Sea Creatures

He didn't know where he had come from. He had grown up with foster parents, good people who have taken care of his every need and given him the most they could. After a while they had adopted him so he had a family, he had a home.he had bedtime stories and someone to tuck him into bed at night.
Once he blended into the permanency of these situations he allowed himself to stop fearing and to be happy.

The years passed and he made it to college and graduation. His parents were happy and immensely proud of that child they had taken in years before not knowing how life would unfold.
He had never asked them about his parents. He had felt curious at times but something had prevented him from delving into that part he knew existed but for some reason he could he kept pushing to the back of his mind.

All that was fine until the dreams came, dreams of a sea, a blue sea and cliffs. Later on there were two people,a man and a woman, swimming in that blue sea. They seem to be happy together and still there was something strange about them. They dived into the sea and never emerged again.
He felt he knew them, he felt related to them, and yet there were strangers, just people in a dream. He never told his parents about them, for some reason he felt the dream couple wanted him to keep those dreams secret.

To celebrate his promotion at the bureau where he was working he invited his parents to the seaside. They were thrilled, they hadn't been on a real holiday for ages.
They stayed at a little hotel near the sea.Usually they had breakfast together, the three of them, content in the simplicity of their lives..
He felt so much gratitude towards them, he remembered his old self as a child, scrawny knees and clumsy walk, fearful eyes,and a desire to stay, not to be cast away. He remembered how much they took care of every detail to make him feel loved, he remembered when he became their son and how happy they were, just as much as he was.
He knew how much they had cut down on small pleasures to put him through college so to see them enjoying what he could give them was a joyful experience.

The last day of their holiday he decided to visit the far away cliff they could see from their windows. His parents chose to stay at the beach.
He walked slowly till he got to the part where the terrain ascended and he went on till he could see the sea from above. He looked down, the abyss there was almost menacing.

And then, all of a sudden, they came into view. The man and the woman of his dream. They seemed oblivious to his gaze and yet he felt they knew he was there.
He felt connected to them in a strange way, something he couldn't explain. For some reason he didn't feel like explaining anything. not to himself and not to anyone else for that matter.
He turned back to meet his parents. They were chatting peacefully, two people who had navigated through many situations and had emerged stronger.

" How was the cliff?", his father asked.
" Impressing. I also saw a couple playing in the water."
" A couple?"
" Yes, they seemed happy to be in the water, as if they were sea creatures.
When I was leaving I turned back to look at them again but they were no
longer there, most likely they had dived into the sea."

His parents looked at each other, there wasn't an easy silence for a while and then his mother hi said they´d better start going because it would be dark in a short while.
They stood up and started their journey back. He turned back a few times to see if he could catch a glimpse of the water couple but it was no use. The sea had engulfed them and he knew there and then the sea was their home.

The years passed slowly at times and faster at others. When his parents passed away he stayed in the old house where he had spent his entire life.
He commuted to the city every day, he didn't mind having to commute that often, actually he welcomed it.
He was promoted again and he became a partner in the law firm where he worked.
He dated some beautiful women but never long enough to create a commitment to any of them. He remained friends with one or two, the others just picked up the pieces of their allegedly broken hearts and vanished from his life. He missed them at times but realized they had made the right choice.

Once a year he returned to the seaside,near the same place where he had seen the couple swimming in the blue waters. He seldom saw them again but it was enough to make him feel happy. It was strange. He never spoke to anyone about them, not even to his shrink whom he saw once a week.

More years passed by and eventually he retired. He bought a small house near the sea and lived there most of his time. His own company soothed him. His evenings were quiet, only disturbed at first by the sound of the tide when the sea got rough. Eventually he got used to it and went on reading or sleeping peacefully, as if he had been born in the waters.
The dreams of his young years came back from time to time but they failed to puzzle him as they used to do in the far past. For some reason he enjoyed them.
The years had taken some toll but had not been that exacting in his case, he kept active and his mind was still sharp.

It was on one of these nights he decided to go out for a stroll by the seashore. It was a beautiful night, a placid night with a big moon and lots of stars.
He wore his bathing trunks under his trousers, eager to get into the water. He undressed quickly and started walking. The tide welcomed him gladly.



And then he saw them, the man and the woman, smiling. Their arms were extended towards him, he felt he belonged with them, those creatures of the sea who were seen from time to time.
He realized then he had found his family again and that in all his years on the land he had been on loan for reasons unbeknownst to him.
He had been a good son, a good employee, a good partner, he had done well. He had been adopted by loving people and he had loved them back. They had made him happy and he had made them happy.
His life would continue now in a different environment, his time had come to go home.

Elizabeth Aldam, July 15 th2025