Aquata Cove Ch. 56

"Oh- Wha- Come on, Jamal, I'm no performer. I was just trying to make things right."

"I'm telling ya man, you're a hella lot better than some of the people we got goin here."

"I don't know..."

"Look, it's a good deal," Jamal said, "For free-lancers, management pay after the performance, not a lot though, maybe like, $100 for one night. But if they like what they see, they might ask you to apply for a regular part-time job."

"What, no one works full-time there?"

"Not the performers. They come and go, that's why it's only part-time fo dat."

"Hmm..."

"C'mon, man. It's good money worth makin, and we don't got a lot of good performers lately."

"... Ok... I guess I can give it a shot." Adam conceded.

"Bitchin!" Jamal said with grin.

"So how soon can I apply to sign up?"

"I can prolly get one-a the bosses to have a phone-interview today. What time you get off?"

"Around 5 O'clock today - in about an hour."

"I thought you said yo hours were cut in half?"

"This is the last 8-hour shift I'm going to have until further noice." Adam said gloomily.

"Ah, aight. I'll let'em know you interested, see what we can do."

"Ok, sounds good."

"Aight, later man."

"Bye."

Jamal hung up, and pocketed his phone. "YO!" He howled, "JER-RY!!"

~~~

Merrick waits patiently in a small, secluded room, sitting at a round table, with one other singular seat for the manager to come and interview him. He feels totally nervous about this whole thing, one might say that he's reluctant. He brings his arm up, and wipes off a dab of sweat from the side of his head with his sleeve.

All this time, he's avoided looking into finding employment because it would mean giving up his former life as a merman, and giving into a foreign existence as a human. Honestly, he still feels disdain for even doing this. He'd rather go to Atarah for visit, maybe swim in the river with Oyana the bunyip.

As much as he wants to hold on to what's left of his identity, now is no longer the time to indulge in waning pride. It's time to grow up, and let go to the idea of returning to the sea. He must let go of Merrick the Piscien Triton, and enter the new way of Merrick Piscien the workingman.

He grimaces as he dabs off another blotch of sweat from his head, "Ugh..." He wiped it his palm on the side of his shirt, "Disgusting..." He remarked on the sweat.

The door opened, and Nick walks in, stopping as he sees the merman, "Oh hey, man!" Nick said as he pumped his fist with Merrick.

"Nick, hi!" Merrick greeted back.

"What's up, man?"

"I decided to apply for a job here. I'm waiting for someone called the 'Manager' now."

"Ah, no kiddin man!" Nick said with a bright smile, "That sounds awesome! This is a great place to work, trust me."

"Yeah... Yuri says we're on something called a 'Low Budget'. I'm still not so sure what that means exactly, but it's bad. So I want to try and help."

"Muy bien!" Nick nodded, "Good luck, man, I hope you get hired!" He clapped onto Merrick's hand, holding it for a tight grip.

"Me too. Yuri says it's hard to land a job at all, especially with someone like me."

"Aight man." Nick said with a confident nod. He then pulled the other chair back, and say in it, "Ok now-"

"Wait," Merrick said, "Isn't the manager supposed to sit there?"

"Kinda, yeah." Nick said with a grin. "Take a look, man." Nick tapped on the shiny gold-colored tag on his uniform shirt. Merrick squinted as he recognized the name 'Nick Rodriguez'. Merrick slowly sounds out the word above.

"Ma... Na... Ger??" He looked up at Nick in bewildered awe.

"Aight, first question," Nick says with a grin, "What can you tell me about yourself?"

~~~

Kevin pulls into the drive-way of his house - his darn boss INSISTED that he'd go all the way back to his house just to retrieve an old Pacman trophy from back in his childhood days, she said she'll make up for his break.

"Nicole REALLY couldn't wait till tomorrow? She has to have me get the freakin trophy now?" Frankly, he doesn't even think it's the trophy she wants. His boss just likes to jerk the employees around once in a while, not that big a deal. As if he doesn't get enough of that from Syrinx already.

He grumbled as he stepped out of his car, and threw the door closed. He entered the house and strode though, "I'm back, honey!" He called out, "Just for a sec though, I just have to pick something up."

There was no response. Kevin went into the bedroom, and stepped into the closet for a moment. "Think it's in one of these... Ah, here we go." Kevin took the old, pixel-stylized goblet with Pacman mounted at the rim on top.

"Ok, gotta go." Kevin said as he walked out of the bedroom, "Can I get a kiss before I take off?" He asked. Still no response, "... Babe?" He called. Kevin looked around, trying to find his girlfriend with just a glance here and there, "Syrinx?"

He wandered for a few more seconds, before spotting her in the kitchen, "Syrinx??" He strode, and gasped as he saw his girl in front of the open fridge door, motionless, "Oh my God!!" He scrambled in there, and ducked down, "SYRINX!" Kevin felt along her skin, and checked her neck. She's still breathing.

"Fuck, not again! Not now!" He groaned with worry as he tucked his arms in and around her, and carefully picked up his unconscious mermaid, closing the fridge door behind him.

He knows what to do; it just scares him senseless every time he sees this happen.

~~~Dusk~~~

"Hello?" Adam answered his phone, shortly after punching out for the day.

"Hi, this is Jerry from the Dream Waltz. Can I speak to Adam, please?"

"Speaking."

"Excellent. So you're Jamal's roommate, right? He said you were interested in applying to be a performer?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Alright. So first things first - are you currently employed?"

"Yes. I'm a cart-driver for the Fish House on the Kele-Kolika Pier."

"Alright. So in terms of performance, what can you do?"

"Nothing that special," Adam shrugged, "Just sing, mostly."

"Yes, Jamal showed me a video on his phone of when you sang on stage on a cruise - he said you were performing for your boyfriend after a fight, is that correct?"

"Yeah. To be honest, that was the first time I ever performed in front of an audience."

"How did it feel? Were you nervous, stage fright?"

"A little, but I got with it good enough."

"That's good to hear," Jerry said, as if he was taking a note, "So why do you want to work at the Dream Waltz?"

"My hours got cut in half at my current occupation. I need the work, so my boss advised me to get a second job, and Jamal thinks I've got a good voice."

"Well, for what it's worth, I think you do too." Adam chuckled at that, "Now, are you willing to work holidays and overtime if needed?"

"Yes."

"Alright... Do you have a resume I can take a look at sometime this week?"

"Yes, I can drop it off tomorrow you like."

"That would be great." Jerry said, "Do you have reliable transportation?"

"Yes, I have a motorcycle."

"Very well. Which would you prefer to work - Morning, Noon, or Evenings?"

"I'm pretty flexible with my schedule, but it really depends on my current job."

"Ok, I can work with that..." Jerry made a few side notes, "Alright, now I'm sure Jamal told you we don't normally hire anyone permanently for a part-time position, we mostly hire a certain act or routine for a while then onward, and so forth."

"Yeah, I know."

"So you're more than welcome to sign up for a paid night, but if we like the way you perform, and if we like you, we can set up an official space for you as a Dream member here at the Waltz. Sound good?"

"Sure, that'd be nice." Adam smiled.

"Alright Adam. We have an empty spot on Saturday at 4PM for a three-hour shift. You can see if there's any other kind of performance you might want to try besides singing f you want. Are you ok with that?"

"Yeah, I'll be there!"

"Sounds great, I'll pencil you in then. See you then, and bring your voice."

"Haha, sure thing, and thanks a lot."

"You're welcome, and I hope you have a nice day."

"You too." Adam hung up, smiling as he felt a little more optimistic.

~~~

"Thank you so much, Nick," Merrick endearingly said as Merrick and Nick walked out of the EMPLOYEES ONLY door in the shop, holding a large novelty Lovers gift bag, containing Merrick's new uniform, nametag, and employee handbook.

"Hey, no problem man, I got yo back." He said, "Best practice yo reading a lil bit, but you gonna do just great!"

"I will, and thanks again! I'll be here first thing Monday!" Merrick dutifully replied before saying his goodbyes, and taking off.

Moments later, Merrick is trotting over to the Fish House, smiling with glee as he sees Adam with his motorcycle, his arms crossed and his leather jacket on, smiling right back at him, waiting for him to come, just like every Wednesday.

"Hi Adam!" The merman ran up to him, and hugged him tightly. Adam huffed as he squeezed his beloved boyfriend just as tight.

"Mmm!" They kissed each other for sweetly, tenderly lapping their lips for just a moment before parting, "So how'd it go?"

"I got the job!" Merrick reported eagerly, "I'm start work on Monday as a Sales Associate at Lovers!"

"Oh my God, that's great, honey!" Adam said with wonder as he kissed Merrick again. The merman placed his items into the leather carrier of Adam's motorcycle, and they left for the beach.

Once they made it to the sand, Merrick sits sidesaddle on the seat of the motorbike while Adam pushes it. The sun is half-submerged into the ocean, giving the sky its usual orange twilight. Adam ducks down, and digs his hand into the carrier of his motorcycle.

"Babe?" Adam nudged Merrick's arm a little.

"Hm?" Merrick turned, and chuckled as he sees the Ocalen he made for Adam.

"How about we have our first duet to celebrate, huh?" Adam asked with his charming smile. Merrick blushes sheepishly.

"You're always so romantic, Adam~" Merrick took the instrument, and cleared his throat, "What song?"

"How bout Dark Horse?"

"Mhm..." Merrick swiped his tongue onto his lips, took a breath, and blew deftly into the shell. One hand turns the side of the shell, while the fingertips of his other hand tapped and played a flute-like melody from the shell.

"~Hmhmhmhmmmhmmm~" Adam hummed a little with the tune as he pushed the motorcycle along the sand, "~Make me your one and oooonnlyy ~Hmhmhmmmm~ Hmhmhmmhmhmhm ~Hmhmhm ~Hmhmmmhmmhmmm~"

"~So you wanna play with magic~" Adam sang as Merrick played the shell, "~Boy, you should know what you're faaalling fooorrr ~Baby do you dare to do this? ~Cause I'm coming at you like a daaarrk hooorrrse~"

Merrick matches the sound of the Ocalen in perfect sync with Adam's voice, "~Are you ready for, ready for ~A perfect storm, perfect storm~" The shore washes continuously on the sand, the low squealing of gulls call out in the darkening sky, "~Cause once you're mine, once you're mine~"

"~There's no going back~"

Merrick blew into the shell in a short sequence of notes and tunes, remembering how the song goes in his head.

"~Mark my woooorrds~" Adam lazily continues, imitating Katy Perry's tone as he remembers it, "~This love will make you levitate ~Like a biiirrrd ~Like a bird without a ca-"

Suddenly, Merrick stopped playing his Ocalen. "Merrick?" He looked to his boyfriend, and then looked to where Merrick was starring.

In front of them, a fair distance away, is a dark-skinned man. He walks deliberately on the sand towards them, looking straight at them with a look so solemn on his face as he approaches Adam and Merrick.

He wears very little on his wide-set frame, looking firm and muscular. Around his bald head are rather large shark teeth tied in a tight binding of seaweed. Both bulging biceps and mighty thighs are wrapped with a tight tether adorned with many welded sea glass beads. A somewhat unusual addition is a skimpy cloth strung up around his waist by fishing line that just barely covers his free-hanging manhood, as well as drafting his thick behind.

"Merrick..." Adam mumbled as they looked at this strange, ocean-clad stranger, approaching them slowly on his own time as the sun continued to gradually disappear under the horizon, "Is he..."

"Yes, he is... No doubt about it... But how is he walking..." Merrick muttered as he watched him.

The man stopped walking when he reached almost 10 feet away from the couple. He looks at them with deep green eyes, a trait that stands out from the dark color of his skin, his thick lips showing neither frown nor smile.

"I bid you greetings." He finally spoke onto them in a deep, purposeful voice, "Do not start a conflict - though I am unarmed, I will still defend myself if I must."

Merrick dismounted the motorcycle as he kept a very sharp and close eye on the newcomer. He can't seem to make a judgment on him, but...

"We won't hurt you," Adam spoke up, "What do you want?"

"I am here..." The man answered, "For the Coshiton."