Making Waves

Chapter 1: Active Imagination

Inhale. Smoothly she dived into swimming hole. Water swirling around her as she raised to the surface of the blue water. Reviling in the weightlessness of the water she twirled in the buoyancy of freedom. She still didn't know where here was, but she felt no reason to be on her guard. As she glanced back towards the dock, she caught the eye of a young man and found herself swimming the rich purple and blue hues of his violet eyes.

Her eyes drank in the rest of his chestnut complected skin and the white of his teeth was a perfect contrast from his smooth skin. He was not dressed as if he planned to swim. He was wearing a simple tunic and simple pants and no shoes. His appearance was indeed strange, but he did not make her feel afraid—he had made her feel the opposite, actually. As soon as he arrived, she realized that she had never felt safer. Normally cautious of strangers, she could not deny the giddiness she felt as she lifted the right corner of her mouth in what could only be interpreted as inviting smile. The silent offer of a swim together was accepted, and he prepared to dive off the edge of the dock into the awaiting pool of water. He smoothly slipped off his tunic and his trousers and underneath was clad in a pair of black swimming shorts. He looked tall especially from where she was and well built like he was strong but not overly muscular. He reminded her almost of an animal—large yet lithe.

As his body twisted into to perfect diving position, she watched as the muscles in his legs sprung him forward and he slowly arched towards the water. His body slid into the water with ease, slicing through the cresting wave like butter, and almost as if it were welcoming him home with no fanfare. I glanced around and giggled unsure of where under the water the stranger was. Just as she was about go underwater to see if I could find him, he was in front of her. I watched as the water slid off him slowly and smiled. No words were exchanged between the two but that was to be expected. He never spoke to her using words.

Together they dived underneath the water. They swam around each other's bodies and laughed and as they watched the other twist and turn, he once again grabbed her hand, and they began to move underwater. As he led them deeper and deeper into the watering hole, she was captivated with view of the life in the body of water they were in. They swam through dancing thickets of seaweed and anemones. Cruising around little classrooms of fish in the brightest hues of green and pink.

Delving deeper and deeper into the depths of the water than she had ever been before they moved forward with, he current gently pushing them further and further ahead. They finally made it to a decaying coral archway. This was new. The archway looked as if it was the body of an old entrance gate. It was made of stone and coral and looked to be intentionally decorated with bits of seashells and sea glass. There were symbols crafted out of sea glass and little bits of pearl. The arch way itself had clearly seen some better days. It was missing chunks of glass and seashell out of the sides and the top. She could not decipher the meaning of the symbols but they for some reason felt significant her.

The stranger stared at her expectantly still holding her hand as they swim around the arch way. He looked at her and gestured towards the arch way and pushed her body towards it a bit more. She stared back in confusion—not understanding why the stranger brought them so far underwater or where underwater they were. He looked at her questioningly again and before she even realized what she was doing her head had already begun to nod. He reached down to his side and pulled out a mini gold trident. Using the trident, he pricked her ring finger on her left hand. She watched as he did the same thing to his same finger. The three-pronged spear began to grow in his hand as her eyes widened at the power being displayed in front of her.

As the trident grew in his hand, he took her in his arms and touched the trident to the archway. His mouth began to move and even though she could see his lips moving, she could not make out the words he was mouthing. Eventually a gold light encircled them surprising her once again. She looked to her hand on his shoulder and noticed faint gold sparks shooting out her fingertips like she glued sparklers to her fingers. He held her closer as blue, gold, and purple sparks swirled throughout her vision. As he slowly disappeared from her view the pressure of his arm wrapped around her waist tightened and tightened and before I knew it, she was sat up wide awake in bed soaking wet.

"Caly, What the hell was that", I questioned myself aloud as I slipped out of bed. I turned towards my nightstand and reached around blindly until my fingers felt the cold metal of my hexagonal wire framed glasses. I slowly slipped them onto my face and stood up to turn on the light in my room. Sitting back down I reached into the top drawer of my mahogany nightstand and pulled out a well-worn blue journal. The journal itself was made of a smooth velvet-like material colored a deep sensual blue. The front cover of the journal had a crescent mood stamped on to it and big block letters spelling out: DREAM JOURNAL. The spine was cracked from many nights of quickly recording my ruminations and then throwing the journal haphazardly back into the drawer it came from as I raced to get back to sleep before my body decided to just stay awake.

Glancing at the alarm clock on the top of the nightstand I noted the 4:48 A.M. time and grabbed a pen and began to record what happened in my dream. This was night four of this dream about the mysterious violet eyed man taking me on deep water tours and waking up completely soaked as if I really had climbed into bed after taking a quick swim. I noted that unlike the dreams of the previous night one thing had been different—the trident. In all the other dreams the stranger and I had swam deep underwater and just as we made it the broken archway, I would crash into consciousness. The trident and the gold sparks were all new.

After spending a good portion of the weekend searching the internet for information about understanding dreams, I was only more confused than when I initially started. My research had told me that if you dream about swimming with another person that it means you love them, but the problem was how could I love someone I did not even think existed! There was nothing in my research about archways or tridents. It could mean something, or it could mean that Disney movies too late at night is making my imagination run wild. Where else would I have got the inspiration for a violet-eyed sea prince to swim with me in my mysterious swimming hole.

After I finished writing down all the details that I could remember about her dream I looked back at the clock and realized that I had zoned out and spent almost two hours writing in her journal. I quickly shut it and threw it back in the top drawer. I quickly made my bed and ran to the bathroom to hop in the shower while it was still free.

Once dressed and ready for the day, I packed up the very last of my belongings in my room in a few cardboard boxes and as I was taping them closed Pepper walked in. Pepper is my adoptive parent, at least she was until today. Pepper is not the most maternal parent in the world -- honestly, she is not very affectionate at all and our relationship has always felt like a business transaction more than when I suppose having a family is supposed to feel like. Pepper adopted me as a newborn with her husband Sirius. Everything was great until I was six and Sirius died. Once that happened, Pepper made it clear that she was just biding time until I was old enough to get out of her house.

Today I get to go to the bank and claim my inheritance. According to Pepper, my mother was an old friend of Sirius' who needed help getting me to safe place because where she was, was too dangerous for both of us. Pepper has always been very vague about what type of danger would necessitate just leaving your child and never seeing them again.

My birth mother might not have left me much, but she did leave me with a small sum of money to start my life when I was ready venture out on my own and today is that day. As I reflected on my birth mother, I could help but wonder where she was and who she was. I felt my hands tingling and for a second I thought I saw faint gold sparks shootout of fingertips in rhythm with the thrum of my heart. I shake my head and grab a pen and begin to write a letter saying goodbye to Pepper. With one more look back at the house that raised me I walked towards the front door, left my keys on the hook next to the door and stepped outside into the early fall morning.