Shattered

Remembering

"Medea! You know better than to be traipsing around in the rain and the mud. The ground is wet and muddy. You've ruined your lovely new dress. Go, and change quickly before the evening meal grows cold."

Medea hadn't had a proper greeting from her mother in years. They'd been so close when she was younger, but lately, they had drifted farther apart. She walked to the back of the house to the small room that belonged to her. The space was special to her, consisting of everything that she loved. She passed the bed and the small table beside it that had been her gift when she turned sixteen. Her eyes passed over the top of that table, stopping for a moment as she saw her favorite necklace - a simple golden chain with a frosty, pastel blue stone pendant. Walking past, Medea went back to her last night spent with Bacchus...

"Do you see the colorful stones at your feet among the plain sand and pebbles?" Bacchus had asked.

The night was warm, the air glistening with mist stirred up from the waves of the Black Sea as they kissed the shores. As he had done many nights that summer, Bacchus had asked her to walk with him on the beach. A feeling deep inside her told her that this would be the last time she saw him. Medea chose to ignore it and simply take in and enjoy everything about that hot, sultry night. His handsome face in the warm evening colors. His hand in hers, and the way that every so often he would lean in and kiss her temple as they walked. So many times she had walked this beach with him, listening to the rhythmic sweep of the water as it hit the sand. The occasional chatter of a gull as it flew past. And his silent company that was commanding at the same time that it was tender.

As Medea looked down, she answered him. "I see them. What are they?"

"Look once, and you see nothing," He replied, "look twice and you think you see jewels. But look a third time and you will see glass. Frosted and smooth on all sides. Once broken harshly, angrily on shores far away. Then tossed by waves and rocks, and finally tamed, finally changed by the weather and the damage."

Medea bent and picked up one of the tiny, crystal-like shards. It was cool and velvety between her fingers; its color a translucent green. "It is beautiful," she breathed.

"It is sea glass, a jewel made from the polishing of the sea." Bacchus then pulled from his pocket a small box and presented it to Medea. Inside she found a delicate chain adorned with a simple blue pendant. "It is a gift," he said, "for nothing other than to tell you how much I love you."

"I love it. And I love you, Bacchus. I only wish that this night could reach for all eternity."

A distance flickered in his eyes and he looked towards the horizon. Melancholy seeped through his words. "Oh, Medea. My love. You are like no other to me, and how I yearn for our days to be forever..."

After that night, she did not see him again. Medea's daydream ended to the annoyed call of her mother. "Medea! Supper is getting cold. Hurry up!"

Medea quickly changed into a fresh garment. "I am coming mother."

Stealing one last glance at the only tangible memory of that summer, Medea put the colorful glass reminiscence out of her mind.