I walk on the sand along the ocean’s edge. The dark new year’s sky blazes overhead, just as it did on that other night, a year ago. Then, it was not time. I could not go. But now, the sea is calling. Calling with an irresistible urge. As I prepare to answer, to accept the call, I think back to the moment long ago. The moment when time was stilled, when each day became eternity, and when eternity became a passing moment.

***

I walked slowly along the beach, my bare feet sinking gently into the still-warm sand. The moon, now rising over the coastland, cast a blue-white glow over the pounding waves as they thundered in to shore. The sky spread out far above me, the dark night clouds dancing in the wind from the sea. Something pulled against me, compelling me onward, further along the shore. The night breeze carried faint strains of singing to my ears, mysterious and entrancing. I walked faster towards the heavenly sounds.

Spellbound by the sound of the voice, I rounded a curve in the beach and came upon the source of the music. You sat in the heart of a ring of slowly whirling shadows, figures dancing to your melody. Your hands, emanating sinuous darkness, lovingly caressed the small harp in your lap. I stopped walking, halted by the vision before me. Slowly you raised your eyes from the harp strings to my face. When your gaze met mine, your eyes still reflecting the dance of the song, you stood. The harp fell to the sand, but the music and the shadowy movements continued.

I followed you as you broke from the circle and moved silently to the edge of the sea. Walking there beside you, with the wind singing in our hair and spraying the salt brine in our faces, with the waves thundering against the sands, I sensed sadness in your movements. You paused, and looked up into my face. I saw your eyes, like pools of fire, reflecting sorrow and love and mystery. Suddenly I knew; realization flooded me like a quenching river of ice. You must go. Your world of shadows, mystery, and flame was not mine. The unspeakable void in your eyes told me. And yet, as your fingers locked with mine, I felt a never-ending bond, like the crossroads of space and time. You called me forever yours with a touch. I wondered why.

The tumbling sea churned at our feet and we looked together at the foaming surf. I felt your gentle touch again, and a vision of burning light descended from the black sky. Pounding, dancing hooves and wings of silver fire beating in unison came down from the clouds above. A cavalry of flame had come for you. You took up their silent cry. I turned my face away. I could not watch your ecstatic flight. Suddenly I heard your voice singing again amidst the roaring, heart-breaking silence. You called out my name, making it blaze in the air like smoke. Like a caged bird set free, spreading its wings in glorious unhindered flight, you broke from the world, my world. I set you free. You sang with a voice like terrible and beautiful sadness as you flew. You told me the old ways were lost. You left me gazing at the burning black sky. Hot tears mingled with the frozen water of the empty sea. I wondered again why it must be so.

***

The thundering, smoking sea calls me now. Calls me home, to you. The pounding waves call me. The boiling, fuming black waters call me. With a touch, you made me yours. With a single touch, the crossroads of time and space were destroyed. I will not linger. The dark waters can take me to you. Fire and ice can dance in my veins, pulling me at last to you, forever. The sea calls me home.