George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
He’d sit on the rocks by the shore, talking to Cassandra, the last of the mermaids.
They’d trade stories while watching the sun go down.
One day, Cassandra never showed up.
George assumed that she’d gone through The Emerald Gate, never to return.
But she’d actually gotten tangled in a Japanese fishing trawler’s net.
For years, she traveled in a freakshow carnival.
Telling her stories to the crowds.
Leaping through hoops, singing her songs.
George eventually found her, but she was happy with her life.
George smiled and left.