On The Beach

-2-

"Say, have I seen you at the cemetery?" Edward asked finally. The man nodded.

"Did you know my mother?"

"Yes," the man spoke quietly, his voice barely audible in the wind. The seagull gave out another cry and landed onto the surface of the water. Both of them kept quiet for a moment.

"She used to love this place," the stranger suddenly broke the silence.

"Yes... She did. We used to come here every summer." So many summers had passed, a whole life now separating him from his childhood. "It was her wish to be buried here on the island, closer to father."

The man turned and looked Edward in the eyes.

"Did you know him?" he asked.

"Know him?" Edward looked at the stranger and then turned back towards the horizon, drawing in another lungful of smoke. "No, I never did get a chance to meet him." He never liked to talk about his feelings but there was something about this place and about the man himself that made it easy to speak. As if they'd known each other for the whole life.

"Did she ever tell you anything about him?"

"She... She used to speak about him sometimes. Even after all those years, she still continued waiting for him, hoping the sea would one day bring him back. I guess this is why she wanted to be laid to rest here. To be closer to him."

Edward inhaled the smoke for the last time and pressed the cigarette butt into the cold sand.

"It's funny how she used to say she has a guardian angel. You know, once she had almost died. It happened when I was little." Edward gazed into the distance as he spoke as if returning back in time to the distant memories. "A car, it almost ran her over. The driver had lost control and if it weren't for the man that had pushed her aside... She never said anything else about it. Only on her deathbed, she told me that the man, the one that saved her, he looked like my father."

Edward reached into the pocket for another cigarette but all his fingers found was an empty pack.

"I wanted her to live her life but there must be some feelings stronger than..." It was hard to deal with her passing. He didn't finish the sentence. "When I was still a boy, I believed that he was still alive, that he would come back one day. But with time I understood that sometimes the sea keeps what it claims. She never gave up hope, though."

"I am sure that if he only could he would come back to you," the man said.

"You never did tell me how you and my mother knew each other."