Forbidden Love of the Depths

“Darling, I know you’re having a bad day.”

I look up from my worktable and set down the pen. “What?”

She stands in the doorway of my study, her tail swishing gently behind her. Her lovely face is creased with worry and concern.

“You haven't said anything for three days, love. And you haven't eaten since yesterday. You need to eat something.”

I lean back in my chair and rub my eyes. Rushing through the figures had not been wise. It was taking me longer than expected to decide which path to take with our finances, but I knew I had to do it now while the burden of our financial situation was still relatively new and fresh in my mind instead of putting it off until later when we might be more desperate. “Yes, well, I don't think we have much choice at this point.” I lower my hands and wipe them on my trousers then place them in my lap on top of each other. “I'm going to sell the house soon, I think. The furniture too; there's no room for it all at your cottage anyway.”

“Yes… about that...” She hesitates for a moment before speaking again, “We need to talk about it, but not right now. Your supper will be ready soon, so let's talk after we've eaten. How does that sound?” She smiles and turns away from the doorway before turning back again to me with a single raised finger indicating she wanted me to wait there for her return before walking out of view down the hallway toward the kitchen where I could hear pots clanging around as she prepared our meal together in the kitchen next door where we both lived independently yet still managed to share meals most evenings.

While she cooked I put the finishing touches on last week's ledger entries before filling in today's figures into the corresponding columns then adding them up at the bottom of the page and doing some basic calculations based on that number before writing down what it was in an adjacent column labeled 'surplus' or 'deficit', depending on whether or not the number was positive or negative respectively. It would be easy enough to change everything back into money so that we could buy things with it if we needed to if only we had access to a bank account so that we could deposit any surplus funds into one before withdrawing them when necessary. But even though money wasn't really important here we were still fish; most banks didn't want fish customers because they couldn't see us or smell us or otherwise verify that we existed without actually making physical contact with us or interacting with us somehow simply by observing us through their windows or perhaps peeking beneath our scales - which would be quite rude by the way - and seeing us as fleshy monstrosities rather than aquatic creatures like themselves who lived underwater and breathed water just like they did air above ground where most people lived on land where trees grew only instead of water except for lakes and rivers where water ran over rocks to create ripples of light which looked like dancing sunlight shining through stained glass windows above ground where most people lived on top of large rocks floating in nothingness amidst emptiness filled with stars further away from each other than anyone has ever walked except for those who have been abducted by aliens and taken aboard UFOs whose occupants are generally indistinguishable from humans aside from their strange clothing and unusual features otherwise such as black eyes surrounded by metallic-looking skin instead of normal human eyes surrounded by fleshy skin colored blue or green or brown depending on how much melanin there is in your genetic code which also determines your hair color and height or weight based on whether you inherited more genes from your father or mother's side of your family tree or even whether you're left-handed or right-handed which is determined by whether you're right-brained, left-brained, both-brains, none-of-the-above brainwashed according to whether you're male or female into thinking you should pursue one profession over another which would therefore determine whether you're an engineer regardless of whether you're male, female, nonbinary trans*, nonbinary cis*, nonbinary agender* trans*, nonbinary cis*, genderfluid*, genderqueer*, all genders*, no genders* brainwashed according to whether you're male, female, nonbinary trans*, nonbinary cis*, nonbinary agender* trans*, nonbinary cis*, genderfluid*, genderqueer*, all genders*, no genders* etc... whenever someone asks you if you want fries with that!

It's possible that this whole thing was just some sort of dream-like illusion conjured up within my own mind during some hazy state between consciousness and sleep after drinking too much rum last night at a tavern near the lake shore where several local fishermen hung out when they weren't actually fishing for food for their families after being laid off from their jobs building ships for an underwater empire ruled by an emperor who may have been a blood relative but probably wasn't since he didn't look anything like me physically although he might have been since he might have been mine genetically too although I'm not entirely sure how that works exactly except maybe if two parents can make two children together then two twice two must make four children together or eight children together or sixteen children together or thirty two children together etc... but if there are thirty two children born at once obviously they can't all be identical twins unless they were all born at exactly the same time so what happens instead is that if they're identical then they were all born at exactly the same time etc... well either way these children will grow up looking different from each other because there are many different ways genotypes can combine during sexual reproduction producing new genotypes differing slightly from each other in various ways such as hair color (blue vs brown), eye color (green vs brown) etc... but also similar in other ways such as eye shape (triangular vs almond shaped), hair texture (straight vs curly) etc... but beyond this obvious phenotypic variation shared between members of a family there are also many invisible alleles hidden within each person's DNA sequences which can influence traits including possibly height (tall vs short), body size (short vs tall), neck circumference (skinny vs fat), skin type (pale vs dark), personality type (moody vs cheerful), intelligence level (smart vs dumb), memory capacity (good vs bad), athletic ability (athletic vs unathletic), physical strength (strongman vs weakling) etc... etc... but then again sometimes these traits aren't influenced by DNA such as intelligence level which is usually determined largely by environment while physical strength is usually determined mostly by genetics except when it isn't also influenced by environment because sometimes people simply grow strong naturally while others don't get strong naturally period because they're weaklings due primarily to environmental factors such as being born poor so they never had enough food growing up so they got skinny instead of muscular - assuming being skinny increases your chances of getting cancer eventually whereas being muscular instead decreases your chances because likely exercise leads to increased immunity whereas lack thereof leads to decreased immunity - especially if those poor people don't get enough sunlight either due presumably either to lack thereof leading to sadder moods which result in less energy expended performing mentally demanding tasks requiring lots energy including studying therefore precluding sufficient mental focus required maintaining attention span necessary completing schoolwork therefore failing classes thus becoming unemployable therefore unable earning money needed eating meaning finally starving meaning finally dying meaning finally dead meaning not being around anymore meaning no longer living meaning no longer existing meaning never existed meaning sleeping forever means waking up never means never existing therefore never waking up therefore always sleeping therefore always dreaming therefore always living forever means living forever indeed!

So anyway back to those numbers I wrote down earlier earlier mentioned earlier between parentheses earlier mentioned earlier: There are sixteen columns arranged vertically along one side of the page representing our weekly expenditures related directly and indirectly related directly plus indirectly divided respectively into eight categories labeled: 'food', 'utilities', 'entertainment', 'clothes', 'personal care', 'transport', 'miscellaneous' and 'savings/investments'. Then there are fourteen rows arranged horizontally along another side of the page representing our weekly income sources listed in reverse order starting first with any remainder from previous weeks followed next by five specific activities done consistently over time until we reach maximum efficiency: logging wood washed downriver after storms into piles along riverbank waiting for wealthy tourists hosted aboard luxury cruise ships visiting for vacation purposes spending money across multiple entertainment outlets resorting eating meals prepared here buying groceries stored elsewhere along coast selling services provided here providing various wares otherwise etc... followed lastly by four sources categorized generally under 'other' including: freelance writing assignments submitted online via email paid weekly through PayPal sent abroad through Western Union transferred electronically via wire transfer sent internationally via Western Union; occasional public speaking engagements offered after referrals given verbally personally presented through social media; occasional research & development consulting clients recruited personal identified within region invited visited personally consulted; occasional babysitting duties offered after identifying need requesting help fulfilling requests personal known family member friend acquaintance neighbor acquaintances past client potential future client former client present customer current customer etc...

These figures are meant merely as rough estimates useful only for determining approximate savings available versus expenditure necessary per week per month per year per decade per century per millennium even considering inflation rates already experienced over time previously experienced projected based experience gained historically observed observed predicted estimated calculated realistically impossible theoretically impossible theoretically possible scientifically conceived logically