Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
Even now, when it is too late, I was unsure why I had come. Unsure which of my realities would dominate in this place of magical beauty and persistent nightmare. Beauty is a magnet but this, here, may come with too heavy a price. The ghosts from the past are surfacing.
Only if I hear their call. Listen to the sea, listen to the sea, listen. Feel the sand, hot, abrasive slipping in between sandal straps, feel my clothes sticking in the hot humid air. Eyes shut I listen to the sea calling me to the present. Eyes shut I hear the sea, smell the sea, let the rhythm of the waves sooth me, relax me and am comforted.
Eyes now open the magic of this alien place enchants me. My eyes trace the edges where the rocks have been shaped to enchant and the circling emerald sea …. Stay in the moment, focus on the now. Eyes shut again I listen to the sea but the waves are not loud enough to block my imagination. The smell of the sea has changed bringing memories of other times, other smells. Look at the rocks, high round beautiful rocks plunging into… stop do not go there! Focus on the plants The rocks sprout trees, trees like I had never seen, beautiful or sinister I can’t decide. In the shadows the green of the sea turns dark, dense and frightening.
Look up. Look at the sky, clear, clear blue, soothing blue peaceful blue. Gradually I return to the present and feel my reality. I walk to the tideline watching the waves break in the shallows. Look at the seaweed, the shells and the tidal debris. I bend and pick a fragment from the tangle. Once this was crisp, new and in someone’s hand. Now, now it is the ghost of my friend, this tattered piece of five dollar note, here on a beach in Halong Bay. Trapped, she drowned in her sleep as the boat sank quietly beneath the waves. Trapped, but debris floats only to be trapped again. I no longer see anything but the suffocation of her drowning.