Ambers in the Sky

Sarah stares into the water. A warm orange colour emanating from its surface as gentle waves caress the large round rocks around her, the sky an amber red with stars peeping out from its edges. The silhouette of casual fishermen trying their luck with the bait and rod after a long day’s work as ladies chatter behind them, barbecue grills at the ready. She can already smell the sausages. Children were chasing each other around the rocks as their mothers continue to shout at them to stop. It was dangerous, but it was fun.

It was a tough day for Sarah. If a break-up with her boyfriend didn’t ruin her day, the job she just lost did. The numbness in her mind and heart left her unable to move, unable to feel, unable to realize how beautiful the sunset was today. She loves sunsets after all. It is her favourite time of day when the colonial buildings would glow a different colour from their default white, each shadow marking the amount of detail and craftsmanship that went into these decades-old buildings. The darkening sky that calms her. The blurring of shapes around her. The promise of fun and laughter with the one she intended to marry.

He was not ready to marry, or so he said. She wanted kids. He wasn’t sure. She knew since she was a little girl that she wanted to live in a big house surrounded by a garden with the mountains behind it and a small town not far away. She wanted to have children running around her with their gleeful laughs and innocent faces not yet tainted by the realities of the world. She would be the mum, the best cook and baker in the house, and the perfect host to guests. She sometimes thinks she is an old soul because of the visions she gets and the familiar feeling she has when she watches TV dramas set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras. The charm and beauty of it all had captured her heart from an early age.

She takes a walk towards the water, slipping off her shoes as she did so. The cool feeling of the water made her wince and pull back her leg, but she put them back in anyway. The sand was under her feet. She can feel it, though the shadows make it hard to see. The sky was cloudless today, and the red ambers had drowned in the sea. It was dark but she did not care nor did she realize that the barbecuing family had left and that she was all alone. She started to sob as she stared into the black abyss. Wet eyes soon overflowed, and warm tears trickled down her cheeks. All that could have gone wrong in the world had happened to her today. She had nowhere else to turn. No boyfriend to hug over a lost job, and no job to distract her from her broken relationship. She now knows why people say not to date the guy you are working with. When you lose one, you lose the other too. Especially if he is your boss. It was a lose-lose situation and she knows it.

The tide is rising and it is now up to her knees. Her jeans felt soggy and heavy, the dried tears on her cheeks renewed by another stream. This time it was bigger, and sobs had turned to full-fledged crying. She wailed, sang a few random sad songs, laughed at herself for doing such a stupid thing, then wailed some more. When the water had reached her chest, she thought it best to be heading home. No point drowning here when there is not going to be anyone around to save her.

Wait. What? She tried pulling her leg up but it would not budge. She tried the other leg and it was stuck just the same. Panic ran from her feet to her head and she thought she was paralyzed for a second.

She tried moving her arms. Thank God they worked. She took a deep breath and dived down to free her legs. She couldn’t feel her feet. They simply weren’t there. There were large rocks and sand, but where were her feet? And what was that long slippery thing she felt a moment ago. She tugged at her feet again and with no luck, she stood back up to breath.

What was she to do? There were no ropes around, and no one in sight. She knew she shouldn’t have stood there for so long. She knew she should have gone home when the others did. She knew she shouldn’t have slapped him so hard in front of the other executives. Oh forget it. You know what, she didn’t know. She didn’t know what she was doing when she entered the water, nor did she know when the other people had left the area. Her mind was blank after all, so she didn’t know a thing. She also didn’t know that he was having a video conference ten minutes after she had left his office. How frustrating the whole thing is, she thought. And now she was going to die because of it.

“Help!”, she shouted, trying not to give up as the waves start hitting her face. She had already swallowed a few salty gulps.

“Help me!”, she tried again to no avail, stretching as far as she could to keep her head afloat. Seconds passed and there were no signs of a rescue. As her head disappeared into the water, she made her last attempt.

“Larry…..”, the soft whisper of her now tired voice barely heard as headlights started coming up to the parking area, her hand reaching as high above the water as she could before they dropped to the surface with a splash.

A large splash of water, a half naked body diving into its depths, the digging of sand and the upward pull of a motionless body. When Sarah opened her eyes again, she saw his face and started to cry. He had wrapped his coat around her as she lay beside him. She saw the look of concern in his face. A look she had never seen before.

“I thought I had lost you,” said Larry. He knew this was where she was. She had told him it was her favourite place because it was the perfect spot for sunset viewing. She had said before that they should come here but they never did. Larry knew all the unanswered phone calls and messages meant something was off. She always answers her phone, even when they were fighting. He didn’t mean to say, “You are fired!”, he was just angry at her for embarrassing him in front of the others.

“So we are boyfriend and girlfriend again?”, Sarah asked, unsure.

“Yes, we are boyfriend and girlfriend again,” Larry replied. And a week later, he produced a ring and knelt in front of her for the longest three seconds of his life.

He had told her that he was leaving the city. What he didn’t get a chance to tell her before she stormed out the door was that he was taking her with him. He had bought an estate in the outskirts of town and was going to run his own business. He was going to propose to her the week after the meeting when everything was finalized. It was going to be an estate with a big house and a beautiful garden just the way she wanted it. It costed a bit more because of the location, but he knew her dream house wouldn’t be complete without the view of the mountains. He loves her and was going to make her the happiest woman in the world. And the sunset at the beach on the day of their wedding was the start of it all.

Amber. They would name their first-born baby girl Amber. Just like the ambers in the sky they would enjoy each day on their balcony as they watch over playing children in the garden.