Beside the Sea

“You still watching those ships go by?” Came a voice from behind me. I nodded, not even having to turn around to tell you who that voice belonged to. He knew me too well, that I would be sitting right here on the bank of the sea and watching as behemoth ships and sailboats crossed the oceans. Everyone else thought it was something I would outgrow when I became older, but it wasn’t like that. Watching the sea rock gently back and forth against the sandy shores was as natural as being rocked in a cradle as a baby, to me. To think, there was a whole other world on the other side of the shore. Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, deserts and oceans, mountains, and valleys, waterfalls and fields of lightning bugs. While the whole world changed, Scarlettown, South Carolina stayed exactly the same through it all. What I wouldn’t give to step on one of those big ships and never come home until my feet have touched the soil of anywhere else in the world. Good riddance to a place that always stayed the same. Goodbye to the old church I’d pranced in and out of my whole life, farewell, the drugstore I would stop in everyday after classes, so long, cinema, until we meet again, old schoolhouse. I was stuck here, though. For a long time by the looks of it. 

“Aren’t I always?” I teased him. No doubt he was getting back on the ship he docked into the harbor a few weeks ago. He said he wouldn’t be here long, that Captain Ralph Lewis could never stay in one place for too long. Just like me, although, I had to stay here. I couldn’t just decide to leave this place like he could. He lowered himself down to the ground next to me with a loud sigh as he looked out to the sun setting on the horizon. “When are you leaving?” I asked him. Truth be told, I didn’t want him to leave. When I met him that night at Auntie’s party, I made myself a promise that I wouldn’t get too close to him. That he would leave soon and I would stay behind. I couldn’t help it, though. He wormed his way into my heart while my back was turned. It must’ve been love, the feeling of not wanting him to leave but knowing that it was exactly what he wanted. If he stayed, we could’ve spent so many nights like this, sitting on the bank and watching the sunset. Maybe I would even enjoy it more if he was with me. The colors never amazed me like they did poets, but it seemed all the more prettier as I sat up here with him, seeing his tan skin dancing under the light of a thousand colors. His eyes as green as limes sparkled from that same light, the tips of his dark brown hair almost shining. The colors suddenly seemed like the prettiest thing I’d ever seen as they reflected off the surface of the clear, sparkling water. Funny, ever since I moved in with Auntie when I was five I’ve snuck out like this and watched the ocean. I’m only just noticing the beautiful array of colors gliding through the skies and blanketing the world. I was seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses tonight, not thinking about how this meant another day was over or how it was one more day where I was still trapped. On the other hand, if he stayed with me and enjoyed all these sunsets, no matter how beautiful they were, he would nurse the same regrets I did now. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. This feeling of uselessness, of sitting by and watching the world pass from your window was not a pleasant one. Sometimes it felt like it was gnawing at my insides. 

“In the morning,” he replied, still looking out at the ocean in front of us. It was only a few hours until then, although it was hard to picture that the end of the day meant the beginning of a new day. “Come with me,” he whispered, light growing in his eyes like a child with an idea. My violet eyes grew wide with the shock of his request. This was what I always dreamed of, a chance to leave home, but it took me by surprise. Auntie would’ve had my head if she knew I stepped foot on that boat with that man, but I couldn’t help it. He was my chance to leave, to go far, far away from my sorry existence here in Scarlettown. I could go to all these places I only read about in the novels I poured over from the town library. The world would be lying right at fingertips. The only thing I had to do was to take this first leap. Once I leaped into the ocean blue, not worrying about whether or not someone would catch me, I could go anywhere. If only I had a chance to say goodbye before I glided away. This was my last chance, though. He’d be gone by the morning. A deep breath filled my lungs. 

“You mean it?” He nodded, taking my hand in his. Butterflies erupted in my stomach and bumps sprang up all over my skin at his warm and gentle touch. It reminded me of the lovely feeling I had that night after Auntie’s party, after the two of us shared that single dance. I realized what a fool I was for not sensing these feelings towards him until now. The fog of my mind was cleared to reveal a sunny day in its place. So this is love. 

“What do you say, Anna?” He asked me and I felt my head slowly nodding in agreement before even a minute of thought. I would miss Auntie, and my sister, and Uncle Robert, and Isabella, but I knew the second his hand touched mine that I was doing the right thing by leaving. Then I knew I had to leave my home. He drew me close to him, kissing my lips with such a gentle passion that I nearly melted. This was what all the fuss was about when it came to kissing, eh? I’ll say one thing, though, I couldn’t think of a single place more romantic than the bank of the sea under a blanket of a beautiful portrait of a picture-perfect sunset over a now picture-perfect world. I would get to do what I had longed for since I was a little girl, to take that giant leap across the ocean. This time, though, I knew someone was going to catch me as long as he had a breath in his body. I no longer had to watch the ships go by. I would be on one now.