Seven: Continued.

The three of us scrambled up and followed Herman to his front door. Upon opening it, we found a woman standing upon a rock, clasping the skirt of her dress and looking down in alarm.

“Augie!” Herman scolded, and the small gray mouse came over to us, chuckling.

“Oh thank you so much. He just frightened me, that’s all--I didn’t mean to scream.” She looked up at us apologetically. She seemed to be about thirty-five, with long brown hair, gray eyes and a friendly face.

Herman cleared his throat and looked--now this is shocking--a bit timid.

“It’s no problem at all, ma’am. He has a very wicked sense of humor, you see. Can I help you off of that rock?”

“Oh yes, thank you.”

Once she was safely on the ground (she had leapt quite a distance in her fright) introductions were made.

“I’m Delia” she said, holding out her hand.

“I’m Herman” he said, shaking her hand. And continuing to shake her hand.

“Ahem” I suggested. She laughed.

“Oh yes” said Herman, “this is Miss Lima Bean” (he indicated without so much as turning around) “this is Eleanor, Pooka, and you’ve met Augie, of course.

She nodded hello to us.

“Would you care to come in? We were just about to have some tea.”

“Thank you, very much”

She came in a we had some tea, and then someone (I think it may have been Eleanor) suggested that we play Poker, so we did. Poker went on for hours and hours. Augie kept winning, and Pooka said it was because he cheated. Augie just chuckled and laid his cards out.

Over cards, we found out about Delia that she is one of the mermaids that inhabits the lake, who had asked the resident witches, Claudia, Shirelle and Vance, to work out a spell so that she might go on land for a day. The only glitch was that every hour and a half, Delia would fall asleep for five solid minutes, regardless of what she was doing, and then wake up completely disoriented--which happened twice during our game of cards alone.

Another thing that became increasingly evident over cards, was that Herman and Delia liked each other a lot. Herman was almost a completely different person--he was almost likeable, even--as he made sustained efforts to keep the conversation going. He asked about her life, her interests, her friends. They stared at each other a lot, but there were times when he would look at her pensively, even sadly--a hermit and a mermaid can fall in love, but where will they make a home?

Turns out there is quite an easy answer for that, which I’ll get to eventually.

Delia reluctantly took leave of Herman and decided to walk home with me around sunset, since we were going the same direction. We had a nice chat on the way home--mostly about the amazing nutrional value of sea vegetables--and I concluded that she’s certainly much more level-headed than most of the mer-folk.

After I saw her safely sucked back into the lake, I decided to go to Peter’s house, where I took the liberty of springing upon him as he was sleeping in bed, and inviting myself to stay the night (as admittedly, I had been doing more often than not, lately).

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