By the Sea

By Lady Scarlet-Une

She knew her time was up. He would have traced her easily despite all her precautions. The taxi driver would remember her smile, or maybe, perhaps, the woman behind the check in counter at the airport. She fancied she could hear his voice over the waves.

‘Have you seen this woman? She’s not well, you see.’

No, it was only a matter of time, which was why she’d chosen to make her stand here by her beloved sea.

‘Come swim with me, daddy!’

Her father had always said the sea was a place to remember things long forgotten; the waves would lull you into a trance where you could relive each memory over and over again, if you wished. He would always cross his eyes and make spooky noises when he said this, causing her younger self to giggle each time.

Which was why she was here today, listening to the waves and reliving the memories of a love now gone.

‘Stay with me.’

Time passed and the sun began to set over the horizon. Running a finger through the sand, she began to make large swirls with minor embellishments in each of the centers, one swirl for each memory.

‘As long as we both shall live.’

A swirl with a few broken shell pieces in the middle.

‘I’d never leave you.’

She fashioned a small heart out of some washed up kelp.

‘Perhaps I never loved you at all.’

She left that one unadorned.

She was on her tenth swirl when she heard his car pull up and the door slam. The sand muffled the sound of his footsteps, but she knew the exact moment he stopped right behind her.

“Don’t step on the drawings,” she said carelessly over her shoulder.

“Come home.”

“To what?”

“To your life. To your friends.” A brief pause. “To me,” he said, his voice low and reluctant.

She smiled. He was always unwilling to show affection, doling it out in small, miserly increments. Perhaps he feared that he would run out of it?

She turned around and stared at the familiar face, the tight lines around his eyes and mouth, the light colored hair around his shoulders.

Yes. He was more of his father’s son than she had previously realized.

“Zachary, you don’t need me anymore. You’re grown up, you have a life. Just leave me alone for awhile.”

“Mom –“

Lucretia Noin Merquise turned her back on her son and stared back at the ocean.

Her father had always said that the sea was a place of remembrance.

‘I loved you, Noin. But that was a long time ago.’

She drew another swirl in the sand.