The Divers
There was a man
and a woman. This man and this woman met in a shift in time, a season
of change. It was a kaleidoscope of fresh experience and it was an
event beyond the predictable. Sometimes people describe moments as
feeling like time had stopped. In this moment time, logic, sense and
resistance stopped. It had happened and would continue beyond doubt
to happen.
The man and the
woman explored. They found a land that no one else had ever seen nor
dreamt. It was hot and exotic as it was beautiful. Senses awoke
within the man and then the woman that they did not know had existed.
One afternoon the man and the woman decided to embark on a small boat
and go far out to sea as it was a pool of beckoning and desire.
Once they were
far away from land. The man strapped the woman into diving gear and
said to her
“Do you
want to dive with me?”
She had been
unsteady at first but quick enough replied with
“Yes”
He kissed her
head then grabbed her head and threw them both into the apparently
infinite pool of royalty.
The rush of water
sucked the life out of them as quickly as it put it back in. The man
felt different now. The dive had made him feel unlike anything else
he had ever felt in his short existence. The watery world was more
mesmerizing than he could ever have hoped. The light from the one
true star filtered through and illuminated the life around him. How
had he never appreciated life in this way before? He adored
everything he saw down to the tiny coral that had just sprouted out
of a rocky crevasse. No sooner had he began to take it all in that he
looked towards the eyes of the woman and saw without a shadow of
doubt that she felt faithfully the same.
The woman’s
glee was unable to be contained by the mask that pumped oxygen into
her organs. This made her willing to dive deeper. For unlike the man,
although she did not know it yet, she was strong and courageous. The
curiosity and pleasure they were both bathing in determined their
further decent into the vast unassuming ocean.
Further they went
seeing more of the new wonders that existed around them. They weren’t
lost in the same way they were not found. Spatial awareness mattered
not. Look what they had discovered! They needed not control or
direction. They were just tumbling in peaceful anarchy like an atom
through space. They simply were. Maybe if they had both believed this
then that would have been true; an infinite and perfect existence…
Then the man
looked up toward the surface. The sun’s rays didn’t seem
so bright anymore and he began to realise how far they had come. He
questioned himself
“Are there
just dark depths and despair below?”
Finally fear
percolated his mind. The woman who as aforementioned was strong and
too radiant in mind, even more so then in her glorious body, never
had an ounce of fear as an ingredient in her exploration. Therefore
the man battled with his ego. He had always presented himself as
strong when in reality he was weak. Pride would always get in his
way, more a spoilt child than the grown man the woman’s
portrayal humbled him as. And thus, they swam on.
Now the water was
too dark for the man. The wonder around him that existed from the
very top to the bottom of their dive was still there never fading in
brilliance but he didn’t see it. The water despite being pure
and clear appeared murky. The man who spends too much time indulging
in his own thoughts awoke to notice his companion had strayed away
from him a little. Maybe a little concern now began to form in her
mind too but the joy in her ever-changing blue/green eyes never once
wilted. How close was she? He couldn’t tell. She was fuzzy not
quite the same looking, an outline in an over growing distance. He
swam towards her. It seemed the more he swam the further she got away
from him. The fool didn’t realise he wasn’t swimming fast
enough or hard enough to be as close as he was before. The man looked
around and then the cold dark eyes of his focused on his oxygen tank.
The needle on the gauge was far lower than he expected. Low on
oxygen, dark the waters, blurry his vision and perceivably alone (He
never was), the man’s eyes widened and he panicked.
All the way they
had come down; he ascended up as quickly as possible. He silenced his
mind screaming to stop and go back and let his body do the talking.
Head and back stiff the man made only one motion which was away. He
truly believed that the star’s light shimmering through the
surface was his primary goal. For this man was not one of spiritual
making, he understood not of the gods and the earth and the
relationship of being connected to both and encompassing all they
gave. He was of modern design, this being flawed and for the self.
Never had he been brave he feared death above all else and fear
motivated his instincts. How could he ever have expected to align
himself with the woman who beautifully belonged to no one and took
for herself no one? but wished happiness on all the gods and all the
earth ever had and will create. These things he hadn’t known
existed until she showed him. The man unimodal, wanted to taste what
he thought would be fresh air. However when he broke the surface and
spat the mask from his mouth what he tasted was foul and stale. The
sky was black the exotic beautiful landscape they had only recently
discovered was ablaze, fire and ash clouded the sky. Nothing was
beautiful anymore. All was lost. Surely he could not have done this
to the world himself can man or a man do such a thing? He pondered
for far too long before understanding the cause and symptoms.
Meanwhile, the
woman screamed. The oxygen in her tank had run out. The fish and
creatures around her understood not as she wailed and begged for
help. Her eyes were overran with pain the like she had not felt
before. Intense suffering scorched the inside of her body and mind.
She was a ruined woman lost and immobile in depths she would have
never come alone. The world turned black and white and black again.
A piercing vapour of nightshade poured from her heat. Her eyes
flickered on and off. The beauty of the world around her that she had
always held dear began to disappear before her. Then when all hope
appeared to be lost she could have sworn although no one would ever
believe as she was deep, deep in the ocean that the life around her
turned to fire and ash and cloud. Her world was being destroyed.
Control lost. Faith in her belief lost. The woman gave up hope and
closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see a world again not if
this is what it had become.
A stranger
grabbed her and began to drag her up toward the surface. A speck of
light flickered on in her mind. She looked. Who was this mystery man?
Was he her saviour? NO! A person who would never be a stranger but
looked never the same had come for her. It was the man. She struggled
away. She preferred the depths at this point. The light could wait
even if it meant her undoing. The man seemed oddly persistent and
weakness and habit began to take over and she let him hold her once
again.
The man was
useless. His strength not enough his desire not comparable to the
titanism of his once counterpart. He needed to swim harder and
faster. Harder than he had ever swam in his life. Just a bottle
emptied the woman was, for she had no trust, no hope and no belief.
But something was happening something neither of them could quite
believe. The man did something. He swam hard and fast and for the
first time put the survival of the woman before his own selfish
needs. He cut himself on rock and coral, took stings and bites. Even
so they were making the way toward the surface. It wasn’t dark
anymore the blue was becoming paler and safer.
Snag.
The woman became
caught on rock and tangled in weeds. The man looked at the woman. He
saw the lack of hope in her eyes. The sparkle had gone. It seemed
she believed in him not and wanted him not. The man’s stomach
knotted. Sickness of pride once again began to hinder him. Fear of
not being the one who was needed welt up against him. His eyes
widened once again in panic just as they had done before when he lost
all his way. He glanced toward the surface. Remembered what was up
there when they came down and remembered what was back there when he
went alone. His legs kicked. Not upwards though, toward the woman.
The man showed his greatest feat of strength and pulled the woman
with all his will and might away from the rock and the weeds and he
dragged her unwillingly it seemed to the surface and threw he through
the threshold until she tasted the real air for the first time in far
too long. The man threw them onto the boat they had taken out all
that time ago. He was proud he had gone back.
The man should
not have had any pride left at all. He had pulled the woman up far
too quickly and inevitably this made her ill. His lazy attempt at
recovery made her anger and well up like a tempest, a true terrifying
event. The man was scorned and abused until her learnt the truth. To
his fairness the man did learn the truth and he was ashamed. He never
should have left the woman because she made the world around him
beautiful and he had laid it to ruin. The man felt like casting
himself upon the sharp rock and to be done with it. But to the slight
disgust of the woman who he never should have left, he was done
running away. When they were exploring before he had offered the
woman many promises he superficially broke. However this time he
promised her something real. Firstly that he would wear the tag of
coward on his forehead and admit to his tremendous wrong doing for
all time. Secondly that he would rebuild the land they had discovered
together and nurture it from seedling until it was a fully grown and
restored Nirvana. And thirdly. Thirdly was the promise that he would
never leave her again not even for a second in mind or body.
Did the man keep
his promises?
Yes. Firstly
despite the burning looks of the men and women that they once knew he
wore the tag of coward always and repented his sins publicly and
privately. The evil sin of pride was washed away from his blood
finally and the woman seemed to recognise this change. Secondly he
began to rebuild the world they had found. He would have built
through all the ages of the cosmos to accomplish this. He did not
have to though as the woman who always went above and beyond herself
helped him to do it together just like before. For this he was
eternally grateful even if sometimes they had to knock things down
and try and build them back up over and over when his strength
faulted. Thirdly he never left the woman again. He respected, cared
for and protected her for the rest of his short days. For this he let
himself attribute the label ‘man’ to himself again the
label that had egotistically given himself when he was still a boy.
The woman never
understood why he had left her alone in the ocean and he never
understood her pain. Nonetheless the beauty of her soul shined
through dwarfing every star in the universe combined and she did what
great gods of old and men of new would always fail to do. This is
what made her master the man’s world because above all time,
logic, sense and resistance. She forgave him.
Points: 2321
Reviews: 122
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