Plenty right here, miss, might be a bit swam in though." The merman was back at the surface, this time hauling himself out onto the ledge that was placed just above the lapping surface.

"So, what? He's got an attitude problem or something?"

"Worse. The attitude we can handle. Craig has...a fear he needs to overcome."

Rebecca handed Helen the water, and she glugged it faster than a vodka shot on the first night of Freshers' week. She couldn't take her eyes off of Craig's huge, muscular tail: larger than a dolphin's, but relatively the same structure. As he turned to grab a towel just above his elaborate tank setup, she noticed a rubbery fin at the small of his back. A barrage of biological and anatomical questions poked her the longer she looked, but politeness got the better of her.

"Is that why my job description asked for qualified therapists only? Ugh, okay. Just give me a sec to process all this." Her head was spinning. "What's the fear?"

"Thalassophobia."

Helen almost burst out laughing. One of those one-shot loud barks of a laugh. She swallowed it down so hard her throat hurt. As quickly as it had come, she carefully buried it and cleared her throat, but she saw Craig's ears turning pink as he ruffled the towel over his arms and shoulders.

"Understood. It's not an uncommon fear, after all. Maybe a tiny bit weird in this case, you know, given the circumstances."

No one said anything, and Helen waited for the world to swallow her up in the horrid, uncomfortable silence.

"No, you're right, it is weird." Craig's voice took her by surprise as he climbed into a harness that reminded Helen of a contraption used to help invalids in and out of bed. It didn't look exactly dignified as the merman descended, even though he practically glistened with errant drops of water that had escaped the wipe of the towel. David walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. 

"That's why we're going to get you through it." Craig nodded at his words and swallowed as he looked up at David. Helen saw something she hadn't seen earlier. A scared young boy, barely out of his teens, seeking comfort from a world that didn't know he existed. Somewhere in his wide eyes, she saw herself, and it sickened her.

"I'm happy to help," Helen said, drawing the attention of those in the room. "Any way I can, I'll get you swimming in deep water again, Craig."

The merman said nothing, but looked at her with eyes the color of seafoam. Eyes that were slightly sunken despite his age, and seen things he probably wouldn't have chosen to.

Or maybe she was lumping all her own insecurities onto him, her body in freefall after having discovered a bit of fantasy in her mundane life. She chewed on her lip. People were complicated.

"And you're definitely qualified, is that right?" Helen watched Craig's face twist back into the mask he wore initially, and she was sold.

"Would you rather I wasn't, Craig?" she said in a tone tinged with sarcasm. He rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"First," David said, sensing the moment and changing the topic. "You'll need a crash course in how Craig works."

Now it was Helen's turn to turn pink.