Spirit Lost

A Story by Silver Hawke

Morning rose on a small island beach. The sky was thick with receding storm clouds, distant sounds of thunder and an uneasy sea suggesting violence at its passing. Palm trees lay thrust about at the edge of a small jungle, their trunks twisted and snapped from powerful winds and high waves. Bits of wood planks lay scattered along the desolate shoreline. Soft waves caressed them with every flow, brushing foamy fingers over the beaten and battered surfaces.

“Sasha!” A young girl wandered along the sand, her voice ringing like a clear bell on the early morning. She was no older than six, dressed in a knee length skirt and frilly shirt. The girl’s blue eyes scanned over the area around her, a chubby face creased in worry and concern. Her hands were clutched before her, wrapped tightly around a small silver dog whistle. She walked slowly, searching for someone, a friend she had lost in the storm.

Her skirt flowed with the wind but seemed untouched by the sprays of water that splashed over her. Driftwood planks rose in number as she walked over the sand, following the water’s edge. The girl seemed not to notice, again her voice cutting through the morning air.

“Sasha, come here girl!” The child paused, bare feet not sinking into the wet sand as her eyes fell upon the scene of a shipwreck. Unaffected as if she had not even seen it, she raised the dog whistle to her lips and blew, summoning her beloved pet, yet receiving nothing more than the calls of wild gulls in answer.

She moved through the wreckage, climbing over large chunks as if they were rocks over the shore. The broken bow of the ship, what might have been a large yacht, loomed before her. Again she raised the whistle to her lips, the sound floating unheard to her own ears, a silent summons. Her eyes stared into the ship, unseeing of the ruined craft. It was a ghost to her, not existing in her world. Clothing lay about the shipwreck, personal items such as notebooks and pictures littered the ground, wet and ripped by the waves.

Near her feet, the hand of a woman stretched over the sand. The flesh was grey and lifeless; a tiny crab perched upon the back. The arm led beneath a large plank which hid the body from view. Nothing moved here other than sea life. To nature, this was a new home. Suggestions of other such finds hid among the wreckage. Half swallowed by the water, a shoed foot rested exposed to the angry sky, its owner submerged from view.

“Sasha, please come! Mama said we’ll be home soon!”

The child continued onward, leaving the unknown woman’s body behind. No footprints were left in her wake, the sand lay undisturbed at her passing. She paused as the sound of distant barking called to her. Her eyes lit up with glee, laughter catching in her throat. She grinned and broke into a run, skipping over rocks and driftwood. Laughter broke from her mouth as she saw a large collie bound from the water ahead of her.

The water did not affect Sasha. Her fur seemed perfectly dry, fluffy and gleaming as if she glowed with an otherworldly light, for the sun’s light was shadowed by clouds. The dog’s excited barking mimicked that of her owner’s happy laughter.

They met inside the shadow of the shipwreck, the girl dropping to her knees and hugging the excited creature. Washing onto the shore beside her, the drowned, ragged form of a similar animal was found by the gulls that descended upon it in a chorus of song. The girl nor her friend noticed their surroundings, lost in a different world where such sadness could not reach them.

“You made it, Sasha,” the girl cheered happily, burying her face in the dog’s chest. “I was so afraid you were lost. But you’re here now.”

She stood, one hand buried into the dog’s neck fur, the other falling to her side, a glint of silver landing in the sand as the dog whistle was discarded. A sea gull landed near, hopping over the sand to snatch up the shining metal, carrying it to nearby nests.

“Now let’s go find Mommy and Daddy!”

Laughing, she raced over the sand, Sasha bounding beside her, barking at the gulls that seemed not to sense them. Behind them, another body washed onto the shore as the sea relinquished the soul. The clouded blue eyes of a young girl stared toward the sky, skin and lips pale, her life long lost. The ragged remains of a ruffled shirt and knee length skirt clung wet to her body. Calls of gulls echoed over the sands as they settled around her, unknowing of the spirit that now joined them upon the island.

© 2012 Silver Hawke

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Reviews

Xardalas

I enjoyed reading it. Though I had a feeling the story would end this way about half way through it. It's beautifully descriptive and you managed to capture the soul of the small girl and place it into writing.