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| The author |
Arden had lived a loner’s life on a small ship left to him by his parents, sans any communication with the outside world, for the past 17 years. He had an advanced distress tech invented by him aboard his vessel, on which his only pals, the sea creatures, alerted him when someone was in need in the deep sea and he would relentlessly save them at any cost. He was the master of the marine realm who toiled ardently day and night to upgrade his innovative technology and had dedicated his life to this mission because this very sea had once swallowed his world, his mom and dad, during a tempestuous storm when he was barely ten and he could not do anything.
He had never experienced the void in his life until one day he met Rose during one of his rescue missions. Surprisingly, even Rose had been on her own, alone on a secluded island, and only remembered being carried away by the strong waves when she was playing on the beachside as a very small girl. The next morning she had woken up on this lonely island’s shore and thereafter devised her survival techniques in the hope that someday she would reach back to her family.
Her solitary battle for survival too had been nothing short of extraordinary but after what felt like an era she only saw her hope fading away each day so she decided to swim far and wide until she spotted a carrier that could take her back. For days and nights she swam and swam but the more she did, the more she realized there was no hope until Arden found her clinging to a piece of wreckage and floating on water semiconscious after being alerted on his distress tech. She showed no signs of life as Arden lifted her in his strong arms on that lightning-struck thunderous night but he would not give up this easily.
An unknown power compelled him to whisper in her ears, ‘’You are going to be alright dear”, with a heart full of warmth, and the universe listened as she gently opened her eyes.
But the very next moment she shivered in pain and perhaps fright as this was her first encounter with a human after so many years. Her panic was evident but her fragile body had no energy to retaliate, she did not realize she was in the safest pair of robust arms in the world.
The Sea which snatched Arden’s parents gifted him Rose and they were now even. His anger gradually melted away as he cared for Rose day and night until she fully recovered. The two had a stark similarity in their looks and personalities, both were blue-eyed and ivory-skinned and were kids of mother nature possessing an ocean of deep silence in their hearts bonded together by their shared trauma and solitude. Soon, both Arden and Rose grew a great fondness for each other albeit in a very strange cute way because neither of them had had an encounter with the opposite sex so far.
Rose had always felt a strong tingling when Arden tended to her wounds with her heart beating faster, she had never experienced this galore of myriad emotions entering and exiting her heart at a miraculous speed before. She had wanted to caress him back but only smiled. Sparks did ignite though when their eyes met. My sweethearts evidently could not identify that they had fallen in love which is the purest of the pure human feelings, for a very long time but drowned merrily in what was happening between them.
From being extremely shy initially, communicating only through actions with an occasional touch making butterflies flutter in their stomachs, they grew inseparable and built their beyond-perfect adorable world full of profound love. Little things like decorating their ship with magnificently prettyshells and corals or Rose dancing to the songs and poems weaved by Arden brought them unparalleled joy. But most of all they liked to talk as they had had no one to share for years and both of them craved family, as a very long period of solitude and battling sickness and near-death incidences at close angles alone, they loved how complete they felt in each other’s company. They were now family, it meant the world to them to be able to share their hearts and souls with someone.
Under a star-studded sky, Arden would narrate to Rose how he and his parents were a beautiful family of three, his dad being a veteran ex-merchant navy engineer and his mom his colleague and a gifted poetess. They had home-schooled Arden as they had chosen a life at the sea on their ship in the arms of Mother Nature and their son had inherited the prowess of both his parents. His mother’s compassionate heart and beautiful songs and poems which he often sang had taught him to communicate with the marine species with whom Arden can talk and they alerted him on his distress tech, inventing which was his dad’s dream and he was super thrilled to fulfil it.
It was a beautiful sight to behold, every time Arden sang, the mesmerized dolphins, vibrant fishes, and other creatures of the marine realm came to enjoy the show and now they were also treated to Rose dancing to his tunes, in fact, they too joined the merriment of these two pure souls destined to be together forever. Time flew and felt like straight out of a fairy tale as the two made love for the first time under the serene blue skies and above the pristine blue ocean waters. The universe blessed their beyond perfect love.
Arden taught Rose how to communicate with the creatures at sea and she loved his world of which she was now the most integral part. Undoubtedly she was a quick learner and was quick to identify the signals at the distress tech every time, if Arden was elsewhere, as they set sail immediately to help. She too had known the sea world from years of living on the shore and Arden was spellbound whenever she shared her knowledge on what all she had learned, living on the shore all these years. She had developed her one-of-a-kind vocabulary to name and describe sea life and things, which often made them laugh together.
Rose also, too often spoke about how her parents might be still looking for her and how badly she had missed her little sister Lily. They had come for a vacation at the beach when her world fell apart. She still would wake up at night listening to her mom shouting out her name aloud with cries for help as the waves had carried her away when her dad had gone to get their car parked away. There is nothing more she remembers other than their blurred faces now.
Rose’s unwavering resolve to find them someday added purpose to Arden’s technological ingenuity and together they decided to embark on a quest to locate Rose's long-lost family. Nobody could doubt their strong will and determination and after all what is life, without a goal, rather it united them further, but yes they were looking at a rather impossible goal.
It was indeed going to be a herculean task to search for Rose’s family, the only guy Arden knew on the mainland was the hardware shop owner uncle, his dad’s friend, who supplied him with the necessary supplies needed to upgrade and maintain the distress tech and carrier vessel. Navigating the sea in search of someone on the mainland whose names and faces they barely knew needed meticulous planning and technological know-how if at all they had to succeed.
Arden’s distress tech was based on frequencies to communicate with marine species but the new invention he needed to work on was to build a tech that could interact with the communication systems of every mainland they sailed to in search of Rose’s parents. Once the groundwork was done and the crude tech was in place they set sail not wanting to lose time, Arden wanted to keep working on it on the way and had already amassed all that could be needed from his old uncle. He had chalked on a detailed map of the probable areas they would hit first based on Rose’s faint description. All this time, Rose always fuelled Arden’s hard work with her inspirational words and unshakable belief in him.
He had recorded a message from Rose to his family with every possible detail she remembered and they transmitted it to every mainland they reached about a girl lost at sea searching for her family until they heard back. It took them several years to find Rose’s parents thanks to Arden’s extraordinary efforts and Rose was on cloud nine to see her mom-dad and Lily back. She was right they had not stopped looking for her and had left information about her everywhere they could. It was as if Rose had lost all hope and made peace with the truth but her love did not let her down and she was reunited with her family. Tears of joy knew not how to stop and kept cascading down all eyes in disbelief.
Rose’s parents could not thank Arden enough for saving their daughter and were ecstatic to take their daughter home as their family was finally complete. Lily never left her elder sister’s hand for a minute and grinned merrily from cheek to cheek, hugging her only sibling in sheer joy repeatedly. Arden saw Rose leaving, he was very happy that Rose had found her family and could not understand why his heart felt so heavy. Back home Rose’s mom made her delectable drool-worthy food and Lily made her adorn in her favourite dress. Rose was amazed and amused to see a television a refrigerator and several other gadgets at home which were decorated with Rose’s dolls from when she was really small. Dad explained how he heard in the news on TV that transmissions are received from a ship about a girl lost at sea and they immediately knew it was their daughter lost 18 years ago. They could not believe what they just heard and their joy knew no bounds and it was the happiest day of their lives. They were so elated that they swore they would never let Rose be separated from them again.
Somehow Rose’s joy felt incomplete. She found the mainland very strange, and difficult to adapt to, and though she loved her family, she missed her life at sea. Of course, she knew she was longing for Arden the most and could not bear to stay away from him even for a moment.
In a poignant moment of reckoning, Rose affirmed her feelings for Arden to her parents and they agreed at once to accept him as family to come and live with them forever. But Rose's heart was torn apart, she knew her love was on a mission at sea and he had dedicated his life to it. She had to make a choice and this one was just not possible to make. She could not leave her mom and dad whose hair had greyed waiting for her long lost daughter and her life had no meaning without Arden in it, who had been her only family for the past years and had unconditionally loved her.
On the ship, Arden lay lifeless feeling his soul was gone, he could feel Rose’s fragrance and presence everywhere, the emptiness was killing. He was blank. “I miss you, Rosie”, his heart cried a million times. It was heartening that they could communicate sometimes when the frequencies matched, through the mini transmitter Arden had playfully invented for them to communicate which worked fine in a certain range. But he would have to leave in a few days. He was in such a dilemma, he could not ask his love to come and be his forever, leaving everything, nor could he think of a life without her.
He wanted to give Rose a fair chance to decide what her heart genuinely desires and not influence it in any way. Who knew better than him, the desperate attempts Rose made to get together with her family. He would wait patiently for her at sea even if meant a wait of a lifetime. He knew she would always find him if the need be.
Arden soon let it sink deep that Rose’s parents could not lose their daughter once again. He left a message on the transmitter for Rose to come and see her at the shore at sunset. He had decided to leave that day after seeing his love one last time without telling her but as fate would have it he found no one on the shore for hours. With a broken heart, he returned to his ship to set sail. But guess what, on the ship waited his better half, Rose had chosen their ‘Beyond Perfect’ love.
Yes, what the universe witnessed that day was beyond perfect as the two lovers fell into each other’s arms and let their separation agony flow unhindered from their eyes as the two could not stop crying and kissing each other.
“I thought you would never come, Rosie!” Arden spoke softly placing his lips on Rose’s right ear and hugged her even tighter. He would not let her go at any cost that day he thought but still waited to hear her decision.
“I am sorry, my love, I took longer than usual to convince Mom, Dad, and Lily that you are my world and I feel lifeless without you. I could not leave until I got their permission and today they heard the same pain in your transmitted message and gave me the permission.
I am now all yours, Ardie, nothing can separate us now until death sets us apart. I bet I will convince her too.”
On the shore waited Rose’s family who blessed them in abundance and bid them goodbye with a promise that they get to hear about their well-being from them regularly.
The two happy souls lost in each other’s love, went back to their unique life at sea, to their beyond-perfect world full of love, united in an unwavering bond and a shared mission of compassion and rescue.
