“Stop that. You can’t drown out your problems with that,” I said, grabbing her third bottle of beer away from her. Her hair was crusted with sand, and so were her lips that stretched into a wide grin. But her eyes… her eyes were as distant as the horizon that went farther out into infinity.
“Thank you for not stopping me until my third bottle. I was afraid you’ll start drinking, too,” Indigo replied, her voice wobbling.
Just an hour ago, she was playing the guitar and sang with all of her heart. She danced ‘til her feet could not hold her upright any longer. After her fifth song of the afternoon, she grabbed three bottles of beer and pulled me some distance away from the hullabaloo and stopped beside a lit bonfire on the sandy shore.
Then, she started downing her first bottle, not saying anything until she finished it with a gulp.
“I’ve been waiting for twelve months. He said he’d come back. He said there wasn’t anything to worry about. Kit, he promised. He promised.” Fat tears now rolled down her cheeks. Her grin was replaced by a thin line.
“Kit. They did nothing. My father wasn’t one to have disappeared just like that. What if he got stranded on an island? What if another ship found him?” I knew she was talking nonsense.
For hundreds of times, we’ve talked about this. It’s always the same words that she says.
I opened my mouth to say something when she reached over and placed a hand on my cheek to my surprise.
The light of the fire danced in her eyes, full with tears and drunkenness.
“Indie…”
“Shhh.,” she interrupted, and pulled me up from the sand.
She pulled me towards the edge of the water, our toes meeting with the waves that kissed the shore. The wind tore free her brown locks from her braid. The tears have gone dry on her cheeks.
“For months, I hated him. I hated him for having left a large hole in my heart. I hated him for tearing the tapestry that’s our family. I hated him for breaking his promise. But… Eventually, I the hole started healing. The tear was being stitched back. I started being hole again. My songs weren’t as empty as they were when I first found out about the accident.”
She stared at the setting sun, its rays painting the sky with orange and pink. The drunkenness seemed to have disappeared, replaced by the electric feeling that runs through her veins.
“Indie… Are you okay?”
“I started loving again, Kit. Love unraveled the chains that bound me to despair. Love anchored me from the depths of the grief that enveloped me. Love lit my way. Love set me free.”
She was now looking straight at me. “Say something.”
“There’s nothing more that I want to say than ‘I’m proud of you’, because I truly am. Perhaps your father was taken by the waves of the ocean, and I always knew the waves of life wouldn’t knock you down, but I was afraid you’d start breaking down entirely. I’m glad that my Indigo isn’t so blue, after all.” With that, she chuckled and started wading into the cold water with her clothes in.
I waded in after her.
Her laughs filled the summer breeze, and the tears that she cried and the despair that she felt now became distant memories.
“Thank you, for everything. I love you.” She reached up and planted a quick kiss on my cheek.
“Huh, I’ve been expecting that for the past year,” I replied, splashing water on her.
The sun sank, bringing our lonely hearts with it. As we lay on the sand under the stars that started to burn brightly into the night, our smiles grew wider.
My grief of seeing her in despair now started to let go of me as well.
Love. It’s a key.