vicissitude

She often visited the docks at night,when the noise of the sunlight was mutedby the softness of the sky, and the moontinted everything with a silver edge. She listened to the songs of the whales,their notes so achingly beautiful thatsometimes she cried with them, salty tearsthat the tides carried out into the depths. She dreamed of mermaids and their secret lives,far beyond the surface of the sea, entiresocieties free from the constraints andbanalities of life ruled by land. She longed to sing with the sea,to harmonize with the crash of the waves,the lament of the whales, and the secretlives of mermaids. She craved freedom. One night, when the sky was clear and amillion stars stood witness with their moon,she dove into the water, all caution to the wind.The sea welcomed her as it had silently promised it would. Her tears no longer fall, the whales call her by name,and she no longer dreams of mermaids beneath the waves. The tide rises and ebbs with the cycles of the moon,the whales sing their wistful songs; the midnight dockis empty, and the sailors swear that a girl withfiery hair and a golden tail sings sweet lullabiesas their boats rock them to sleep upon a sea richwith contentment and delectation; she is free at last.