***
The sea awakens her in the night. Its soft roar murmurs
in a
plaintive voice and beckons through her window. She
follows its bidding and rises, wrapping herself in a long
jacket before gliding out the door.
Outside, the moon is hanging heavy in the sky, casting
silver accents on waving blades of Spartina. Margaret is
still in a half-sleep netherworld, but her bare feet keep
moving, shuffling over the hundreds of tiny concave
footprints made earlier by passing tourists. The neighbors
are
throwing a party, complete with thrumming bass, but
Margaret pays no heed. Her attention is focused seaward.
A ghost crab scuttles out of her way as she parts
the
rustling beach grass. She is almost there. Chill wind licks
over the sand break, rousing her from the trance.
Margaret
pulls her jacket tight against the cold night air.
Past the dunes, sounds of the endless wash of saltwater
beckon her closer, drowning the last refrains of the partying
neighbors. Margaret steps down the face of the drift,
sliding
carefully to the hard-packed, wet beach surface. She inhales
deeply and closes her eyes. The tangy scent of
the ocean
takes her back, guiding her to similar times from the past.
She would stand on a beach much like this one, staring
at
the horizon for hours on end, knowing he was out there
somewhere. Fear tempered her hope, but she always knew
that
he would come back. She would wait, patient and
longing. Wanting. Needing him to return. She needed him
so much that
she could not contemplate that he might not
return. It had never been an option.
To everyone else who knew him, he was an authority
figure, the impassive, stalwart Naval officer. But to her, he
was a caring husband, a fiercely loyal father, a passionate
lover, and a respectable man. He was worth waiting for.
Time and again she had waited, and always he had
returned.
But now she finds herself very much alone. The Captain
has gone to sea for the last time. She looks out over the soft
white crests of the breakers and just past the reaches
of the
burgeoning moon. The horizon is lost to the darkness,
where the sea curves away from the sky. She closes her
eyes, shivering, feeling that she is on the seam between air
and water, between flying and drowning.
Margaret waits for him again, and although this is
the most
difficult trial of her love, she knows he will return. She digs
her toes into the grainy wet sand, baring
her face to the cold
ocean breeze. For a moment, she feels the warm puffs of
his breath in the wind, hears his calm
reassurances rise
above the ocean roar. She has cast off and set her course,
and she will meet her Captain somewhere
on the unseen
horizon.
***
End
