Beautifully Sad

We sat on the dock around the light of the lantern. Sally strummed her guitar. Sally Faye, the beautiful baby sitter for the Swedish branch of the Boston Blue Bloods. They were staying in the mansion, and here she is 200 miled from her small town in Jaimaca, Vermont. She strummed and hummed, "Killing me softly." I layed back on that dock and studied the stars and Sally's shadow dancing to the flickering light of the lantern. I watched it move along the thick tree leaves that framed the Cape Cod Island sky.

She finished her song, took a drag from the pipe and lied down with me.

"What do you want to do, D?"
"Jump in the water."
"No, really. In life? What would you do if money wasn't an issue?"
"I'd jump in the water, Sally."
"And then?"
"Swim."
"Swim?"
"Yeah."

Pause

I turned and looked over at her. Her hands sank into her curly blonde hair. She pointed up and said, "That's Orion."

"The Hunter."

"Would you be a Hunter?"
"Maybe. He was killed by a woman that love him."
"How?"
"Artemis is the goddes of hunting and the moon. She fell in love with Orion and one day forgot to do her job of carrying the moon. Her twin brother Apollo, saw Orion swim out in the sea and challenged his sister to hit that moving target. Not knowing it was Orion, Artemis shot an arrow and killed him. Later when she found out what she did, she placed his body on the stars. That's why the moon looks so sad. It's greif. Long pause... So what do you want to do?"
"What?"
"For a living?"
"You never answered me!?"
"I said I wanted to jump in the water."
"Seriously."
"Seriously....I think you know better then me."

She smiled a bit, played with her guitar. "I want to move to Jamiaca, play my guitar, teach kids english or something."

"Trading one island for another."

"So, now you have to answer me."

"I want to write stories about you in Jamaica." I stood up and took off my shirt.

"What are you doing?"

 

I took off my shoes and jeans. "Going for a swim, come on." My footsteps down the dock sounded like the knocking on a heavy door. I jumped a good five feet out and dived into Orion's reflection in the water.

 

"Jump in," I said.

"You're glowing!"

"It's the jelly fish. They don't sting. They give off a flourescent light each time you make a little wave."

"That's crazy! I'm not going in there."

 

I swam along to the nearest Yacht in the harbor. She started playing some Bob Marley.

 

"You're leaving a glowing trail! Look!"

 

And I was. I was making stars in the water with each movement. I swam further and further out, leaving a path of excited jelly fish.

 

Sally yelled, "Come back! I can't see you, D!"

 

I eventually swam back to the dock. I caught Sally crying. She told me her mother had abandoned her when she was five and she didn't know where her father was. I let her talk. Her voice soothed me. We watched the moon rise and I wondered what kind of people would abandon this sweet girl.