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Green Flash is a rare phenomenon that can be seen at sea. At dusk, just as the sun is about to sink into the horizon and disappear, it appears green for a brief moment. If you wait and watch the sun, your eyes will become accustomed to the intense light and you will not be able to see it, and if you are lucky enough to catch the moment of green flash light, it will be difficult to see it properly because at that moment the sun is too small for the naked eye to see. It is often said to be a good omen or a harbinger of bad luck that the souls of the dead have escaped from Davy Jones' locker, since even experienced sailors see it only a few times in their lifetime.
And whenever Harry Hook saw it, it was always at a turning point in his life.
He was eight years old. From an early age, Harry loved to watch the sunset, maybe a part of himself have always known that it would have a profound effect on his life.
The isle of the Lost had been incinerating the garbage coming in from Auradon for years, so there was always a heavy black cloud hovering overhead like a thick, mossy rug. The smog sat right above the isle and not letting a ray of sunshine in regardless of the season, and sometimes it rained strong acid rain, killing trees, rotting food, and poisoning fish.However, even all those things, there was one time of day when the warm hues of the sun can be enjoyed: dusk.When the red sun falls into the horizon. The blackish blue of the ocean shines, takes on a yellowish tinge, and eventually turns bright red; a torrent of bright colors that could only be seen on a beautiful paint set from an Auradon TV commercial, stirred up by the waves. They mix with each other and eventually disappear into the waves, dark and black.
From when he ended up sweeping the deck all day long, to when he was accused of trying to steal from the stall during his errand runs--although, he did steal some from the stall--Harry had always watched the setting sun.
And that day, he was eating an apple while soaking up to the glow of the sunset.
He bit into an apple, which was rotten and changing from the fibrous texture of a fruit to that of a potato. Those mushy feel was going to linger on his tongue. It is practically dead as a fruit. The sun in the faraway sky looked like holding some more life in it than the apple in Harry's hand.
—Would the sun taste better?
Just as the thought occurred to Harry, he heard a sound beneath his feet.
He was perched on the railing of the ship's edge, with his feet dangling overboard, so of course his feet were just above the ocean. Harry casually looked down at the water and wondered if there were any crocodiles or sharks hanging around here. At this point of his twisted life, he didn't want to risk his arms or legs to crocodiles yet.
Then Harry saw it. There was something shimmering in the grayish-brown water.
It’s blue-green, and she’s a girl, her skin a warm shade despite the freezing cold sea in February, and a bunch of braids waving around the outline of her small figure like sea serpents. The girl's tunic spreads out like a jellyfish, and the light glinting off the surface of the sea illuminates her profile as she eyes at a shark swimming just inches away from her.
It was otherworldly beautiful. There’s nothing like this have ever happened to him. It was, like a treasure. Harry never saw a chest full of gold coins or jewel adorned crown of king, nor a compass made of finest gold that his father often lamented about. But if he were to call what he’s looking at, then it was a treasure.
In the midst of his inner awestricken moment, the apple slipped out of his hand, fell into the calm sea.
“Shit......”
The apple broke through the surface of the sea and disappeared into the world where the night has come ahead of it, and Harry watched it go. He craned his neck as far as he can and saw that even the girl seemed to have vanished. Not even the tail of the shark could be seen in the dark water.
Disheartened by the loss of his food for the night and his treasured sight at once, Harry got up to go back to his room. Out of the corner of his eye, the setting sun was about to disappear into the horizon. But even that not seemed worth a second glance compared to the incredible sight he had missed out on.
He steps over the railing and, using a nearby barrel as a foothold, steps onto the deck. It was then that Harry happened to catch sight of the evening sun, which was flashing green. The sunset glowed an intense blue-green for a moment, like the filament of an old light bulb finally burning out, and then disappeared into the horizon.
“What the hell......?"
Immediately afterward, he heard the sound of water under his feet again. Feeling a strange premonition, Harry quickly scrambled up the barrel and peered over the railing.
Then he spotted a girl among the waves.
This time, she was mostly above the water from her head to shoulders, and her lovely face was looking up at him grimly. The scowling girl stared at Harry for a moment, then lifted one hand.
Harry widened his eyes at the apple in her hand as it appeared from beneath the waves.
“Was that you who thrown this in the water?”
The girl rubbed her thin shoulder where it looked like red. There was no doubt that the apple Harry had dropped had hit her while she was under water.
“Oh, yeah. It’s me. I think. Uh, sorry"
Harry mouthed a stunned apology. He was so surprised that he had forgotten that he should not so easily admit his fault.
That’s how Harry met Uma on the day he saw Green Flash for the first time in his life.
The girl, who looked so vibrant that Harry couldn't help but admire her, ate up the apple he dropped and told him that she could forgive him if he helped her with her pranks tomorrow after school. Harry eagerly nodded, and the next day he visited Ursula’s Fish & Chips at the agreed-upon time. The next day, and the next, he visited the shop. And before he knew, they have become inseparable.
---------
It is easier to say than do something by now that claiming he had a bad feeling about this from the start.
The sun had completely set, and a green light burned on Harry's eyelids as he gazed out from the shore at the ocean in the darkness of the night.
ーI'm coming to get you, so wait for me on the boat.
"I'll be back first thing after I get Ben to lower the barrier," Uma said.
Her warm hand tightened its grip on Harry's shoulder. The palm of her hand, which was placed in the same place as when she had pushed him away in a moment of impulse, felt like trembling a little. He didn’t know if it was fear of going into enemy's territory alone or the excitement of having the spell book in her hands.
Their faces were so close that the tips of their noses were almost touching each other, then their warmth left each other, and finally their hands left each other.
Harry stood in front of the sea where she had vanished as holding her hat to his chest. And he stayed there like a fool.
It was dusk when he finally got up at the sound of Gil's voice calling him--when had he been sitting up, he wasn't even sure--a flash of green burned Harry's eyes. It vanished in an instant, and when he realized that it was the Green Flash he had seen before, he immediately looked for Uma's shadow in the water spreading out at his feet.
She did not appear on the shore where Harry waited that night.
The next day, and the next, Harry kept his eyes peeled for the Green Flash in the setting sun, but the more he tried, the more the sunset was hidden by thick clouds and fog. The storm that raged outside the barrier day after day was a sign that Uma was still alive, and he spent many days trying to calm his frenzied heart from the way the sea was raging.
Harry stayed at the wharf and shoreside, making routines that deprived him of sleep. And Gil had to drag him into the chip shoppe because he wouldn't eat if not being forced. He hated to eat a tray full of fries. He always shared food with Uma and a feeling of fullness meant to face the absence of her.
Harriet, who came from the other side of the island several times a month, would stare at him and mutter, "You’ve lost weight again”.
Dead end. It's what seems like the second Green Flash gave him.
---------
The next time he saw it, a small box was tucked inside Harry's jacket.
“Harry, I'll take over the helm"
Gil said as the sun was about to set. If it was few years ago, Harry would have told Gil that it was not safe for inexperienced sailors to steer the boat at dusk. However, they were now in their mid-twenties, and Gil had been at the helm for six years.
He was aware of Gil's purpose in offering to take over the helm at this time. Harry's strange habit of watching the sun set at the time when twilight turns to night has been known to the entire crew for several years now. It seems that people around him consider the less than ten minutes he and Uma spend looking at the distant horizon side by side as something intimate and sacred, and at every dusk, someone will take over Harry's job for him. Just so their Captain and First Mate would have some moment together like it was some kind of reparation for Harry.
"She’s up there”
As one of crew telling him, Harry turned on his heel and found Uma standing in the stern, the tallest spot on the ship except for the watchtower. Her hair, a combination of all the colors of oceans, swayed in the sea breeze, and Harry touched the small velvet box in his inside pocket.
The dark blue ring case held a simple silver ring.
It was a engagement ring that would look beautiful on Uma's finger, a ring he had spent nearly half a day agonizing over at a jewelry store in a prosperous dwarven mining town five ports ago.
Harry isn't worrying that she might not feeling it yetーhe had asked her before if she wanted to get married someday. Uma had only frowned at him curiously, asked if he wanted to. He nodded deeply, and she, perhaps embarrassed, looked at her toes and muttered that she wanted the ring to be simple. That's why Harry chose this ringーand she must have noticed his fidgeting and restlessness whenever they were alone these days.
But Harry had learned the hard way over the past few months that it was all a matter of timing. The ring was in hand. Harry is ready for the moment, and the crew, sensing the situation from his appearance, is also waiting for it.
But when it comes down to it, Harry has no idea how to start the conversation.
Every evening as he stands here, he reaches into the inside pocket of his jacket and stops, as if shot by the depth of Uma's eyes as she looks back at him. As soon as Harry saw her standing there, he felt as if he could never quite match her. Her hair swung around her shoulders, the tails of her coat fluttered, and the yellow light from the setting sun framed her shape. It is similar to the time when he first saw her for the first time and felt as if she were a scene from another world.
"Harry?"
Uma called him. When he came back to himself at the sound of her voice, he found her looking at him with a confused look on her face.
"The sun is about to set, don't you watch?"
Over her shoulder, a slanting beam of light tints his vision red and then, with a flash of green, he sees the sun setting on the horizon.
Green Flash.
"......though it's sinking as we speak"
Uma mutters, looking up at the sky burning in the afterglow. The clouds that had captured the color of the setting sun were scattered and vanished, and the blue color was deepening with each passing moment. It's all the same with that flash of green, too fast to seize the moment.
"Uma,"
Harry licks his dry lips and opens his mouth. The green was still burned into the backs of his eyelids, overlapping lightly with the silhouette of Uma in the center of his vision. A pale blue-green. His fingers grabbed the ring case in his pocket, as if driven by the color that had been there at every milestone in his life...