Pheromone Girl Grows Up

As a child, I liked to lay in the water at the edge of the waves. My favorite time was when the ocean was in ebb tide mode, receding from the shore. The light always seemed magical at that time of day.

I was fearful of water from the time I was very small. My oldest brother was washed into the ocean once when a sneaker wave grabbed him and pulled him out to sea. He was safe and fine in a few minutes, but I realized the overwhelming power behind those pretty little waves that the foam on the sand only hinted at.



I would lay in the sun with the sand blasting over me with gusts of wind. My hair was never more blond that after a day in the baking sun at the coast. My brothers would be busy digging gigantic caverns and forts, pulling driftwood over for a fire later that night. I'd sit at the edge of the tide line and wait for the freezing water to surprise me, watching cautiously for the seventh wave, the special one, the one that sneaks up higher than the rest.

I'd make up stories of mermaids just under the water. They'd play tag and you could occasionally see the splash of what I was sure was an iridescent fin as one dove down to the bottom to grab a shell. Oh, how I longed to be a mermaid, safe an comfortable in water. Never afraid.

The story quickly grew to be about a mermaid who got hurt in the ocean and decided she wanted to live on the land, where it was safe. She gave up her place amongst the sea grass, the flotsam and the jetsam and made her way to shore.



I never finished that story, Dad called me away to help make lunch. But today, after another long, long week of 10 hour days, maybe I'll spend a little time introducing you to the mermaid in her human form...