Converse Melodies

She stood on the shore, deep waters stretching wide as far as eye could see. The sea was grey, the sand brown, both shades so light they were almost colorless.

It was a strange landscape. Barren yet alive. Arid but happy. The waves danced back and forth to some unheard tune, nature’s pendulum keeping time.

Did they feel her? she wondered. Feel her gaze, her desolation, the weight of memories she wanted them to take? It is said you’ll always know, somewhere deep inside, the difference between people who love you and the ones who do for what you do for them. 

Did the waters and its beings know she was here for selfish reasons?

Did they resent her for it?

A sudden long wave sloshed at her feet, the song of the wind wrapping her in a cocoon both cool and warm. She watched the sand beneath her feet morph from gray-gold to a deep bronze and back again in the space of two heartbeats and felt a poignant ache rise within her.

Perhaps this was the love books and poets drawled on about. The cosmic, derisive need to see someone else happy as well as share your miseries with them.

A gull flying above let out an incessant caw and the sound echoed inside her in acknowledgment. A smile lit her face. It was a good day to be in love.

The falling out could wait another dawn.

THE END