Do You See It?

"VERONA!!!!!", I peek open one eye lid as I hear Lys yelling my name with probably more volume than she really needed at 6 in the morning. Next came the finger tapping at my window and the slow drag through the dew on the pane to make that sad low sounding squeak. I reach up towards the lock and flip it open and before I could push the window open Lys's face is already in my room, rosy and bright with a smile that could probably melt whats left of the ice caps.

"Verona, its 6 in the morning, get up, get dressed, I have to show you the prettiest sight!" I lay my head face first back into my pillow inhaling the rest of sleep I was about to miss out on. I throw on an over sized tee and grab my dirty sneakers and climb through my window. Who says that grown ups don't use windows huh? Before I could get a good stretch in I feel her small hand wrap around my wrist and propelling me forward. Last nights rain has found itself in fairy thimble blooms and accurately whacking me in the face as she drags me through our grandmothers gardens in what feels like the direction of the beach. The fronds of ti plants greener in this mist than I've seen in a long time.

"Lys, if you knew you were gonna be dragging me around don't you think a cup of coffee would've been nice? I wouldn't even have been mad if it was black. Okay maybe a little but how do you..." I trail off as she drops my wrist and disappears through an opening in an over grown hibiscus hedge. I look around wondering when this bush had grown to this expanse. "Hey Lys, where are you, I'm sorry, I should've premade coffee but to be fair..." Her hand shoots back thru the barely there gap and I grab it and through many branches and leaves I go.

Once on the other side there was nothing left to say. She lets go of my hand and walks forward to a little circle of rocks and sits on one that looks as if erosion knew what a chair should be. I look out and see the horizon just as the sun breaks its slumber and the shades of orange and pinks kiss the sea like a painter to his canvas. I walk forward and sit next to her and we watch in silence. The clouds are colored in the softest hues of dawn and the waves are small and quiet in their way as they lap against the shore below the over hang. There in the corner of our gaze is a ship sailing across, as if they had gone out purposely to greet this mornings sunshine.

I remember being a child in my grandmothers arms as she would sit in her garden and tell me stories of our ancestors in their ships as they traveled the seas with the night sky for charts and day winds for riding white capped tides. Lys was only 5 when she passed. I reach for her hand and squeeze it gently and we both watch the ship sail on.

Having been gone for as many years as we had it was little wonder we sat here in silence needing no words for the feelings of home coming we felt in our bones as we, much like that ship on the horizon bathed in the warmth of love you could spend a lifetime trying to articulate and never quite getting right.

Lys was right...coffee could wait.