Sometimes, things happen that change everything, my father used to say. Absolutely everything.  When I was a boy, my father told me I’d know what it’s like to feel that change, and I’d know. I’d know and I’d just get it.

Looking back on it now, I think he was trying to tell me what it would be like when I met the woman I married. Or had children. Or—something. I mean, don’t get me wrong. The day I met Rachel was the happiest day of my life. Or married her, that could’ve been the happiest. And when Colin Jr. was born, that was pretty happy. Little Erica, that was great.

But they didn’t change things. You don’t understand. I can see it, now, you just don’t understand. It’s not that I don’t love them. I do, I love them. They’re my family.

But—it was the mermaids that changed things.

Let—just let me start over. Let’s start at the beginning, right?

It was last Monday. I was at the office. You’ve been to the office, right? You’ve seen it. Hanson Technologies, it’s on the 8^th floor of a not-really-all-that-tall office building with a not-really-all-that-nice office park right near the parking lot. There is a large window that takes up the entirety of the side wall of this office, and happens to be right at the back of my cubicle. It gives me what Rob says is a “spectacular view” of the parking lot. Which is nice, you know, despite what Rob would say. Lots of light, and I get a little more room to put up pictures of Rachel and the kids.

I usually—

Around 1130, I start thinking about lunch. I mean, you know. Rachel’s been on this health kick since I hit 250. She keeps telling me that if I keep this up, I’ll be dead before Erica’s 16. So she keeps packing these apple slices and these low-fat roast beef sandwiches. It isn’t much, but after a turkey bacon and egg white breakfast, you’re hungry for it, you know? And then, after breakfast, Rob gives me a cigarette, which Rachel wouldn’t really approve of, but—you know. Man’s gotta be a man somewhere.

But I was looking back, out over the office park. That’s what I do when I think about lunch. I look over at the park. They put in these big slabs of quartz in the pond the week before. Big, ugly rocks in the middle of that perfect round pond. And that—that’s when I saw them.

Well, her. It was just one at first, laying out on that quartz. Her hair was long and it was red, like a candy apple dripping in the sunshine, and she was naked. Naked, laying there and sunning herself. Nothing like the ones Erica watches in cartoons. No, this was unbelievable. I figured she must’ve lived in the park pond or something. She had a candy bar wrapper underneath her breast, and she had algae all tangled up in her hair but, God. She was so beautiful and strange.

I mean, I figured I couldn’t have been the only one who saw her. I looked back around at the office, like they’d all realize what I was staring at. Like, they might see her and suddenly, you know, react.

Nothing. It was like they were frozen, staring at their computers while I looked out the window. I don’t know how long she was there, and I don’t really know how long I stared out the window. But next thing I know, people are heading back from lunch, and I haven’t even looked away from the window.

Rob came up to me. “Yo, man,” he said. “Didn’t see you down near the pond. You all right?”

“Did you see her?” I asked in a hiss.

He stared at me, eyes all scrunched up and confused. “You look all sweaty and shit, man. You okay?”

I turned back to the window, but there was no mermaid on the quartz. Just an imprint of water from where she’d been before. He had to have seen her. He had to have. I looked back to Rob, but he kept staring at me.

“Look, man, I’m heading out early. You want a smoke before I go?”

I had lunch and went back to the office. The mermaid was gone. I tried to focus, but what do you do when you see a naked girl sitting on the rocks and nobody else saw her? You start to think that there was something wrong with you, or that you weren’t looking right, am I right? I got to work, got my things done. Started to think about dinner. Rachel had some low-fat turkey wraps for dinner, she told me in a text message so I wouldn’t snack.

Around 430, I turned around, looked back outside. That’s what I do, you know? Thinking about food, thinking about going home. And there she was again! The mermaid. This time she had a friend with her, on one of the other rocks. Dark skin, long hair peppered with cigarette butts. They just laid there together, chatting. I saw people getting into their cars around the park, as oblivious to the mermaids as the mermaids were to them.

They weren’t there when I went downstairs. The wet imprints were still on the quartz, though, so I knew they were real. I wanted to step into the pond, to touch the quartz, but—that water’s really muddy, you know. I don’t think anyone’s really sure how deep it is. So I just went back to my car. I drove home.

Rachel was straightening up the bedroom and the turkey wraps were baking in the oven when I got there, but—but it’s like my father said. Everything was different. Really different. You could feel it in the room, feel it all over the place.

“Hey, honey,” Rachel said. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, just. I’m just fine.”

It’s funny. I thought she looked guilty. Like she knew. She knew the mermaids were out in the water, and she knew that nobody else was seeing them. I went downstairs and had a beer. I fished out the cigarette that Rob gave me and smoked it out on the porch.

“Those are bad for you, Daddy,” Erica said to me as she got off the bus. She huffed and went inside, no doubt to tell her mother what a bad man I was being. I didn’t care. I had a reason to go back to work the next morning. I had to see the mermaids. I had to see them for myself.

It went on for…a little over a week, I think. I’d try racing downstairs, try catching them if I saw them on the rocks, but they were always gone by the time I got to the park. There were more of them, too. Sometimes three, one for each of those slabs of quartz. Sometimes more, curled up next to each other, fanning their wide fish tails out against the murky water. Exotic and beautiful in that cold, corporate park. And always just outside of my reach. There when I’d see them from a window, and gone when I got close.

“There it is, do you see it?” I finally asked Rob last Thursday while we were on those awful metal benches in the park.

“What?” he asked, lighting up a cigarette.

I pointed to the quartz. “Wet spots. That’s where they sit.”

“Right, the mermaids,” Rob said, letting out a huff. “You know, man, it’s a good story to tell Erica, but you’re getting a bit too invested in it. Gonna give yourself a heart attack.”

“You’re starting to sound like Rachel,” I said.

“You told her about this?” he asked.

I shook my head. “She’d think I was crazy.”

“I think you’re getting there, man,” Rob replied. “There’s no such things as mermaids.”

“But if I could just see them up close,” I said. “Talk to them.”

“You’d be talking to yourself,” he said. “Come on, man, it’s time to go back in.”

Rob was pretty much my best friend, you know. Never led me astray, never. I mean, he was smart and better looking than me, always did his morning run and pushups and such while I got fatter and lazier, but he always seemed to care about what happened to me in the office. And I respected him. When he thought I’d be talking to myself, I believed him, you know? And I think it should’ve ended there. I mean, it really should’ve just ended there.

But then I saw him. Right about 230, when he’d taken to leaving every day. He walked towards his car, and then turned around. He turned around and he walked right over to the pond, right over to where the mermaids were chatting. I-I couldn’t believe what I was watching. I watched him go over there, crouch down next to the water, and start talking to the mermaids.

I was on the eighth floor, so I don’t know what they said. But I know they were talking. The one mermaid with the long, dark hair with all those cigarette butts came right up to him, her body long and lean and glimmering in the sun. And she started to sing. I could hear that. I could hear her singing to him.

I pulled threw down my files and bolted for the stairs. Taking them two at a time wasn’t easy, but I did. And I got down there the fastest I ever had. Threw open the door to the park and—nothing. Rob’s car was gone, the mermaids were gone. I could still hear the ghost of that song in my ears, though.

Rob was a liar. He knew about the mermaids, and the mermaids knew about him. I shouted and cursed at the pond, and people from the parking lot were staring at me. But why would they go to him? Why the hell would they go to him and not me?

I wasn’t thinking right when I sent the text, but I sent it. Office park. 9pm. I know. I called Rachel and left her a voicemail, telling her I had to work late. I should’ve waited, I think. I should’ve let my emotions calm down. But I hadn’t been sleeping, you don’t understand. I needed to know why, and I needed to know then. Right then.

Rob wasn’t late. The office park was totally empty, apart from a few lone streetlamps.

“You’ve been lying,” I snapped before he could open his mouth.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, man, I have.”

Good, I thought. This was a start. He was going to tell me the truth, and then I’d know. And then the mermaids would see me. And that would be good, right? Everything would be good. Something inside of me would be fixed.

“So this is it, right, man?” Rob said, standing in front of the pond. “You’re ready to talk about it.”

“It?” I said.

“Me and Rachel,” he said. “I mean, I know you’re not stupid. All those days I’ve been going home, I know you worked it out. So let’s talk about it. Get it out in the open.”

I wanted to talk about the mermaids. I wanted to demand why he wasn’t admitting he saw them. I wanted to know why he was lying but—but Rachel? What?

Rob sighed. “You weren’t there for her, man. You’ve been getting all dreamy. She needs a man who will be there. Who will listen when she’s lonely. I mean, the kids don’t come home until later, she spends too much time alone.”

New images swam over my eyes as he spoke. Rachel. My beautiful Rachel. Suddenly I could see her, opening the door for Rob, going into his arms. Letting him hold her. Letting him—I couldn’t even think.

“You and Rachel?!” I sputtered, gaping.

“Yeah, man, I’m sorry. I am. I just…she’s so beautiful. I don’t know how you got her, but you just don’t know how to hold onto her.” He straightened up his shoulders. “So I stepped in. She’s gonna divorce you, and I’m stepping in.”

“You’re my best friend!” I snapped.

“Yeah, man. I know. But I love her, man.”

He had the audacity to sound guilty. That—that fucker! Guilty for stepping in with Rachel, but he didn’t even think to mention the mermaids. He got to be with my wife, and he got to talk to the mermaids. They wanted him, but none of them wanted me.

I admit it. I threw a punch. I did. I punched him. Right in his smug, chiseled-jawed face. All the anger, all that disappointment, and I just punched him. I don’t think he expected it. He stumbled backwards, falling right into the pond. It’s a lot shallower than you’d think, and the water didn’t even come up to his knees when he stood up.

“Jesus,” he snapped. “Okay, fine. Fine, I deserved that.”

I rubbed my knuckles. Punching him hurt. It hurt, but it felt really, really good, too. And that’s when I saw her. I saw her hand, coming up out of the water. Mermaids have long talons where their fingernails should be, did you know that? Her talons curled up around his leg. I wanted to warn him, to tell him. But I didn’t. I didn’t stop her.

She pulled him down. Her and gripped and Rob cried out, and suddenly he was down, he was going under the water. Another hand shot up out of the water, pulling at him. He flailed, but all those pushups didn’t do him any good against the grip of the mermaids.

“Colin!” he shouted.

I took a step forward, but I kept thinking about Rachel. Rachel, my Rachel. He wanted to step in, he wanted to take her from me. Take her, take away the mermaids.

I—

I let them have Rob. The hands kept coming up, out of the water. They pulled him under, they held him there. They held him there, and I watched. That felt good, too. God help me, it felt really, really good. My beautiful mermaids, getting rid of him. Holding him under until his smug face stopped screaming and his arms stopped flailing.

And he floated there for a while. The arms went away, the talons went back under the water. Then it was just us. Just me and Rob. Pieces of garbage stuck to him as he floated, and I watched.

The mermaids stayed under the water all night, but I could hear them. I could hear them singing.

I tell you, officer, this time they were singing for me.