Jameson
One magical night later and I had seen my wife through a different lens. She was courageous, bold, and incredibly smart and she was my wife. Mine. I hadn't planned on anything happening, but last night, things had been different. I sat up in bed and looked toward the bathroom where Iris was standing. She had scissors adjacent to her hair. Her hair had been cut into a short style, falling just below her ears. It now matched mine in length; all but one piece. She made the final cut, watching me watch her as the piece fell to the ground. She walked away after that, leaving the hair, a mess on the floor behind her and pulling up the robe she was wearing, a little higher on her back. I waited for her to leave before getting out of bed and making my way to the bathroom. Her hair was soft under my feet as I made no effort to avoid stepping over it. I kneeled down, picking up a piece and inspecting it. The thought of my wife being too busy to do mundane chores such as cleaning up her hair, made me chuckle. I swept it up with my hands and put it aside. This signified a shift in her and in us as a couple. I cleaned up and joined her in the courtyard. She was giving another speech. She acknowledged me with her eyes as I stepped in next to her, slipping my hand over her back. This time she didn't recoil under my touch. A twitch began at the corner of her mouth as my gaze fell upon her. She liked me.
Iris announced that we would both be officially taking on ruling, and with the new tradition in place, the people began to request an old one, "Seal it with a kiss." they bellowed as more and more residents chimed in, sealing our fate.
As darkness fell upon us, we collapsed, sprawled out onto the bed where Iris fell asleep quickly. Strings started pulling at me to stay. Was I being selfish wanting to leave now? Even if I was, I couldn't pull myself away from that book. It was pulling me away from Iris, from the Isle, and into the deep vast ocean, toward Violet. Toward Adventure. Every hand drawn map that I trailed my fingers across, brought a new story and with it, a new lust for the ocean. The adventures he had, taking the hand of sea maidens and exploring the oceans floor, still able to breathe, despite being a creature of the sky - in disguise as a creature of the land. I slid my fingers under one of the aged pages and skimmed my eyes across its story; "The wind whipped my ashen hair," I pulled at my own shoulder length golden locks, "as did the sail blow, as it led me to glory and freedom. No longer am I under the restrictions of the kingdom. Melda will rule over me no more. I will run with the people of the land and live like a pirate, taking what is mine and not living by restriction. I will drink the golden liquid of man and I will not live in fear of death, as death is the only freedom for a mer. Death is such a sweet gift in comparison to what awaits me if I go home. Here, I can choose if I live or die. Here, I can control the information that is put into my brain. I can sit against the uneven wood of my ship and let my mind escape to another place, to any place that I like. My mind is no longer clouded by expectations or false realities or filtered information about kingdoms and prophecies. My mind is finally my own and that is freedom. So, shall I die, I shall die a free man with a mind unmasked."
I let the crisp pages turn as I pondered the meaning of his words. I flipped to the back of the book. When Melda was in ruling, we did often go into our meditating spots to download the latest news and information about the Isle. We learnt everything we knew about life that way. It was how schooling was taught. Could that be clouding our judgement? Was that what he meant? I had never even considered that... If I left the Isle, would my thinking be different? Iris had left the Isle... had her thinking changed? I wanted to ask her, but risked her finding out about my secret book.
His description on the next page of being on a boat made me long for the ocean, long to feel the cool breeze upon my skin. To have freedom from my nagging mother who seemed to care about nothing other than the status of Iris' fertility.
