RIVER OF NO RETURN

Sometimes the river brought him peace. Sometimes she brought him silence. Today she brought him remembrance.

He looked at the still water and wondered why he had not changed even though the boy had grown. He called him father and he loved him like his own son. What name should I give him, he often asked himself. He did not have any names in his memory. Not even his own.

Then he saw her , in the water , standing behind him. He kept still. It was as though he knew that she was not really there. Just some yearning in him for someone he loved and was searching for.

He had felt her close to him when he was in the land of dreams. He had hoped that one day he would find her in the time when he was awake. It was to be today.

So he kept very quiet and waited, so afraid he would lose her. Lose her again.

He saw her fingers on his shoulder and he longed to touch them and hold her at last.

Their eyes met as he looked at her in the water.

His tears formed ripples in the water.

Tell me what to do, his heart cried. I am lost. So lost.

Her tears fell on her fingers and down to his shoulder. And he heard her say, “I will always be with you.”

“Come to me” he pleaded in his heart, “I do not know how to find you.”

“ Why are you crying, Father?” the boys voice broke in .

Zaklion looked at his son. Then he looked behind him. There was no one there.

He choked back his tears and held his son close. He hugged him like he was going to lose him.

And somewhere faraway came a voice “ You can make it..You have been trained to dive and swim. I have not been trained like you. “

Then he saw a hand clutching his and a bracelet of beads shining like stars . He saw creatures surrounding him and laughing, pulling him up in the water. He felt a hand, her hand , pulling him down….down…till he was pulled by swirling current …and then he saw her eyes ..her eyes…and heard her voice calling him..Zaklion..

The Land Of Dreams

In the land of dreams there was nowhere to rest his feet. He was struggling to keep up with his lady who was vanishing from his sight. He cried.His head was throbbing. She was gone and she was there. Where is she?

A hand clutched his and tightened and dug into his flesh. He was losing himself. Was he swimming in the right direction? Where was she? He turned this way and that. The Deep Blue pressed into him and burnt his lungs till he cried out and gulped in the air. But it was water that he breathed in. The hand dragged him down.

Before all became darkness he saw a bracelet shinning around the hand and it seemed to come alive like a snake. Then it glistened and exploded. Lights flashed in the Deep Blue.

He saw her eyes and knew it was her.

“ Who are you..You betrayed me..” he cried to her. And her eyes brimmed with tears.

He opened his eyes slowly. He was awake and yet he was asleep. What were those scars at his wrist. Why could he still feel the pain of something cutting into his flesh?

Where is she now? Who was this lady he was looking for? Zaklion did not know. For Zaklion had lost himself . Yet in the Land Of Dreams sometimes he remembered bits and pieces of another land, another person like him. Here he was all alone.

He did not know his own name

Some nights he heard a voice telling him: “ If you knew who you are, you would not look at her that way. “

Now he had a child he saved and he did not know who he was either. So he was guided by his instinct. He protected the child from the lizards and the voices that he sometimes heard in the jungle. The boys skin was brown like his. That made him happy. Sometimes he saw himself as another in the Land Of Dreams...