As she sleeps, she swears she can hear music. It's not like any music she has ever heard before, though. It draws her down winding pathways, long roads and through dark tunnels. She struggles to wake up from the odd dream and finds herself surrounded by an eerie, blue light. It's almost like a web.
Coiled among the webbing are the three lights. She realizes the lights are creating a sort of cocoon and it keeps her safe from the tiny sand crabs that can pinch, the ants, the spiders that live in the sand. She is also safe from the rain and the storm that rages outside - she can hardly hear it from within the walls of her safe place. She never, ever wants to leave - and thinking this makes her lights very, very happy. They dance with joy to know that she never wants to leave.
In the morning, when the sun is out and warming her skin, she wakes to see the remains of the storm - broken drift wood, flotsam and jetsam from ships that didn't survive the pounding waves. There is also something odd on the horizon. She raises slowly from the sand to look at what she can't possibly be seeing.
It is a ship with the most beautiful sails she has ever seen. They are green and glow in the sunlight like the wings of a dragonfly. Behind the giant ship is a smaller sail boat with sails deeply blue. She doesn't have any idea what to do. How will she gain their attention without a fire, without any way to signal them?
She reaches into her right pocket and takes out a coin, the last remaining item from her life before. If only she'd learned to swim, if only she had something to signal with... but nothing will come into her mind. Until she remembers her little life raft, the pallet she used to get her to shore, and the oar.
Swiftly, she gathers a few pieces of fruit from the gangly trees and drags the pallet to the ocean. The little lights are so excited at her sudden burst of energy that they dance around the sky and weave their way in and out of her long, brown hair. It tickles and she chastises them. Then, she pulls the raft out past the breakers and begins to paddle. The ship looks very, very far away and she can't even think about how long it will take her to reach it.
Hours pass and her sore arms turn to murderous, burning pain. She rations the fruit because it is her only source of liquids, as the water from the sea is salt and undrinkable. She had no way to carry fresh water from the one small spring on her island. After many hours of rowing, she is sunburned, overheated and beginning to hallucinate. She keeps thinking the lights are singing to her, encouraging her to continue on. She finally gives in to the temptation to rest - even though the giant sails seem no closer than when she started. She is too exhausted to continue and falls into a feverish sleep full of nightmarish sea creatures that chase her through the water.
The lights grow worried. They sense her light is dimming, that the exhaustion is more treacherous than she realizes. They wrap her in the web of safety but even they can feel her strength leaving her. There is nothing they can do without help.
One small light, the smallest of the three, decides it must take action. It uses all it's strength to lift the coin from her hand and to carry it over miles and miles of ocean. There is no way this little bit of energy should be able to do such a feat but it does not care - rescue is the girl's only hope. The light carries on for hours and hours, becoming exhausted itself. It barely makes it to the giant ship and drops the coin on the foot of a ship mate with a black bandanna. He is a pirate, but he is a good man, too.
The little light flutters closer to the ground and lands, barely glowing at all, on the ship mates palm. The man feels an amazing jolt of fear in that short instant. He leans down to pick up the coin and the fear grows stronger. He has no idea what the light might be but he knows the coin must have come from a human being - and that it must be close by and is likely in trouble. He immediately scans the horizon for a ship or wreckage of some kind. All he sees is a small pallet of wood and a pile of rags upon it.
He leaps to action, calling "man overboard" and gathers a group to row toward the wreckage. As they approach it, he realizes the little light has completely disappeared, all that is left is ash in his palm. He feels an immense sense of loss but sets that aside as he reaches for the pile of what looks to be rage.
He is horrified to realize it is a girl.
She is unable to be revived and they rush back to the ship to get her out of the heat.
It is hours before she wakes.
He paces back and forth outside her door, awaiting any news, wishing he knew why he felt so helpless, what caused a man accustomed to being alone to long to see her eyes open. He knows in his heart they are the color of the sea grass, green with flecks of gold and brown and grey. He neglects his work as the fleet prepares to cast anchor and sail on to it's next destination.
When she finally is able to talk to him, he enters her cabin with his head down out of courtesy. As he lifts his eyes, he sees a glow of light sneak into her pocket. He lunges across the room, grabs her arm and shakes her. "What trick do you play upon me? I caught one of these lights and it turned to ash. It led me to you. Explain!"
She can say nothing but starts to sob. The little light had caught the ship's attention and brought her rescue. But in doing so, the light had been too far away from her and could not survive. The tears fall down her face like diamonds and began to land on the blanket that covers her knees.
She begins the story - of a love that had turned sour, a rescue with parlay, the destruction of the ship and the loss of her shipmates. All the time alone, hoping for rescue. And finding the box with its inhabitants that kept her safe over the months when she shouldn't have survived. He watches her silently and absorbs the tale. He doesn't want to believe, and yet the moment when the little light went out, he knew this was something more than a firefly.
"I believe in you," he promises "Everything will be ok."
She keeps the two remaining lights with her, to this day. They have changed and become different, ceasing to be dependent on her and struggling to find their way in the world. She is charmed and amazed at their differences, how subtle and yet overwhelming their love for each other and for her. The third light stays in her heart, where she can share the rest of her world with its memory. It was here for a purpose, in its very brief time, and that purpose was fulfilled. Tenfold.
When she becomes sad and wishes for more time with the lost little light, she goes to the ocean, where a shipwreck sits in the sand, and she puts her toes in the water. She says hello to the vast ocean. She wades in as far as she dares. And she sails a small boat, full of pictures of brother and sister, family on shore, these people who love each other and have room in their hearts for more. She hopes that Neptune, in his infinite wisdom, will share the pictures with the soul that embodied the little light for the blink of an eye.
When she goes to the beach, she makes a wish and sends it out to sea. "Let him know," she whispers, "that there will always be room for him in my world."
Today I celebrate Joy.
