Normandy was an hour train ride away, but once she saw the chalk colored cliffs from outside the window, she knew that it was worth it. This place, once scarred and decimated, was now serene, and people lounged on the sand and played freely in the water as if no war and death had ever taken place. When she got off at the seaside station, she heard the gentle rumble and the lapping of ocean waves, and she felt a sense of liberation- no, of forgiveness.
Didn't they mean the same thing? She thought to herself, as she made her way to the shore, shoes in hand. The sand was warm and plush beneath her feet, and the tide grew nearer, making contact at last.
There was a small amount of fear, but she pushed it aside, placed her shoes down, and ran into the sea. Ran until the water reached her waist, then fell back and floated until the fear turned into a deep calmness. She thought about all the lazy Sundays spent like this, how he would hold her hand so that he did not float away from him, how that was the last thing he had ever done.
The levee in her burst, and she cried silent tears that had been welled up for years out of fear that once they came, they would not stop.
"I miss you, I'm not angry anymore." she said, and she did not know whether she was talking to her father or the sea.
YOU ARE READING
A Voir Sans
Romance"There was a sense of wonder at the life all around her, but there was something keeping Olivia from joining in...something stirred in her then; an intense urge to be present. To exist in only one moment, to hold onto it, before it passes and eludes...
