The Second High Tide

I thought I had everything figured out, but I had no idea what was actually happening. Each step seemed to reveal another secret, and my memories had changed their meaning in an instant. We stood there on the edge of the beach, not knowing what to do next. The persistent night had finally won the battle; its intimidating skies were now completely surrounding us. I was disoriented and didn’t know why we had suddenly found ourselves in that inexplicable situation. I looked for some signal but saw nothing, and closed my eyes for a moment. The only sound I heard was the waves pushing against the shore. I looked at her, standing at my side and she seemed to be lost in the darkness, submerged in the night’s shadow. I squinted and could barely make out her silhouette, a slender figure held alone, standing against the night. The trees in the distance were now barely visible, and cast an ominous shadow over us that deepened even as we walked farther away from them. I looked around, across the waters, looking for the mysterious boat. I remembered its shape and the odd disposition it seemed to have, but I didn’t expect it to completely vanish. I watched for it and looked for some sign from it, but it wasn’t there. It seemed to have disappeared without leaving a trace. We were stranded on this strange island and I was frightened by its imposing landscape, which felt like it was closing in, ready to consume us at any moment. I stood there and waited for a signal, she always seemed to know what to do. I remembered what she had told me and tried to piece the puzzle together, but there didn’t seem to be any pieces for me to use. It took me awhile to find my bearings and it was difficult to stay in place. After some time standing there, I decided it wasn’t the time to explore and decided not to leave her side for the moment. I was tempted to go out in search of the boat, but there was no way I’d be able to find it. I tried to think of ways we could escape but there wasn’t anything I could think of that seemed like it would work. We were stuck out there in the middle of the night and without a way to go back.

I decided that there must have been some reason for us to be there, and tried to relax and enjoy the night we had together. We were alone and had no pressures on us to move or rush through the experience. This took more effort than I realized, since the lack of any tangible transportation made me nervous about getting home. I wondered what plans she might have made for this situation. I thought that we might have lived through a similar situation in the past, but I couldn’t really remember anything like that moment. I tried to think back and remember things that happened in the past during our previous encounters, but I couldn’t find what wasn’t there. I wondered for a moment about the things she had told me. They seemed contradictory on the surface and I realized that it would be up to me to decide what they meant. At first, I was completely confused and didn’t have a method of decided whether or not they even made sense. As I stood there, I thought of two possibilities, whether or not it was part of a plan she had to find out if I was really who she thought I was or if this was some way of me testing her. This was running through my mind for a few minutes, but then the moment we were in came to the fore, causing more confusion. In that moment, my biggest concern was that we were lost out there and had no apparent direction pointing the way forward. I decided to hold onto these thoughts, and didn’t tell her about my doubts, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do. I decided in the end, that she had brought me there for a reason. I couldn’t understand why we were there, or explain what was happening inside my mind, the conflicting waters were spinning almost out of control. I decided to close my eyes and let go of it for the moment. I was confused but it was enough in that moment that she was standing beside me.

I felt the wind begin to subside and the stillness of the moment seemed to freeze us in place, and we stood there for a long time watching over the waves. I wondered if she was looking for a sign or a particular moment to move forward, but I waited. The air was still warm and it didn’t seem like we would need much protection. The island seemed like it was almost deserted, I didn’t see a sing that anyone else was out there with us, which wasn’t completely unpleasant. I was finally far enough away from the mainland, the pressures I felt and expectations I didn’t want had been taken off my shoulders. The waves slowly beat against the shore and I noticed that she was beginning to walk, slowly at first. She moved towards the water, sneaking nervous steps across the sands, carefully maneuvering over the thick rocks and sharp edges towards the narrow band of sand that was quickly disappearing under the waves. Turning around, she waved her arms and motioned for me to follow. I hesitated and watched her for a moment, standing under the night sky. As she moved further away, her shadow became harder for me to see, and it made her look nearly invisible.  

The darkened skies above didn’t benefit from a moon and this gave us little to guide our path. With no visible way forward, she apparently decided that the best approach for us would be to be patient. This gave me time to think about the startling things she told me. I was still a little bit confused, my head was spinning with between the different explanations, which seemed at points to directly contradict one another. I felt nearly consumed in the darkness of that summer night, it was like everything I’d seen up to that point had been pointing me there. Despite everything I’d seen and learned, I wasn’t able to see the signs along the way. Now that I had reached this point, I was still in the dark and had no idea what would happen. The more I thought about things, the more confused it made me feel. I still didn’t understand what she meant when she told me she’d known me in the past, and how we’d lost each other. Most of all, I wondered what could have happened that would have separated us and why she would remain so sad after so much time had passed. Until that moment, I had felt that things were supposed to be that way, but suddenly everything seemed to have changed under my feet. Lost in thoughts that didn’t make complete sense, I ignored the waves but they were still rising as we stood there. I could feel the occasional water nipping at the edges of my feet and slowly the waves began to over-run my position, until the waves were covering my feet. Looking right, I noticed she had taken a few steps back to protect herself and was standing several feet behind me.

A small wave washed over my feet and I felt the sand underneath begin to submerge, becoming less stable. Unfamiliar as the beach was, I knew that I couldn’t stand in the same place forever. I followed her backwards back towards the forest, watching my steps so I wouldn’t trip. She took my hands once again and pointed me towards the skies. When I looked up, I realized we weren’t completely alone. The stars seemed to have nearly vanished and gave off little light, but their presence was reassuring, we at least had something to go on. The constellations were familiar to me and I used them to point the direction we would take. We took a few deep breaths and stood there together, we weren’t lost after all. The ocean continued its inexorable rise and we watched as the night tide slowly filled in the bay, covering the rocks and sands gradually and effortlessly, forming a kind of blanket that hid a world beneath. Walking down towards the other side of the beach past the docks, we reached a strangely tranquil part of the shore that didn’t was strangely immune from the tides. It was nearly hidden from view, but there was a small inlet that gave us an oasis of calm. We stood there and I was relieved to have a place to hide from the rapidly rising currents.

It wasn’t something I expected to find, I thought I had seen the entire shore of the mysterious island. It seemed to have appeared almost from nowhere, Its tranquil surface seemed to have a calming effect on me and I felt the fear subside. Despite being alone out there, I felt that we were safe for the moment. My feet were firmly in place on somewhat solid ground and didn’t need to worry about the oncoming waters. Standing at its edge, I saw a small reflection in the pool, two oddly matched figures standing in the back, one much smaller and thinner than the other. I looked at the reflection and started moving my arms slowly around, forming a kind of circle and motioned for her to join me. She didn’t want to play along and stood there silently, apparently soaking in the moment. I stopped after awhile and rested my arms by my side, standing completely silent. I looked above and the stars didn’t seem like they’d moved. I studied them for a minute and took note of their position and tried to guess how far we were from home. I didn’t really know how to make the numbers up and decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. I looked back towards the beach and saw that the docks were now nearly at level with the waves, their pilings barely rising above the churning ocean. We were at a safe distance and watched the water fill the embankments until it had reached its crest. Things began to settle down, the waters calmed and they began to reflect the skies in their surface, and I saw something I didn’t expect. The waters had been transformed slowly. As the tide reached its height, the distant light of the stars made the sea look like it was covered in small shiny crystals resembling polka-dots, seemingly floating above the surface. It reminded me of her dress, and the seemingly magical force that surrounded her. In that moment, I began to realize that there was a reason she’d brought me there.

I looked over to her and across the sands, and saw that something seemed to be happening in the distance. It was subtle at first, but I could see the trees in the distance were beginning to sway under a breeze. I heard their leaves rustling and their limbs began to sway, as if they were dancing. She seemed to notice this about the same time I did, and we both turned and watched them. I could sense that she was nervous to return, in the middle of the night without any real reason to do so. We watched for a few minutes and I patiently waited for her to make up her mind. After waiting awhile, I could see the breeze begin to change direction, going from one side to another, and then it slowly began to diminish. The wind slowly came to a halt and things were calm. It might have been a false alarm, but she decided that things were safe enough and she ventured away from the inlet, stepping back towards the thick forest, turning around and trying to get a better look. Something seemed to have happened, but we couldn’t be sure what exactly it meant. We walked a little closer and I watched my steps as we left the beach and walked back towards the uneven surfaces. The rocky shores became narrower as we reached the edge of the forest once again. The light from the stars dimmed as we got closer and we found ourselves nearly covered in shadow, which made navigating even more difficult. It didn’t seem like a good idea to me, but she moved forward undeterred. She began to grasp at the nearby branches and pulled them aside as she cleared a path for herself. I followed behind nervously – I didn’t know what was ahead but felt compelled to follow. It wasn’t a good idea to be out there alone, so I walked behind, trusting her instincts or following the plan. We moved slowly through the forest again and it became thicker as we moved inward back towards the clearing. It took some time and persistence, and the branches became harder to move. I had to dodge them and they slapped me head a few times. This slowed our progress a little bit and it seemed like we’d never get back there. After what seemed like an endless walk through the forest, I noticed that the trees had started getting thinner and more spread out, and there was more space for us to walk. It was still dark as we walked, but there was some reason compelling us to return there.

Taking a few more steps, the ground began to smooth out and flatten, which allowed us to walk faster, I looked up over the tops of the trees and saw the distant stars flickering above them. They were dimmer and seemed farther out. Dimmer and weaker, they gave off just enough light that they provided a somewhat trusty guide for us to use. I took a moment and tried to orient myself, and I noticed that the path we were walking was becoming clearer, we could move forward without much effort. We walked further away, and the silence was only broken by our steps crunching on the ground. It became easier as we moved inward towards the clearing, our feet skipping over the scattered rocks and fallen branches. As the night increased its hold, we had finally arrived at the clearing. When I peaked out from the shadow, I could see that it hadn’t materially changed. Nothing seemed to have changed and there wasn’t a sound to be heard. I held back a little bit and watched her move ahead, and she quickly walked almost to the center of the clearing. I saw how tall and strong she seemed and felt inadequate in some ways, and decided to watch from a distance. I couldn’t understand why she had gone back, the wind was a strange signal, but there had to be something more that I hadn’t figured out. I watched as she stood there for a long time, and the silence surrounding her only added to the sense that something was going to happen. She looked around and seemed to be looking for something she couldn’t locate. After a few moments, I realized that she was looking for me. I was still hiding in the shadow and probably wasn’t immediately visible. I took a few steps outside the forest, cautiously measuring my steps. When I got in there, I noticed that the heavy shadows that I felt from the trees had vanished and the air felt lighter than it had when we had been on the beach a few minutes before. I felt a sense of safety and protection from the trees, which kept us completely hidden from view. I walked closer to her position and noticed that she was holding something I hadn’t seen before.

The light was dim and it took some effort to locate and reach her as I stumbled around in the dark, trying not to make any noise. I was a little nervous when I approached her and didn’t want to get in the way. I held back from a distance and tried to get a glimpse without being intrusive, but couldn’t really get close enough to see what was happening. I watched her standing under the lights and fumbled around, trying to stay as quiet as possible. After a few minutes watching from the shadows, I worked up enough courage to walk towards her and reached the center. As she moved it around slowly circling the trees surrounding us, I thought it was some kind of compass that she was using to get some kind of direction. A few more steps and a closer look revealed that it was quite what she was doing. As I got closer, I saw it was larger than I thought. She held it provisionally. Despite its small size, it looked like it was quite heavy. Walking closer, I was a little hesitant. She seemed focused on it, and I didn’t want to break the spell. That weird thing might have been our only way out. I wasn’t going to stand in her way and keep us stranded longer than necessary.

I hadn’t seen anything like it before. At first I couldn’t see what was, but as I moved closer, I realized what it was. It was clunky and resembled the large machine I had encountered a few nights earlier hidden deep inside her secret laboratory. Aside from its smaller size, there seemed to be something different about it that I couldn’t quite pin down. I could see the stitches in the metal like it had been pasted together in a rush. It was uneven and had a slightly odd boxy shape. Its shape was odd, when I moved closer, I saw that there were small buttons and levers on it, that she was using to control the light and duration. It blinked on and off for a few minutes and she moved it around to focus on various parts of the forest, spotlighting different sections of trees and brush until she reached my position. It strained and changed color wavering from blue to green, changing unevenly between the hues. It seemed to brighten when she raised or lowered it to particular heights and levels, giving a bright light to some sections but dimming in others. I watched her move around and she was able to produce a strangely inconsistent illumination seemingly from nothing to illuminate the night. It was like looking at the world through a different set of eyes, and I saw things I didn’t notice before. As she moved it around, she began to make waves which she formed into strange shapes. They seemed to hang in the air and they began to surround the trees, changing their appearance and color. As she moved around, it seemed like she was looking for something in the forest on the other side of the clearing.

We walked towards a section of the forest that was glowing in a strange red hue. We walked there and we found something I didn’t expect. There was a smaller version of her mysterious machine. It was small enough that she could hold in her hands.  It seemed to glow under the stars, it metallic surface shimmering despite the lack of light. I saw its small light begin to shine from the distance. It covered her quickly, giving her a ghostly shadow that trailed behind her on the ground. I watched as she walked and her feet didn’t seem like they were touching the ground, it was almost like she was floating. I noticed the trees begin to sway as a breeze began to lift them, She spun the dials around which made the colors cycle again, revealing a different set of shapes ands symbols. I waited, watching the experiments unfold and didn’t know what to do. I tried to be as quiet as possible, but she seemed to notice my presence despite my best efforts. After a few minutes she stopped spinning the dials and placed the case back on the ground. When she stood up, she turned around and looked towards me. She looked at me with a strange expression, like she was expecting some help. She nodded her head and looked back down on the box. She grabbed it quickly, and began to furiously move some of the keys, making odd motions with it that worked to accelerate the color changes. The lights seemed to move faster and faster until they started to converge into a single point, creating a single bright strip that gradually brightened into a familiar form. Before I realized it, she had created something from the diffuse light that I hadn’t expected to see.

- Michael Palisano