Earth’s Most Beautiful Gift

The waves crashed against the shores, lapping and foaming at the sand. The dark blue water became clear as it danced across my feet, leaving droplets of water in its wake. The wind was strong; it blew my hair back. The coast air coated my cheeks and I knew that they were red. The flag that hung from the pier rustled in the wind, the flapping of its sail silenced beneath the sounds of the air.

I walked a few paces into the water, allowing its coolness to reach my ankles. A few more steps in, my knees were wet. The bottom of my dress began to soak up the cool, salty water.

The cold water touched my hips, soaking my dress and allowing it to cling to my body. My fingertips were next, dragged back by the rush of the water. Two more steps in. It cut against my stomach and caused my breath to freeze in my throat. 

My arms were submerged, my elbows skimmed the glassy surface. The force of the water pushed me backwards, but my steps did not falter.

Three paces deeper.

Curving around my chest and swallowing my shoulders, the water hit the bottom tips of my ears. 

One more step.

The water hit my mouth, the salty taste stinging my lips and making my mouth dry. My hair surrounded me, floating in the dark, cool water.

One more step.

My eyes met the water, the salt stinging them so badly I had to close them. With my nose covered, air bubbles escaped as I let out my very last breath.The cold soaked through the top of my hair; the sensation spread throughout my body.

I swam.

And as I swam, everything changed. I grew warm, I felt as if I were wrapped tightly in a blanket. My eyes adjusted next. The stinging sensation ceased. I opened them up, slowly, seeing nothing but dark ahead of me.

Slowly, the soft sand beneath my feet fell away, and I was floating. Or I wasn’t. I was somewhere in between. My toes couldn’t touch the sand, and my hands were far from the surface.

Then, suddenly, the dark turned to light. It started out small, and it grew, so fast. I was surrounded by light, it wrapped its way around me, circling my body, illuminating the water around me.

I could see everything.

The air bubbles that escaped the fishes gills as they swam. A school of fish, swimming in and out of the coral that lay on the bottom of the sea. Seaweed, that grew and grew, all the way up until it tickled the bottoms of my feet.

Life.

It was everywhere. I looked in every direction, as far as the eye could see. The deep ocean was filled with it. It was all here, all right in front of me.

Suddenly, my lungs cried out. They needed air. My hands grasped the water, trying and trying again to grab at something solid, trying to bring myself up to the surface for just one breath.

My fingertips touched the surface, just once, before my hand was grabbed and I was pulled down. My eyes looked around the water and met the eyes of a stranger.

But it wasn’t a stranger. It was a man. A man that I knew so long ago. A man whom I had loved.

His eyes were no longer crinkled around the corners, no longer tired or dull. They were bright, the color that reminded my younger self so much of home.

The wrinkles that once branded themselves across his aging face were gone, leaving only the smooth skin of youth. His hair grew so dark it contrasted with the light of the ocean. It had grown long since the time I had last seen him; it now reached the back of his neck, seeping down onto the tops of his shoulders.

I tried to touch him. I tried to see if this was a dream.

But when I reached up, wanting to embrace the curve of his cheek, the only thing I saw was my hand. How young my hand looked. The wrinkles were gone, the indent of a wedding band worn for so many years no longer there. My nails, once short and chipped, were long and painted light blue — “the color of the ocean,” I had once said.

It was then that he took ahold of me. His fingers, curving around my own, intertwining and locking our hands so. He easily pulled me to his side, strong muscles defining his arms.

It was something out of a dream.

My eyes stayed locked with his, as his were locked on mine. Mine green, and his blue, dancing together in the open ocean.

“Welcome home…” It rang in my head, the two words playing over as he smiled. The curve of his lips, his smile, reminded me of how much I’d missed him in the past years I’d lived. My life without him, it wasn’t a life. It was waiting to be with him again, it was waiting for him. I wasn’t living — I was waiting.

And together we swam, further into the water. His words replayed in my head, as I swam, with my long lost lover, into Earth’s most beautiful gift.