{"id":4835,"date":"2024-12-01T18:12:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T22:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=4835"},"modified":"2024-12-01T18:12:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T22:12:07","slug":"2024-mermaids-regret","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/fiction-archive\/2024-mermaids-regret\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 Mermaid\u2019s Regret"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Offering – Varanasi, John Tracy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Mermaid’s Regret<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Toshiya Kamei<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

As my body dissolved into the sea, regret seized me. All my sacrifices: my family, my tail, my voice. I gave up all. All for nothing!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be sea foam!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I screamed and salt water filled my lungs.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the distance, light. The prince\u2019s wedding ship. Regret became anger and boiled inside me. Another wave struck, and I was pulled under. Deeper. In the dark of the sea, I could imagine them. The prince and the imposter. He treated me like dirt. He traded me for her. They danced! They <\/span>kissed.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I broke the surface with a ragged yell, lifted my arms above my head, and conjured a storm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dark clouds gathered overhead, and lightning split the sky into two.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rain lashed us, and I crackled as the ship whirled like a wind-swept leaf. Another lightning strike, and the ship was sinking. I savored their screams.<\/span><\/p>\n

A wave dragged me down.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I opened my eyes, past the salt burn, I saw him. Delight visited one final time.<\/span><\/p>\n

I swam to where fish fed on the prince\u2019s body. Clinging to him like regret, I let the sea take us both.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Toshiya Kamei (she\/they) is a queer Asian writer who takes inspiration from fairy tales, folklore, and mythology. Her short stories have appeared in Daily Science Fiction<\/em>, Galaxy\u2019s Edge<\/em>, and elsewhere. Her piece \u201cHungry Moon\u201d won Apex Magazine<\/em>\u2019s October 2022 Microfiction Contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

John Tracy is a self-taught photographer who worked as a photojournalist for the New York Daily News for seven years before becoming an attorney. He has recently been published in F-Stop Magazine, Birmingham Arts Journal and Dipity. His work can be viewed at www.jtracy.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mermaid’s Regret By Toshiya Kamei As my body dissolved into the sea, regret seized me. All my sacrifices: my family, my tail, my voice. I gave up all. All for Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":590,"featured_media":0,"parent":1301,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4835"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5280,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4835\/revisions\/5280"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}