May 21, 2004 13:04
That night, in the middle of nowhere, the people you met in the past five months moved and flowed around you like water, guided by their stomachs full of the free beer and sangria. The servers could not pour fast enough - all liquid was pulled by the tide of youth.
You wanted those moments to last forever, you wanted to be sucked into that ocean of people and lost for all time. You longed to be surrounded by their essence, letting the salts seep into your skin and continue the process of healing that had started months before.
You clung, one last time, to those life savers, hugging them then letting them go. Their rest gave you a renewed strength to swim back to shore... You wanted to grasp them forever, but you finally had to relax your hold and continue yourself.
From the shore, you would realize that the ocean is eternal, ever rising and falling. Your skin would stay salty and bathed in that experience, and it would help you fight the crashing waves of another ocean, in another land, in another life that you would someday find again.