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The sea breeze ran through her curls causing tickles at the back of her neck. No one dared even to look at the sea, let alone coming to the beach, not after what the sea did to them yesterday. But today! Amazing Sparkling with glamour ! Not even a wave to reflect yesterday’s darkness of death. It was so calm. But wasn’t it the same yesterday? Ominously calm, which was exactly what led her and her brother to go to the beach with their parents and never return back.
Mariah and her brother Jason always loved the sea. Always! The beach was their playground and the sea was their play mate. Maybe the sea was playing hide and seek with them yesterday. Maybe Jason is still hiding at the depth of the sea laughing at her for being such a failure! Such a loser! Who can’t even play hide and seek properly. Why blame the sea? May be the sea was just being playful. Maybe it wasn’t the sea’s fault at all! Maybe it was hers! Who didn’t even attempt to look back for assurance while swimming ashore when her parents and her only brother were pried away from life?
Mariah had known how to swim since the age of 5. So did Jason. Their father was an expert swimmer, diver and ironically, a life guard. Their mother wasn’t bad at swimming either. ‘Family should stay together’ their parents always used to say. When they were disappointed, all they said was ‘family should stay together’. When Mariah got caught up in a fight with Jason, their parents would never punish or reprimand them as the ordinary parents would do. Instead they would mutter ‘family should stay together’, which immediately made Mariah and Jason hug each other and say ‘sorry’.
If family should stay together, why only she’s standing here alone in the beach? Moved by a flash of thought, Mariah stepped into the sea. The ripples gathered around her ankle. It felt cold, deadly cold! Though reluctantly, she moved further. Step by step. Once she came to a neck deep mace of water, she started swimming. The salty water blinded her for a minute. Their boundary was a reef. Beyond that, it was area 51. Highly prohibited! She swam to the reef and clambered up.
It wasn’t an easy task for a girl of 10 years. But she had mastered the art for 5 years, therefore it wasn’t really a big deal for her. Once she got on the reef she looked to her either side. The reef was an emblem of separation: that’s what their father had said. Deep-shallow, dark-light, clear-unclear, violent – peaceful and of course life-death.
She knew she had to make a choice: join the family – leave it behind and start fresh. No one will care for sure. They have already lost a lot, why would they care if she lived or died. They won’t even know. But the question is ‘won’t they?’ Do the living people immediately forget those who are dead? Don’t they grieve? Of course they do, but does it last longer than 3 months? The genuine tears of sorrow! Who will cry for her family once she’s gone? Isn’t it only Mariah who will always feel her loss?. No one will care, right? So, does it really matter if she’s gone? She won’t hurt anyone, will she?
Where to go? She took a mental tour before making the choice. To home, which wasn’t there anymore, to school, which might not exist anymore to the ‘rotti kadey’ which mostly served their ‘Sunday special’ dinner and finally to the church! After her odyssey down memory lane, she made a silent prayer. She knew it would hurt. When lungs were full of water, then lacked entrance to oxygen! Once She got water in her nose when drinking while denying laughing, probably to some joke that her father had cracked. She felt like her brain was being invaded by an army of ten thousand needles. Now, she knew, the pain would be worse. Multiply by hundred: it wan’t still be the same. But she has to take the risk. She filled her lungs with mass heap of breath and stepped forward… After all she still believed in her father’s words, which was more likely an excuse now, ‘Family should be together’: always and forever’. - Minuri Perera
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