Mermaid Pirate Dispatch

I frowned at my roommate, Tom. He was leaning against our apartment door, having just closed it behind us. “I don’t remember saying I wanted a ‘trad wife.’ That’s not something I would ever say.” I turned my attention to my maiden. “Don’t forget our practice.” I pulled in my jaw and pointed up at the roof of my mouth.

“Oh, yes,” Odelyn said, her tongue stiff. We had been practicing modern English for a few weeks while I visited her in her native time, but she often reverted to older pronunciations and vocabulary. She turned her head toward me and looked over her shoulder at the inside of our apartment. It was the first modern room she’d entered. I felt her take my hand in hers, holding on as though the television was about to try sucking her into its black void.

Tom’s face recoiled and scrunched up around his wide eyes. His mouth opened to speak, but he was confounded. “Fine, whatever,” he said, staring at Odelyn, who squeezed my hand tighter, sweat pooling in our palms. She was looking apprehensively at Tom.

I huffed a little. “I have always said my taste in women was too old fashioned for the current available dating pool,” I admitted, rolling my eyes. “Women of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were hard working, modest, committed, and…” I glanced down at Odelyn, who was at least a foot shorter than me, “sweeter.” I smiled.

She looked up at me with a wary but affectionate face and leaned against me. I could feel her shaking. Her long brown hair was gathered up under a cloth head-covering and she hadn’t had a modern bath to expunge the earthy, greasy smells that seeped through the layers of fabric she wore. I didn’t mind. I smiled, released her hand, and put my arm around her, pulling her closer for comfort.

“I think she’s scared,” Tom said. “How long has she…” he stopped. “How?” He gawked at me, holding his breath. “How is she here?”

I shrugged. “I’m not really sure. It started a few months ago when I found this rift or portal or something.” Smiling, I recalled the horror of initially finding myself thrust seven hundred years into the past, and my heart was warmed as I recalled the way Odelyn had found me and protected me from my own stupidity. “I went through, found this beautiful, kind, brave woman, and fell in love. I spent a month with her, began to worry that the portal might close, and came home.”

“You said you were gone on an ’emergency’ work trip.” Tom scowled.

“Would you have believed me if I told you I went back in time to the fourteenth century?”

Tom sighed and shook his head.

“Anyway, after just a couple days I couldn’t get Odelyn out of my mind. So I went back for her.” It was, of course, more complicated than that, but I didn’t feel like recounting the whole story yet.

Tom looked down and to the side, furrowing his brow, calculating. His mouth opened, then he pursed his lips and his eyes began wandering. Eventually he took a deep breath and shrugged. “So now what?”

I smiled. “She’ll stay with us for a while until I can sort out some kind of fake identity for her. She’ll need papers and everything before we can get married.”

Odelyn gave me a warm smile. We had talked extensively about marriage and life in the modern world. Ultimately her curiosity and love for me had won out. My heart melted as it had hundreds of times in her presence.

“Married?” Tom exclaimed. “Look, as far as I can tell, nothing has imploded…” He froze and raised his eyebrows. “Wait a minute, let me check.” He pulled out his phone, flipped over to his news feed, and scrolled for a moment. “Yup, the world is still falling apart but in all the same ways it was before.” He sighed.

“What does he mean, falling apart?” Odelyn asked with concern on her forehead.

I smiled. “It’s just a saying, but like I told you, the world is a lot more complicated now than it was in your time. I’ll show you soon. First you need a bath and some new clothes.”

Tom shook his head. “You’re treating this like it’s no big deal. You’re messing around with powers you don’t understand. You could have altered the entire course of history.”

I shrugged. “Maybe we will still, who knows? I don’t care. As long as Odelyn and I are together it will all be fine.”

“What if it’s not fine?” Tom exploded. He marched past us into the living room.

Odelyn and I turned around. Immediately she began taking in the room in more detail. I smiled, watching her eyes dart around full of wonder and hints of terror.

“I’ll show you everything,” I whispered to her.

She smiled and wrapped herself around my arm, leaning her head against me.

“For all we know she could have some important role that she hasn’t fulfilled back in her time and we might not yet have experienced the effects of her absence due to some kind of…”

“Hey,” I said to Odelyn, ignoring Tom’s tirade. “Let’s get you cleaned up. I got you some clothes to change into already, then I’ll show you around the apartment. First, you’re going to love the bath.” We exchanged loving smiles and I walked with her to the bathroom.

“Are you even listening to me?” Tom called after us.

I closed the bathroom door behind us and Odelyn giggled. “He worries much,” she said.

“Yeah, don’t let him upset you. Here, watch this.” I reached down and turned on the hot water to fill the tub.

Odelyn gasped before squealing with delight.

[Reddit Post]