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The path is grass interwoven with the tuffs of moss and at its sides, grow blue bells amid the last dying remains of daffodils, who’s heads once bobbed proudly in the breeze. Daffodils that now languish, swaying like drunken sots against the hedgerow not a foot away, that hides from view, the steep incline down the hill, to where the bubbling stream, noisily gurgles on its path, almost following the same path I am on, towards the sea.
What draws me here ? My childhood fantasies ? From books read eagerly in the library ? Or sat beneath that tall oak tree, leaned against its aged bark and to wonder, pausing momentarily, how many children just like me, it has seen over its lifetime ? Just the same ?
It is early morning, the sky a soft hazy blue, swathed with pink hues, soft and delightful to the eyes..
The beach or the headland ? My walk, takes me up the path, across a rickety wooden bridge. Seems it has seen better days, yet such iis deceiving to the eye, as now upon it, I realise and rather glad for finding it so, that it is still as sturdy as ever..
The sea is calm, the little ripples around the rocks, the white wash of tide coming in ? No going out !
I am thinking, thinking... If it is going out, the rock pools !! Thats’ the place to be ! Crabs ! and other strange delights ! Amongst the seaweed ! Finding a stick, I poke around the rock pool, the little critters, fleeing in the stirred waters, the ripples flooding out .. I put my stick down to remove some seaweed ?
Duly nipped by one with the biggest claw, I have seen ! A hermit crab ! It shows, its intense dislike, of being rudely exposed to the sunlight and any other would be predators, by snapping or jabbing at me! It’s beady eyes glaring intently, as it, as said nips me and believe me, those beggars can give you a nip ! Glad at least he does not, though he does make an initial move in my direction !! Actually follow me. They sure can scuttle across the rocks ! I resign myself to maybe, some basking in the sun ! Now for a suitable rock !
I find one, nearby, a rock, a large flat rock, that is warm with the sun ! I lay back upon it, looking across at another similar rock, not yards away .. It too, is inviting, but lower down and I am comfortable here, so why should I move !
Plus the thought that I might end up slipping off it, whilst dozing? Resulting in me getting soaked !
There is still a large pool of water close to it, that is i suspect though not willing to find out ! Quite deep.
I glance whilst lazing back, my head momentarily supported by my coat, upon a rock incline that is most appropiate, for a make shift pillow. A support, to allow me to sit up slightly and look out across the water, to what appears to be a tanker in the distance, making its way, into the distant port across the bay ? I can feel my eyes focusing, on the horizon getting tired..
It was I think Charles Kingsley’s book, The Water Babies, why it sprang to mind I guess, was the fact that it has been read only days previously, much I would add to my delight and a definite possibility of me going back and reading it again. My mind had shifted to Mermaids, why I can’t think, as I am sure there are none, or are there? Iin the book?
Yet I WAS thinking upon such creatures and pondering upon the fantastic pictures, I had seen in one book or another on the strange and wonderful things, sailors had recorded, including of course the giant octopus and and and ...
The heat of the day, must have woken me, to rub my eyes, then try to focus first upon the tide, which I noticed to my concern has started to turn and the water, was definitely gurgling into the rock pools, amidst the rocks, in front of me?
From experience I can tell you, when the tide changes and it starts coming in, you can easily, if you are not careful, be cut off by it ! So it was that I went to make a move, what was it, that made me turn ? The sudden sensation of something or someone else present ?
My movement was slow, precise? Maybe not! BUT there she was, her body half submerged within the water, a female, golden locks of closely braided hair ? Beautifully interwoven ? A string of shells, around her neck ? The face was one of such beauty though at first I was blinded by the sun. Streaming across her face, its rays catching her hair radiating out, then the cloud shifted to obscure part of the sun and I could see her clearer !
I could also see that she had shifted and now my eyes rested upon her lower torso ? She had NO legs !! Sleek? Her body to fins at the end and in truth some bewilderment on my part, yet I had seen such pictures such images of ? Mermaids ! She smiles, her face, the beauty. Set within it, the most radiant, bluest eyes I have ever seen.
Soft yet lush lips that now she raised her hands to. Her hands moved, raised to her lips, her palms to blow me a kiss ? Amused I think, by my reaction! She slips back into the water, splashing around before vanishing, only to reappear, her hair soaked as she flays out, her hair the water soaks me ! is she laughing ? Why is it I think she is !
Shifting into the water, swimming away from me, the tail in the water glides through it, some distance out and yet still within view, she turns about and waves, before once again her palms raised to her lips, outstretched towards me, she blows me another kiss ! I watch, mesmerised; she dives and is gone, bar the wash of white water smooth surface with just a few ripples to nothing ?
I woke up? So this had been, just a dream? Why am I so convinced it was not! It was too vivid ! The rocks around my rock, are not flooded with water, only the rock where ? Well where I had seen her ? Sure enough the tide coming in washes water over it and I know soon, I must make tracks before it too, washes over the rock I am upon ! YET what is this !! I am soaking wet !
The front of my top, my trousers drenched ! Perhaps some freak wave ! Yes that’s it ! But the sea though, the wash across the rocks is gathering pace, is too calm for such a theory, to make any sense !
A dream, it must have been a dream ! Reality or fantasy ? Fact or fiction ?
What is it, over the years, in my youth, in my middle age, that draws me back to that same place ? To wonder if one day she will return ? Is not love like that ? Once just a momentary look into her eyes, a cursory glance and she is gone ?
It does not matter where you are, wherever you are, the thoughts remain constant. Almost haunting. The desire to have that which is out of your reach ? Unobtainable? Yet also the thought, what
IF she had stayed ?
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