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The Big Mermaid (an Afro fantasy /sci-fi Short Story) - Literature - Nairaland

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The Big Mermaid (an Afro fantasy /sci-fi Short Story) by MisterRuk(m): 9:01pm On Sep 30, 2018
Mr Ruk proudly presents....

The Big Mermaid
If I told you that mermaids were real, would you believe me? I don't care what you think ,but I'll tell you a story:

Mermaids came from another plane of reality, a parallel world different from ours. It was called Oceanis, a world full of sandy islands and oceans, of course 95% of Oceanis was water and next 5% was land, sandy beach islands with seashells. The aquatic world of Oceanis was the home to an exotic array of fishes and aquatic creatures, there were lantern fishes whose bodies glowed in the dark waters, and there were sea stallions, strong aquatic steeds that could run on land and swim with great speed in water. As humans dominated earth, the superior creatures of Oceanis were the mermaids, they were a race of feminine beings who resembled women from earth. They created an advanced civilization by building great underwater cities and having knowledge in science they invented technologies which were far beyond the level of humanity's. The mermaids created a stable political system that gave everyone the right to partake in the governing of their society despite social hierarchy, they maintained their economy through aquatic farms and rearing of elephant whales for their milk and hides.
Their society was homogeneous, reducing chances of war on differences like the ones humans fought, these beings were of one gender. Ruled by a queen the population five hundred million mermaids scattered over Oceanis were female soso how did they reproduce?. The mating season was the time when thousands of mermaids were selected and taught the human culture, they were trained on how to speak the various human languages, the way of life of different human races and societies, the way female humans behaved and how to attract a mate. Legend did say that mermaids had fish tails, true but that was only in water, when on land their tails transformed into legs making them resemble humans but they could only go bipedal for a maximum of four hours if they weren't in contact with water.
Breeders, the name these kinds of mermaids were called. Before mating season began, millions of young mermaids between eighteen to twenty five applied for the breeding post. It was the most sought duty Oceanis, few did it for sake of preserving the mermaid bloodline, some did for the luxurious pay they will get, many did it for the thrill of adventure, most did it for an opportunity to experience sex with a human male. When the mating season came the breeders were sent to earth disguised as humans, they would seduce a desired man by any means and have sex with him, since mermaids were very fertile they got pregnant easily. After the signs of pregnancy the breeders returned back to Oceanis were their eggs were kept in an incubator till they hatched.

"Joe my boy!" Dr Solomon called
"Good morning, sir" I greeted
"I see that you're on your way to class, get inside let me take you"
I couldn't refuse, I was already late for class
"Thank you sir, I appreciate." I said and entered his black Toyota Highlander. Dr Solomon was an old friend of my father, his classmate. He was a lecturer at the quantum physics department, the emptiest department in the university. I should thank Dr Solomon for using his influence to work my administration into the university, he had even offered to oversee my accommodation and feeding on the campus but my father was too modest to accept.
"So how's studies?" He asked after some minutes of silence
"Good" I replied
"I believe you're enjoying your stay in Uniport"
"Yes sir" I tried to stay stiff despite the chilling atmosphere brought by the car's air conditioner.
"Good" he said "you are in school to study and graduate as the medical doctor your father wants you to be" I dreaded that comment
"There shall be no room idling or playing around, people of hardwork and diligence must be your best friends. Suffer now and enjoy tomorrow, you must utilize your time here wisely" he said with his eyes on the road.
"...yes sir"
"Do you have a girlfriend?" He asked after another minute of silence.
"No" I answered
"Do you intend to have any?"
"No. It's too early"
"I know you are a sharp boy, don't let those bush meats distract you. The only thing most of those fashion crazy girls whose hairstyles are more expensive than their minds do is to suck men dry, those who can't find a man to spoil them will go into prostitution, all these just to buy BlackBerry. No wonder Rivers State is number one in HIV infection"
We reached Ofrima. I got out of the car.
"Thank you, sir"
"No worries" he smiled and waved ",my greetings to your father when you see him" then he drove off to his faculty.
Call me Abiodun Joe, a sophomore student at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It may seem strange to be studying a course you didn't like but this was a third world country, everyone felt we needed more doctors, more accountants, more engineers,more lawyers. The big three, Engineering, Medicine and Law they were the fields parents wanted their children to study.
In many Nigerian universities the chances of entering these departments were low except you were a genius or had bribe money to give, many students were shifted to the "inferior" departments. I was one of those unlucky students who was denied the right to study medicine, instead I was given Human Anatomy to study. Medicine, Anatomy I hated both, all I wanted to do was write poems while watching the sunset from the beach. Gaining admission was a privilege to many youths below the upper middle class, nowadays everyone wanted to enter the university, it was a struggle as millions of us crammed textbooks and past questions to write JAMB and PUTME so that our parents could see us in a matriculation gown with proud smiles on their face.
The only class today was MTH 120, as Mr Anyanwu performed his magic on the board, the front sitters listened with undivided attention,the middle bencher (where I belonged) just copied notes or looked outside the windows, the back benchers (the unserious students) didn't even care, they just slept or tapped their BlackBerry phones it was never a dull moment down there. I could swear, 80% of us never understood the lesson but the lecturer was too old to care. At the end of the lesson Mr Anyanwu just advertised his textbook in the form of an empty threat. The lecturer was gone, the 2010 set of Anatomy department burst into life, people formed new affiliations, guys wooed girls with huge backsides, the joy of being a year one student. I sat alone on the bench flipping through my Advanced Mathematics textbook playing serious while my mind taunted me with possibilities of failing the course.
"Hi, can I just look at the textbook?" My heart skipped two beats as I heard the voice
I turned, it was a girl. She was fat with a pear shaped body, well proportioned to display her curves. If the weight scale in my mind was correct maybe she'll weight like 220 pounds. Despite her full cheeks and budding second chin she had a beautiful face, though she had a set of bright friendly eyes but what got me was her smile, it was warm just like home.
"Sure...go on" I gave her the textbook. She flipped through it. I watched as she looked through today's topic with a brief moment of seriousness.
"Okay" her smile returned as she passed the book back, "not that difficult, guess the lecturer isn't really good with teaching"
"Yeah" I agreed though I knew that even if God had given a private tutoring , I won't still understand it.
"I'm Radiant" she said
"Call me Joe" I extended my hand for an handshake, she held it briefly a removed hers
"I've not seen you in this class before, you must have resumed today" I tried to bring a conversation.
"Yes, I started today. I know I've missed some classes and I'm some steps behind but I know I'll grab up soon. Will you help me?"
I was like an antelope who had been shot by an invisible arrow.
"How can I help you?... School just started last week and we've learnt little and I don't even know much."
She laughed in a soprano voice
"I was just pulling your legs, I can handle my academics myself" she stood up, I couldn't help but stare at her fleshy thighs clad in a pair of blue jeans .
"I have to be going. It was nice knowing you a little, and thanks for that textbook"
"Okay, goodbye... see you again" I said
she smiled and left
I looked around, how long had we been talking? The class was almost empty. I carried my books and left too with Radiant in my head.
What a strange name she had, Radiant was a carefree kind of person, she wasn't like other sophomore girls who acted prim and proper like they were from some kind of high society, while other girls took slim tea to keep fit and trim , Radiant didn't care about her weight she just ate to her heart content, after class you could see her at the ice cream spot snaking on a cupcake or some other confectionery. Radiant was the leader of our practical group in the Animal and Environmental Biology class, she wasn't the brightest amongst us but she was bold and no one wanted to be bothered with leadership responsibility. I loved her huge size, several times I could feel blood run through my head anytime I saw I her flesh jiggle, there moments I imagined myself squeezing into her meaty body and feeling the warmth. I had a thing for plus size women, I could remember browsing the internet for BBW pictures on my Nokia phone, some night the images of sultry large women in seductive poses gave me wet dreams. It was my big secret. In a society where a woman was accepted as beautiful if was thin or slender, I didn't want to be a deviant.

In my second year in Uniport, inflation came. Prices of food increased, people were getting laid off from their job, business were folding, hungry children on the streets and my GPA was dropping. Everyone needed money, and crime rate was rising. In our school there were frequent clashes between gangster cults, everywhere became unsafe, everyone felt unsafe - but everyone everywhere still needed money.
My father suffered a stroke, it was treatable - good but lots of money was spent on his health, every naira in his account was for one complicated medicine or a massage. He was recovering but his source of finance was yet to, due to his condition he removed from work and replaced with a younger accountant. Thank the stars that we had a family business to feed us, it was remaining my tuition fee. Professor Hitler, the vice chancellor of the university had decreed that any student who hadn't paid the tuition fee before the deadline was exempted from writing the first and second second semester exams, no exams meant no results, no results meant no graduation. The fee was #45'000 but my parents could only spare me #20'000, the remaining was up to me to gather as a man, and Dr Solomon was not around the time you needed him, he had been transferred to the University of Ibadan (UI). I did odd jobs around the school to feed myself and gather money for my tuition, I worked as gardener, then later I became a part-time laundryman, the pay was not enough so I got a job as a bartender at the ever living Helena Nightclub. All these jobs affected my academics, especially at the nightclub because I was always too busy to come to class or too tired to study, finally I managed to make #25'000 and I paid my outstanding fee. But like the economy my GPA had dropped to 2.16, including the many carryovers I already had. I was on the verge of an extra year.
Radiant was still radiant, her smile was like magic. It made me think of hope, a better future. She still carried her large figure with pride not caring if anyone called her "orobo",she did laugh and wave off the mean comments people made of her size. Radiant was quite a mysterious person, even in the time of suffering she still looked " radiant", no one knew anything about her family nor affiliations outside the campus, she lived in an expensive private lodge filled with mysterious ladies like her whose background no one knew about. But who cared ? I didn't. I just admired Radiant from afar, I tried to get closer to her but she always made out with guys who were of the same high status as hers. We were opposites, though she was fat she had everyone's admiration, she was one the popular students in the faculty, her wealth nor popularity didn't stop from being an ace students. Me, I was invisible, I was shy, the biggest nobody just a leaf of grass in a drying field, Radiant was a flower with a petal of many colours.
There were times where I created a reality in my mind where Radiant and were married, I was a writer, we had children...we were happy.

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Re: The Big Mermaid (an Afro fantasy /sci-fi Short Story) by MisterRuk(m): 9:04pm On Sep 30, 2018
Like a light at the end of a tunnel, the ponzi scheme came. Many persons including me invested their money with the hope of receiving a 50% interest at the end, money didn't work like that. At school "Naira Milk" investment came, it was managed by an engineering student we called Merlin who promised us a 40% raise on our investment anytime we invited someone. People both great and small invested, some invested in millions. I had #45'000 for my school fees and in attempt to double the money I put it in Naira Milk, with dream thoughts of having enough money for feeding and textbooks. I woke up to the reality the next day, the Naira Milk was a scam, a ponzi scheme
no, a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned. I couldn't believe I had been hoodwinked, my money was gone. Merlin had fled with the investments of thousand students.With what was left, a friend cajoled me into gambling. Though I wasn't a fan of soccer, I gambled my money predicting scores at the EUFA champions league - believe me to be good at sports betting you needed the mind of a military strategist. I lost all my money on betting and I became so broke that cobwebs began to grow in my wallet.
I didn't know what to tell my parents, I had foolishly used my school fees to invest in fraudulent scheme and gambling?
This was too much. I worked extra time to get money, but #45'000 was big money, at the end I couldn't pay for my tuition. I was dropped off by the school but I still continued to act like a student, collecting money from my parents - the money they made with their sweat. I just couldn't imagine the disappointed look on my father's face, the sound of my mother crying when they learnt that I was no longer a student.
I was still a laundryman at day and a bartender at night, with my little salary I rented a boxy apartment and lived quietly with the image of Radiant in my head till end of five years when I was supposed to graduate as an Anatomist...
The shame was too much. My father's angry voice boomed head, my mother's cries hit my heart like a rain. I chased away from home, the place where I grew up, to my parents I was no longer a son.
I took a journey to Lagos, the city of dreams. The city had a lot of sightseeing ,the beautiful lights, the luxurious life of the wealthy on the island, the busy life of the cosmopolitan kingdom, the Mainland bridge...
My eyes grew blurry as I fell to the water, in a moment I began to drown...it was my choice, I lived a life not made by me, studied a course I didn't like, I made big mistakes, the girl I had feelings for... I never had the chance...
As my body sank deep into the dark water below the bridge,my eyes was still open to see something swim. Was it a fish? No, I was big, longer than a fish. It's scales glittered as it moved towards me.
The upper half of the fishlike creatures body looked human, busty and rubenesque.
"A big mami water has come to eat me!" I said in my mind. Despite the creatures size,it swam really fast, and grabbed me. My body was weak against the water, I couldn't fight the being as she put a blue pill into my mouth, I tasted like mint. I don't know but I was still alive to see the fat mami water being do the strangest thing, from her mouth she blew out a gigantic bubble big enough to fit both of us. She pushed me into giant the bubble, it was like a kind of tank. I couldn't see face of this plump half fish woman but she had prevented my suicide attempt, maybe she was going to take me to her kingdom and feed on me. I thought these mysterious water creatures lived deep down the river, my bubble followed her as she swam to up the surface of the river. Reaching the surface of the water the bubble burst and she grabbed me with her plump arms to a river bank under the Third Mainland bridge.
I had never coughed so much water in my life, I heaved and breathed. How could I be so daft? Everything now made sense . After I was given the minty pill I was able to breath in the water, the mermaid had saved me from taking my life. Before my eyes her lower fish half began to transform into human legs smooth and devoid of hairs and scales, her fleshy thighs touched each other.
"...thank you" I managed to talk
"You disappointed me" for the first time in years I heard her voice this close . I looked at her face, my heart skipped. Radiant resembled a water goddess emerged from the river but her eyes flashed a cold look.
"Radiant?... you're a mermaid?"
"Yes. I am . Now answer my question, why did you want to commit suicide"
I was silent. Everyone knew Third Mainland bridge was a popular suicide spot in Lagos, but how was she able to follow me? No one knew I was in Lagos, no one cared.
"You followed me... you should have just let me die, what difference does it make?" I lost everything, I had a family who loved me, I had a home, I had an education. I behaved like a fool...I squandered my parents money on ponzi scheme and lived a fake life. I'm a disgrace to them all, my friends, my family, Dr Solomon..."
Radiant listened
"You had nothing, but you were given tools to create something and here you are crying about things that were never yours. You claim to have your parents love, yet they sit comfortably at home caring for your siblings, they made you follow a path of life you never wanted...to be a doctor when you wanted to be a writer. Joe you never earned their love"
I listened
"What do you know about me? Maybe I should just write a really big novel and title it the 'The Extraordinary Misadventures of Joe Abiodun', and it will be a best seller and maybe I'll use the money I make from the book to buy a nice shiny pistol, then shoot myself. Then you'll know you're talking to a failure!"
Radiant listened, there was a mix of sadness in her eyes.
"Throughout my career as a breeder, I've interacted with countless humans. You refused to stand your ground, you have a beautiful mind but you love to follow the ideologies of others, you know what you want but you are afraid of getting it. Love is not an object people keep and misplace, it's a feeling that burns in the soul. You had my love"
My body began to chill from the october wind, my drenched cloth made it worse.
"I know what you feel inside, I can sense your fear ,your happiness, your despair, your confusion. I could sense the feelings you had for me in the five years we were in Uniport. You always admired me, and I always waited for the moment you'll profess your love to me like a real man. Scared that I was too fat and everyone will laugh at you"
For the first time in years I touched her hands, her fingers were webbed but neatly manicured.
"I don't care whether you are fat or thin, human or mermaid. From the moment I saw you, I understood the meaning of love more than advanced mathematics. Will you be my mermaid?"
She laughed in her deep soprano voice. Her warm smile came back to life.
"There is only only one sex in the mermaid race, the taboo humans see in homosexuality, is the contrast in my home. We mermaids believe that love is a divine thought one has for a person, our brains awaken an ability known as 'empathy' it enables us to sense the emotions of people we love, our mind becomes connected to theirs. I was able to feel your pain, your confusion, I loved those thoughts you had of me. The times your testosterone can to life any time you time you stared at my breast, they made me laugh"
My cheek began to burn, Radiant had always been connected to mind that was how she had known about my suicide attempt in Lagos. We heard the buses speed above us, the car horns that wailed through. Once in a while we heard the sirens of police cars scream to action, this was the sound of the Lagos night life on the third mainland bridge. Radiant and I watched the moon, the black sky was full of stars tonight. Our clothes were almost dry, I could see Radiant's flabby stomach slipping out of her armless blouse.
"Let me tell you a little story about me." She said with her gaze fixed at the moon
"I come from Oceanis. A very beautiful place, where the water was bluer than the sky and the white sand beaches sparkled under the sun. Every year the breeding department sent mermaids to earth where they could mate with humans for babies, the babies were to be the next generation of our specie. Slender and beautiful mermaids were often chosen to go earth,they could fit into the human standard of beauty. No one ever thought I could make it, they all said I was fat - big women don't attract humans, it's a turn off . They laughed at me, everyone said I was going to give birth to elephant whales instead of mermaids. Despite the fat shamings I wrote applications to the breeding department, they kept rejecting it because of my size, I continued till one day I was shortlisted. The exams were tough but I passed because I used those moments I was rejected to study for the breeding exams. At the end I was selected among the breeders to go to earth. I wanted to go to Europe, because of the colour of my skin I was posted to Africa. I had heard many frightening stories about the dark continent, I became discouraged in the beginning, after all my struggle why should I be posted to the continent soaked in disease and poverty?. It was a blessing in disguise... most men in this part of the world loved women of size and it wasn't really a bad place. Till this day everything worked to my favour..."
For the first time I noticed she had gills around her neck.
"Do want to go for swim?"
"No, I can't swim... and we just came out of the water" after what happened tonight I was not sure I would ever go near the waters.
"That's you. This is my threat. Or don't you want these?" She jiggled her breast, my face turned red. I began to get erect, and without warning she threw into the river, dresses and all.
In the river I began to loose my breath, the same feeling of life and vitality sipping from me - the type I felt when I wanted to die. Radiant forced another blue pill into my mouth, like menthol sweet in the mouth my nostrils began to clear till I could breathe in the water. My body felt heavy in the water, radiant began to unzip my jean and remove my shirt. My penis got erect. As we started, I could feel her legs transform into a 10 ft long fish tail. For the first time I was free, finally I was with the girl of my dreams. No one was watching us. No Dr Solomon to criticize me for being with a girl...

I woke up to blast of a trailer horn. There was me wet and cold under a bridge, I didn't know what time it was but it was morning hours.The fishermen just rowed by in their canoes, not giving me the slightest attention, probably they thought I was just another destitute who lived under bridges. A stallion. It was white and majestic, the animal seemed to have been around for a long time if not watching me sleeping. A white stallion sitting under a bridge, after having sex with a plus size mermaid nothing seemed mysterious to me. The horse walked lazily to me, it snorted and shook it's head, a letter and something else hung around it's neck. I patted the creature and removed the enveloped letter with the object. Opening the envelope, the letter read:

Hi,
Sorry if my horse gave you trouble, his name is Atlas (well trained). Last night was rough. Guess what, I think I'm pregnant. I don't how a one night stand could do that but... If you don't see me, nothing to be scared of I'm in Oceanis. Take this conch and use it wisely, I hope you develop your self esteem and be what you want to be.

Thanks for loving me.
R


I looked at letter. Radiant was gone so soon.
The stallion was leaving, his duty was complete.
"Wait!!" I called "can you take me to Radiant?, at least to say goodbye..."
The stallion did not, he didn't stop moving. He entered the river and the creature submerged into the deep.
I tore open the package. As the letter said, it was a conch but never mentioned it was a diamond encrusted crescent shaped conch. It reflected under the morning sunlight, the most beautiful thing I had touched.

The pawnbroker thought I was a thief, so I sold the diamond conch to Mr Al Azzim, a big Kuwaiti oil investor. He bought it for $1'500'000 - convert it to naira. With the money, I got a flat and saved the rest of the money at the bank on a fixed deposit. I got a full-time job as a laundryman, and when I made enough money, I wrote JAMB and got accepted into the University of Lagos to read Literature and Creative Writing. Four years after, I graduated and started a business with the conch money as capital.
At the end I got my Visa and traveled to the United Kingdom to further my education in creative writing. During my writing class, I wrote my novel "Radiant"- it became a best seller in the UK.
I became a popular writer,during my career I researched about Oceanis and the mermaids, i came out with shocking findings. In every ten young to middle aged women, four were mermaids, many the female celebrities like Beyonce, Katy Perry, The Kardarshian sisters, Emma Watson, and a lot of popular women all over the world in every country were breeders, mermaids sent to mate with humans for the purpose of populating Oceanis, i don't when and how these women crossed both worlds. Though Oceanis was connected to the waters on earth, it was impossible to reach except through dimensional portals which was still science fiction here, compared to the Oceanian civilization ours was primitive. They were two hundred years more advanced in science and technology.

My sister in law just had a baby through a caesarian delivery. I was at the hospital to see the new parents. No visitors were allowed now so I sat at the waiting room, the doctor in charge of the delivery came out of the the theatre. She had an attractive and voluptuous pear shaped body like a BBW model. As she walked by, out of gratitude I stood up and to thank her for helping my sister in law, at that moment the doctor removed her surgical mask, saw that smile again. I guess everything has always worked in our favour...


END

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Re: The Big Mermaid (an Afro fantasy /sci-fi Short Story) by MisterRuk(m): 9:49pm On Sep 30, 2018
Hi everyone
Thanks for reading my story. Follow me on wattpad @MisterRuk for more black speculative fiction.
P.S: leave a comment below.

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Re: The Big Mermaid (an Afro fantasy /sci-fi Short Story) by Winnairaking100: 12:33pm On Oct 01, 2018
U be real uniport boy
Carry on

1 Like

Re: The Big Mermaid (an Afro fantasy /sci-fi Short Story) by Ayemileto(m): 2:58pm On Oct 01, 2018
nice story.
short and interesting.
Re: The Big Mermaid (an Afro fantasy /sci-fi Short Story) by MisterRuk(m): 8:16pm On Oct 01, 2018
Winnairaking100:
U be real uniport boy
Carry on
Yeah, I rep accounting dept

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