The Lighthouse Keeper's Boy

This week's story!  Happy Reading!

The first roar of the waves woke little Caspian up from his heavy sleep. He turned in bed as he mumbled a good morning to the open window. Tip-toeing to the panes he looked down and felt the tingle in his feet like always at the sight of the salty waves crashing onto their lighthouse. He took in the damp, moisture laden scent and gazed at the seagulls flying about on the harbor out west. Caspian was the light house keeper’s boy and lived his entire life with the taste of salt on his tongue and the lullaby of the angry waves. Years were rolling in his childhood and all that he was expected to know about life till now was primarily three things. The earth was round and covered with water that never dripped into space; light at night was the beacon for the ships out there; and that every man’s call of duty was the path to heaven. Need I say more? Caspian was an innocent boy with discipline hammered into him through the form of the bible.

            That day like always he got up just before the sun’s ray hit the shore and climbed up the stairs with his dad to the watch. While he turned off the brilliant yellow light from the lens, Caspian leaned over the balcony, letting his checked shirt billow in the air. He made squawking noises with the birds at sea and laughed merrily.

“I want to be a seagull papa! Fly over the ocean and touch the end of the horizon”

 Looking at him, his dad chuckled as he tied a backup knot onto the door to shut it tight.

“Oh I wouldn’t do that if I were you Caspian! You know what’s out there in the sea…”

“Yes! Atlantis, sunken ships, treasure, mermaids!”

 His dad frowned with the wildly growing imagination of his son. His mother had filled his head with bedtime stories of adventures before the sea took her life one day. Caspian seemed to remember her only with her narrations and he just couldn’t take that one thing away, even if it was absurd. He sighed as he paused by the stairs.

“You do remind me a lot of your mother, Son. But no, out there in the deep waters are sharks, strong currents that’ll never wash you to the shore.” His dad left in a hurry to make them breakfast and to avoid the same question he’d ask- Where did mama go?

            After breakfast that day, Caspian climbed over the rocks and waded in the pool of water that didn’t make it back to the sea. He picked up a sea crab from one pond and left it crawling towards another pond. He wished he could just walk into the sea like the crab and live there forever. The water was everything for him; he just never really understood why he was born as a boy. He smiled with his hands pressed to his cheek and sighed happily when the crab reached its water. That’s when something glimmered past the rocks. He could see the reflections of the water moving rapidly on the algae tinted rocks. He dropped his straw hat and pouch of collected shells as he quickly scampered over the rocks. Right when he was about to look below, a pair of sea green fins slashed up at him and sent him smack into the water beneath.


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