Seashells, quoted from treecastledreams

"...he gave the girl a seashell and told her it was from a mermaid's tail.
she said he lied, and he was silent.
then, she asked him, "was the mermaid beautiful?"
"as beautiful as the morning sun sprinkling diamonds all over the ocean's whispery waves," he said, his voice like a lullaby, "her eyes shone like the neon medusa of a jelly fish in the darkest deepest seas, her cheeks blushed like the softest colors of the insides of a melodious conch, her lips were small like sea horse fins, dainty and delicate... and her hair," he paused and looked deeply into the little girl's curious eyes, he said her hair was the only glorious part of her that reminded him of earth and land, of the sweet buttercups, running in the fields of daffodils, and remembering the gleaming golden flakes that his grandmother kept in a water jar by the kitchen window facing the east sun. "how it would shine and float around the tiny cottage room where the smell of corn bread satisfied my heart." he sighed, and it was one of those sighs where he almost cried because he missed something so greatly and fondly."

from here