We live in a fishing community, of nothing particularly. We fish what is requested since the supply of everything around my island is plentiful, and there’s always enough to feed the islanders and our tourists. We were all happy with the life that we made for ourselves here; it was simple, and exotic.
I work in the most popular café on the water, Ocean’s Bay, as a waitress, barista, and cashier. Since we were a paradise island without any worries of hurricanes or other disastrous weather, it was common to build attractions right on the water. Our little café in particular, provided water sport activities, food, drinks, a lounging deck, a pool, and a theater for evening shows, dances, bands, and DJs. With all of the provided pleasures for vacationing for the tourists, as well as our low prices and discounts for the locals, Ocean’s Bay quickly gained a reputation for being the number one spot on the island.
Of course, with us being on such a small island, all of the islanders knew each other, if not by name then by face. This made it easier to deal with the locals from the tourists, which also allowed us to easily change our attitude and the services that we offered, and for memorizing people’s regular orders for speedy service. As a café on the water, one of our delicacies was fish, which was sold both cooked and frozen. After I became a permanent staff member, the manager brought me into her office and warned me that Ocean’s Bay provided special catering services. Although I was never told what that service was specifically, I was told to watch our frequent customers and to report that customer to the manager.
On this note, there is a local here by the name of Mason. He never comes in at the same time, but he always buys an ice coffee, and I’ve noticed that while he’s waiting, his clear aqua eyes would glance my way, no matter where it was I was working.
There’s a season here that is open every six months where all of the men go out to fish for two weeks at a time. We refer to it as the Closed Open Season, because only the men and a very select group of women actually know what it is they are fishing for. The only common knowledge is that it’s called Bayona Oceanopia, which is where the café’s name originated since we are the main location for selling it.
Some years ago, when the men went out to sea, the women would tell their loved ones, “may you be blessed with fair weather and good fortune.” If a female did not bless a man before he left, it was considered bad luck, and so it was believed that when someone died during the trip, it was because they lacked protection from a woman’s blessing. Weirdly enough, this seemed to be true, which is why it was always sad to see a man alone during the preparation period. Women were practically revered for this blessing, and because she would receive their loved one upon return. Receiving a man was just as important as blessing him on his journey, as it closed all misfortunes that the man may have brought during their time at sea. The fishing season was also harsh, and extraordinarily rough for the men, so seeing their loved ones waiting for them, safe and unharmed, melted their hearts and restored the harsh emotions that they had to endure while they were out to sea.
Everyone knew that Mason was single and that he didn’t seem to have much interest in women. For the men here, that was odd, because there were always tons of beautiful women that regularly visited the café, and lots of tourists to find interest in. Although I worked at an establishment where the human body was pretty much idolized, I was not one of those women with a perfect body, so I never expected anyone to be interested in me, and I was fine with that. But I was stronger than most of the girls that we saw here every day because I used my weight to my advantage, most of which was muscle. But many of the locals and our regular tourists seemed to like my personality more than anything else anyway, so I was quite happy being the local innocent sweetheart. One of the best compliments I ever received was on the kindness and wonder in my eyes.
I always had a sense of sadness whenever I saw Mason. His mother fell gravely ill recently, which meant that he was given the strongest protection possible, but he could very easily lose her at any time, and then he would truly be all alone. I also visited Whinny regularly and noticed that there were more days now where she was asleep than she was awake. So how much protection is he really getting?
He walked in the café and came straight to me to place his order since I was the barista for the weekend. Although I had Janessa to assist me, she was the perfect wing-woman and quickly made herself busy before she was seen.
“Hello?” Mason called out, not seeing any of us at the counter to take his order.
“Hold on for a moment, please. Hannah can you take that?!” Janessa called out from the phone.
“Yeah!” I called out. I rose from the floor where I was putting up the new stock on the bottom shelves and rose to greet the customer, only to find him standing in front of me on the other side of the counter.
“Oh! Hey Mason,” I said a bit clumsily. “An ice coffee, right?” I confirmed.
“Yup,” he said. He never spoke much, and he seemed really shy, but he always has this intense stare that drew me in.
I realized that I was staring a bit too long and began to blush. I started his order as a means of hiding my face. Once it was done, I poured it in the cup and started putting on the toppings. “You’re going out tomorrow right?”
“Yeah.”
I handed him the drink. “Be safe and here’s to good weather and fishing,” I said with a smile.
A flip switched in him. He had such a bright smile and his eyes glowed. “Thank you,” he smiled and went to the cashier to pay.
“$5.00 please,” Katy said with a bit of a devious smile.
“The drinks on me today, Katy,” I shouted across the short distance to the cash register’s counter.
Justin went to exit the door using his back and gave me one last look and a smile before he was gone from my sight.
It was a month later that he came in the café.
“Mason?!” Janessa called out, surprised. I couldn’t hear her very well, but her surprise got me curious. I came out from the back-storage room and tripped on air when I saw him. I caught my balance quickly enough and looked back up at him. He looked almost broken. He was badly bruised, and there were veins of green and blue along his body, his face embodied tired, and his eyes looked sorrowful.
“Mason!” I said teary-eyed. I didn’t know what to do, but as he began to walk, his knees buckled and he collapsed on the floor. I opened the counter door and ran to his side.
“Janessa, call the doctor!” I yelled. He was breathing, but it was labored and shallow. I took his shirt off to look for a cause for injury and found nothing. He seemed perfectly healthy except for the veins.
The doctor arrived quickly and without looking at him, injected Mason with a needle. The paramedics put him on a gurney and took him to the hospital. “Come with me Hannah,” Dr. Nelk said once Mason was in the ambulance. I nodded my head and followed.
In Dr. Nelk’s office, he pulled out a book and the piss yellow medicine bottle with the serum that he injected Mason with.
“What is that?”
“What Mason and all those other men fish for.”
‘That’s Bayona Oceanopia?”
“No. This is the product of Bayona Oceanopia. Bayona Oceanopia are absolutely stunning beasts, smart, and about the size of an average human. But they are incredibly hard to catch, and the bigger they are the stronger their near physic powers are. They have the ability of foresight and even worse, their scales make them almost translucent.” He opened the book to show a hand drawn portrait of one of the creatures. “Bayona and Oceanopia are actually symbiotic beings, much like a two-headed hydra.”
He described the being as he pointed out their physical layout. The entire back of the body looks like a mermaid’s tail, with scales covering the entire body. They have pelvic and anal fins, but their back limbs look like a horse’s leg, except from the back of the elbow to the ‘hoof’ is a fin. But the ‘hoof’ portion itself is the end of the fin so it really ends at the tip of the fin rather than the hoof of a horse. The Bayona, are cute, but dopey looking, and have a head with a rounded back but flat face, with small eyes, a wide grin, and floppy ears. The Oceaopia has a similar look in the face, but have streamlined ears with a pointed tip, wide eyes, and fair expressions, but their grin looked devilish, with sharp fine teeth. On each outer side of the upper body of the creater, are two broad fins, much like a whale, and each neck has a feathery fin on its back that joins into the mermaid tail.
I was mesmerized by this creature. It sounds like a mashup of aquatic creatures, both mythical and real, but the drawing made them look majestical. “And these beings…you can only find here?”
“Yes. But recently, much larger ones have been showing up, and they are impossible to catch. Unfortunately for Mason, his crew was short-handed this year and he had a run-in with one of the big’uns. The BO's scales make the most exquisite jewelry, and their teeth and bone make for great weapons and fine wear, while their body makes for great meat. But their biggest selling point, are the organs after being liquidated, because they have medicinal property that cures the Illwell sickness.”
“You mean Secret Death?”
“It goes by many names because of its nature. You could live for years and not know you have it until it’s too late. Once it has eaten at your mind, the patient is too far gone to save. The emergency of the matter is that it is easy to pass around and does not discriminate in choosing its victims. It’s a horrible way to die, since you slowly lose your mental health and then your physical health, because the mental effects causes you to live in your worst fears and nightmares, losing all control until you begin to attack your own body. On the island, we are all immune to the disease because our foods are constantly coated with Bayona Oceanopia serum. But for the outside word, the only cure for Illwell is the BO, after all something mysterious can only be cured by another mysterious,”
“And we sell the Bayona Oceanopia to other communities.”
“That’s right.”
“But why is Mason being treated if the BO is a medicine?”
“Because the BO cannot be taken directly; it has to be diluted and dissolved into a solution so that it can spread through the body evenly. The direct injection of BO goes straight to the brain, the same way that Illwell does. He will have permanent loss of feeling, loss of emotion, loss of being. There is a reason why women bless their loved ones, because the BO is a mysterious, the direct effects on a human will cause him to become a mysterious, and for some reason women have the ability to protect men from that. Mason’s life was spared, but I do not know what will have to his spirit.”
“A living death,” I whispered. He looked at me amused.
“We need to run a few tests. Give him a couple of days, and you can see him then.” I nodded and left, dazed.
For the next two weeks Hannah buried herself in research, looking for an answer, a cure, a remedy, something to stop the mysterious from spreading in Mason. But in every library, every shelf, every book, nothing seemed to indicate what would happen to him…until she remembered a lullaby her mother used to sing to her. Unlike most islanders, Hannah was a halfer (as they called her), her mother was islander, and her father was a nation-man from the nearby continent, so her mother constantly spoke of the island to her father, who was fascinated in everything the island had to offer.
Hannah searched for her seafoam chest with her parent’s belongings, looking for her mother’s handwriting. The paper she picked out from behind the back of a photo frame, was well-loved, with ripped edges, like it was torn from a book. On it, hurriedly scribbled out, was her mother’s horrible handwriting:
Men, hear our song, our words,
for in the written, the lines have blurred.
A lullaby we sing to our loved ones,
to warn our daughters about our sons.
To be men, fearless, strong, and brave,
there is nothing more to be afraid.
As here we say goodbye,
to the end of this lullaby.
Much of the lines following the poem was, in fact, blurred, but as Hannah read the short verse, she could hear her mother singing to her.
The ink she spreads with green and blue,
For to his mind, you must stay his true.
His body lost and land be gone,
For water he is cast upon.
And the love she loss
To whom she knew,
But bless the new
to fetch the old.
The him you know and the him of old…
Are all your one and as we’re told:
‘your true love will stay within your sight,
And never leave for in our mind bright
His laugh and love shall stay, remain
In all loss and all the pain.’
As Hannah sung the sweet warning lullaby, she cried, finally understanding the curse of the Bayona Oceanopia.
