Reverence - Book 2

- 17 -

There was a time when this water was mine. 

It ran over the hot sand, white froth tumbling tirelessly from the never ending cascade of dark navy waves. Just as it would rest on the safety of the white sands, it was drug mercilessly back into the unrelenting torment of the sea. 

It could pull you under and you would still be left smiling at it's beauty, at the salt filling up your lungs and the hypnotic slush of the water caressing your head. 

There was a time when this water was a stranger.

It's gentle allure called me awake the day I realized that I was no longer in my own home. In my own skin. 

I imagined that if my eye looked deeply enough, I could still see the hopeful indentions of my footprints from when I would run without an end against it each morning, daring the sun to rise before I reached the end of the infinite shore. 

And then cursing it as it illuminated my way back to my unhappiness. 

The cold wave licked up my bare shins and I was brought back to the the present and watched as the sand fell back into the deceiving blue hands. 

The water was powerful, and it took what it pleased. 

It did not care about footprints. 

The sun was fat and low in the afternoon sky, setting the land ablaze with it's molten gold glow. I stood at the edge of the beach, staring out at the last mega-liners cast in for the evening. 

The city was buzzing behind me, windows illuminating and food stirring in warm kitchens. It was the crest of summer and stiff harsh wind bellowed through the town. The fare had turned lighter, clothes non existent and the wash of people turned up in droves. 

Tan skin, sharp tongues. Exquisitely timed on the constant revolving door of the sun. 

Italians lulled by the sun and came electrically alive by the silver explosion of the moon.  

Yanyah's piercing squeals drew me in, the gripping mystery of this place loosening it's magic splendor. 

"Can you believe this place." 

She breathed, kicking pedicured toes through damp sand as she twirled. I felt a small, sad grin pull against my mouth. 

Her naivety was almost infuriating. She would be the one to dance carelessly through the water and drink incredible wine offered to her by even more incredible strangers. And she would boast to me about her carbs  and say that we should go hiking to Aetna, but I knew she really meant to lie on this beach until the sun charred us or the earth consumed us. 

She wouldn't know the way the blood curdled on sand, or that these beautiful, sleek men weren't watching us. 

They were watching us. 

Pushing aside, I felt the softest raise of my hackles. I felt pinioned, tethered to this empty place because I knew the danger of which lie sleeping in the town. 

Just like I knew the danger that lie at the edge of the mountain. Just over the lush rigidness of the peak, I could see the familiar spire of his fortress. 

If only he could see where I stood now, on the outside for the first time. Close enough to reach out against the horizon, but cast away far enough to never touch.

How different my perspective now. 

What some may say was fate, I called sheer bad luck. When we had arrived to our lavish, temporary home I had been jarred by Yanyah's awed squawking. 

"Look at that CASTLE!" 

She was all hands and giddy grins as she hobbled me out the patio door and I felt an immediate weakness set in my legs. 

Of course. 

Her babbling faded easily into the background. They say when you're in shock, you feel like you're standing under water, watching life pass by all murky and refracted. The white noise swayed like my palm trees, albeit they were taller now. Hardier. 

I knew that it was improbable, but I could smell the linger of white peonies and salted air. And him. 

It took the snapping of her long fingers to pull me to the surface, the tension piercing at my ears, squinting my eyes. 

I watched her continue to twirl and kick up angry water and I let my shoulders fall. She was so innocently content. 

I knew that she would be daring me to drinks and scanty black dresses in a matter of time, but now she was white linen and short denim, holding Hermes sandals in one hand and the other free, extended to me. 

I took it with ease, and I let her spin me dizzy until the waves took us is, washing away my peony daydreams and the uneasiness of what Amalfi meant to me. 

I was just a girl, as any other. 

Dancing in the water that belonged to nobody, not even the sea.