Eternal Journey. Alex Archer

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      “It’s all the way on the other side of the island. I still have fish to sell.” He swept his hand over the containers, proving his point.

      “Oh please, Papa,” I said. “There are only a few fish left, the stragglers, the ones that nobody will buy. Please?”

      He sighed. “How can I say no to my little girl? Come and help me clean up and we’ll close the shop.”

      I jumped up and kissed him.

      A short time later our small boat slipped from the marina and out over the shallow waters that wrapped around the island. The sun was a few finger-widths above the horizon and its rays had softened. Small waves slapped against our boat as we glided along, giving off hollow echoes. The island was wild and mountainous, covered in a blanket of green trees. Tall spikes of rocks burst out of the cover of the island, a hint of St. Claire’s volcanic past.

      We passed over the eastern tip, came around the cape, with its hidden dangers of rocks and coral that passed as dark shadows beneath the water. If our vessel were any larger, we would have to ride farther out, in deeper waters. A shipwreck, long abandoned and bleaching in the sun, lay half-submerged. Just beyond it there was a beach, with a fine ribbon of white sand and palms that beckoned in the wind, a lure to land-hungry seafarers.

      We rowed on until we came to a place on the island that I didn’t remember seeing before. The cove formed a wide horseshoe, and there was only the smallest strip of sand. The rest of the shoreline was rocky and the water foamed as it rose and fell around the outcroppings. My eyes were pulled upward, up the steep cliff, which was crumbling in some places and in others seemed very solid, with natural shelves and caves. Only at the top, where the land evened out, could I see a flat expanse of green.

      My father stopped rowing. The world was suddenly quiet, with only the wail of an occasional seagull carrying through the air. We drifted for a moment, taking in the scene before us. The sun was just one finger above the horizon, and streaks of pink and orange stained the sky.

      I drew my gaze along the outline of the island, where the strip of green at the top was. I could just make out a hulking shadow of darkness. “I see it!” I exclaimed. “It’s a castle.”

      “Not a castle, really. An old fortress,” corrected my father. “Long, long ago, it held troops who would watch over and protect the island.”

      My eyes were trained on the building, and I could see that the stretch of green was a manicured lawn, an impossible thing on an island like ours. The fortress seemed so huge and ominous, so imposing that I wondered aloud, “Why in the world would they live in a fortress?”

      “That I don’t know. I think there was a house for the family at one time.”

      “Do you see those flames?” I asked.

      “What?” He was surprised. “Oh, I see what you are looking at now, they are lighting the torches.”

      A small globe of orange hovered at the top of the cliff. I could make out the shadow of a person that appeared to be a woman holding the torch. She was at the steepest point of the cliff. A chill swept over me. She was so close to the edge…

      The fire lowered and I cried out in fear, thinking that whoever it was had fallen. But no, it was an illusion, and the fire only moved slowly down the cliff.

      “Do you see the stairs?” asked my father. “Watch.” His tone was patient and indulgent. “Watch.”

      The flame floated lower. Suddenly, there was a flare, a bursting intensity of light, and one fire became two. Like lava dripping down the face of the rock, the flame descended, illuminating a staircase that was hewn into the rock. Just above the ocean the last flame came to life and all at once there were a thousand flames, an impossible crisscross of light and color.

      “What is it?” I asked.

      We could see illuminated in a ring of fire what appeared to be a house of glass.

      If the torches were a necklace of fire, the cottage was the jewel. It dangled just above the shoreline, brilliant in the dusk.

      I gaped at the image, trying to unlock the mystery of how a house of glass could be perched on such a precarious spot. A thin skeleton of white pillars and supports provided a clue, but the building, although small as a bungalow, was a marvel to behold. A feeling swelled inside me, of warmth and wonder, appreciation and awe. “It’s so beautiful,” I whispered.

      The house shimmered in the setting sun. It almost seemed to shift in place, a trick of the eye.

      “Reyna…” My father’s voice came to me from somewhere far away. “Reyna… We have to go. It’s almost dark and we can’t be out on the water at night.”

      “No,” I begged. “No. Please, Papa, can’t we just stay a little while longer?” Some part of me thought that the house would do that unusual thing again, that trick of the light, and I wanted to see it.

      “I’m sorry, my sweet. But, the tides are changing, pushing us toward the rocks. We have to go.” He dropped the oars, turning us away from the magnificent house. I felt a pang of sadness as we moved away, and only when we were almost back to our side of the island did my joyful mood return. I still had the shell, clutched in my small hand.

      When we reached home, my father helped me bore a hole in the seashell that Mr. St. Claire had given me. We threaded a strip of leather through the hole and my father placed it over my head. The shell warmed the base of my throat. “A jewel fit for a queen,” he said, and I could tell by his playful tone that he was teasing me.

      I never missed a day at market after that. I would wait, fingering my necklace nervously, watching the entrance to the harbor for that one distinctive sailboat, though it never came. But I was always ready, my necklace never removed. Though at first I begged my father relentlessly, he never took me to see the glass house again. Eventually, my requests died away, and I was left with only a memory.

      * * *

      It is a testament to my happiness that ten years slipped by in barely an instant. 1912 arrived, and I turned twenty years old. No man I had ever met could compare to the memory of Lucas St. Claire. I focused solely on my father, helping him whenever I could.

      The world seemed poised on the tip of technology and industry, and when my father bought a new boat, one with a motor, it seemed as if the future was right before us.

      Not a month later, my father left to fish in the dead of night. I remember rousing from sleep just long enough to feel him kiss my forehead goodbye before sleep claimed me again. That is my last memory of him, a cloudy wisp of a memory. He headed out like he had so many times before, but he never returned.

      It seemed that my happy life was taken, too. I was left painfully alone and penniless, as both my father and the source of our living and our savings—his boat—were gone. I sold my father’s market stall to another fisherman, and the meager amount of money that I received was all I had to my name.

      A month after my father’s death at sea, a letter arrived for me. It was from my aunt, my father’s sister, a woman I had seen only briefly once or twice when I was younger. I opened the envelope and read it while I sat at the kitchen table, a few meager pieces of salted fish my only dinner. As I read, the words sank in quickly and my hands began to shake.

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