By now the moon had risen over the sea
The moon it was full and bright. But not so bright as to illuminate their shadows more than the flickering candle. And then she pushed her hand forward, this was a familiar gesture that he remembered from the time when they dated. She wanted reassurance, so he placed his hand on hers and while she said they were robust and that meant they could take rapid changes in life’s temperature and still bind, he smiled.
“You have changed” she said, “you smile more.”
“Smiles are free and if one cannot stand injustice then one does smile. Righting wrongs is an endless chore that ended when I started smiling.”
“It’s not that easy for me to smile, I am a fixer. I am just sick of this whole wide world. The half way effective people. Don’t we have to do something about them?”
“No – darling – we don’t” He said and lifted his glass. “To me and you doing something good and letting others do what they like.”
“Oh darling if we do that we can start living again and have a look around this reef. We haven’t dived together. Let’s do it while we are here – it will be so much fun, you and me together, for a few days. Then we can return and just fix up our little tiny whole wide world.”
“Yes, why not” he said and she went to sleep.
He soon did the same and when he dreamed, there were Turtles and Manta Ray swimming together. Arriving unexpected as he breathed deep, bubbles of water on her skin and what he saw against the sun in those big eyes was purpose. That meant she now had a reason to believe that in the darkness was life and nothing else at all, the turmoil had washed away. After some time they swam ashore.