Water. Floating in water. A pair of eyes blink open; a consciousness springs to life. At first, the thoughts are blurred. The urges, primal. Hunger, drowsiness, thirst. But then, a new emotion emerges: loneliness. The only other breath is the gentle sea breeze; the only other pulse is the tender rocking of waves. As far as the eye can see is nothing but water and sky. The dim light of early morning tints the sky. The sun makes no effort to rise above the horizon. Time stands still.
The consciousness begins to shift away from its instinctive processes to coherent thought. Panicked, but coherent. It thinks, “Where am I? How am I floating? What's happening?” The eyes of the consciousness drift around. They find its body attached beneath the head, as would be natural. The figure is female. The young woman reaches to her face and rubs her eyes – they're hers. All of the body she sees is hers. All of her is there, floating in the middle of an endless ocean.
The pangs of loneliness continue. Wind blows across her face, softly teasing her hair. Sunlight still refuses to lift itself above the horizon. Frozen in time, the young woman still floats in her sea of desolation. Naked, anxious, alone.
Then she hears a sound. The sloshing of a rowboat through salt water sends ripples to her through the air and the water. A group of men murmur as they paddle their way through the water. The young woman in the water cries for help; the men give no reply. She tries to swim toward them, but they only drift farther and farther away. Eventually, they disappear into the haze of the dark horizon.
Panicking, the girl swims after them hoping she might reach shore. She soon discovers that her efforts are fruitless. Waves push her back whenever she swims too far. The sounds of other watercraft torture her as they pass on the very edge of sight. After the craft all fade into the distance, a new sound roars in her ears: Thunder. Clouds appear in what seems like mere seconds. The waves turn from hills and gullies to mountains and valleys. Wave after wave crashes on the young woman's head. She thrashes about to stay afloat, and screams for help. Only the thunder replies. Her final call attacks a nearby flash of lightning.
She awakens, screaming loudly enough to shatter glass in the heavens. The girl feels a dip in her bed, and an arm around her shoulder. A voice whispers in her ear, only to be lost in her own cries. Finally, a hand comes over her mouth.
“Shh... it's just a nightmare, Maria,” croons the voice. Maria exhales the air for a scream in a sigh, and pants to catch her breath.
Maria falls back into the arm around her shoulder, and looks up to where the voice was. She sees her sister, Althea, whose eyes glowed peacefully in the moonlight. The hand lifts off her mouth. She attempts to speak, but can only exhale. Inhale, exhale.
Althea strokes her younger sister's hair with her free hand as she glances out the window. The waves on the ocean crest with a moonlit foam. She returns her gaze to her sister's terrified eyes. “Do you want to tell me?” Maria nods and draws a deep breath.
She chokes out the details. Awakening, floating, despairing, drowning. She rubs her eyes to drive the tears away. Althea lifts her sister's chin and turns it to the window. “You see that?” she whispers. “You'll never be on that ocean alone. Don't worry.”
Maria nods, and wraps her arm around her sister's abdomen. She wipes her eyes with her free hand and sniffs. Her sister squeezes her shoulder with a one-armed hug and says, “dream sweetly, Maria.”
Maria watches her sister step lightly across the room, and settles down into bed herself before giving one last look out the window.
“I hope you're right. I don't want to be alone.”
