AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Forty
In the end…
Malakai
Dear Little Siren,
On our 35thwedding anniversary, I write these words with a heart full of endless love whilst you sleep peacefully beside me in the home you grew up in, on the same island we met and fell in love.
You, Connie, have been my joy. My beacon in the darkest of nights and my reason for living. There hasn’t been one day that’s passed where I’ve longed for anything other than you. You’ve brought me happiness, a family, a home. You’ve given me a life that I never ever believed I deserved.
Together we’ve brought up our three children who have basked in our happiness. Together we’ve shown them what it means to be utterly devoted to each other, to them. Now they have families of their own and have sailed away to find their own place in the world. I’m so proud of our children, of our two boys and our girl. My heart is so damn full, Little Siren. So full that sometimes I have to pinch myself in case this has all been a dream.
I never told you this, but a few days after we returned to the island from Grace Bay Beach, Ma Silva took me for a walk along Broken Shores. It was the first time she stood on the sand for over thirty years. We talked about you, Connie, and she asked me to look after your heart. She asked me to protect you, to love you. Even though I’d already committed myself to you, I still held some fear back then, but I won’t ever forget what Ma Silva had said to me that day. She’d held my hand and looked out to the ocean and said, “Maybe this time her love for you will be strong enough to survive whatever fate has in store, and if it isn’t, then at least you’ll find happiness however brief that might be. We have to take joy where we can get it.”
She was right.
Before I met you my days were dark, haunted by painful memories of all the terrible things I’d done. I will never get away from them, but together we’ve learnt to live in the moment. To live every day to the fullest. We’ve laughed, we’ve fucked and fought, but never once have we stopped loving each other. We have the curse to thank for that, and I for one am grateful because without it, we might never have had the courage to live every day as though it might be our last.
I guess the only thing left to say is this: I may be the ocean, Little Siren, but you, you are the moon and I will forever be pulled inexplicably towards you by this invisible force called love.
I love you.
Forever yours,
Malakai.
THE END
