Inevitability

She looked across the choppy waves, feeling her mind begin to undulate slightly with the incessant in-out motion of the water. The invitation was clear: jump in. The waves sighed at her resistance. Breathing? There is no need for breathing. We are all the breath you need.

High above, a sea bird circled and cried its impatience and acceptance.

Her mind moved in rhythm with the dark churning waves. She began to feel spiny sea creatures moving slowly within her, along with smooth-sided cetaceans and the gills of millions upon millions of fish, each opening and closing like the petals of a flower. She longed to be a part of that flower, simply existing in millionfold duplicate, silvery with scales and glittering with anticipation. She felt her body lean forward with the wanting. The water, the air — they were the same. Her neck would grow gills under those dark waves. Her feet would melt to one another in tandem. Her slippery body would greet the dark depths. Her mind would expand into the nothingness of being.

Across the water, a light. A fishing boat, headed for home. A warm dinner. Dry clothes.

She sighed, aware of the parting between her thighs. No silvery scales stretched across her hips. The dark waves beckoned. She leaned still further.

Cold, cold, down, down, a weight, floating. Stillness.

The light from above dimmed, feathery, cold. The depths grew dark shapes that bumped against her sides and arms. The world expanded, supernovas became black holes, sudden brightness into peaceful dark. Swimming, reaching, breathing the life-giving dark ocean.