miercuri, 30 august 2017

There was no one in sight all along the shore, as far as she could see; elbows sinking into the sand, she turned her head around and saw no signs that there had ever been anyone ever walking those parts...

The morning Sun had just made its way up from the sea, mirroring its endless orange rays all the way to her feet which were now lightly touched by the advancing waves. 

Next to her, there was a blanket full of knick knacks, the phone which had run out of battery, her shoes and an unopened bottle of wine. She had slept so well... but now, she was trying to take the sand out of her hair and while doing that, for some reason, she felt that this was a Wednesday. 

One of the flipflops was taken in by the waves and she rushed into the water, trying to get it but it had already been dragged out of reach. She lifted up her favourite dress up to her knees trying to advance, but soon realised that the water was too deep and that she would need to swim in order to fetch it. She ran back to the shore, took the dress off and then started swimming towards the ever advancing white flip flop. It wasn't cold, the waves were not too high and the sun was casting its gentle rays on her shoulders. Just before she could catch up with the flip flop, she had decided that this swim was actually something she really needed and contemplated for a moment the idea of serendipity. She turned on her back, trying to get as much sand out of her hair, half of her head immersed into the water.

The muffled sound of the sea resonated in her ears and when she looked up, she saw the bluest sky that she had ever seen, which elevated her outside the dimension of the conceivable world and filled her with deep gratitude for life. All her senses she understood at the same time and a blissful serenity took hold of her. She closed her eyes, and then smiled at all the people she loved, all the beautiful places she had seen, all the good memories that had ever filled her heart with joy. How could it be that she was able to summon these memories so easily? She whispered "happy".. 

When she opened her eyes, the sky had turned into the darkest blue conceivable, although there were still no clouds to be seen. As far as she could tell, it remained perfectly clear, but the Sun had somehow disappeared completely. She looked around several times, until she felt dizzy, but then finally accepted that there was no Sun; it had "gone". A very bizarre feeling overwhelmed her and for the first time ever, she thought she understood the full meaning of "nowhere".

Then, she noticed something even stranger: squinting into the line of the horizon, she thought she could see the Sun rays being projected upwards from the sea, hitting the sky as if it were a solid ceiling and spreading a very dim light across the surface above. At the point of impact, the light rays appeared to materialise into a thin, white mist which was constantly rippling towards the edges of the observable sky.

She started swimming as fast as she could towards those rays hoping that it would all prove to be an illusion. She had never opened her eyes under water before, but she was now inescapably curious to see what she would find under this mysterious surface.

When she dove for the first time, she could still not bring herself to open her eyes and reemerged to gasp for air and strengthen her purpose. The second time she dove, she opened her eyes for a second, but resurfaced immediately because she thought she had seen that the Sun had submerged and was now shinning from the bottom of the sea. Trying to chase these thoughts away, she tried to look back towards the shore, but noticed that it was now out of sight and she desperately turned 'round and 'round until she was not completely unsure which direction it was.

Darkness grew denser as the emerging rays grew thinner and she thought that if she was going to drown, she should at least discover what actually lied beneath those waves; she took a deep breath and started diving towards the sea bed while trying to keep her eyes opened. When she was halfway there, she realised that if she was to touch the bottom, she wouldn't be able to hold her breath until she could resurface, but she kept on diving anyway. When she got close enough to the sea bed, she took a fistful of sand and saw that where the sand had been removed, she uncovered a strange, translucent patch which resembled the back of a jellyfish. She began sweeping off the sand and uncovered more of that surface but that extra effort caused her to blow out the last bubbles of air that her lungs could afford her. She quickly immersed the tips of her fingers into that strange substance and felt it getting warmer the deeper she pushed. When half her arm was in, she thought she could feel the wind with her palm and desperately pushed her head through the substance, while trying to grab onto something and pull herself down faster.

She was breathing again; the sun had hidden in a white cloud, but it would seem that this would not last for long, as the immense bright sky was blue all around. She could still not clear what appeared to be sand, out of her hair..