The Cowboy and the Mermaid

The Cowboy and the Mermaid

The rising sun paints a pink and gold glow to the sky. It is another beautiful morning in Sunlit Tides. Dwight gets up and stretches his body trying to work the kinks out. He limps out to kitchen to see what might be available for breakfast. He finds a box of waffle mix and decides to make those. He loved eating waffles that the ranch cook made. He follows the directions and soon has a batch in the oven. While he waits for them to cook he thinks about the noises that woke him during the night. It almost sounded like someone was swimming in the pool. He thinks to himself that he should have got up and checked. He notices smoke coming from the stove, black smoke.
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Dwight is just a bit disgusted with himself that he can't cook simple waffles. He grabs a bottle of juice from the fridge and has that instead. After he cleans up he is still in pain. He takes one of his pain pills and grabs a book out of the bookcase and relaxes on the bed reading while waiting for the meds to kick in. He falls asleep as the pain eases.
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Lorelei wakes up and grabs a book to read. Technology for Luddites is apparently the perfect book for the technophobic mermaid. She reads until her eyes start crossing with all the techno-jargon in the book. She fixes a bowl of sushi and enjoys every last bite. She hurries out to the waters and spends her day swimming around the islands hunting for other merpeople and collecting seashells for the science lab. (authors disclaimer...@cravenlestat picked out the 'jammies'. I didn't change them. lol)
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Dwight awakens from his med induced nap. He's hungry. He finds a microwavable meal in the freezer and decides to fix that for dinner. It's not very tasty, but, it is not burned. He finishes his meal and makes a phone call to the realtor. He is in too much pain to be climbing up and down the steps to get supplies and things he wants. The realtor suggests a local delivery service that is reliable. Dwight calls and places his order with them.
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The delivery guy was prompt and once he realized Dwight's injuries, he mounted the big screen wall tv for Dwight. He also brought up a case of the brew that Dwight ordered. Dwight thanked him, gave him a big tip and told him he would call him again in a few days.
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Dwight sat on the sofa watching the big game on the new TV and enjoyed a few brews that took the edge off the pain. After the game he read one of the books from the bookcase. He slept pretty good that night and was not awakened by any unusual sounds during the night.
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Lorelei stayed in the waters quite late searching for shells. Suddenly she senses another presence. A merman! An old merman! He introduces himself as Jarrett Fernandes. They talk for a long time and Lorelei finds out there are other merpeople living in the waters as well as in town. (They have much in common and he can get hearts and look all he wants, but, he better not touch! I think the game created him based on her traits. Kinda spooky. )
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The sun is rising and casts its flames across the waters turning the dive lot into a rosy glowing landscape.
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Lorelei is tired and swims out of the cave she explored. She found another shell and some minerals that she can sell in town. Once she gets a nap she will go to the science lab and turn in the shells she found for them.
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The waters of the pool tempt Lorelei into taking a quick dip before heading into her house for a nap. She wonders if anyone is going to rent the beach house or will she have access to the pool all summer. She wishes she had room on her property for a pool.
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