Hi, I'm Lavar Burton and this is Lavar Burton Reads.

In every episode I hand pick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

And today I'm going to read you a story by Daniel Wallace.

Maybe you know that name already.

He's written a bunch of novels that you might know, including one that became the movie

Big Fish, Tim Burton movie.

Fantastic film.

And his latest novel is called Extraordinary Adventures.

Daniel is the J. Ross McDonnell Distinguished Professor of English at the University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he directs the creative writing program.

And the story that we'll read today is called Sea Girls.

And it was published in Ten House magazine.

It's a tale of a mermaid encounter.

But this is not a glorious, magical encounter.

And this is a world that as far as we can tell is very much like the one in which we live.

So let's plumb these dark depths together.

Shall we?

If you're ready, let's take a deep breath.

And begin.

Sea Girls by Daniel Wallace.

I met her on the beach, standing beside the body of a mermaid that had washed ashore.

...