The Hammerhead – A Short Story by C. Le Mroch

A couple of months ago author Susan Schwartz (who I know because of another author friend, Pamela K. Kinney), sent me an email that floored me. (In a good way.) Here’s what she wrote:

Courtney,

I have been enjoying Haunt Jaunts for a couple of years now, but only just checked out your website.

I saw you have several stories in Chicken Soup. Congrats! I have been trying for a couple of years now to get a story in their book. One day!

I also noticed you have a story called Hammerhead……………….. I positively love hammerhead sharks and was wondering if it was about the creatures. If so, where might I find a copy of the story as I would love to read it.

Thanks much and jaunt on…

“The Hammerhead.” I hadn’t read it in years but it’s one of my favorite stories because it’s based on an experience I had when I really saved a baby hammerhead, very similar to the shark rescue described in the story.

The trouble was, did I still have it? Had it been one of the stories swallowed in a computer crash?

I told her I’d look and if I still had it, I’d share it on my blog. I finally had a chance to hunt it down and to my relief I had it.

So here it is. A rare story under my nom de plume, C. Le Mroch. For Susan’s enjoyment (hopefully) as well as for anyone else who has an interest in reading it.

Genres: Mystery and Fantasy mixed with a smidge of Romance.

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The Hammerhead

Something was in the water. Sadie stood on the sand staring out at the sea, scanning the waves. Out of the corner of her eye she’d spotted movement, but she hadn’t turned her head fast enough to catch sight of whatever it was.

It was probably just a dolphin, but… It hadn’t quite moved in that way. Then again, she hadn’t seen it with anything more than her peripheral vision. Nothing was quite what it seemed when you didn’t look at it straight on, was it?

It didn’t help that she couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. But that was silly. She was almost alone on the beach, and the few people who were around were preoccupied with their own pursuits. Behind her, about fifty yards away, two fishermen had poles cast into the water. One of the men was by himself, but another had his family –his wife and two children—with him. Ahead of her, maybe one hundred yards, a couple strolled hand in hand, stopping occasionally to kiss.

She shook off her unease, scolding herself for letting the news reports get the best of her. Okay, so yes, in the last couple of weeks there’d been a rash of attacks at the beaches, from Neptune Beach to the north down to Ponte Vedra in the south, where she was walking. Most happened in the late afternoon to people who were alone. But since then police presence had been increased. Why, she’d seen two patrol cars drive through the parking lot when she first arrived. She was safe.

Besides, it wasn’t like the attacks had come from the ocean. The people had all been on land, jumped most likely from someone hiding in the dunes. The only things watching her from the water were the pelicans bobbing on the breakers. And they seemed more interested with catching their dinners than with her.

When nothing else surfaced, Sadie went back to searching the sands. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular, though she often found shark’s teeth at this beach. She just liked wandering the shoreline and letting her mind wander as well. The scent of the sea breeze, the feel of the sand between her toes, the coolness of the tide washing over her feet, all of it soothed her spirit when the demands of modern day living frazzled her nerves.

A little while later she decided to turn around. The sun would be setting soon. It was time to head home.

As she neared the fisherman whose family was with him, she spotted a cache of sea goodies she hadn’t seen in a long time: sand dollars and mermaid’s purses.

She smiled as she bent over to study the specimens. They were extraordinary for two reasons. One, because there were so many, and, two, because there were so many that were whole. Especially the sand dollars. She might find a chunk of one here or there, but to find over a dozen all in one place and none that were broken? Amazing!

She bent down to pick up one of the mermaid’s purses, which was what the black, rubbery pouches skates were hatched from were nicknamed, and found a miniature starfish hiding beneath. She was overcome by a wave of nostalgia.

She walked the beaches after work searching the sands because her grandmother had taught her to do so. As Sadie grew older, she understood her grandmother’s jaunts to the beach were sojourns for her soul. It was her form of meditation, one Sadie had adopted as well. But when Sadie was a little girl, she saw her grandmother as a beachcomber extraordinaire.

Trips to the beach were magical excursions. To others the things Gram found might seem mundane, but to her strands of seaweed were strands of mermaid hair washed up from an underwater beauty shop.

“Guess no wigs will get made from this,” Gram would say. No matter how many times she heard it –which was almost every time they visited the beach—it had always caused Sadie to smile.

There was a whole culture under the sea that Gram knew about, a legion of mer-people who were part fish and part human.

“Fairies of the depths, they are. Their homes are built of seashells, they use sand dollars for money, and seahorses are their pets. They’re also distrustful of us, their land-dwelling human cousins. They could walk with us if they wanted to, but they prefer to keep their fins instead.”

“Why, Grandma?”

“Why what? Why are they distrustful of us, or why do they keep their fins?”

“Both.”

“Well, they’re not too sure about us because most of us seem afraid of the water. They don’t understand why we don’t believe in them and call on them for help when we need it.”

“They can help us?”

“Sure! So if you’re ever in trouble in or near the water, just send a yell out for help. A mer-person will get you to safety.”

“That’s cool! But why don’t they want to be with us all the time?”

Gram had cast her a sly look before answering.

“Well, if you could swim with dolphins all day long wouldn’t you?”

Sadie had giggled and nodded. Of course she would!

“Me too,” Gram had confided.

That was the same day Sadie had found a starfish.

 “Oh! You know what this is, don’t you, Sadie?”

“Of course, Grandma, it’s a starfish.”

“Oh no, it’s much more than that. You know how we have wishing stars in the heavens?”

Sadie had nodded.

“This is a wishing star of the sea.”

“Really?”

“Sure is! What a lucky find. It’s almost as good as finding a genie in a bottle. Now make a wish and toss it in the water. But don’t tell me what you wished because it’s like a birthday wish —it won’t come true if you share it with anyone else.”

Sadie had made a wish that she would grow up to be as wise and wonderful as her grandma.

Today, as she made a different wish from that one so many years ago and walked to the water to toss the starfish into the waves, a commotion broke out to her right. The fisherman with the family called to his son to bring him the net. The son was jumping around rooting his dad on. Sadie noticed the pole was bent sharply over and the man was struggling to reel in whatever he’d hooked. Seconds later a three-foot long hammerhead squirmed onto shore, anxious to be free of the hook that held it.

Catching hammerheads was a common occurrence along that particular stretch of beach, but this fisherman and his family were either new to the area or were tourists. Sadie watched as the boy screamed to his sister to come look at the shark. The mother, looking very wary, accompanied her daughter. The family circled around it, the kids shrieking with delight.

The woman ran to get a camera, then the man posed with his catch. Then they set it down on the sand and more pictures were taken.

Sadie grew anxious. Were they going to keep the fish or not? If not, they needed to quit snapping pictures and get it back in the water. Finally, the man picked the shark back up and released the hook from the its mouth, but instead of throwing it back he dropped it on the sand, yowling in pain as he grabbed his finger.

“It bit me! It bit me!”

The wife ran to help her husband, and the kids, screaming, ran away from the shark. Meanwhile, the poor hammerhead was left too far up from the tides to squirm his way to the water. Sadie normally wouldn’t have interfered, but she felt such a keen sense of compassion for the poor shark. It was desperate, that much was clear. She couldn’t let a living thing suffer like that.

She ran down to the water’s edge, scooped up the shark, and carried it into the ocean. She looked down and was immediately struck by the shark’s beautiful, yet oddly positioned, eyes. One golden-flecked orb with hints of sea blue in the iris was perched on either end of its hammer-like snout. It stared back up at her, its mesmerizing eyes filled with fear, knowing, and the desperate struggle to remain alive. It had used a lot of energy squirming on the sand trying to free itself; it would never be able to get itself past the breakers now.

She waded deeper into the water, bouncing with the waves as they crashed near her. She held the shark with one hand on the tail, one hand by the head, moving it gently back and forth. She thought she remembered hearing that was a trick fisherman used when releasing their catches, to re-acclimate the fish to water. She didn’t know if it would work for sharks, but it was all she knew to try.

“Please, baby, hang on. I’m trying to help you. Please trust that I’m on your side. I don’t mean you any harm, little fella. I’ll let you go as soon as I get you past the swells.”

She just had a little farther to go, but she couldn’t touch bottom anymore. She had to resort to placing the shark out in front of her and kicking. Finally, she cleared the waves. Treading water and continuing to move the shark back and forth, she felt its muscles spasm. It thrashed with renewed vigor.

“That’s right. You’re going to be fine, aren’t you?” she said as she let him go.

He circled a little, turned to her, paused as if contemplating her, then dove towards the depths and out of sight.

As much as she could, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she realized how far out from shore she was when she turned around to head back in.

Her sense of being watched returned. She didn’t feel alone in the water. What if that little hammerhead was just a baby and mamma was somewhere nearby? Sadie put her heart into paddling back to shore pronto.

When she got there an angry fisherman and his family were waiting for her.

“Why didn’t you let it die?” the man accused.

“Yeah. Thanks a lot, lady. That’s one more shark my children have to swim with now,” the wife scolded.

Sadie was speechless. She hadn’t thought about it that way. She’d simply wanted to help. She skulked away and headed for her car, scolding herself for again not thinking before she acted. Yes, she’d saved that shark’s life, but now she had to drive home in soaking clothes, as she didn’t have a towel on hand.  She hadn’t planned to go swimming after all, just beachcombing.

But, as she wrung out her shirt and shorts the best she could before she got in her car, she remembered the shark’s beautiful eyes. It was worth it, saving its life. It was worth the fisherman and his family’s disdain, and it was worth the soggy ride home.

A week later Sadie found herself back at the beach. It was cooler this time. Late October in northeast Florida was fickle. One week, like last week, it was summertime-warm in the eighties. But this week had taken a turn towards fall and temperatures had dropped to highs in the upper sixties. And the water temps, like the air temperature, had also plummeted, from low seventies to mid-sixties, thanks to a storm system that had blown in earlier in the week. 

She hadn’t gone but a few steps before the uneasy feeling she’d had the week before returned. She was sure she was being watched.

She looked ahead. Nothing. To her right was a fisherman. Behind her a man was running down the beach with his dog. 

She studied the water. No surfers because there were no waves. The ocean was calm tonight.

She was being paranoid again because only two days before it had been reported that someone else had been attacked, only about a mile up from where she was. The news said police had no suspects and no motive. All of the victims, including this last one, had been knocked unconscious but no money or jewelry had been taken.

That’s what gave Sadie the shivers. Random violence. When you couldn’t even take a walk on the beach without fear of being singled out, what left was sacred?

Still, Sadie had been a single girl all her adult life. If she stopped frequenting areas just because people had been attacked there, she’d never go anywhere. As long as she was aware of her surroundings and heeded her instincts, she’d be fine. If she sensed trouble, she’d simply get away from it.

She walked a mile down the beach, scouting the sands again. She remembered the starfish, sand dollars, and mermaid’s purses she’d seen the week before. She’d forgotten all about them when she’d gotten engrossed with saving the shark. She wondered what she might see this week. It was always different, her beach explorations, and that was part of the mystique.

Still, she wished she would’ve taken at least one of the sand dollars. Those were truly rare to come by, unless she wanted to pay five bucks for one in a tourist shop.

But a short time later she stopped suddenly, stunned at the sight before her. Another cache of sand dollars and mermaid’s purses! Even more than the week before. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity again, she stooped down and pocketed a few sand dollars and took one of the mermaid’s purses. Maybe she could make a nice display with them somehow.

As she stood back up she realized the light was waning. Time to turn back around. A splash caught her attention. She stared at the waves. She had that odd sense again, that sense of being watched. Goosebumps sprouted on her arms.

She picked up her pace, but stopped when something surfaced briefly before descending back into the water’s depths. Like last week, she only caught sight of it out of the corner of her eye. Something was out there all right.

Even though she was aware the light around her was fading by the second, the waves were nothing but half-foot swells. With a sea so calm and flat she’d surely get a better glimpse of whatever it was so she stood there watching.

But five minutes later nothing resurfaced. Disappointed, she started on again, resigned to the fact that she’d dawdled too long. Night was going to fall before she’d reach her car. Worse, the man with the dog was gone and the fisherman was packing up for the night. She didn’t like the idea of leaving herself vulnerable on the beach like this, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now.

Except walk faster. Which she did. And this time when the splash sounded and she caught sight of the back end of a fin disappearing under the water, she didn’t stop. Must’ve been a dolphin after all. She couldn’t say for sure. Dusk was heavy and with no moon in the sky to light the night, it was getting hard to make out anything in the inky twilight.

Ahead, she watched the fisherman struggle to carry his pole, bucket, and tackle box. He glanced briefly in her direction, then down the beach, then he set down the bucket and disappeared towards the parking lot with the pole and tackle box. A few minutes later he returned for the bucket. But Sadie noticed he didn’t leave. He hesitated, his focus on her.

She was maybe only a hundred yards from him.

“Hey there,” he called out.

“Hey.”

“You shouldn’t be out here by yourself like this.”

“I know.”

He started towards her.

“You want me to walk you to your car?”

“Oh, that’s not necessary. But thanks for the offer.”

“Ain’t no trouble. I’m going that way anyway.”

Another splash sounded to her right. It was as if whatever was in the water was following her progress along the shoreline. She was suddenly grateful for the fisherman’s company.

“Okay then, we can walk together.” A few steps later she caught up to him. “You catch anything tonight?”

“Naw,” he said, gently swinging the bucket by his side as they walked. “Not what I was hoping for at any rate. You beachcombin’?”

Sadie nodded.

“Find anything good?”

“As a matter of fact I did. Some sand dollars.”

“That a fact?”

“Whole ones. A bunch of them even. But I only took a few. I was happy to find them, because I saw some last week but I didn’t take any and I kind of wish I had.”

“You don’t say. Where ‘bouts did you find ‘em?”

Sadie turned to point, but as she did she noticed the bucket swinging towards her head.

“What the—” she yelled, ducking and moving away from the man.

“Git back here, missy!”

His eyes glinted with a malice that hadn’t been there moments before. Was this the man responsible for all of the attacks?

“Stay away from me!” she yelled.

This time he threw the bucket at her head. She deflected it with her elbow, yowling because it bounced off her funny bone.

His face changed, contorted with rage, but there was something else. His skin rippled, as if something lived beneath the surface.

Sadie turned and ran.

“Want what’s mine is all, missy. Gonna get it, too.”

The sand grabbed at her ankles as she raced away from him. It was thick and hard to move through. She ran towards the water. It was the opposite direction from the parking lot, but the sand was harder there. He was pudgy with a Buddha-sized gut to lumber around. She was lithe and would have a better chance to sprint away from him, if she could just get her footing on more solid ground.

But she underestimated his grace. He lunged for her, catching her calf and pulling her down. She yelped in surprise, then flipped herself over and kicked at him. She hit him in his face…or what had been his face.

His skin had been replaced with scales, his ears had turned into gills. His mouth was evolving as she watched, lengthening, filling with sharp and dangerous looking teeth.

“Ain’t yours to take,” he said, lashing out at her with a hand that was now webbed between the fingers.

For a moment she was frozen by fear. She knew what she was looking at couldn’t be real. Her mind was playing tricks. The light –or lack of it—was to blame for what she thought she saw. Men didn’t just turn into fish…. Did they?

His hair fell from his scalp, turning to seaweed before it hit the sand.

“Help! Help me! Somebody please help!” she screamed, kicking at him again and then pushing to her feet.

She was vaguely aware of a splash from behind her. It reminded her of the hard packed sand she had first been aiming for. She renewed her sprint for the water’s edge, but screamed again when she saw a shape –a very distinct shape—burst forth from the ocean and land on the beach.

It was a hammerhead shark, a much larger version of the one she’d saved the week before. The six-foot shark writhed on the sand, then started taking on a different shape before her eyes. It’s hammer-like snout melted away, the back fins became legs, the fish-body gave way to a human one –a naked male one. Within moments, a human face took form, with sharp, angular features.

“You can’t stop me!” the beast behind her growled.

She spun around and saw the fisherman was now a fish-man –a sort of maniacal looking version of a merman. From the waist down it was still man-like, with legs and feet, webbed though they were. But from the waist up, it was all fish, except for the very odd fin-arms.

Fish-man wasn’t focused on her anymore; he was focused on the shark-turned-man strutting up from the shoreline.

“I can and I will.”

Sadie felt sick, confused, and dizzy. She was aware of the horizon shifting, going from horizontal to vertical. Suddenly the stars came into view, her head hit the sand, but after that all went black.

She didn’t know how much time had passed before she came to. She was only aware of a gentle hand under her neck.

“Hang in there, you’re going to be fine,” a man cooed to her.

She looked up. The moon had risen now. It didn’t provide a lot of light, but enough for her to see into the eyes of the man bending over her. Eyes with blue irises and flecks of gold…

Staring into his eyes Sadie suddenly remembered why she shouldn’t be lying down on the sand with this stranger.

She tensed and pushed away from him, aware once again of his nakedness.

He wasn’t embarrassed, nor did he try to accommodate her embarrassment by covering himself up. He simply stayed knelt down in the sand.

“I won’t hurt you.”

“Where’s the other one?” Sadie asked, looking around.

“Gone.”

Sadie glanced around. From what she could see he was telling the truth.

“What happened?”

“You fainted.”

“I understand that. I want to know who you are. Why did the other guy attack me? What was the other guy? And where’d he go? Ans what are you?”

The man smiled.

“He’s gone. You helped me catch a thief.”

“What?”

“He stole a great deal of money from my family. He stashed it on the beach, certain none of us would come after him. But he didn’t count on humans wanting them too.”

“The sand dollars?” Sadie asked.

The man nodded.

“And then that makes you…I mean, you can’t really be…”

“A merman?” he finished for her, a slight smile on his lips.

It was her turn to nod.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I am.”

“And all of the attacks were over stolen…money?” Sadie asked, incredulous.

The merman nodded.

“That’s what we use for currency, yes. He didn’t anticipate humans wanting it too.”

Sadie immediately felt in her pocket. The ones she picked up were still there.

“Don’t worry. You still have yours. It’s the least I could do to repay you for saving my little brother’s life.”

“Your little brother?”

Then it dawned on her.

“The little hammerhead?”

He nodded. She laughed.

“I hate to tell you this, but saving my life is a far more valuable form of repayment than a few sand dollars.”

He just sat staring at her.

“So why’d he take them?”

“He’s a kingfish, but he lost all of his money. Since kings can’t rule without money, and since it was easier to steal what we had then earn it honestly…”

“I don’t understand. I thought mer-people were half fish, half human.”

“A common misunderstanding of your kind. Mer-people can be either fish or human, depending on whatever shape we decide to take.”

“Any kind of fish?”

“Well, yes. We can be any kind of fish, but not all fish are mer-people.”

Sadie frowned. She was so confused. Surely she wasn’t really having this conversation.

“But why did he live with humans then? I thought your kind didn’t like us.”

“We try to keep our distance, but occasionally we make exceptions. Like I’ve done for you.”

“And him? The kingfish?”

An angry scowl crossed the merman’s features as he looked out across the water.

“He took the guise of a fisherman to try and lure his own kind to their deaths with hook and bait.”

His anger subsided, his features softened, and he turned back to Sadie.

“He was dangerous to both our kinds. But that’s not something either of us will have to worry about now.”

Before Sadie understood what was happening, her new mer-friend placed his hand on her forehead, murmured softly, and lulled Sadie into a deep sleep, leaving her to fall onto the sand unconscious again.

The next time Sadie came to it was to the sounds of someone calling for an ambulance.

She opened her eyes and saw it was still night, even darker now, but this time the man kneeling in front of her was clad in a police officer’s uniform.

“Ma’am, you’re going to be okay.”

“It was a fisherman…no, I mean a fish man. He was the attacker. For sand dollars,” she said, her words racing together.

The officer didn’t even look at her funny. He explained her nonsense talk away by simply saying, “Ma’am, it’s probably best you just keep quiet. From the looks of it you suffered a pretty good blow to the head.”

“No,” she said, trying to sit up. “I know what happened. I’m trying to tell you.”

But the officer didn’t want to hear it, nor did he want her doing anything except laying down. With a gentle hand pressed against her collarbone, he held her back.

“Ma’am, you really shouldn’t try to move. I want you to stay conscious. I think it’s best you keep still until the paramedics can check you out.”

Sadie acquiesced, not to appease the officer, but because it did hurt her head to try and sit up and talking wasn’t helping matters either.

“Thanks. Now, for an official scolding. What the hell were you doing out here at this time of night all by yourself anyway?”

“I didn’t mean to be.” She thought for a second and then asked, “How did you even know I was here?”

“Got a call from one of the neighbors. Most of them have been uneasy about the attacks, so they’ve kept a close eye on things. Someone noticed you, a woman alone, when you arrived. They headed to dinner and noticed your car was still there when they came back.”

“Lucky for me.”

“Well, sort of. Didn’t make the call in time to save you, but at least you’re going to be all right now. I hope.”

“You’re referring to my talk about the fish-man who wanted the stolen sand dollars?”

His raised eyebrows were answer enough.

 “I’m not nuts, officer. The shark-man, the one who saved me because I saved his little brother, explained the whole thing.”

“You haven’t by any chance indulged in a little drinking tonight have you, ma’am?”

“No!” Sadie yelled, starting to shake her head fiercely until it erupted in pain, reminding her to keep, literally, a steady head on her shoulders. “I’m not making this up. I’m telling you what happened. And that there won’t be any more attacks at the beach. The other one saw to that.”

“The other one?”

“The good one. The shark-man.”

The officer released an exasperated huff, then was clearly relieved when he heard the sounds of approaching sirens.

Sadie sensed she better not say anymore. Not with medical professionals on the way. It was one thing if they wanted to treat her for any physical injuries, but she knew she was not in need of any mental help. Though they might beg to differ if she kept it up.

Besides, she thought as she looked at the ocean, I know what happened. There won’t be any more attacks on the beach. And Gram was right: Mer-people do exist and will help out if asked.