"It's getting late. Should we go home?" asked Pam.
"We're mers now" said David. "Aren't we already home?"
Pam thought about it for a moment. Life in the ocean, saying goodbye to land forever.
"Maybe. But we don't know if this is permanent and our parents would be worried sick for the rest of their lives if we just vanished. Lets go back and figure things out in the morning."
David felt he was where he belonged and didn't care if the change was permanent, but...
"I see your point. I don't really remember how to get back to the beach I started at this morning so we better go back to your house."
They took off swimming.
"What do you think your parents will say when they find out?" wondered David.
"I don't know. I'm sure it will be a shock; nobody knew mermaids really existed before today! But we wont find out for a couple days; they're out of town for the weekend. I've got the house to myself. You could call your parents when we get back and tell them you're staying over at a friend's house. Maybe we can tell our parents together?"
"Sounds like we're eloping."
"We're talking about running away to the ocean. It's not too different."
They swam in silence for awhile before finally coming to the dock at Pam's house.
"How do we get out of the water?" wondered David.
"Ladder on the other side" said Pam.
Pam tried to climb out, but had some difficulty.
"Let me try" suggested David.
Pam dropped back into the water. Pushing off from the bottom, David got a little speed to propel himself out of the water and grab the ladder. His years of swimming had given him better upper body strength as well and he was able to pull himself up the ladder and onto the dock. Pam repeated his actions, but with less upper body strength still had trouble pulling herself all the way up the ladder. David leaned over the side of the dock with an outstretched hand. Pam took it and David helped pull her up.
The two mers lay on the dock, tiredness from their long swim and the efforts to get onto the dock setting in. The sun was low in the horizon, turning the sky to shades of red and purple. David leaned against one of the pilings on the dock to watch the sunset. Pam slid up next to him to watch it too. The brief sensation of Pam's tail against his felt good. David put his arms around Pam and she returned the gesture. Merman and mermaid held each other and watched in silence as the sun sank below the horizon.