John wanted to help. He reached over and gently grabbed Erin's
shoulders. He looked down into her eyes. He had to concentrate not to
let them drift toward her thrashing tail. Okay, maybe it was only
twitching, but it was a friggin' scaly tail.
He said in a calm firm voice, "Erin, I'm going to kiss you. Isn't that
how all those fairy tale curses get broken anyway. You kiss the girl,
and she wakes up, or becomes human forever or the frog becomes a man?"
"Yes? Do you think it will work, John? Oh, thank you, thank you,"
Erin said licking her lips.
He closed his eyes and leaned in and kissed the fishwoman. Her lips
were cold and slimy, he thought. She suddenly felt warm all over as
she kissed John back passionately.
John stepped back, stood up and opened his eyes. He looked down at
mermaid Erin, she remained unchanged. Erin looked at her tail in
disappointment, and then turned to look at John. Her jaw dropped.
His face was covered with shiny silver scales, as were his neck and
arms.
"Oh, John!" she exclaimed.
John opened his mouth, but only an odd squishy gurgling noise came
out. He watched as Erin started to grow larger and larger. Erin
stared in horror as John rapidly disappeared into his ballooning
clothing. She pulled herself over to the heap of clothing and
extracted a tiny silver fish - no fish man. John was all fish down to
his waist, but from the waist down he was still a human male albeit
miniaturized. He flopped around in her hand needing water, but he was
so small. She grabbed a cup and filled it with water and put him in
it. She was beside herself, she felt responsible for what happened to
John. She heard his cell phone ring from his heap of clothing. She
fished it out of his clothes and answered - maybe the caller can help.