Captive of the Sea

EPILOGUE

The little boat glides easily over the calm sea. A practiced hand rotates the steering wheel, turning the bow in the desired direction. A wisp of grey hair is tucked behind an ear, grey hair once golden blonde. Weathered fingers clasp tightly around a necklace, a necklace with a pearl pendant.

It has been fifty years now. Fifty very, very long years, but they weren't all bad. The first few were the hardest. When Calliope first attended college, it was a struggle she wasn't quite prepared for. Any friends she met were always concerning themselves with boys, some with the intention of fun nights, others looking for spouses.

This separated Cally from the rest. They never understood why she didn't have any interest in men. They never knew why she refused every date she was offered. But how could they know? It wasn't easy to explain that her heart belonged forever to someone else.

It was not until after she graduated with her bachelors and was moving on with her masters in marine biology that things began to look up for Cally. The people she was around in those years were more like her, cared less about trivial love.

Perhaps that is why finding love came easier.

She met a man named Thomas in her final year of school. At first, she didn't think much of him, but his constant affection and obvious feelings for her soon made her accept his offer of a date. Cally liked him. She liked the man with the cute smile, fluffy brown hair and adorable glasses.

As things grew more serious between them, Cally became more and more depressed. She found herself slipping back into the grieving state of mind that had plagued her years before. She felt guilty for moving on, but she was also angry that she couldn't love Thomas like he deserved.

It was when Thomas proposed that Cally was forced to explain. She told him everything. She told him about her kidnapping, about Atlas, and about their love. At first he didn't believe her, and perhaps he never did, but he accepted it. Whether or not all of her story was true, Thomas knew that Cally's heart didn't truly belong to him. He knew that there was some lucky man out there who had managed to capture her love.

But he was alright with that.

Thomas told her that he would love her anyways, and that he would do his best to show her as much love as he could. He promised her a comfortable life and in return, Calliope accepted.

Cally was not home often in her early adulthood. After their marriage, Thomas and Cally spent many years traveling the world's many oceans and rivers. Their studies led them all across the globe as they researched any and all aquatic species.

It was not until Calliope became pregnant with their first child that they finally settled down. The young family moved to a comely home on the east coast where they lived the rest of their lives comfortably.

After forty years of marriage, Thomas grew ill. His heart began to fail and he passed quietly in his sleep from a heart attack. Cally mourned many months for him. The man who had been her companion for so long had left her and she felt very, very alone.

That was four years ago.

Cally's children were grown, her husband had passed on, and her home was empty. For most, it would be the time to move on, but for Cally, she decided it was time to go back.

The little boat continues onward in its trek and soon a small strip of land appears. As the sun begins to slope down, Cally finally arrives back at her true home.

The island looks much the same as it did those many years ago. The same rocks still lined the beach, the same trees still in their places, though much thicker than they had been. She runs the boat ashore, her aged body aching as she climbs down from it. Her joints don't work quite so well as they used to.