Tales


Silent Return



  She stood on the beach.  The red setting sun washed across her body like the ocean water over her feet.  Her skin looked as if it burned with a fire that the salt water spray could never hope to put out; that made her glow as the breeze blew her long black hair back, except for the one lock that hung across her beautiful face.

  She stared for a time across the great, flowing ocean before returning her attention to what she held in her hands.  What was she thinking?  What thoughts and feelings consumed her?  My years gone had been kind; her sad countenance the only change.  Even from the distance I could see that her happiness had dimmed.

  I walked slowly across the sand, recalling the past; the times when together we stood, shed of all material things; only the two of us and nature.  When we held each other and watched as the sun slowly melted into the ocean.  When the disappearance of the sun brought our lips together for what we wished to be eternity.  It comforted me that she too remembered, and even more that she still loved me.

  I stopped walking when I was a short distance behind her.  My presence still unknown to her, I could not help but wonder how she would react after all the time she had not known where I was or why I has gone.  Would she be angry?  Joyous?  Or would she think I was a figment of her imagination?

  The sun sank further into the ocean, almost gone as I walked toward her; a silhouette before me, alone like she must have been many times before.  Standing silently behind her, I stared over her shoulder into the sun.  She lifted what she held in her hand closer to her face.  I could then see the locket that contained a small picture of the two of us together.  She closed the locket and pressed it gently to her lips.

  As the sun finally melted away, I spoke her name.  She turned and looked into my eyes.  Her sad, calm expression did not change.  Only a single tear began to slowly roll down her soft cheek.  I put my hand on the side of her face and wiped the tear with my thumb.

  I lowered my head and touched my lips to hers.  When she realized that I was real, she began to return the kiss.  She put her arms around my neck and pulled to me.  I held her tight, neither of us wanting to ever let go.  Our flesh pressed together so close that I could feel every contour, every line and surface of her body.

  We dropped to the cool sand and took each other in;  moved with the waves that washed around us.  No time for questions for which I had no answers.  No time for salty tears to return to the ocean.  The only return needed had been made.



Written:
Saturday
February 6, 1993


Tales