Love Knows No Bounds

Sarah was only thirteen when boys started noticing her. She was a beautiful girl with long auburn hair and mesmerizing green eyes. Her parents said she had to wait until she was fifteen to date. She agreed and decided to focus on her schoolwork and other interests. She studied hard and pursued her interests in art, drama and music. She developed her artistic talent and made a lot of friends. She became a beautiful young woman with a wild independent spirit that refused to be broken. During her senior year Zach Whitherspoon, the most popular boy in school asked her to prom. She wasn't impressed by his fashionable hair or clothes, not even his rich kid brand new Lexus he got for his birthday.

He asked her for a date every Friday night for the last three months and she persistently said no. He followed her after school one day and hurried to catch up to her, "Sarah, I have been asking you for a date for three months now. Will you go to the prom with me?" He was pretty sure of himself, "As you know I have a new Lexus so I can drive us there and we can stay at The Grand downtown!" She was leaning against the tree as he leaned in to entice her with a kiss and said, "How about it pretty lady?"

Sarah dodged his boorish advance and looked at Zach like he was made of broccoli (which she never cared for) and he thought her hypnotizing green eyes were looking right through him. She broke the awkward silence and said, "Listen Zack, I'm not the least bit interested in your little Lord Fauntleroy car, and I have no intention of going to the prom with you let alone a hotel room so ask someone else."

Sarah gave the valedictorian speech at graduation which inspired the young and the old alike. It motivated her classmates to find their niche in life, to seek out what interests them and to make their dreams come true. It inspired the adults in the crowd to return to the things that had once been their muse, to create something beautiful, build something useful and write something moving. She ended her speech with an inspirational challenge "Seek what you love, and it will never be torn from you. Even time itself is not a barrier to love."

Sarah let those words echo in her mind as she packed for college... "Even time itself is not a barrier to love."  She really believed that and was determined that was how she would live her life. So, after a tearful goodbye she began her journey and adventure. She was sought after by many schools but picked UMD in Duluth, Minnesota because she loved the beauty of the north shore wilderness and had developed quite a talent for watercolor landscapes.

It was her muse. Already in her junior year of college she was selling her art at the Grand Marais Art Festival. Her watercolors seemed to capture not only the beauty but the possibilities of what the landscape beheld for the viewer. If the water was blue green, she made it blue greener. If the waves were big, she made them bigger. If the clouds were gray, she made them grayer. She painted Lake Superior as if she was a grand lady. Some nights she relaxed splashing gently on the shore, some days she was angry with large waves crashing violently on the jagged rocks below the cliffs. The scenes were painted with such emotion the viewer could envision the sound of the crashing waves and feel the splashes of the water and the force of the wind.

She lived her life like the landscapes she painted. She let her emotions flow freely and she went wherever the winds of inspiration took her. Sarah did what all college kids do at night. One night at the bar, there came the one moment in time that decided the course of her future. She was out with her friends Jennifer and Danielle whose nickname was Dani. Jennifer shared Sarah's love of art, only she considered her art a form of entertainment which made people smile. She made a lot of friends that way and money too. She was a regular at the Grand Marais art festival every year. She loved the spot by the lake. When the sun light shown upon her long blonde hair it lit up. That's how she met Sarah, they were both working the festival and Sarah complimented Jennifer. "Hi! I have to say, your golden hair is beautiful, lit up in the sunlight like a golden beacon!" Jennifer looked up from her drawing and beamed a big white toothy smile and said with sincerity, "You should see your hair right now! The sunlight is illuminating the red in your hair and it looks like fire!" They laughed and joked they could be a seventies cop show, "Beacon and Fire".

From that moment on they were best friends along with Dani. Jennifer and Dani grew up in Hopkins, Minnesota. Dani was an entertainer. She was slim with short layered black hair. She liked the goth look and wore mostly black. Jennifer used to tease her "Why do you wear black? Are you trying to look bad ass?" That's where she got the name for her band. She was the lead singer. They called themselves Bad Ass Girls. Dani was dramatic in every way. 

The three of them were drinking beer at the bar and Dani swiveled her chair a little too fast after one beer too many. She nearly fell off her chair, but Sarah caught her and said, "Ok I think you've had enough for one night." Then it happened, that one pivotal moment in time. It was that crossroads "if only" moment she would one day look back on with wonder. Dani was trying to convince Sarah to stay a while longer, "One more beer. One more and then we'll go!" Dani didn't wait for a reply, she ordered one more beer.

Sarah dropped her purse but before she could bend down to pick it up a tall scruffy looking guy was handing it to her. "Thank you" she said trying not to stare. He was wearing a UMD sweatshirt although it was raggedy and dirty. He looked like he hadn't shaved or combed his hair for three days. She wondered if he bought the sweatshirt at a thrift store or was wearing a hand-me-down because he didn't look like a student. She must have looked bewildered. "Hi, I'm Tom" he said with a grin. "Just in case you're wondering, I'm not homeless and I'm not a panhandler."

Embarrassed, she could feel her face flush so she looked down at the floor for a moment. She looked up and smiled "Sarah. Nice to meet you." Now Tom felt his face flush "Oh, sorry I just got back from camping up at Grand Portage and just stopped in to have a beer before heading home and unpacking." Her eyes lit up as they talked about their shared love of the north shore. They talked like they were old friends. Dani tapped Sarah on the shoulder "Are you ready? I finished my one more beer so let's go." Sarah looked at Tom and said, "I need to get her home, her one more was two too many." Tom offered to walk them home. Sarah really liked him. He was easy to talk to. She wanted to see him again and she did. They became close and before long they fell in love.

They married in June after they graduated. The ceremony was held on Artist's Point with the calm blue green water of Lake Superior as a backdrop. The sky was blue with white puffy clouds. Sarah was beautiful in her white lace mermaid style dress. Instead of a train, her chiffon veil was twenty feet long. During the vows, the wind caught her veil and lifted it high into the air and it seemed to dance on the wind. The bridesmaids looked frantic and wondered how they were going to get it to come down, but she looked up and smiled and thought it was a wondrous sight. The wedding photographer captured that very moment. It was the very picture of hope and happiness.

Tom was hired by a very prestigious accounting firm so they could afford a nice apartment in Two Harbors. In the back of her mind, Sarah always wondered why Tom chose such a profession being cooped up in a cubical all day. Sarah made the mistake of suggesting Tom work for a BWCA outfitter on the Gunflint Trail and he went ballistic. "My boring job is what pays the rent around here so that you can play around all day painting your little watercolor landscapes. Don't look so shocked! I knew about your love affair with the North Shore the night we met. I watched you every Friday night at the bar talking to your friends. I watched you paint and when you were ready for the art festival, I followed you to Grand Marais and watched you sell your art." 

When he was through Sarah was in tears. She couldn't believe what just happened. At first, she was speechless but managed to say through the tears, "So you're saying you were stalking me?" He said without emotion, "I saw you, wanted you, and planned how to get you by studying you." She packed her things and went to stay with Jennifer and filed for divorce the next day. Dani came over and the three of them talked over dinner. Sarah confided in her friends "I should have known it was too good to be true." 

Jennifer encouraged her, "Don't be so hard on yourself, nobody can see the future." Sarah was unconvinced. "If only I had gotten off that bar stool just a few minutes earlier I never would have met him." But Jennifer did not give up, "If Only doesn't exist. It only lives in Make Believe Land. You live in the here and now and you have a future!" Like a spark, Sarah remembered the adults listening to her valedictorian speech and how they were inspired to revisit their muse, their inspiration. It was like she was on the other side of the looking glass being inspired by herself and she remembered who she was and what she dreamed she could be.

The divorce was uncontested and soon she was on her own again, happy to be free. She bought an old Victorian style house on the hill in Duluth intending to open a coffee shop where she could sell her art. The renovation gave her time to think and dream and plan. All her friends and family were there at the grand opening of Wind Dancer Cafe. Customers were greeted with the enticing fragrances of coffee, pastries, lavender, and pine. It became a home away from home for the college students. To the left of the entryway was a comfortable living room. Across the hall was the formal parlor with small pine tables and chairs. The tabletops were natural white pine with glossy resin coating and each set of chairs were stained assorted colors. The flooring was 100-year-old wide plank white pine varnished to a glossy shine. The wallpaper in the parlor was a Victorian style floral design that shimmered with silver and gold and big white flowers on a sage background. The wallpaper in the living room was a more masculine design with schooners sailing on the sea. Both rooms led to the kitchen in the back of the house where the coffee was made, and the pastries were baked.

Sarah closed the shop for the day and went upstairs to the attic which she would renovate for additional seating. The previous owners abandoned everything. It was like stepping back in time. As she dusted furniture and leather books, she came across a framed old black and white photograph of a young sailor looking out at the sea, standing beside a lighthouse. Her eyes widened as she realized the lighthouse was Split Rock! The light keeper’s cottage was brand new so it must have been sometime in the early 1900’s. He was wearing the wool double-breasted pea coat sailors wore and a captain's hat. He had long, dark, wavy hair was smoking pipe and had a duffel slung over his shoulder. She giggled a little as she remembered the vintage Old Spice commercial with the sailor carrying his duffel over his shoulder, whistling the Old Spice tune. The sailor seemed to be anxiously awaiting to set sail on his next adventure. His eyes appeared to be searching for wisdom he did not yet possess, and his stance was one of someone watching and waiting for something or someone. He was standing at the ready for whatever was beckoning him.

Sarah suddenly let out a gasp, dropped the framed photograph on the floor, and cracked the glass in the frame. She saw something that startled her. She thought she saw the sailor turn his head and look at her. For a split second she thought she felt a connection between herself, the sailor, and the lake. She knew she must have imagined what she thought she saw, but it was if the photograph was enchanted. She found it hard to sleep that night. For one thing, the Old Spice tune kept playing in her head. She couldn't stop thinking about the sailor in that old black and white photograph. She was filled with wonder and a sense of excitement.

Every day after she closed the shop she went upstairs to the attic to clean and sort and plan. The photograph of the young sailor beckoned her every time and she stared at it and wondered what kind of man he was and what kind of life he led. She stared at that photograph almost wishing he would look at her again. She knew that was silly, it was just a photograph. Even so, she lingered looking at the photograph. "Who are you?" Then, just as before, he turned his head to look at her but this time he spoke. "I am Owen." Sarah closed her eyes and resisted the urge to run screaming bloody murder. She was afraid she was going mad and afraid everyone else would think she's mad. When she composed herself, she opened her eyes again to look at the photograph she was still holding in her hands. The scenery was the same, but the sailor was gone.

"Hello Sarah" said a rugged but kind voice in the dark corner of the room. "I am Owen." Sarah crumpled up like a rag doll and fainted dead away. When she came to, he was holding her hand with his left hand and patting her brow with his right. "I have been waiting for you for a very long time. I thought you were lost to me forever, but my love knows no bounds. I swore I would search for you until the end of time and one day we would be together again." Sarah shook her head and said "Wait, is this a Wuthering Heights kind of moment? Because that didn't go very well for either of them in the end." He looked lost "Where is this place Wuthering Heights? Is that where we are?" With his help Sarah stood up still shaking her head in disbelief "This can't be happening! You can't be here." Owen smiled and said in a whisper as he leaned in closer to her face "Well I am here so I can."

Flickers of memories flashed through her mind. Memories of places she's never been and people she's never met. She looked like she was going to faint again, so he took her hands in his and she felt that connection again. "Do you remember?" She smiled with joy and threw her arms around his neck and said "Yes, Owen. I remember!" He held her tight and kissed her "Oh my love, my Sarah. The last time I saw you, you were standing on the ship with your long white gown dancing in the wind. I will always love you. My love knows no bounds I will always find you. Just then a giant rogue wave hit the ship and we capsized, and you were lost. I have been searching, watching and waiting all these years to find you again."

"I hate to burst your bubble my love, but what happens now? I live in the here and now so what does that mean for us? Are you going to suddenly disappear and go back into the photograph? I have a life here and I am free to live it the way I dreamed it could be. I want you to stay here with me." Owen replied confidently, "Fate brought you back to me. I have no intention of ever leaving you again. Unless I pop back into the frame like a genie." Owen teasingly motioned with his hands and said "POOF!" Sarah smiled and rolled her eyes "Stop!"

After graduation, Owen and Sarah were married on a tall sailing ship, a replica of The Santa Maria in Grand Marais harbor. Her flowing white gown danced in the wind as they vowed to each other "I will always love you. My love knows no bounds."