The Calling of the Ocean

She opened the door and a scream was unleashed, she saw her father hanging. Death had come knocking their door, there was her father, hanging dead, motionless, his beady lifeless eyes staring at his daughter. Lily turned around and heard her mother’s frantic footsteps making their way up the wooden staircase. Lily stood by the door of her father’s study with glimmering tears running down her cheeks.

“What’s the matter darling? “asked her mother. Lily could say nothing; she felt paralysed there was nothing she could do. “WHAT’S THE MATTER?” asked her mother again, growing more and more anxious by the second. She slowly made her way to her daughter and peered into her husband’s study. There he was hanging, showing no signs of remorse towards his mourning wife and daughter. The mother quickly shielded her daughter’s eyes hoping it would make the horrible scene disappear and resurrect her dead husband from the underworld. There by the door of the study   stood Lily and her mother weeping as if tomorrow would never come knocking on their doorstep ever again.

A few hours later their huge, beachside manor was crawling with men in blue uniforms and a few others in white lab coats. Lily was sitting on the patio listening to the howl of the wind and the roar of the angry waves, she turned her head towards the front door of their patio and saw the  men in white carrying a big black body bag across a stretcher, her father was in that bag. She sat on the wooden chair sipping on the hot chocolate drink her mother had prepared. Lily stood up and made her way down the cold sand, she liked the way the sand crawled in between her toes. She stood by the beach wrapped up in a warm blanket, she began reminiscing all the wonderful times she had shared with her father accompanied by the beach. She remembered all the times that her father would take her fishing on their marvelous yacht, and the time when the whole family went scuba-diving in Spain, that was the time when Lily had known what she wanted out of life. Lily was only 10 years old at that time but she knew her calling was that of a marine biologist. Her father had planted the love of the seas and desire of the oceans in her, and both her parents had nurtured that seed and provided it with love, care, sun and warmth. 

As she stood watching the waves and reminiscing, tears followed steadily from her soft green eyes becoming one with the seas. It was around midnight and Lily was growing anxious,

“Those people have been crawling in and out of our house for three hours!” she said out loud.                                                                          

“Well, they have a good reason,” said someone. Lily jumped on the spot, she was very startled.   She turned around and found a pair of beautiful blue eyes staring back at her, it was Andy, and he was their new neighbor.

“I thought I was alone, “said Lily. She was quite angry though she was relieved that she no longer was alone.

“I heard about happened, I’m so sorry,”

“Oh, well what can we do? Parents are all like that they raise you and make you feel awesome,”   When Lily spoke those words one could immediately notice that she was very angry.

“I understand what you’re going through,”

“Oh really,” replied Lily, “how could you possibly understand?!”

“Well, when I was 10, I discovered my mother’s body, she had shot herself.” 

“Oh,” said Lily. “I’m sorry I reminded you about her.”

“Oh, it’s OK, not a single day goes by that I don’t think of the horrible pain that she inflicted on my father and me”

That was the end of their conversation, and they spent another thirty minutes just listening to the ocean.

“Well, I should be heading back home now.”  said Andy.

“Yeah, I should go check in on my mom,” replied Lily, “Bye, see you at school.”

Lily went back onto her house and made her way up to her mother’s room, her mother was sitting on the bed with a huge box of photos.

“come in darling” said Lily’s mother.

“hey mom,” said Lily, “how are you doing now?”

“oh, I feel a bit better. Take a look at this” she handed Lily a white envelope.

It was from the University of Yale, Lily was 18 years old and she had applied to go to Yale to study marine biology. As soon as her skin came in contact with that letter, a feeling of dread and fright possessed her very soul. Her father had attended Yale, and he was a very good student as well. However, just the mere thought of her father and her eyes would tear up again.

“I changed my mind,” said Lily. “I want nothing to do with the sea anymore.”

“But darling,”

“mother, would you excuse me” said Lily.

She walked out of the room with her long black hair following her in a train. It was a very difficult decision, the calling of the ocean was too strong to avoid, but she wasn’t strong enough to face it. Everywhere she looked and everything she did for the next four weeks reminded her of her father. Every time she walked in to her room when she came back from school the dreaded letter confronted her, her mother always placed it on her desk. Hoping that the calling of her destiny would grow loud enough for her daughter to see and strong enough to break through the barrier of grief and make its way back into the love of marine biology that had for the past eight years intertwined with her daughter’s sweet, soft heart. Yet, every day Lily would throw the letter in her drawer and act as if it hadn’t even existed.

The signs of grief were obvious on Lily’s face and body; her face grew pale with each passing second. Her body grew thinner and thinner each and every day and her grades began slipping from A’s all the way down to F’s. She started drinking without her mother noticing, she would wake up in the middle of the night and make her way down to the basement where her mother stored the wine and she would drink till she could no longer feel the presence of anything, no longer could she hear the strong sound of the ocean and no longer could she feel the ground she was walking on. Till one day her saving grace came along, Andy. Andy had always been very fond of Lily, they shared one thing in common the love of the sea. Andy had always known that Lily was very fond of marine biology, he attended the very same school that she was in and every time she would slip her grades Andy felt as if he was getting a harsh blow to the heart.  He was in love with Lily; it was as simple as that. One day he was walking on the beach by Lily’s house and he summed up every shred of courage that possessed his body and went up to the front door and rung the bell. The door was answered by Lily’s mother.

“Hello Mrs. Cavono is Lily home?” asked Andy.

“Yes, she is upstairs in her room. Would you like to come in?”

“yeah, thank you very much”

Andy made his way up the stairs growing more and more anxious, his heart throbbing at the speed of light in his chest. He finally reached the door of Lily’s room he slowly lifted his fist and knocked on the door.

“come in” said Lily.

Andy opened the door his heart beating faster than ever.

“hi Andy, “said Lily. She was trying to sound happy, but he knew very well it was just an act.

“hey Lily, I just wanted to check in on you”

“oh, I’m fine”

“well, honestly, I wanted to talk to you.” Said Andy and he slowly approached Lily.

“Well, what is it??”

“Lily, I know all about you’re drinking. I was passing by your house and I saw you through the window. I know all about the Yale letter too.”

Lily was shocked “have you been stalking me?”

“Yes, I admit it. Listen please I like you and I love the ocean and so do you. I found this letter with my father. It’s from your dad and it’s for you. Our parents used to be friends.”

Lily took the letter from Andy and read it. It was a letter which included her father’s wishes for her to continue her love of marines and the sea. She finished the letter and ran to Andy’s arms and secretly smiled inside.