A lifelong daydream has manifested

The rocks in front of the family cabin were scraped clean when the glaciers retreated from the Great Lakes. They scoured down to the bedrock, leaving raw bones of granite and basalt jutting out like a deep wound. The water from Lake Superior lapped at the rock for centuries, smoothing it out into ripples and dips like the back of lover, sprawled out on a blanket. I’d look out at those rocks as a child and picture the mermaids from Peter Pan waving their tails in the air and feeding eachother sea grapes and shrimp, combing their hair, and singing like big breasted loons.

PHOTO BY JIM HOBART - LEGACY LIFE PROJECT

So the fact that I had a mermaid tale in my suitcase on this visit kept me smiling the entire flight to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan. My family laughed with me as I was tossed around by large cold waves and tried to pull the tail fabric up over my pale white belly. At first I felt like a deep sea creature that was too tender to be loafing around on the rocks but after a while, and way too much laughing, I kind of leaned into it.

Little Brendan would have squealed to see it happen, and I definitely let out some noises while it all went down. But this is for sure getting filed away as a core memory.