The water was calm that night and the waves were not rolling in with their usual vigor. Instead, they would just tiptoe up the beach like naughty children trying to steal a cookie from the cookie jar and would creep back down again. Beyond the beach, the open ocean was almost smooth except for an occasional ripple of water.
The stars smiled down from the heavens and pronounced that night to be the most beautiful of all nights. Their light made the beach easy to see and stunning to behold. Each little beam kissed the sand, making it look golden brown and tranquil. The man in the moon skipped along the edge of the sea like a child playing hopscotch and laughed in spite of himself.
Everything was at peace.
Everything, that is, except for her. But, then again, it seemed that fate had already decreed that she was to have no peace. Well, she was here to prove fate wrong. She would get through this. That was why she had been brought here, hadn’t it? “The beach has calming effects,” the doctor had pronounced and here she was taken.
“Addie hasn’t been the same since..."
She thought it was interesting that they laid the blame for her lapses on just one thing when she was sure it had nothing to do with that.
“Addie hasn’t been the same since..."
She was barefoot. Wouldn’t Aunt Ella be shocked? And what of the proper ladies at the Kingston Ladies Society? They would have a fainting spell for sure. No proper young lady, who cared what people thought about her, was to be seen in the middle of the night on an empty beach without an escort. She didn’t care, though. The gossips had enough to talk about. This little trip would only be seasoning in their soup.
She walked along the water, barely slipping her toes into the lapping waves. She had always been afraid of water. Afraid it would swallow her up like Jonah and never let her out again. She had been a child then and afraid of many things. It wasn’t until she reached adulthood that she found so many things that were far worse.
Things like death...
“Addie hasn’t been the same since...
She coughed and fought for her breath. It was always like this when she thought about it, fighting the madness that so desperately wanted to carry her off. It called to her. Addie... Addie... come with me and you'll be safe... you won't feel pain, Addie... She remembered a time when she couldn’t hear it calling, when she was like all the others. When she smiled and was truly happy, when she hoped and planned.
There had been a time when she thought all of life’s problems could be solved with Gabriel, her husband. Gabriel had been her savior when they were children and had taken her fear of water away by making her face it. He was the one who first made her touch the water with her toes, to play like a child in the salty surf. He was the one that told her stories while the waves crashed, lulling her into a sense of peace and calm.
She needed that now, desperately so. But this time, she would do it by herself.
She was determined not to go back until she conquered this. The voices would stop if she made them.
“Addie hasn’t been the same since..."
She quirked her brow and almost smiled. Had she ever been the same? She thought of laughing out loud and changed her mind. That would mean that she was having another lapse and then they would be right. Laughing about nothing was something a lunatic did. But, everyone knew she wasn’t crazy. She was fine, Gabriel said so... crazy? You aren't crazy... you just need time to heal...
“Addie hasn’t been the same since..."
The water reached up and tickled her toes, making her squeal with laughter like a child. Child. She sat down at the word that refused to go away and locked her hands around her long legs, covered with her new, pink satin dress that Gabriel had purchased to bring her back to his world and the layers of petticoats that Aunt Ella had insisted on, rocking like a mother rocking her baby.
Baby. She had a baby, didn she?
“Addie hasn’t been the same since..."
She pressed her face into her knees and rocked harder. She felt the tears scalding her on their race down her face and ignored them. Her stomach cramped and she stopped rocking for a moment to stare down at her tummy, flat and not at all swollen.
That was strange. I must have had the baby Where‘s my baby?
She looked around frantically for a moment or two before she heard it. It was so low that she almost missed it over the waves. The voices were calling to her. Telling her to look... and then she saw it. Her baby. It was a cooing and floating in the water. She smiled and picked herself up off of the sand and walked towards it. She could swear she saw it, just a little bit further and she would be able to reach him... if she could grab him, she could prove she wasn’t crazy like they said. She could be like them again. If she could just step a little further...
Her baby.
There was a ripple and then the water was calm and the waves were not rolling in with their usual vigor. Instead, they would just tiptoe up the beach like naughty children trying to steal a cookie from the cookie jar and then creep back down again.
Beyond the beach, the open ocean was almost smooth except for an occasional ripple of water.
The stars smiled down from the heavens and pronounced that night to be the most beautiful of all nights. Their light made the beach easy to see and stunning to behold. Each little beam kissed the sand, making it look golden brown and tranquil.
The man in the moon skipped along the edge of the sea like a child playing hopscotch and laughed in spite of himself.
Everything was at peace.