The Mermaid Translation:
Ribbon
Before he went any further,
Sanford thought of the mermaid. He stopped at a table set up on the sidewalk
under an iron sunflower. A bead of water dripped onto him, off the wide petal
above.
He smiled at the seller and she
gave him a pen and a ribbon of blue paper. He thought for a little bit. Carts
went by, people were talking, a couple laughed, a girl chased a dog past, then
he wrote the words to fill the paper up.
“Could you have this sent to the
Mermaid Café?” he asked. He put a couple old looking silver coins in her hand
and she nodded.
He stood there, watched her
scroll the paper into a roll to fit in the little tube tied to the carrier
pigeon. The bird flapped itself importantly and lifted off her hands into the
sky. There were so many lines flying laundry up above that Sanford lost sight
of it behind a wet purple shirt.
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