I'm a mermaid, but also a weremaid--I can walk around and pass for human on land, but if I swim for a minute or two, my tail regrows.

I'm happy being a shifter--the worst limitation is that I can only wear dresses or big T-shirts and loose sandals around water; my sprouting tail rips pants, shoes and swimsuits apart. After a certain amount of sartorial torture--literal panties in a knot. Not a comical phrase when it really happens to you.

So I have to live in a pretty warm climate, and no Arctic vacations--just in case. But really, exploring rivers, lakes, reefs and deep seas more than makes up for it.

I'm not just a weremaid. I'm a queermaid; I like this human girl. And I think she may just like me back. But she's got a secret sorrow distracting her from even the possibility of romance. I've been hovering, wondering what it is.

One day I find her on a riverbank gloomily eyeing the water. At last I suspect what her secret is! I decide to take a chance. Wade in till my tail grows, then wriggle out and wave it dry till it splits into legs again. Her eyes get big and round, but she doesn't run.

I sit on the stone bank by her and just.. hold her. She bursts into tears and clings to me.

As I suspected, she's a weremaid too. One who's been hiding her whole life, knew no one like her, assumed she was a freak. No. Just half merfolk, half human... and all adorable.

And with luck and patience, all mine.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• Weremaids: recently read the Emily Windsnap kids' fantasies by Lee Kessler. Emily's mom steered her away from swimming, so it's a shock when she has to take a swim class and grows a tail in the pool. Mom withheld a few trivial details about her absent dad...
  One detail in the series felt wrong. Emily has no trouble growing a tail while in jeans or a swimsuit. This dream pointed out neglecting topology leads to... ow. Shapeshifters need simple, shuckable clothes.
• Riverbank, crying: on Vera, a girl's found dead in the river. Accident, suicide? Neither! Strangled. A quarrel? No. Her apartment's ransacked, her laptop gone. Turns out she'd uncovered moneylaundering... Strong writing & acting; no villains, just people cutting moral corners to get by--except the true killer, who fooled everyone. But then I expect that; Vera is the best-written BBC mystery (Brit TV has fine acting but often weak scripts.)
• Queer girls find each other: I just started Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear; Karen & Priya are prostitutes in love in a 1900s steampunk Seattle, fighting racism sexism pimpism and fiendish devices. With dirigibles. For there must be dirigibles!
• ACTION: Face it. I'm a weirdo--and I'll be happiest with other weirdos. And how to find them? Come out of the closet. In every way.

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