A Blue Dream

A Blue Dream


There was once a boy who cherished the sea. Each morning, right before the sun graced the sky, he would walk down to the beach. If he could only completely escape the notice of his parents, he would have spent the whole day and every day at the beach, running barefoot in the sand, laying down on the giant black rocks by the water, and swimming in his lovely beach.

But his parents did notice and they yelled him. Why did he not study? Why did he not do his chores? But the boy’s heart always ached when he was far from the water. He told his parents that he wanted nothing else but to become a fisherman when he grew up and spend all his time on a boat in the water.  His parents told him fishermen were poor. How could he buy a house by the beach if he did not have enough money? How could he get beautiful clothes and toys like he had now without money? They warned him to study hard and forget the beach, but he did not care. He would live on his boat, and as for the clothes and toys, he did not need these decorations. No, what he worried about the most was that a fisherman had to take fish out of the water. The fish were just like him; they loved the water so much that they died when removed from it. How could he do to others what was his greatest fear that others would do to him?

The boy’s little brother Tom pleased their parents much more. He would study when told and even did some of his chores. Tom also loved his brother very much. He would jump on him and ask him to play with him. If Tom did not understand his brother’s love for the beach, at least he accepted and respected it. Some days, after Tom finished his homework, they would walk to the beach and the two boys would spend hours playing together with no one else beside them except for the great black rocks, the sand, and the water. These days were the happiest days for the boy.

The skies always looked down on the beach, always watched and cared for it. Sometimes, it seemed angry, and it would yell even louder than when his parents yelled at him, with its deafening claps of thunder. But the boy, who always watched with wonder, would see how the storms would subside and the sky would then grant the beach what it wanted.

The boy’s parents grew weary and then angry with his behavior, finally telling him that he could go to the beach only on the weekends. The boy yelled and complained, and then he cried and begged his parents, but they would not budge, for they were worried about their son.

That night after his parents had slept, the boy rose slowly. He looked across at his brother’s sleeping form, and then quietly he left. The streets were silent, but the water was still awake and the beach echoed with the sounds of its great waves. The great black rocks peered down at him and the full moon seemed another witness to his guilty, hastened walk. Did they not know why he came?

Finally, he found the area he sought, the small crevice between the rocks were no one would be able to find him. He felt happy, he was finally where he belonged and he would not need to become a fisherman or ever return to his home. He could just hide here and spend all his days on the beach.

As the morning approached, his happiness washed over him like the waves of the sea. But once the sun had fully risen, he carefully retreated to his hideout. It would not do for him to be captured on the first day he had run away. He lay inside the crevice on the sand, and asked the black rocks to hide from invasive eyes. He heard his name called many times, at first with some irritation during the day and then with some concern at night. After the calls had receded that day, he came out and played on his lovely beach. He was not yet worried about food, for he had taken some with him from home.

The happiness, which had surged over him in the first day, started to ebb away slowly over the next few days. The calls for him had come again and now they sounded frantic. He had seen his brother looking for him once, and he had quickly hid behind a tree. But his brother had not seen him and had moved on after only a few, short minutes. The boy’s food had also run out and he discovered that it took much energy to find enough food to keep him full every day. He cried and grew bitter with the beach. Why could the black rocks, the water, and the sands with all its children live here forever while he could not survive for more than a few days without feeling that he would perish from lack of food? He blamed the sky for this, for it saw his need, yet did not deliver him any sustenance. And so with a heavy heart, he ended his grand adventure and said goodbye once and for all to his beach.

His parents said that the boy would never be allowed to visit the beach again, but they did not know that the boy had already abandoned the beach as it had cast him off. He was angry with the sky. Perhaps the sky only smiled down upon the beach and not at him, the forsaken child.

It had been two years since he had seen the beach, and his brother Tom had grown much and he had many friends. Now the boy did his homework and his chores and pleased their parents as much as Tom. Their only question now was why did he not talk more and make friends like Tom? But they were mainly relieved that he had forgotten his obsession with the beach.

At night, when Tom’s friends had finally left, he could be alone with Tom. The boy would pull his younger brother close to him and sometimes rest his chin on top of Tom’s hair and let Tom talk, about anything and everything. Tom never expected a reply during these conversations, but it did not bother him for he understood that his brother was a quiet boy.

And it was one day, while on a bus on his way home from the market, that the boy spotted the beach out of the window. He usually avoided staring at the beach, but it had captured his attention today and it seduced him out of the bus. He fell down on the beach and began to cry for several hours. When he had gathered some control of himself, he sat down on the sand, but he would not enter the water. While he sat, a red crab approached him and asked him why he was so sad. The boy told him of his love for the beach and how the sky had denied him nourishment and had shunned him.

The crab told him that the solution to his problem would come from another source. At this point, the sky was beginning to darken and the crab led the boy away to a sheltered area. “You must ask the sand to unite you with the beach forever,” whispered the crab into his ears. The boy asked and returned.

“The sand would not. It has said it would not do such a thing against nature.”

“Go and ask the rocks,” said the crab.

The boy returned and told the crab of the rocks’ answer, “We cannot do what the sand would not. This is a thing against nature.” By this time, the sky had so darkened that it now resembled night. “Go and ask the water,” said the crab so softly that it was hard for the boy to hear it.

“But what about what the rocks and the sand have said?” asked the boy, as he thought of his brother Tom.
“And what of your great love with the water? Shall you be denied of that forever?” asked the crab as it crawled away and disappeared into the stormy night.

The boy sat and wondered. Oh how his heart beat so painfully against his chest as he looked at the water and saw the waves that he had not seen in two years. He entered the water and even though it was cold, he only felt its sweetness as it engulfed him.

And then he asked the water, “Will you find a way for us to be together?”

And the water said back softly, “You would have me do what the sand and the rocks would both not do. You would have me go against nature.”

“And what of my love for you?” asked the boy with the aching heart.

“I love you as well. I would have us be together,” said the water as it pulled him down under its waves.

It was now storming and the waves were great. At first, the boy could not breathe, but he did not struggle. This was where he was meant to be. Then strangely, the boy felt himself changing and breathing. He swam, unsurely at first, and then deeper and deeper, to the heart of the sea. The water surrounded him and it pulsed around him, immersing him in its love. It had done what the sands and the rocks would not. It had given him a form that would allow them to be united.

And he swam. The boy was no longer a boy, but he knew only happiness. It was here that he lived his dream and gave all his love to the sea, and how it cherished him and adored him and cared for him above all its other inhabitants.

But after a long time of happiness, he began to remember Tom, his beautiful brother Tom, and a persistent, deep ache developed in his core. The water, recognizing his hurt, tried to comfort and cheer him, but his profuse love and joy were now tainted with sadness as well.

One fair day, while he was swimming close to the surface, he noticed a boat. He was usually wary of boats, but he forgot all else as he saw his brother aboard the raft. He swam towards the ship, not noticing the net, and soon he was pulled out of the water and onto the ship. He tried to talk to Tom, but he found himself suffocating in the air. Before long though, he was thrust into a bag of water.

“So beautiful,” said Tom. “I want to keep this one.”

So it was such how he found himself back in his parents’ house in a glass bowl by the window. Now, he greatly missed the sea, and always ached for it, but he also found great pleasure in seeing the face of his brother and even his parents. At night, when the streets were silent, he would listen for the far-off lamenting echo of the sea waves and knew that like him, it too mourned their abrupt separation. He looked at the sky outside his window and asked, “Is this why you have returned me here? Am I meant to be with my family and not the sea? Am I not meant to fulfill both of my loves at once?”

The sky was beautiful, as it stretched out above, a navy canvas spotted with tiny, twinkling stars. “You have gone against your nature. It may not have happened this way. Now, you will stay here and love your family. You are to repay the debt of the grief you have caused them. When it is time, you will be returned to the sea, wherein you may dwell forever.”

He swam gently around the bowl for he had found peace. He would have a long time to gaze on his family and love them in his own quiet way and then afterwards, he would be where he belonged, and there would be no more sadness.


Word Count: 2055 words