A Proposal, Part 1
I want to tell you the story of a boy, my Julie Anne, a boy who was saved by the girl in his dreams. This boy, who we shall call Cameron, was born in a small fishing village that sat on the edge of a mighty sea. His father, like many of the men in his time, was a fisherman by trade. His mother, like many of the women in her time, married at a young age a man she thought she could someday tame. But after the births of her two sons, Cameron and his little brother Luke, the day came when she realized that the wife of a fisherman she could never be. When Cameron was barely old enough to know the feeling of loss, his mother packed her things and left the boys' father to raise them. And so the years passed, measured by the tides of the sea -- the tides that carried the boys' father away and the tides that returned him home.
Cameron was always a boy older than his years and took easily to the task of raising his brother during their father's time away. But before long the two boys were both old enough to take to the sea themselves. With the small wooden skiff their father helped them to build, Cameron and Luke were soon spending their days just off shore, learning the life and the love that was passed to them from their father. By the time the boys were in their teens, they were already supporting themselves with their catch. Their father was proud of his sons. Whenever the three of them were at home the family's house was filled with laughter and stories. Most of the time, however, the house was quiet -- even ghostly as it collected dust and cobwebs in the long days and months of the fishing season.
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It was on one such day during the summer of Cameron's 17th year that the two brothers found themselves lounging comfortably in their skiff as they awaited the fish. Slow days were a common thing for a fisherman. And so Cameron lay with his back against the stern, his head resting on the side of the boat. His eyes were closed. The sun was warm against his face and he could taste the crisp, salty air on the soft breeze. These days were his favorites and he found himself smiling because of it.
"So, I got some pretty heavy news last night." The sound of his brother's voice floated to him from the bow of the skiff. Cameron opened his eyes. His brother sat his opposite, his knees pulled up, his hands clasped together. Cameron noticed that Luke's right knee was trembling as his brother looked at him.
"What's up?" He asked. Luke took a deep breath.
"Hannah is pregnant."
Hannah was Luke's high school sweetheart. Cameron liked her well enough. Sometimes he wondered if his brother did though.
"Wow. Congratulations." He said. His brother was quiet. A seagull squawked overhead. Luke looked out to the watery horizon.
"Thanks." He said. The two brothers sat in silence for a time before Cameron asked, "what are you going to do?" Luke kept his gaze seaward but there was moisture in his eyes.
"I asked her to marry me." He said. Cameron wanted to say something. He wanted to say anything. But as the minutes drifted out of his reach he knew that there was nothing he could say.
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That night Cameron dreamed. He dreamed that it was a soft, starry night on the bay and that he was walking alone on top of the still waters that felt so much like home to him. It did seem odd to him that he was walking on water, but in his dream reality he found it difficult to reason why. As he walked with his back to the shore he found himself wondering in awe at the stars that domed him above. They were not the stars that he knew. There were entire foreign constellations that danced for him like bits of luminescent in the dark waters of a quiet cove. Feeling the surrealness of his surroundings, he looked back behind him anxiously. His fears were realized when he saw no land where a moment before there had been the village that was his home. Spinning in panic, the boy saw only water in every direction. Being a man of the sea, he looked up to the stars then, thinking to find his bearings. But there were no stars either, only darkness.
The boy was running suddenly. Tears began to stream down his face. He ran faster. His legs were burning. His breath came with difficulty. But he only ran the faster. As his tears spilled off his cheeks and collided with the sea, his feet began to sink into the dark waters. The faster he tried to run, the faster he sank. The water was at his knees when a green light caught his eye over his left shoulder. Instinctively the boy turned toward the glow, knowing that it was his only chance.
By the time he was close enough to the glow to see that it was coming from just below the water's surface the waves were now lapping at his thighs. And then he stopped. Forgetting about the water, the darkness, the running, the tears, the boy stared in astonished wonder at the source of the green light. At his feet, lying face up, just below the surface was the most beautiful brown haired, brown eyed woman that he had ever laid eyes on. Her skin was a dreamy, soft shade of pale that sent chills down the backs of his legs. She wore a brilliant green gown that drifted over her shapely figure. The boy was awe struck and had to visibly shake himself from his trance.
It was then he realized that he was no longer sinking. In fact, the bottoms of his feet were not even in the water now. It did not matter in the least to the boy anymore. Without hesitation he plunged head first into the cold sea.
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Cameron awoke to the quiet solitude of the night with a start. His heart was beating as though his chest would burst. His cheeks were smeared with moisture. His back was sticky with sweat. Luke lay in the bed next to him, sleeping peacefully. But Cameron did not sleep a wink the rest of the night and by the time the sun crested the eastern horizon he had decided that he must move to the city that very day. And he did. By the next night Cameron was sleeping in a crisp, clean hotel bed in the big city. On the other side of a draped window were the sounds and sights of a life he had never known existed. But in his sleep there was still the silence of the night and the waters of the bay and a brown eyed girl dressed in green.
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Thus ends A Proposal, Part 1. A Proposal, Part 2 to be continued...
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