Almost immediately, Johnny leapt outta his boat, and plunged into the sea with his clothes on.
It was then he saw his clothes - they seemed to be disintegrating, turning into bubbles, and floating off of his body, underwear and all.
"Well!" Johnny said incredulously. "My clothes are going away!"
he saw that his legs now joined halfway down his thighs, hiding his genitals.
Refocusing his attention on his feet, he found that he could no longer reach them, his legs were now considerably longer. The feet became webbed, and then, the smallest, outward toes were now the longest, and stretched the membrane between them and the other toes further. While he watched, individual toes faded away, leaving only the webbing surrounded on the outer parts by flesh.
Trying to move, he noticed the joints of his knees were no longer definite and bent in any direction he chose. The separation between his legs continued to close like a zipper and merge into a single column.
Hundreds of goose bumps bulged on the skin of his legs, flattened, and pressed together, forming rough ridges. The scales mostly retained the old skin color, though they were tinted slightly blue. His hair changed colour, from chestnut brown to seaweedy green, and doubled in length, soon flowing over broad shoulders which seemed much broader than usual.
It then occurred to Johnny that for several minutes now he had been breathing freely, although he was still underwater. Nevertheless, he swam for the surface, was relieved to find the torrents were gone, and once again gasped air. He cautiously opened his wet eyes and discovered he was all the time submerged in only five feet of water, in that little harbor surrounded by the dock.
He dragged himself onto some sand to inspect his recent changes under the light of the sun. For the first time he saw his modified legs all at once. For the first time it shocked him to discover that they were a fish's tail.
After a quick inspection he found that the upper portion of his body was unchanged, albeit more muscular than usual. Intuitively this led him to look at his midsection to discover exactly where man met fish. The transition was surprisingly difficult to find, it was gradiated between several inches. In fact, Johnny couldn't view and recognize both sides at the same time, it was too much of a blur. What were scales on one side slowly became the goose bumps he saw earlier, then a few freckles on human skin.
His tail flopped flat, and he found it difficult to lay it straight on the little strip of sand, for his tail was nearly six feet long. In every motion, its heavy mass was revealed. Only in water could he move usefully.
he saw his bare chest as it blended into the tail. He seemed like a single unit, there was no longer any distinction in his eyes. The tail was a part of his torso and his torso was a part of his tail.
Johnny Fishernon was now a MERMAN!
aFTER ALL, HE SAID HE WANTED TO BE PART FISH FOR A WHILE, AND He couldn't get any more part fish than BECOMING a merman, could he?