The Ring

Walking along the beach was a therapy for Dominique. 

Nestled between two rocky headlands, was a quiet isolated beach of pristine golden sand, known locally as lovers beach, but now rarely visited. The path down to the beach was narrow and uneven; winding its way down a steep hillside, through coarse weather beaten trees and tough bushes. In the twilight, the path looked golden as the fading light reflected off the sandstone rocks that felt smooth and somehow reassuring under her feet. The low-lying bushes brushed against her legs as she slowly descended towards the little hidden beach. She loved the feeling of the sand is it spread beneath her feet and between her toes. There seemed to always be a soft sea breeze blowing, carrying the scent of the salt and the sea, which acted as a tonic to Dominique's soul, a tonic she desperately needed. Her special time was sunset, when the day and night collided in an explosion of gold and velvet. There, on this lonely beach, she found some form of connection with the universe and often found herself drifting in both thought and feeling. Dominique felt that somehow, on this secluded beach, bathed in the faint golden light of the setting sun, with a soft breeze caressing her and the lapping waves whispering to her, here would be the key to her healing.

Dominique's life was on track. She had a good job, and a devoted partner, Jared, who she supposed she loved, well certainly liked a lot. I guess after some time their relationship had fallen into a groove. No great surprises, but no great disappointments either. She also supposed that Jared loved her, after all he bought her very nice birthday presents and was always the perfect gentleman with her, even though they no longer walked hand in hand. It was Jared that noticed the bruises on her legs. He was the one that asked about them and suggested that she see a doctor. Dominique was stunned, when the tests revealed she had leukemia. Her doctors told her that there was a good chance that she would beat it, due to her young age and fitness, but they also liked to hedge their bets and talk in percentages, which made her feel like nothing more than a subject in an experiment. So Dominique started the treatments and soon found that she lacked the strength to both work and look after herself. So she took indefinite leave from her job and started to rely more on Jared for the daily running of the house.

Then it all fell apart. Jared told Dominique that he loved and supported her, but that he couldn't let her illness compromise his career. He suggested that they have some time apart so he could work on getting to where he needed to be in order to support her. Dominique fell down in a heap and cried. That day she packed her bags and left, with no intention of returning. Her mother had a small cottage by the sea, and at that point it seemed to be her only option. Never mind that her mother was a bit eccentric, she needed her softness and support. Just the thought of her mother made her feel confident that everything would be all right.

Dominique's mother liked to be called Gwendolyn, a character from one of her favorite plays by Oscar Wilde. Never mind that her actual name was Nelly, no one called her that now, so her campaign seems to have been successful. Keeping in character, she always referred to Dominique's father as Earnest, although his name had actually been Derek, and it had taken quite some detective work for Dominique to actually find that out. She had never known her father, and her mother had moved frequently, finally settling in this small cottage by the sea some ten years ago, after Dominique had left to start her own life. However, no matter where her mother lived, she had always felt at home. Currently this cottage was also the home to about a dozen cats, a dog named Clarence, and two pigs named Charles and Andrew. Her mother had been training the pigs to find truffles in the nearby woods. She had a small bottle of truffle oil that she had been using to train the pigs to seek out truffles and was adamant that given the current demand for truffles and the exceedingly high price they were sold for, that her investment would eventually pay off. Although, it seemed that her mother had had considerable difficulty keeping the pigs out of the vegetable garden, given the elaborate wooden patchwork that stood as a makeshift fence around the garden. Inside, the cottage was kept in a cute state of perpetual chaos, but this just forced Dominique, who was used to a more orderly house, to relax more and just enjoy her mother's chaos. Chaos with a kind heart, she thought, a kind heart and an indomitable spirit. Just what Dominique needed.

Dominique found the isolated beach while exploring the coastline one afternoon. It really required some walking to get there, so no wonder the beach was relatively forgotten these days. There were larger and more accessible beaches closer to town and as it was not a good surfing spot, it had probably just faded from local memory. The entire coastline for many kilometers was once part of a large estate and there was a grand house nearby that had been let go to ruin. It seemed that no one lived there now and one could only wonder at its history. But it was the coastline and this isolated beach that drew Dominique, once she had discovered the rugged path leading to this pristine sanctuary.

Walking on the quiet lonely beach, one could easily be forgiven for thinking that they were the first to ever set foot there. Only the rough narrow track down steep weather beaten hillside suggested that there might have been others, although there was nothing to suggest that wild animals hadn't made the track. The beach was always calm, the fierce wind seemingly avoiding this hidden sanctuary. In the twilight the coarse grains of sand sparkled like small diamonds, as the gentle waves constantly washed up and down the beach. The water was cool under Dominique's feet and the wet sand seemed soft like a sponge cake, leaving deep footprints, which quickly filled with water. While the beach may have seemed deserted, Dominique had noticed lizards darting about on the rocks and small birds hopping about within the dense brush as she descended towards the beach. Even on the beach itself, small crabs sometimes scuttled about and darted down small holes in the sand. There was hidden life all around, and this just added to the magic of the place.

Dominique stood looking out to sea as the sun slowly sank below the horizon, filling the sky with shades of orange and pink. Those last rays bathed the beach in a soft golden light that made the colours so much more vivid and rich, as if, in those final moments, the true vitality of life actually took form, before slowly fading into the velvet darkness. In the dying rays of sunlight, Dominique noticed strange flashes of gold in the shallow water not far from her, as the small waves lapped forwards and backwards along the beach. As she approached she could see some bright object tumbling forwards and backwards under the water. She reached down and retrieved what looked like a golden ring with a green stone set within it. She could see that this was no ordinary ring; it looked ancient and it certainly must have been in the sea for some time, as the green stone had worn to a smooth opaque appearance and the gold band had a polished and uneven appearance. Dominique smiled. A true treasure of the sea, perhaps even from a pirate hoard, she mused. The ring had all the appearance of being forged in the sea, maybe by Neptune himself. Dominique slipped the ring on her finger, and was surprised that it actually fit, in a fashion. There it was, a gift from the sea. She stood there, feeling better than she had for weeks, and stared off into the distant horizon. As the colour faded from the sky, she could see small lights far out to sea, and she imagined those lights to be souls on a journey to somewhere, but out of reach. Each soul's journey is it's own, and none can follow. Silently, she wished those souls well.

The final magic of the sunset appeared in the sky, as the light all around faded. Dominique especially loved this time, so she made her way back up the beach to the soft dry sand and lay down, with the sand sculpting around her body like a luxury reclining chair, and looked up into the heavens. She particularly loved the deep velvet blue as the first stars appeared overhead. There she lay, in the sand with her eyes to the sky and the night unfolded around her like a blanket and a feeling of peace drew her up into the heavens as she drifted away.

...