Into the Blue

You would have never guessed what happened. In the wonderful, blue depth of the Pacific Ocean I met a mermaid.
It occurs to me how unbelievable this may seem, mermaids are purely a fictional character meant to lull children to sleep with the sweetness of bubble gum fairy tales. They do exist, and I met one.
I was searching for my golden pocket clock which I had lost in the midst of an unusual storm that left as quickly as it had come. I was sifting through the sand at the beach-the last place I had been before the storm and where I assumed I had lost my pocket clock. As I dug through the sand I remembered that I had taken off my jacket in the cave farther down the beach, and that my golden pocket clock was in my jacket's inner pocket.
I was making my way down to the cave when I heard a loud shriek that echoed from the stone walls. I ran toward the cries expecting to find a victim of the monstrous storm. What I found was a mermaid, washed up by a rogue wave. I stood at the entrance to the cave in bewilderment. Her face was as pretty as a cupcake. She was everything and more that I had ever imagined a mermaid to be. My little girl dreams of meeting a mermaid came true.
As beautiful as she looked sitting in that cave, she had a look of distress from being out of water. I helped her get back to the water, where the sand bled into the salty ocean. She swam out into her aquatic world, her head above water. She turned so that she was facing me then raised her arm until it was vertically straight above water. Inside of her lightly clenched fist was my golden pocket clock. I swam out to retrieve my precious heirloom. Just as I reached her, she pulled me under, into her world of blue.
With a smile on her face she led me on a tour of her home. She led me deeper and deeper into her world and showed me the constant paradise that remains below sea level. The water moved with us in perfect harmony. It was lovely to be in the big blue and in the company of a mermaid.
From the corner of my eye a silver streak flickered in and out of sight. My heart beat quickened as I mustered up the courage to look over my shoulder to see what it was. Behind me was a gigantic, ferocious shark. I grabbed at the mermaids arm and tried to pull her to protection from the monster that was coming toward us. To my horror and surprise she ripped her arm from my grip and swam towards the demonic beast. I was terrorized, that was until I watched the mermaid run her hand soothingly along the creatures side. Never in my entire life had I seen a shark be friendly and gentle, all the sharks I had seen on TV were made out as blood thirsty killers. Watching the friendliness between the mermaid and shark made me think twice about the presumptions I made about things, without having any evidence to support it.
After our encounter with the shark, the mermaid led me to a mountain of rusted and eroded pocket clocks and other random items of value. Each worn down item was a person, someone who let their narrow minds keep them from following the unknown. Each item fled at the first sight of the shark, or didn't dare follow the mermaid into the water. It saddened me to think that most people never gave her or the shark a chance to prove themselves.
As I emerged from the water and made my way back to land, I made a promise to myself to never judge something before I know what it is. For the mermaid and the shark, I was going to open my mind. And I swear to you that is exactly how it went down.