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I am drowning.
I remember getting in the water. Swimming alongside the shore, trying to clear my mind. The sea always helped me think when I was lost in my life. So I went to the beach, throwing myself in the water in hopes of unwinding the knots in my head.
I remember the wall of cold water rushing into my nose and ears, a wave that I wasn’t expecting. It throws me back, my head going underwater. I remember drowning. The edges of my vision going black, the unbearable pain in my lungs. The dark waters all around me, keeping me trapped inside the cold cage. I remember the feeling of disorientation, not knowing which way is up. Not knowing where my legs or arms are. Just tumbling over and over, riptides pulling me deeper and deeper into the ocean.
I remember panicking.
But I can remember nothing after that. Just waking up on the shore and sand and the sun beating down on my painful skin. I’m cold from the water but burning up at the same time.
“Why would you get into the ocean if you don’t know how to swim?”
A voice, somewhere far away. I am pulled back into consciousness slowly, blinking away the salt from my eyes. Looking up, I quickly find the gaze of a man with piercing eyes and long dark hair.
He looks like a merman, I think to myself all of a sudden. In the sun, his hair seems to be a very dark shade of blue, reaching down to around the middle of his back. He has a light beard in a similar shade. Surprisingly, he’s not wearing a shirt, exposing chiseled tan muscles across his chest and arms and abdomen. And on the lower half of his body is just simple, tattered pants. Did he wash up from shore? That’s silly, but it certainly looks like he did.
The question he asked me finally reaches my sluggish mind. “I know how to swim.”
“Do you?”
“Yes,” I insist.
“You were drowning.”
The man looks intimidating somehow, even though he isn’t outwardly threatening me. I don’t feel like I’m in danger, but I feel rather… uncertain. I can’t pinpoint it.
“Did you save me?” I ask.
The strange but handsome man shrugs. “I merely stopped you from being dragged under the waves. Whether or not I saved you is subjective.”
I narrow my eyes. He has such a difficult-to-place accent. His voice, deep and soft at the same time, sounds weirdly like waves crashing against each other. “Who are you?”
“You haven’t guessed?” he asks with a smirk.
I have a suspicion, but it’s a wild, crazy idea. Too fanciful to even say out loud. So I turn it around on him again. “Enlighten me. Who are you?”
His smug smile widens. Sharpens just a little bit, as he confidently declares, “I am Poseidon, god of the sea and ruler of the oceans. Now, tell me, curious pearl, why you were so far out from shore.”
Am I curious pearl? Is that what he just referred to me as? Trying to ignore that so that I don’t offend Poseidon— if that’s who he really is— I answer, “Swimming helps me think. I guess I was just less careful than I normally am.”
With that, I realize just exactly the state I’m in. Laying in the sand with ripped clothes that were already scandalously short and thin from the beginning. I leap to my feet, trying to cover myself as best as I can. My face begins to heat up as I realize I’m in a tight swimming suit in front of a man who I’ve never met before. A man whose eyes are suspiciously sparkling with amusement.
If he really is Poseidon, he could kill me if I make one wrong move. If he’s not, then he’s a crazy man who believes himself an immortal god. Normally, I would believe the latter. A sensible person should believe the latter. But… something about him is just so… Poseidon-like. And mysterious. And intriguing.
“Do you normally save people who are drowning in the ocean?” I ask, unable to stop myself. “I mean, a lot of people drown, right?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Are you complaining?”
“No!” I exclaim. “No. I, uh, thank you. For saving me. I appreciate it.”
He tilts his head and tosses me an easy, warm smile. My heart literally flutters in my chest. Oh no.
“Don’t mention it. But, no, I don’t normally make it a habit of saving drowning mortals. I was in the area,” he explains, shrugging, “and I found you intriguing, Y/N.”
I open my mouth to answer, but something makes me stop. My name. I never told him my name. I’m sure I didn’t. “How did you…?”
Poseidon laughs, like the sound of ripples in a pool of water. “I’ve watched you for a while, my pearl. You swim so often, how could I not?”
His pearl. I shouldn’t be falling so easily. He’s just a strange man who has sparkly eyes and a knowing smile… and saved me. “Oh. Well—”
“And I tend to take notice when someone loves the sea as you do,” he continues, looking out towards the horizon with a contemplative expression on his face. “After all, I am the sea.”
I hesitate. What am I even supposed to say to that? If I agree and say I love the sea, wouldn’t that be implying I love him? Or something? And if I say I don’t love the sea, would that offend him? Would that make him send a tsunami my way just to shut me up forever?
Standing there like a fish out of water, I just stare at him. Unable to react at all.
Poseidon laughs again. I think it’s the best laugh I’ve ever heard. “Relax, my pearl.”
“I’m… relaxed.” I shake my head. “Just a little confused. You’re saying you’ve been watching me everytime I come to swim?”
“Mm,” he confirms.
A short but awkward silence falls between us. “Why?”
“I found you curious,” he says. “And, like I said, your love for the sea is strong. I couldn’t ignore that.”
I cross my arms in front of me. He’s talking like he’s known me forever. And… if he’s really Poseidon… hasn’t he? Haven’t I been introducing myself to him every time I’d spend hours wading in the waves trying to work through my thoughts? If he’s really the sea…
“Okay.” For the first time, I return his smile. It feels natural. “Poseidon.”
Poseidon takes a large step towards me. When he holds out his hand, I don’t hesitate in placing my palm in his. He lifts my knuckles to his lips, like a true gentleman. My hand, I can’t help noticing, comes back wet. “I will see you again soon, my pearl.”
I laugh nervously. The thought of him watching me, now that I know, is intimidating to say the least. “I think after that almost-drowning incident, I’ll have to take a break from swimming.”
Poseidon smiles confidently. “You cannot stay away from me for so long.”
I frown. He’s intriguing, sure, but… “I just met you, Poseidon.”
He grins. “Ah, but you’ve known the ocean for years. And you cannot resist the call of the sea.”
“Your call, you mean?” I ask. If he’s the sea, any call that the sea is making is really him making the call.
He bows his head in agreement. His strangely watery hair falls over his shoulders. “Naturally.”
Before I can stop myself, before I can even think about what I’m asking, I mumble, “Will you call?”
“I will call.” Poseidon’s eyes sparkle dangerously. “The sea cannot resist its pearl.”
“Its pearl?” I repeat. He clearly has taken a liking to calling me a pearl.
Poseidon cocks his head, silently thinking for a moment. “I may have something for you.”
“Really? What?” I ask, internally wincing at how eager I sound.
Poseidon leans down, dipping a hand into the edge of a wave as it approaches. It seems so natural, so easy for him, as he plucks something out of the water. I can’t make out what it is until he holds his hand out, palm up. Resting in that large palm is a little piece of jewelry, far too familiar.
My old pearl bracelet, one that I had accidentally lost in the sea years ago. I pick it up, eyes widening. “How…?”
“I kept it safe for you,” Poseidon says, weirdly gentle, as if he’s trying to gain some type of approval for having kept the bracelet for so long.
“Wow. I… um… wow. I thought I’d never see it again.”
“It’s yours,” he says, as if it isn’t obvious. Looking up into his face, I can easily read the look in his eyes, one that I know far too well. It’s the same feeling I get when I’m looking at the ocean and feel it calling to me, tempting me with its open distance and cool breeze. Sometimes I feel like the ocean is pleading, begging me to dive in.
Oh, how I do love the sea. And if the sea is Poseidon, well then maybe I love him too. Maybe.
Before the look in his soft, pleading eyes becomes too much to bear, I look back down into the bracelet still resting in his palm. “Keep it.”
“What? Why?”
I smile. “You’ve kept it safe this long, haven’t you? I’d probably lose it again. And anyways, didn’t you say the sea loved his pearl?”
Poseidon snorts. “Not exactly what I said, but… yes. He does.”
Trying not to think too hard about what he’s saying, I reply, “Then keep your pearls. I insist.”
“Alright.” And I have to take a step back from the sudden shiver that runs up my spine. I’ve never met him before. Why am I… why are we talking like this to each other? It feels like I’ve known him forever, and in a way I guess I have but… I shake off the feeling. Something to think about another day.
“Well, I should go,” I say. “I have stuff and, uh, you have probably more important stuff. Being the king of the sea and all. So… yeah.”
Poseidon’s gaze is soft and tender. “Yes. I’m sure. Thank you.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you. You saved my life.”
Poseidon rolls his eyes. “I have a reputation to uphold. Don’t go telling people that I saved a mortal’s life.”
I shake my head, giggling like a foolish little girl. “Of course not. Don’t worry.”
“I won’t.” He hesitates, looking for a moment like he wants to say something more, but the moment passes and he shakes his head with a small smile. “Like I said, I’ll call you soon.”
“How?”
He shrugs. “The same way I always do.”
I frown. The only way I know is those moments when I feel a sudden urge to get some air, to run to the ocean and swim my worries away. Is that him? Is that him calling to me? Of course it is. “Okay. Then I’ll come when you call. Like I always do.”
“I know.” Then to my pleasant surprise and heart-stopping shock, Poseidon lifts a hand to the back of my neck, fingers slipping into my hair, and he presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Until the tide brings us together again. My pearl.”
“Until then. My sea.”
Poseidon lets out a satisfied hum deep in his throat, then turns and begins his descent into the sea. It happens quickly. One moment he’s a man made of flesh and bone, the next he’s melting into the sea as if he’s purely water himself. His hair drips down, his skin turns clear and disappears among the waves, and in less than three seconds he’s gone. Back to the sea. Back to his true form.
With one final look at the swirling depths, I turn and head back home, fantasizing about the day Poseidon will call to me again.