Quote:Dearest Not-Not Richard,

I suppose I brought this upon us, and I apologize. Much as my mind continues to wander what could be, and what could have been, the distance is greater than postal. That you humored me this far is gracious. That you have vastly raised my expectations for the men I may in the future pursue, less so.

I jest. (Mostly.)

Perhaps the light in this darkness you need is not another ship lost at sea, but a creature used to navigating the seas themselves. Perhaps, for you, I can keep these scales and keep my distance. Is it so much to live two worlds apart when these worlds intersect so sweetly?

There is a Danish author who wrote a story of a mermaid. She wanted nothing more than to be loved, but her attractions were peculiar for her species. It was not another mermaid (merman?) she sought to ease her loneliness, but a human. A human man at great distance, whom she could only watch. This love drove her to seek ludicrous things. She made a Faustian deal based on the mere chance that she could invoke in this man the feelings he evoked in her. What commences from here is several passages of phallic, sword-and-unpleasant-impalement imagery.

In the end, the prince chooses a woman who is not even who he thinks she is over a mermaid who suffers her own form of a death by a thousand cuts and a dash of salt over her still-dying body.

Let us not be another tragedy in each others’ stories. We have enough tragedies on the horizon. My heart clenches with every Oscar Wilde headline, but I feel a certain calm in reading your letters.

Sincerely,
-Swordfish