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Gerald couldn’t believe his eyes. The skeleton he’d unearthed was like none he’d ever seen. In fact it was incredible. Carefully e removed the red earth to expose more of the whitened bones. The lower half of the skeleton was particularly delicate.

At regular intervals he poked his head up and checked no-one was watching. This find would make him rich. His friends, if you could call them that, would stop laughing at his ‘little hobby’. He’d be world famous. Gerald Farthing, architect extraordinaire; finder of the unique skeleton. He could see himself being invited to universities to explain why he’d decided to dig there.

He was so engrossed with his musings that he failed to register the delicate Gaelic music seeping into his head. The music was exquisite, hypnotic, even spiritual.

Gently he started to caress the smooth bones. They felt like silk to his roughened hands. The music drew him down and he curled his body around the skeleton.

Suddenly he was drowning in a sea of earth, which piled deeper and deeper over him.

Gerald had held his dream fleetingly for a moment but no-one ever knew that he’d discovered the bones of a mermaid.

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