Return

         I was sitting on the beach in a pair of pajama shorts and a cardigan, my long blond curls awry from the early summer breeze. My knees pulled up tightly to my chest, my arms wrapped around them, fingers interlaced, I look down at my webbed toes, wiggling them in the cool, wet sand. I closed my eyes and inhale, taking in the scent of peace, serene and calm, tasting the salt air on my tongue. There was almost a full moon that cast a snowy white glow over everything it touched. The stars were so vivid against the black velvet of the night sky, like tiny diamonds, shining and sparkling as if to take the sun’s place.
         The water rolled up onto the shore only inches way from where I sat in the sand, reaching out for me like a needy hand, pleading to me, begging me to come and play. I could hear the water’s sweet whispers, the dark promises it made.
         I couldn’t sleep. Everyday I slept less and less. I haven’t slept in two days now. My heart ached too much, longing for ocean, longing to return home. The sea is my home. Freedom was only minutes away, even if it were only temporary. As soon as the sun fully emerged, I could go home. I could swim, no longer trapped in this human body.
         I am a selkie, a child of the sea. Every year on my birthday, I am allowed from sunrise to sunset to return to the sea, going wherever I please, doing whatever I want. However, I must return home before the sun fully sets or the deal is broken.
         This form that I currently posses will be turning seventeen today. However, my soul is much older. I was born on June 19, 1882 in my human form. My mother had been held prisoner by her husband, a fisherman from Maine. On the day I was born, they knew. They could tell from my white-blond hair, my webbed feet, my blue green eyes, cold as ice, my pupil only a vertical sliver what I was. I was a selkie.
         Out of love for my mother and me, he returned to my mother her pelt and let us go, let us return home. She swam with me to an island off the coast, an island only us merfolk could see, hidden from humans by glamour. It was a magical island; You did not age there. It was as if time were frozen, as if it did not matter. And it did not for us immortal souls. That is my home, where my family lies. I rarely ever used my human form. That is, until I was captured one day my a fisherman several years ago. My mother bargained with him: She promised him all the fish he could sell for my return. But he was a cruel man. He only allowed me to return once a year on my birthday until his son- who I was destined to marry- decided to let me free.
         One by one, the stars gradually started to fade, disappearing as if they were never there, as if their beauty never shone down on land and sea. The first born of the sun’s rays began to taint the sweet darkness, replacing the moon’s pure white glow with various shades of blue; The horizon a deep, pale blue and fading into black. The water reflected the sky almost perfectly, white foam collecting at the water’s edge.
         Clouds appeared in the distance, baby blue, periwinkle, and gray, slowly creeping from beyond the line where sky meshed with sea. The outline of the hills from other islands became visible, a black outline against the sky.
         It was so close, so unbearably close. The waves grew stronger with my anticipation, slapping against the sand, rushing over my feet and ankles, spraying my skin with saltwater. Mere minutes were standing in the way of me and my home. I could hear the ocean begin to whisper I my ear. It grew louder and louder until I could make out words, directions to where my pelt was hidden for me to find.
         Out in the water, I could make out dark things, jutting out from the surface, bobbing with the waves. More and more popped up. They were seals, they were my family.
         I stood up and the waves crashed against the shore, the wind whipping my hair into my face. I followed the voice, followed it to where my precious seal skin was hidden. I pulled the thick mass of the gray and white fur from a hole dug beneath a large rock not far from where I sat every night. Relief rushed over me as I hugged the fur to my chest, tears brimming in my eyes.
         I shed my clothes, throwing the skin over my shoulders and ran to the waters edge. As soon as my feet touched the water I could feel myself falling, drowning in the magic of the sea. I an instant my blond hair and light skin were gone, replaced by a dark gray and whittle fur, my legs and arms replaced with flippers. I looked at the ocean, at all the other seals waiting for me. I dove under the surface and swam. I was home