Ariel's Daughter

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My mother's name was Ariel. My name is Ember and I am blind, but someday, I will see the ocean for its true beauty my mother decided to leave. My father is a fisherman, and we live on the docks, in a little floating cabin. That's what life is like for our small community at the shores of Auke Lake. Its sunny today, only because its summer in Juneau. The water laps at my smooth feet. The water is mildly warm, just roasted to perfection by the Alaskan sun. I don't know what Juneau looks like, but I have other ways of seeing it. Trees, mostly pines and firs with varying birches are around me, I know because I've felt the trunks and pines that feel like sharp blades. I can feel the sun beaming down at me, giving me all its happiness. I can feel the wind present, but only rarely. The odd broken down and splintering wood I sit on now as I wave my feet into the lake is rough on my legs, but I'm used to it. I inhale a deep breath and breathe in the salty and moist air around me, and bring into my lungs easily.

One day, I promise myself. I will see the ocean. Really see it.

I was born blind, or at least that's what my father told me. I was a special child, born in water. From what I guessed was a bath tub. That's what I assumed, but my father never really talked about it much. He said it was dangerous information. That's what was strange about it, I didn't perceive knowing how I was born would put me in any grave danger, but as I persisted he'd tell me to never ask again, and since I was twelve, I haven't asked him.

I'm seventeen now. Living life at a slow but sure pace. I'm used to my father working almost every hour of the day. He had to earn the money, or we'd lose the house. I absolutely adored our little cabin on the docks. From what I felt, I could just picture a little brown cabin, flowers growing by the window, and the brown wood peeling gently at the sides where the boat brushed up against it. It was a beautiful place in my mind, where everything was dark, but my mind wasn't. I could see a different way, it was almost like I did have sight from how fascinating the pictures I made up in my mind were.

Today, the water is quiet, and the only thing I hear is my father untying the boat from the rope and packing up his coolers and nets to go out for work this morning. I hear his feet clopping down the dock towards me, until they stop and I know he is next to me.

"Do you want to join me today?" He said in his usual gruff but soft voice. I know he's smiling just by the tone of his voice. It's curious and happy. He hasn't asked me to come on the boat with him since I was younger, about twelve. I feel my lips twitch up into a tight smile. I wanted so badly to feel the rough wind in my hair, that I had been told was blond, a bright blond at that. No streaks of brown highlights, naturally long blond hair.

"Yes sir." I answered enthusiastically. I stood carefully, not to find myself in the lake in front of me and felt his familiar muscular arm link around my own scrawny pale arm. The boat rocked as my father helped me into a cold metal seat. It was a regular row boat, supplied with his coolers, buckets and nets big enough to catch fish. I could set my cane down on my lap and feel free anywhere. It was here, at the docks and the lake that I felt the safest. Anywhere where the water was. It made me feel free, warm and most of all it felt like home to me. I wondered if it had to do with the fact I was born in water. But I don't think about it often, just because I will be bond to ask about the facts of my birth, and I shouldn't. I know I shouldn't. But sometimes, I feel so overwhelmed, that I want to badly ask, but force the words down.

The familiar rock of the boat makes me feel at home. Then comes the noise of the motor attached to his boat, letting out growls and minimizing the sound from the distant highway of the city. I feel the boat lurch forward and push the waves out of its way. I smile as I feel the gusts of wind washing over my wash and whipping my hair behind me like ocean waves. Without asking him, I place my hand over the side of the boat and let it flow through the now chilly water. I guess the sky is cloudy here now. The sun lowering in the afternoon, turning into a beautiful evening. I wonder if my dad loves taking out his boat too, just like I do. There's something about being in the midst of water, where there is endless open waves rocking you gently and deep below creatures living and surviving. It must be beautiful, the ocean, everything. The world around me, I know has to be somewhat marvellous just from what I feel. I know, that one day, I just know; that I'll see it with my own eyes, and not my mind and hands.

The motor stops running, and I feel the wind die down and hear my father move about, rocking me about a little bit. He's tying the net to the boat. This is the fun part, I think. We get to see how many fish we can pick up in the net when we race off into the water with the motor on. I think its the funnest part. I close my eyes as I hear the motor start up again, and the rush of the cold wind flashes my face once more. I hear my father laughing and I join in for the fun of it. His job, I believe is the most fun one. He gets to do what he loves, and after all is paid for it. I smile as the wind beats down on me and hold out my hands to feel the instant pull of my muscles from the strong wind, trying to pull back my arms behind me. I laugh. Nature is beautiful, I think.

After a few more rounds of plunging the net into the deep and pulling it behind as the boat lurches forwards we reach the docks with buckets of fish, ready to be taken to coolers. I help him carry them up the steps away from home and into the edge of the town, where the huge coolers stand for fish and cold supplies for Juneau.

I shiver as my father and I stack the buckets of our stock of fish into the walk in cooler and finally we leave. The air is cold feeling on my bare legs and arms now, but I warm up only moments after leaving the fridge. I feel the familiar tug on my sun dress. My father always jokes that even if I am blind, I have the best fashion out of all the girls. I always laugh, but sometimes I feel like it could be true. During the summer, when Juneau is warm and the pines, firs and birches have the sun beaming through them, the snow gone, the sidewalks warm on my feet and the rain not as constant. I wear more dresses, mostly with flowers, or so my father says, and Xtra tuffs rain boots. I search for my father's hand, and moments later I feel his hand in mine, where his palms have calluses from tying ropes, and pulling them non stop each day, and his heated hands from the summer day. I smile, as we walk slowly back towards home. He's done with work for today, and I decide we should relax by the lake, sitting on the docks with slushies in our hands.

"Slushies?" I asked him in an innocent voice he knows is the exact opposite and I hear him laugh as his hand unintentionally tightens around mine as a yes.

"You know its time for slushies when this heat is still here when I'm done with work." He answered. I laugh. We enter our cabin, and I collapse my cane because I know this house like the back of my hand. I walk almost as fast as my father, or at least he tells me this almost everyday. We rush through the floating cabin and create our strawberry, our favorite flavor out of all of them, and return outside to the dock and we make our way to the end of the docks, where we sit. We are silent, and drink. I swallow and sigh in relief.

"Perfect." I replied to the refreshing taste and coolness running down my throat. My father laughs and we sit in peaceful silence as we put our tired feet in the cool water on a beautiful yet cloudy summers day.  

A:N/ Here it is! I hope you enjoy! I'm going to update the next chapter, BUT only if I get at least 5 votes!