Sophia packed her compact car to the brim with everything she could take with her. She had finally had enough of the blaring chaotic commotion of the crowded city with its oppressive concrete walls and dim greasy streets. She craved the open ocean air found only in the seaside atmosphere of tiny coastal towns, so she drove and drove until she stumbled upon exactly that. She ended up in Harborage Bay: a quaint seaport village with rustic homes and charming shops nestled along the waterfront. She suspected that this would be where she could find the serenity she was seeking in her solitude, but instead she would find that something else was seeking her.
It was near midnight and the bright yellow moon, round and full, was hanging low and large in the sky. She parked her car by the harbor and saw the iron gates of an entrance to a long wooden pier covered in foggy mist. She walked all the way to the far edge of the pier and stopped. As she stood there silently, deep in thought, a salty breeze swept across her face and tugged at her long golden hair. She gazed out at the endless sea as the moonlight glinted across the smooth velvety waves like an amber lantern dancing on the water. Its tawny light hazily reflected in her wide green eyes. The subtle sound of the blowing wind whistled faintly along the rigid planks of the pier. She thought, at last, she was utterly alone, until she suddenly realized she wasn’t.
While she had been so intensely enveloped in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed that someone had made his way to the edge of the pier and that he was also watching the waves in silence next to her. As she peeked through the briny mist, she could see he was tall, his shoulders were broad and his hair was short and dark. He turned to face her and their eyes met at once – locked in a long glance. She felt as though she had made his acquaintance before, yet she had no clue who this stranger was. All she knew was that there was something electric between them.
“Hello… My name is Sabastian,” he said with a mild countenance as he slowly approached her. He extended his right arm to shake her hand. He felt hypnotically drawn to her.
“Oh, um, hi… I’m Sophia.” She responded hesitantly. She was even more hesitant to shake his hand, but she couldn’t resist him. His eyes sparkled with an enigmatic depth that magnetically drew her in.
As their hands shook in a quick yet caring touch, a sweet smile stretched across both their blushing faces. They each felt a surprising sense of warmth and longing that stirred their souls with feelings of desire. This startled her. She hastily pulled her hand back to her side while simultaneously pulling her glance and her heart away too. She had come here to be by herself but was suddenly feeling a tender connection forming. Something she hadn’t felt in much too long. She wasn’t ready for this rush of emotion. It was all too much for her, so the next thing she knew, her feet were pacing speedily down the pier back toward her car. She didn’t even say goodbye.
When she opened the door of her car to get in, she looked back to see if he was still there. He was. His broad figure stood lofty and fixed amidst the mist. Though she couldn’t perceive his facial expression, she knew what he was thinking. He was shocked and perplexed by her sudden leaving. Even she was just as confused. She wanted to know more about him just as much as he wanted to know more about her. They were equally amazed by the impact their encounter had made on both of them. They were left tantalized and mystified by the other.
As she drove away, she wondered if she would ever see him again, but then she realized she had something else to worry about: where would she sleep? At that point in the night, the time was too late for her to find a room to stay. So, she decided to drive to a safe quiet corner in the well-lit parking lot of a small shopping mart. She parked, pulled her seat all the way back, covered herself in a blanket, and fell asleep in her car. She would figure out what do with her life after she got some needed rest.
As the rosy light of dawn began painting the early clouds a pearly pink, there was a brisk knock on her front window that promptly startled Sophia to wake from her sleep. She popped up her seat and looked out to find a policewoman standing outside the vehicle – peering in.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” the policewoman bellowed, “but you’re going to have to move your car!”
Sophia was embarrassed to be found like this. She waved, nodded, and then hurriedly drove away – not sure where to go. Luckily, just down the road, she saw a sign that read: vacancies. She pulled in and saw the entrance to a cozy motel resembling cabins. She had found a place to stay.
After she got settled into her snug cabin-like room, she left to begin looking for work. She went around town and applied to any shop that had a “for hire” sign. Much to her excitement, she was quick to find an opening at the town bookstore, which delighted her most. The bookstore owner hired her on the spot! Not only was she pleased to find a job so swiftly, but she loved being surrounded by the exciting stories and adventures of the books filling the shelves.
Sophia came to work each morning with great exhilaration for the people she would meet. She enjoyed getting to know the kind courteous locals who would come into the store throughout the day. They would introduce themselves and tell her many interesting anecdotes about their beloved town. Sometimes, they would even ask her about herself, though she usually preferred they wouldn’t and she would reveal very little to anyone. Nonetheless, they made her feel welcome.
As the days turned into weeks, Sophia found herself gradually woven into the town’s fabric. Sometimes, she would overhear the locals mentioning a man named Sabastian, but it was always in the form of questions shrouded in shadows. They were always wondering where he was, what was going on with him, and who had seen him last. She wondered if maybe she had indeed been the last to see him since their brief encounter on the pier that night. She was tempted to mention this to the townspeople every time they brought up his name, but the thought of his presence ignited such a fire within her that she dared not expose how she felt. So, she kept quiet.
One evening, after she closed up the bookstore and was heading back to her cabin, the memory of Sabastian’s face overtook her thoughts and she couldn’t get him out of her head. “How can I even be thinking of someone I know nothing about?” she asked herself. It was so overpowering that she became determined to know more about him. She needed to find out who he was, but how? She didn’t want to ask about him around town because not only was so little about him truly even known by others, but also, she wouldn’t be satisfied by mere rumors. She didn’t want any made-up assumptions. She wanted only the factual truth, and the best way to attain that would be to go straight to the source. She would have to find him and meet him again. So, she felt the best place to do that would be back at pier – hoping by some miracle he would be there.
She waited until it was closer to midnight until she steadily yet anxiously made her way to the entrance of the pier and walked down to its edge. It was cloaked in salty sea mist and a briny gust hissed along the planks. Her golden locks billowed in the breeze and flowed around her face as whirls of misty fog engulfed her. She stood there, in anticipation, looking out across the moonlit sea. It happened to be a full moon again.
It didn’t take long until she heard footsteps creaking behind her. She dared not look but just waited as she could hear him approaching.
“Hello again…” she heard Sabastian’s voice say to her, so she turned around to see him standing there – more handsome than before. His deep dark eyes were like a spell. She couldn’t look away and she couldn’t even speak.
“I was hoping you would be here again. I’ve been thinking about you a lot.” He spoke with calm assertion. “I don’t know anything about you, but I want to know everything about you.”
His forward declaration emboldened her to speak. “That is why I came back,” she said. “I want to know who you are.”
They stepped closer and closer toward each other until they were so near, they could hear each other breathing. Then, neither could produce any words. They just stood there, entranced by one another. Eventually, he raised his palm and held it out in front of her, as if to say: I am yours. She placed her hand tenderly onto his and he intertwined his fingers gingerly around hers. There was nothing to say but so much to feel.
With his other hand, he pulled her into his embrace and she immediately melted into his arms. He began to smell her hair, then the side of her neck, and then below her chin. She timidly kept her head down because she was so nervous, but she didn’t want him to stop. He wasn’t sure if he should carry on but he gradually persisted, pausing at each moment to check if she was okay with him continuing. He placed a soft gentle kiss on her left cheek, and paused. Then, he placed a tender kiss on her left temple, paused, and then another her forehead. He moved his mouth over to the other side of her face, kissing her right temple and then her right cheek. Now, she was feeling faint and even a little dizzy; she was swept up in the intimate yearning building between them. She lifted her head back and slightly parted her lips, as though to say to him: I am yours too. He saw this moment as his opportunity to show her how much he wanted her, so he leaned in and gave her a powerful yet delicate kiss on her lips.
It seemed to them as though this wasn’t the first time their mouths had been united but rather many, many times before. Their kiss felt like two puzzle pieces that had been searching for each other for ages. This kiss turned into something neither of them expected – the genuine feeling of falling in love. Yet, how could either of them feel this way for someone they barely knew? Nevertheless, their loving sensations, strong emotions, and certain attraction was undeniable and neither of them wanted to let go.
“Woah!” she exclaimed and took a swift step back and a gasp of air – astonished at the rapid turn of events. She had come there to quench her curiosity, yet an entirely new thirst had awoken.
“Who are you?” she asked fervently.
“Let me show you.” He uttered, and then pointed toward a hill at the base of the mountains near the fringe of town. There, towering on the hill, she could see a tattered mansion almost entirely covered with thick emerald vines. “That is oldest house in all of Harborage Bay, and it is my home,” he explained. “My family came to this town centuries ago and built their wealth by constructing this pier, once used for fishing, but then one-by one, their lives were taken by unforeseen disasters. That house and this pier is all that is left of our legacy, besides me.”
“Oh… my… I am so sorry.” Her response was earnest in sympathy.
“Thank you. This is why the town believes that I am cursed and why they always want to know of my whereabouts – so that they can avoid me at all costs. You see, everyone in my family lost their lives because of one thing: marriage. Every time a family member would marry, even if they were lucky enough to bear children, once they would reach their 5-year anniversary, a horrible accident would befall on one or both of them. No matter what, one of them or both of them would somehow become victim to a dreadful deadly catastrophe. The pattern kept forming and repeating over generations, but nobody in the family wanted to believe it was true except me.” His eyes were filled with desolation as he spoke. “That is why am the only one left now.”
She looked at him with bewilderment and concern. “So, then, you won’t marry! Who cares! You can still live your life in other ways and be happy.” She felt optimism in telling him this.
“Yes, but what about love? I’ve never met anyone that didn’t want to marry,” he told her.
“Not until now…” She whispered.
His eyes lit up once she said this. He realized that she was offering him a path to hope and a future with love.
That night, they sat on a bench on the pier and spent the rest of evening discussing how to create a solution to this inexplicable curse. Ultimately, they were able to devise a plan: they would avoid any situation that might appear like marriage in order to escape the disastrous occurrence of ruin for either of them. They would keep their love secret and hidden.
So, for the next five years, Sophia met Sebastian only at night and only on the pier – and nowhere else. They chose that it would be safer for her not to enter the mansion for fear of what might transpire. They chose to never meet in the light of day or let anyone see them together. They decided that to make sure their love was safe, they would take every precaution to circumvent the chance of anyone discovering their love. They believed this would be the only way to prevent any disastrous calamity.
Their only reprieve was their nightly meetings at the pier under the cloak of the sea mist. They would walk all the way to the edge of the pier and back, holding hands, telling each other about their day. They would sit on the bench, wrapped in each other’s tight embrace. They would kiss ardently for hours, breathing in each other’s essence but then stop and pause as soon as they felt overwhelmed by the strong urges of their passions – for they did not want to risk the slightest possibility of what would happen if they were to consummate their relationship. After all, the parameters of this strange curse were not written or clarified but rather presumed based on the details of past events that were difficult to gather into a fully known explanation. So, for five years, they kept their love confined to these constraints in order to preserve their relationship – and their lives.
Exactly five years later, on the night that marked the anniversary of when they had their very first kiss, neither of them could take anymore waiting. As they were sitting on the bench, after an hour of impassioned kissing, Sophia made the decision that it was time to stop holding back. In fact, she didn’t even care about what the consequences would be anymore, because all she wanted was to feel the full expression of their love. She told him how she felt, and they both agreed that they had waited long enough. After all those years of biding their time and keeping their passions at bay, they couldn’t constrain themselves any longer. So, she sat on Sabastian’s lap, then straddled her legs around his waist and made love to him. He was in disbelief that this was happening, but there was no way he would stop it because he was also tired of waiting. They had waited for far too long already. They both let out a deep long gratifying groan of pleasure and relief. They gripped each other in ecstatic bliss as their bodies merged into one.
“You are mine and I am yours, forever,” he whispered into her ear.
They rolled around on that bench for the rest of the night until the sun began to rise. As the dewy morning arrived in its glistening glory, suddenly a terrifying rumbling noise began to stir. The pier began to shake and quake. Its wooden planks began to crack and splinter. The two of them looked around at what was taking place, but as soon as they tried to get up off the bench, the poles holding the pier underneath them suddenly snapped and shattered. Before they could even try to run to safety, the entire pier had collapsed into the ocean and they had fallen with it. As they grasped each other with all their might, fragments of the broken pier fell over them and they sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Later that day, all the townspeople gathered near where the pier was once been. All that stood there now were the iron gates of its entrance. Although the shops and homes in the village had experienced a bit of damage from the earthquake, the pier had completely perished except the gated entrance. Everyone glared over the fragmented remains of the pier, unaware of what other remains lay underneath. Nobody would uncover the truth of the lives that had been lost along with the pier that morning, because so much of it had been washed away into the depths of the ocean that the splashing waves were all that was left. Later, of course, it would be discovered that Sophia was missing when she didn’t show up for work, and of course no one knew the whereabouts of Sebastian. No one even knew that either had known each other, let alone that there had been such a vast love between them. None knew of their meetings, their longings, or their abrupt and ill-fated demise.
The town chose not to rebuild the pier, and eventually they tore down the old vine-covered mansion. Perhaps, it is better to let go of the past, they thought… Yet, to this day, some say that on nights when the moon is full, you can see the misty silhouette of two people kissing near the gated entrance of where the pier used to be.
COPYRIGHT Desiree Shokooh 7/3/2024
Desiree Shokooh: Creative Writer 