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They played on the beach as children. Ford had always loved the sea. Delighted by the mysterious creatures swimming in the depths just below the surface. The odd shaped jellyfish, the little crawling crab, the fascinating starfish. Stanley just liked the adventure of it all. At the tender age of 10 he'd heard all sorts of tales of treasure and mermaids. He longed to grow up fast.
They sneak out at night and dip their feet in the water. Stan likes the way the sand feels between his toes. Neither of them want to go back inside.
He joins a merchant ship at 16. Their father had taken ill and Stanley needed to find a means to provide for the family. Ford had intended to go with him but Stanley did not wish for Ford to give up his dream of going to University. His brother wished to study the sea. And Stanley will make damn sure he gets to do so.
When he is 18 the ship is attacked by pirates. Stanley puts up a fight but when he sees he cannot win he falls back on his charm. The captain gets a laugh out of it at least. Finding Stan's unique brand of charisma hearty enough to let him swab the deck. As long as Stan still gets to send money back home he doesn't care. Merchant or pirate it doesn't make a difference to him.
In the following year Stanley finds the pirate life quite suits him. Ford never would have approved. Stan loved his brother dearly and still wanted to have adventures with him, but Ford could be a stickler when it came to rules. And Stanley had never been one for those. He feels like he's found his true calling. Here amongst thieves and liars. Where they drink and sing badly and raid government ships. It was a good life.
-
"You have got to introduce us to that brother of yours someday Stan!" Robert laughs, some of his ale spilling over onto the table.
They're eating lunch. Today was potatoes. Again. Not that Stan was complaining. If the cook got so much as a wiff of you whining he would give your portion something extra special. Depending on his mood it could be anywhere from shit to chili pepper.
"He is the only man I have ever heard refer to the ocean as a 'He!'"
Ford and Stan didn't exchange letters on the regular, but they did keep each other updated. In recent months Ford had stated that he'd met the ocean. Stan expected this sort of tall tale from his shipmates. But the fact it was coming from his no-nonsense brother Ford made him worried.
"I mean everyone knows the ocean is a she! Only a woman would be calm as a lazy day one minute then turn into a raging storm the next!"
The surrounding men laugh at the joke. Stan wishes he hadn't shared his brother's letter. He had simply been curious if anyone else had heard any folktales about meeting the ocean.
The closest answer he'd gotten was from George. "Well sure I have! Almost drowned when I was 22 and coughed up half a lung!"
He decides to let it go. Perhaps he was looking at it too literally. He was used to Ford being straightforward. But it was entirely possible his brother had learned how to speak in metaphors in their years apart. Still, he never took his brother for a romantic. The way he waxed poetry about the sea one would think his brother a bard rather than a scientist.
Stan could appreciate it. Their shared love of the ocean. Even though it was for different reasons it still felt nice to have this thing still connecting them after years and miles apart.
-
A monster rises from the depths and takes the ship in his sixth year. Stan holds onto a piece of wood for dear life. He floats along with Robert, the only other survivor, for two days. That is when the mermaids find them. It's a pack of four. They circle Stan and Robert, smiling playfully with their wicked teeth. Then one jumps at Robert and tears his throat out. He's gone underneath the water before he can even scream.
Stan waits for his turn. He had a good life. Maybe not as long as he wanted it to be. But it was fun while it lasted.
He hears a splash behind him.
Stan turns and punches the damn thing right in the face. The mermaid falls into the water shrieking. Stan raises both fists and glares at the remaining two mermaids.
"Come and get it fish breath!"
That's when he hears it. The laughter. It's not coming from either of the mermaids. Stan twists around but cannot see where it's originating from. Can't quite pinpoint where the sound is as it echoes all around him. It's unlike any sort of sound he has heard from a human throat yet his mind still identifies the noise as laughter.
The two mermaids disappear under the water and do not resurface.
Stan waits.
He feels like something is watching him. The way a small child would watch an ant. It would be amusing in it's tiny existence. But after a while it would get boring and the child would kill it. Not out of any sort of malice or lust for violence. But simply because they could. Simply because an ant did not matter in the grand scheme of things.
Stanley Pines has never been afraid in his life. Not when he fell from that cliff and broke his arm, not when the pirates took over the merchant ship, and not when he faced death at the hands of a beautiful mermaid.
He fears this unknown thing.
-
Having lost his friends and his way of life, Stanley decides to return home. His mother is overjoyed to see him. Shermy is growing into a fine young man. He feels slightly guilty he's never visited before now.
Ford is not there. But that's fine Stan thinks. He needs some time to get reacquainted with living on solid land. He needn't bother Ford with his problems.
-
It's weird the way his bed doesn't sway. Instead of the gentle sounds of waves lulling him to sleep he hears the chirp of crickets and the wind through the leaves.
He misses the sea. The smell of salt. The taste of it on his tongue. The air feels different here.
-
Many men have claimed to love the sea. Stanley himself included. But he's never known the true extent of Stanford's feelings until his brother comes home at 26. He says the same things he's said in his letters. But seeing the emotion on his face in person is different than reading it on paper. Ford really believed he had met the sea. And that he was in love with him.
It is an easy thing to accept. Letting his doubts fall away. If his brother says it's true then Stan believes it.
The roots of worry sprout from the seed in his heart. Planted there by dark laughter and the horror of watching his shipmates drown.
Many men claim to love the sea. Stanley himself included. He loves the promise of adventure. The call of the horizon. He loves the wind on his face and the sun on his back. But he does not love the storm. The waves that rise to sweep away his friends.
His brother has seen into the black depths. Darker than the night sky. He has been swallowed by oblivion. Any man would have gone insane. Ford looked into the void and saw the endless mysteries that awaited him.
And that is when the ocean looked back.
-
They'd set sail three months ago. Traveling south. Ford writes away in his notebooks. Muttering and chewing on the end of his quill.
"There's a thousand fish in the sea Sixer!" He told him one day. "You're never gonna be able to log all of them!"
Ford had frowned and kept writing. He logged everything. Every single thing.
They find a vanishing island. There one moment and gone the next. They spend weeks there. Eating weird shaped fruit (at least Stan does, Ford is too apprehensive to just stick weird things into his mouth) and exploring the wonderous caves.
They search for a magical shark that is said to have healing powers. They come across a dogfish and name him Spot. They see and do so many things. It's hard to remember all the reasons why they hadn't done this years ago.
-
It's six months before Stan wakes one night to a pang of fear in his chest. It takes him a moment to realize what had caused it.
His brother is speaking to someone. The answering voice is familiar.
"And the seaweed makes it possible to breath underwater?" There's the telltale sign of Ford scribbling in his notes.
He hears a splash and the caw of gulls despite the fact they are in the middle of the ocean and there aren't any birds for miles.
"Chew it throughout and hold it in under your tongue." The voice says.
Stan gets the impression of sand gliding over the ocean floor. More gulls. The crash of a wave on the shore. The voice is everything and nothing at once.
"How will I find the entrance?"
Stan both does and does not want to look. When the ocean speaks next the impression is of the rays of light filtering through under the surface as he sinks below. This is how he knows the ocean is smiling at Ford.
"I will show you."
-
The next morning Ford ecstatically tells him that they're going to the lost city of Atlantis. He lets his brother ramble on for a solid 20 minutes before speaking.
"Do you trust him?"
Ford pauses. They both know whom Stanley refers to.
They could die down there, eaten by a shark for kicks and it wouldn't matter. Ants in the dirt.
"I trust him to be who he is." Ford says.
That is the moment Stan knows how his brother will die. It will not be by land or man. It will not be disease. He will not be bitten or starve or crushed. Ford's last breath will fill his lungs with water. He will choke as it burns him, surrounds him with love.
-
He is thirty two when he sees the ocean for the first time. It grips his brother over the railing of their ship. Fingers finding purchase in Ford's hair. Ford leans over the side, hands firmly on the wood, as he kisses seaweed and salt and shells. Stan can see his chest heaving. The air escaping him, leaving only water behind.
Then Ford leans a little too far and he's gone. There is no splash. Stan runs to look over the edge but there's nothing there. The water still and undisturbed.
Many men have claimed to love the sea. But only Ford has held him.