Thanks to my friend at A Dragon Year for the inadvertent inspiration for this story.
Life in the Sun
It took a while to figure out that the mermaid wasn’t hostile. It took even longer to figure out it wasn’t a maid, it was a mer-dude. Then it took forever to find out what he wanted when he swam up the Thames and stared intently at Parliament. Mer-people could apparently understand English, but were not able to speak.
The press conference was conducted with a type of sign language, made more complicated by the merman’s webbed hands.
“Why are you here?” they asked.
“I am here because I have lived in British waters for my whole life but where has my representation been? You tax us by taking our fish but what do we get out of it? Give representation to the undersea inhabitants of the realm or there will be revolution!”
A year later, the mer-man, Sirenio, was elected the first MP from newly-created constituency of the Solent.
The next day, the Sun’s headline screamed: NEWLY ELECTED MERMAN MP CAUGHT EMBEZZLING SAND DOLLARS!
The Green-Walled Tower 
January 5th, 2014 at 2:41 pm
Nice to know mer-dude (love that) politicians are just as crooked as their land-lubber counterparts! Great story!
January 5th, 2014 at 3:22 pm
As soon as he starts on politics, he turns so human. so well done. imaginative
January 7th, 2014 at 8:38 pm
Thanks. I guess no one’s immune to greed.
January 5th, 2014 at 4:05 pm
In other news, Guardian reported that Feminists and other rights group also wanted to change the term as merMaid was consididered derogatory (they are not our servants why would the mer females be called mer-maids), ultimately it was decided that all beings belonging to the sea will be called merperson. Writer of this story then was cricticised for being sexist and asked to apologise to the rest of the mer nation.
I hope you don’t mind 🙂
January 5th, 2014 at 4:08 pm
That sounds perfect. 🙂
January 5th, 2014 at 4:28 pm
🙂
January 5th, 2014 at 5:05 pm
I wonder how they caught the thieving merman – did they smell something fishy?
January 7th, 2014 at 8:38 pm
Probably he left a trail of seawater. He’ll probably get 5-10 years in the aquarium if he’s convicted.
January 5th, 2014 at 5:28 pm
Excellent. I like that. Great use of the prompt 🙂
January 7th, 2014 at 8:37 pm
Thanks.
January 7th, 2014 at 9:07 pm
🙂
January 5th, 2014 at 8:44 pm
then he must have been a man disguised as a merman! :p
just loved the story David. 🙂
January 5th, 2014 at 10:12 pm
It’s interesting that most people took it as if he were guilty. I kind of meant it as they were just making up stories about him. But it works either way. Glad you liked it. 🙂
January 7th, 2014 at 3:04 pm
i will write a mushy romance involving a merman! 🙂
thanks for giving a new channel to write on! I have a serious plan of writing 100 romantic stories this year. see if i can churn out some nice stories in the favorite genre without any experience in the field, after all, jack nichlson was a boom boom hit romance writer in “as good as it gets” despite being severely schizophrenic, 🙂
January 7th, 2014 at 3:31 pm
Good luck! I don’t usually read romance stories, but I’ll read yours. 🙂
January 7th, 2014 at 11:56 pm
i will try to keep them sane and sensible!
January 6th, 2014 at 12:14 am
AnElephant knows and loves Mermaids (not in any way a derogatory term, they are not insecure enough to be pathetically PC) and knows that they and their male counterparts are honest, caring and loving, as well as extraordinarily talented artists.
Trust the Sun to be untrustworthy.
Loved your tale.
January 7th, 2014 at 8:36 pm
I agree. I’d give him the benefit of the doubt at least.
January 6th, 2014 at 2:12 am
This is a very fun story. It made me laugh. I love the part about the newspaper reporting that the merman was caught embezzling sand dollars!
January 7th, 2014 at 8:36 pm
So, do you think he did it or are they just smearing him? How trustworthy is the Sun’s reporting anyway. 🙂
January 6th, 2014 at 2:40 am
Too funny. Very creative.
January 7th, 2014 at 8:35 pm
Thanks. 🙂
January 6th, 2014 at 10:44 am
Very well written and who is to say it couldn’t happen.
January 6th, 2014 at 11:15 am
Oh a mer-dude…wonderful!!! Great tale.
January 7th, 2014 at 8:34 pm
Thanks. 🙂
January 6th, 2014 at 11:26 am
LOL, great story, very witty 🙂 However, I just want to say…He’s innocent! He has no use for sand dollars. For crying out loud, he doesn’t even have pockets! Look very closely at the seagulls. With a duly elected MP in the ocean, they’ll no longer be able to pilfer the pilchards. Someone needs to tell them to keep their beaks out of things.
January 6th, 2014 at 12:09 pm
Exactly, it’s all a smear campaign, I’m sure.
January 7th, 2014 at 6:52 am
Ha! Brilliant! I guess the behavior of politicians is the same in other species.
January 7th, 2014 at 8:19 pm
I guess power corrupts under the sea as well, I guess.