Here

It had to be here. Here is where it all began.  

Every contour of this jagged shoreline is etched into her very soul.  She stands looking out to the horizon desperate to catch a glimpse of a time that will now never come.  

Though she cries, her lips twitch into a small, bittersweet smile as waves of memories flood through her.  Carefree games of hide and seek beneath the watchful gaze of the boulders standing proud on the headland.  Clandestine meetings under the stars and an awkward first kiss full of clumsy adolescent ardor.  An exquisite proposal on the water’s edge, met with tears of joy. 

I remember them all too.  Especially that day.  When I promised to be her companion for life, her protector.  I placed the ring upon her finger and swore to be her dragon slayer, her defender.  Until my dying day.

She pushes the wooden boat on to the lake where the moon casts a milky sheen over the ripples.  Her ivory skin reflects the silver light, her beauty simply captivating, as she allows the boat to drift slowly out into the waters.  

I kept my promise.  I fought the demons of self-criticism and dragons of self doubt that dwelt deep within her, counselled her through troubled times, took care of her.  And in return she bestowed upon me the most beautiful love a man could hope to know.  

And now we are here again and she must do what she came for.

Her tears fall silently.  She removes the lid, and in one swift movement a cloud of dust is scattered into the night....

......and I become everywhere; the breeze upon which her hair dances, the water that is all around her, the current that pulls her safely back to shore.  

She hugs her knees to her chest, fearing that by setting me free she has lost me.  

But I surround her.  I protect her once more.  I am complete.

And what she doesn’t yet know is that she is not alone.  For in the soft, imperceptible, curve of her belly, I live on.