Writer’s Spotlight: Andy Hollister

Donny by Andy Hollister

“Andy is an English Literature and Political Science double major. In middle and high school, they were in the Creative Writing Club, book reading club, and school newspaper. Their inspirations are from their emotions and trauma, and things that help them out of spirals. Things like the Batfam and Ninja Turtles and mermaids.”

            My name is Sheldon Gin, I go by Donny, and I am alone. I was born in a war-torn territory to a “monster” father and human mother. My parents prayed to the Founders that I would be human. It wouldn’t make living in the war better, but it would give me a better chance of surviving and not being used as a weapon in the war. But, I was born a merman, able to transform back and forth between human and merman forms. I had orange and red scales, and purple fins. My parents said I was beautiful. But I had to be hidden.

            Then one day, our worst fears came to life. Warriors and barbarians from the war ravaged our ocean-side town. My father said his goodbyes to me before pushing me into the water and telling me to swim as far as I could and never turn back. I’m pretty sure my parents died that day.

            I swam for a solid week to the center of the ocean where the war territory neighbored a country in peace. I stayed there for a long time, not knowing what to do. I grew pretty lonely out there as the months passed. Something people never think about is how quite it is under the waves; just silence. In the deep ocean, there aren’t ever creatures around you. It’s just you and the blue green water around and the sky up above. Your tears do nothing but make the oceans grow. I cried a lot out there; for my parents, for the war, for the quiet, for the loneliness, for the people who fight in the war and for the people who want to escape it.

            I knew I had to go back to land, but I didn’t know to which land, the country in peace and a place where Mermen were illegal, or to my home in the territories. I was young back then, only about eleven, and foolish- driven by my heart and not my brain. The days ticked away in the water and I lost track of them. I believe about a month passed before I went back home. I hopped from town to town along the ocean. I tried to make friends but couldn’t because of how much everyone moved. Everyone was scared; trust no one, do what you need to survive the war, the only sanctuary is another country.  

            I could have easily left for another country, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I was born which what some people in other countries would call a gift, but what people in the territory would call a curse: Empathy, Kindness, and Perseverance. Out there in the territory were people who needed someone with a helping hand and good morals, someone to listen to their troubles and find a solution. I didn’t have a family, and I still don’t. So, I helped them. I helped every person I could. Seeing hope fill their eyes and love fill their hearts kept my determination flowing.

            But I am ever so lonely. I travel by myself, have no companion. I’m cold.

            Now, I sit just under the waves on some beach somewhere. I don’t know my age, it’s easy to lose track of the years in war. The only thing that keeps me familiar with myself is the orange and red scales, the scales my parents called “beautiful”. I can hear two witches fighting overhead on the docks, I can see flashes of color as they strike each other, I hear their cries of pain and war and anger. Then there is a splash, and one sinks into the water below me. She emits a Violet color that slowly fades as the water closes in on her and surges through her body.

            I wait, until I hear the witch overhead turn and walk off the docks.

            Then I dive down and retrieve the fallen witch. If I have the ability to save someone’s life, not matter what cost it puts on me, I will do so. Cause sadness and anger will only get you so far in life, and the last thing needed in a war is violence and turmoil.

           The witch breaths and coughs up water onto the dock I dragged her onto. She is alive, thanks to me. Today, I saved a life. Just one of the many I saved in the past and plan on saving in the future. Today, I fight for life.