The Fate of Love BY JENN WEBSTER

(Canva art by Jenn Webster)

The next day, Mani told Terri about all that had happened; Terri then replied this to Mani: “Oh, my darling, I just don’t know what to say about this…Why would your parents ever do such a cruel thing to you by making you be married to another mermaid?” “For one reason and one reason only,” Mani replied to Terri, “it is to please the mayor of a neighboring undersea city! My father says that if I marry the mayor’s daughter, then my parents will have all the perks from him, and by perks, I mean money and such!” Terri became surprised and shocked; she then said to Mani, “I just cannot believe that you would marry a mermaid just so your parents could have money from the mayor! That’s not loyalty and love…That, I think, is bribery!” Mani replied to Terri, “Well, I do not have any choice-I had to make this decision just to make my mother and father happy! However, there's still a chance our love will survive this, whether my parents like it or not! So tomorrow, when I meet the mayor’s daughter, I shall tell her and my parents just exactly how I feel about this whole affair!” At first, Terri asked Mani if she could come with him, but Mani said no, exclaiming that this was a man’s work; then he swam off, leaving Terri behind. However, Terri thought that, nevertheless, she had to find out what Mani’s parents were up to when it came to arranging a marriage. The next day, Mani went to his parents’ place while Terri secretly followed him.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the neighboring undersea kingdom was talking with his daughter, who goes by the name of Coralle; the mayor began, “Well, my dear, I am so delighted that this day has come, but I am also sad that it has come all too soon! But in all honesty, I would not be this sad because I will not only lose a daughter, but I am gaining a son, a son-in-law who goes by the name of Mani! Now, how would you feel about all of this, my dear?” Coralle, who had been betrothed to Mani as an infant, is now grown, but she now has second thoughts about marrying Mani once the plans for the wedding have been set. Coralle said to her father, “Well, father, I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. I have thought this over for a while, and now I would like to tell you, father, that I really do not think I am going to go through with this planned marriage! And besides, why should I marry someone whom I do not know when he was just a baby?” At first, the mayor was skeptical of what his daughter had just said; he then took a deep breath, sighed, and told her, “Oh, my dear, why would you not want to be married now that you are grown? You have said this yourself when you were just a child that you wanted to meet Mani when I said that you would meet him when you are older. And now, you told me earlier that you do not want to get married yet? Why, my dear?”

Coralle began, “Well, you see, father, I really want to have my own life, one to be lived on my own. Would I want to be happy with an arranged marriage? To marry someone that I don’t even know would imprison me, away from my freedoms. If I really want to get married, I only want it to be for two things: Loyalty, empathy, and love.” After hearing his daughter say those words, the mayor finally realized that maybe marriage isn’t about perks for the groom’s parents but about something else: Love, loyalty, friendship, kindness, and devotion. He then said to his daughter, “Well, if it means something to you, then you have my word.” Coralle then hugged her father, and then they got ready for their visit. That afternoon, Mani and his parents were awaiting the arrival of the mayor and his daughter, Coralle; Terri, meanwhile, had been secretly following Mani in the hopes that nothing could go wrong in that meeting. A few minutes later, Coralle and her father arrived without any hitches that would have caused them to be late. Coralle began speaking about her issue regarding her pending marriage to Mani; finally, she said this: “After careful consideration, I feel that I have made my final decision in turning down the offer of marriage to Mani.”

Mani was secretly relieved that the arranged marriage had been turned down, as was Terri, who had been following him in secret all this time; Coralle then thanked Mani’s parents for inviting her and her father to this meeting, and then they both swam off. Surprisingly, Mani’s parents neither sounded angry nor disgusted; then Mani’s father told his son, “Well, maybe we were wrong about this whole marriage thing…” Just then, Mani answered, “Well, that’s just great, because I would not marry any mermaid if she were the last mermaid on earth!” Hearing this, Terry became heartbroken and angrily swam away. Mani, meanwhile, saw Terri from a distance and began swimming after her, hoping to tell her he did not mean what he had said. Just then, a giant hand snatched Terri and took her up to the surface… TO BE CONTINUED…

Wow, what a cliffhanger! How will everything get resolved? Stay tuned in either January or February to find out if there will EVER be a happy ending for them! In the meantime, if you want to enjoy more storytelling excitement, get my new Kindle book, “The Alley of No Return”, which is available for purchase now at this link right here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJ69TTQV