Watwrs At Mayos

Waters at mayo’s


I sat down in the corner of the café sipping some chilled milk. The climate was cool and the surroundings quite. I picked a wrong place, yet again. You know I try shifting places looking for stories that might inspire me? And then a dash of words lead me to my next classic.

I looked around while a small boy cleaned the tables. The café was small. Around 8 tables or so covered with red lined and a lacy white cover. The chairs were simple and petite. Around four chairs encircled each table while some had more. Mayo’s was hexagonal in shape. The entrance began right in the front opening up to Mayo’s seat and his table, a piece from his granddads will. The small town of Cochin knew all about senior mayo and his huge treasures and wealth’s. Senior mayo was an adventurous traveler sailing the world on his ships. It was rumored that once he got back to his mansion with a truck full of mermaids he picked in the Pacific Ocean. Some even said that he was a man mermaid himself. When he died he supposedly left all his will to aquariums and ocean development studies and fisheries. He was supposedly too weird.

Mayo himself was a small man. He was around 4 feet 8 inches with a crooked legs and a straight back. He walked with this unusual confidence small people seldom have .a huge wrist watch and his typical blue shirt and white pants might accompany him even to his grave.

Yes I know this slow dragging atmosphere is showing effect on my words but I couldn’t help notice patterns around him. Like he had lips like a protruding fish and his whole body had a peculiar sense of puffishness as if he was filled with water. His round tummy tucked behind his apron also seemed like a pot for an ocean. He walked gingerly quietly gliding along from one chair to another. His gait also has a slight zig zag manner as if he was swishing swashing like a fish. He had large protruding eyes blinking innocently and calmly. His ears were small and sunken in. his fair look also added the gleam to his baldhead. Overall he had the vibe of a strange madman. I don’t know if I say that because of the rumors I know or because of what I see but soon I think things will be clearer than before.

I looked around again looking at the walls and the ceiling. You know being a writer I unconsciously notice lots of intricacies and details like this. And when I sit down to write them that’s when I realize this peculiar art of mine. I look again at the ceiling which has these glass sliding windows covered all over from the inside with blue satin. The café was a little hot while the sunrays would stream in. Cochin as such is a cool breezy place so no complains. The satin seemed to have been stuck perfectly except at the edges where I noticed the glass with a slight tinge of blue again , chromium I guess. Well without boring you further I looked at the walls of the café, made of cement itself. They were white in color and adorned with beautiful paintings of ships and oceans and mermaids and islands. Each painting was an intricate piece and seemed to have been a classic of its own time. Mayos grandfather’s I reckon. I looked surprisingly at the fact that they were not stolen yet. As cynical as I may sound too beautiful things are unbelievable. I got up from my chair and walked towards a painting hung high enough from human reach. The ceiling I must say was far far above the heads. Well I took a chair and climbed upon trying to have a closer look at a specific painting. It had this beautiful mermaid painted in acrylic oils rich with color swimming in a bathtub. Which kind of painting as that? A bathtub in the 17th century? I shook my head and looked closer with the kind of curiosity a professional gets when she sees a unique piece of art like that. I peeked forward looking that below the bath tub were several small mermaids lying on the floor smiling talking and playing with their hair. What a sight!!

The painting looked like a vintage piece and the contents seemed so unbelievably recent and new. I looked around for a sign only to see nothing! Before I could scrape a piece off wondering if there are more secrets beneath , Mayo himself shoved the chair beneath my feet. Well I was taken unawares and he stood smirking and frowning spreading his hands like the mast of a unicorn. I looked blinking waiting for him to explode while he stood there quietly. He simply tossed the chair away and took it along with him and walked back to his seat and sat down. Weird man and even weirder paintings. This whole aura of mayo’s was getting to me and I wanted to find the secret behind his café and his grandfathers mysteries.

I shamelessly walked towards another painting knowing that the wrath would invite mayo to his thunder. The whole of cochin had told me he was a weird man and he would quietly and swiftly squeeze a sword into peoples heart if he wished. But he didn’t seem very angry! I looked toward another painting which had this huge table and a mermaid sipping something. It all seemed so mystical. As if it was a café for mermaids who visited in the night gurgling and cooing along at Mayo’s. The decorum the colors and shapes would match hazily to Mayo’s. Only the pictures were at night so I couldn’t demarcate distinct blue though it felt like that.

I sprang forward the the next painting looking at this mermaid who had deep green eyes and a black gown while her legs gingerly curved into a fin. It seemed very familiar. The hands were light and subtly pointed and her complexion seemed whitish. She had long tresses and a pierced ear. On seeing closely I saw the others still bathing in the tub laughing talking, why she was away from them as if observing something and talking and musing to herself. Interesting. Must have been an author mermaid. Well so much for my attempt to joke.!


I suddenly felt nauseated. The place seemed smelly of waters and oceans. I really don’t know if I am imagining or was it all a joke. I dragged myself forwards while my legs refused to move. What happened I really don’t know. These paintings seem to have a mystic sense to them. Strange wonderful eerie and allegorically enticing. I moved ahead wanting to see the third painting of the tiring day. The air too was getting heavier while the mystery grew deeper and heavier in my head. I smoothly glided to the paining once I was close to it. What do I see? I crane my neck upwards now that mayo snatched his chair and I suddenly turned backward remembering mayo. He was sleeping at the counter while the café was empty leaving me a whole Pandora’s box. I looked at the painting again and I see this sword kept at the edge of a book. The mermaid yes the author one was lying on the floor trying to reach her hands up at the sword. It was balancing on a book kept on a shelf and a little push would have got it down. The mermaid seemed distressed her eyes looked blackened and her face looked scared as if twitching in despair. The sword was hinging horizontally on the edge of the book and she couldn’t reach up. The painting was as evading as that. You know I always have thought that painters and writes have this art of leaving things opened up to the imagination of the reader. You know it leaves them with a tingling sense of what would have bee next if the author had her own way.

I lurched forward struggling even more with my thoughts and moves. What was she trying to do? I scrambled along to the last painting to see the mermaid again lying bloodily on the floor. The sword seemed to have struck her in her heart while she smiled suggestively. Her hand was pointed towards another painting on the edge of the wall while she lay there in blood, she seemed to have left a clue. The other painting was covered slightly with a cloth while a part of it was open. It was a painting within a painting. I lurched forward for a closer look. A white cloth covered it while she pointed at it smiling at me. It seemed like a message for me as if I was a mermaid once upon a time. Why she looked like me itself. I turned towards my seat again while I moved away from the last painting. My book and my papers began flying around with a new set of breeze coming in. I scrambled forward holding my papers and my books.

I moved towards my seat and sat there trembling. The winds obliged and scared me with its whines striking along the glass above. I trembled and shook wondering at something. The situation seemed familiar. As if I was here before. I looked at my cup and saw some more milk in it. I took up the glass to sip more when I remember the mermaid sipping something. I looked at my book and suddenly felt queer. I was arrested on my seat while the cup in my hand drew me closer to my mouth. I shivered and tried to move while my legs wiggled and gelled in. that’s how it seemed. I was turning into a mermaid ? Was this a curse?. I suddenly remembered my own grandfather and his gift of intuition, which he left to me.

Before I could sense any movement I picked up all my courage and pulled the tablecloth away. I knew a sword would strike me. I tore the cover apart to see another painting. She was lying there while a huge fish struck a sword within. Blood oozed from her heart while she smiled and poured milk on her heart. The big fish retreated and the picture seemed like a movie. Like it was telling me what to do. Like it was an old fairy tale unfolding in front of me. I felt my spine chill while mayo was standing behind I felt the sword gush inside and pierce me till it emerged from my heart. I felt the pain encircling and dizzying me while I fell to the floor grappling my self. Mayo looked and smiled I believe while my face fell on the floor beneath. I tried grappling forward while he kept following me.

I picked my senses while I felt the sword pierce more inside me. Holding the legs of the table I pushed it fiercely. The cup fell down into my hand while I could barely see things in front of me. I felt my eyes widen and my hands dance losing control at everything around me. My hair grew longer and my legs were no longer human and I I twitched at this new reality. Weirdly somewhere down the line I still remember I was I am a writer. My grandfather too was fresh in my dreams. I was stronger than I believed. I pushed the table again while the cup fell into my hands. I turned and threw the milk on my heart while mayo froze in front of me. I was lying on the floor while he stood there like a predator waiting to gobble me. I took the milk from the cup and threw it on him. Take that you slimy old grimy fish. Mayo retraced back while the milk touched him. I lurched forward and looked at him while he began to swell and bleed. Instinctively I poured his blood oozing from his eyes into the same cup. I poured it all into his own mouth while he slowly and sluggishly expanded into a fish.

Mayo twitched and fell on the ground while he ballooned into a huge fish. His whole body became bloody and fluidy as if dripping sins from his own soul. The fish collapsed and sank on the floor while blood oozed endlessly. I looked around at this weird test of fate grappling my self to the door. I wanted to call anyone around and hoped to escape the place. My books my papers were still on the table while the breeze had already fled. I dragged myself to the entrance refusing to look at my mermaid fins. I reached mayo’s table and grabbed another glass of milk kept on the top. I drank it all gulping and hoping that it would return me to my original degree and senses. It was all too weird. I was still in cochin and I could still see people outside and wondered why nobody helped me. I tried shouting but my voice deserted me. There was an old saying that mermaids never did speak. I panicked and prayed suddenly in my 21 years of precious discoveries. I drank the milk and hoped for peace. I closed my eyes and prayed. I still was a mermaid!


Sudden coma seemed to set in as if a curse was gripping me. I drank each and every drop again hoping to let free. Blood was oozing and the sword was still thrust inside. I grabbed it from behind my back and pulled it backwards while the sword gently let me free.



Things seem weird to readers living within boundaries. But wierdeties and eccentricities are another side of human life. Things known and unknown happen everyday while they choose to reveal to a few. I suppose you will never believe what I saw.

.

The big fish was dead and mystical mermaids seem to devoure him all in a jiffy. It was all weird. Sudden beauties of a previously imaginary world become dancing realities. And suddenly they turned into blood sucking predators feasting on the fish. I saw them fall on my feet while they prayed and thanked me. Each of them danced and touched my eyes as if thanking me for taking their sins or clearing mine? I really don’t know

Were they destined to stay in parallel worlds around us? What was their previous lives or their sins I really do not know. I do not know how I was chosen to redeem or revert the curse.

But After my endeavor at mayo’s I was never able to see. I can still hear them though swishing swashing around.