There once was a young woman with a broken heart.  Day after day she would walk up and down a lonely beach near her family's home.  She never met anyone during her walk until one day, while scanning the sea for ships, she saw a young man seemingly walk straight out of the thrashing waves.  Not used to seeing people on her lonely beach, she quickly turned away and left for home.  The next day as she walked the beach, she was curious to see the same young man on a rock surrounded by the incoming tide.  She asked him if he needed help and he replied, "I have seen you walk this beach many times.  You always look so unhappy so I have come to make you laugh."  The young man was true to his word and he would tell the woman funny stories about silly people, jesters, and fools.  These stories made her laugh and feel less foolish in comparison and she began to look forward to her time on the beach with this young man from the sea. 

One day, after a few months of stories and laughter, the woman was delayed in getting to the beach for her daily walk.  When she arrived the young man was agitated and demanded to know where she had been and who she had been with.  This was a side to the man she had never seen before and she was confused and anxious about his sudden show of irritation.  She stuttered, telling him she was finishing up an errand for her mother who was ill.  He stared at her for a long time as if deciding whether to believe her, then he took a deep breath and sternly told her to be more thoughtful to him next time and plan her time more wisely.   The young woman was put off balance by the scolding and stepped back trying to make sense of what had just happened.  Seeing this, the man from the sea stepped forward and took her arm by the wrist, softened his features and quieted his voice. "Don't you know by now how much I need you? I was worried. If I go without seeing you for even one day I surely will die."  The rest of their time was soon filled with funny stories and the young woman forgot the intensity of earlier.  Before she left for home that evening the young man from the sea put his hand gently to her cheek and said very seriously, "Remember what I said earlier - I need you."  He kissed her tenderly, in a way she had only known once before. On her way home she wondered whether she'd found someone to love. 

From that day on the young couple met every day and the woman was never late.  She began to imagine the possibility of a future with this man, and began to look at him in this light.  He made her laugh as she had not laughed in so long. He said he needed her.  He said he loved her.  One day the man of the sea took the young woman by the hand and walked her into the surf.  The woman was frightened but calmed herself knowing that she was a strong swimmer and if needed, she could easily swim back to the shore.  The young man was at home in the sea and would dive deep beneath the ocean where the woman could not go for lack of air.  She would wait patiently for him to return and he always would.  For a short while after, he would take her back to shore once in a while so she could gather things from her home or visit with her family.  Later, he would no longer travel with her to shore but tethered her around the waist, explaining that it was so she would always be able to find her way back to him.  He reminded her how important she was to him.  Days past and the young woman began to notice that the tether she was tied to became shorter and shorter until she was barely able to reach the beach yet alone walk the distance to her family's home.  The young man said it was right because the sea was her home now and it was time for them to start their own family.  The woman also noticed that the times the man dove beneath the ocean and remained away became increasingly longer until one day he chose to no longer join her at the surface.  He would still come home from the deep each day and she would see the waves toss about her as he moved near.  She could feel him move beneath her feet and his body would push against hers like a large circling sea mammal.  Sometimes he would tug at the heel of her foot and she would be dragged a bit further out to sea.

One day as she was preparing for his return, the waves rose up suddenly and without warning she was grabbed by her foot and violently pulled deep beneath the water.  She was terrified and her arms thrashed wildly as she tried to return to the surface. Her lungs burned and she felt that she would drown, but then, as quick as she was pulled under, she was taken by the waist and shoved straight up to the surface.  As she gasped to fill her aching lungs, she saw her man from the sea laughing at her.  He removed his hand from her side as she coughed. "You scared me...I couldn't breathe..."  His face changed, his eyes darkened, "It was just a joke!"  he scolded, "What a fool you are! I wasn't going to hurt you!"  She had difficulty sleeping that night, and when she did fall asleep she had a nightmare about her mouth being sewn shut. She awoke gasping for air.

The next morning she told the man that she wanted  to swim to shore to see her sister. The man was cheerful and said, 'no, problem, love, you can go as far as the shore." Then he lowered his voice, "..but don't be a fool and tell her stories about yesterday..." He tugged at the same heel he had used to pull her under, and her heart stopped as her body relived the moment of terror when she was pulled beneath the surf.  "Have a good time." His voice returned to normal, "I love you."

The young woman swam slowly to shore. Her head was spinning - did I over-react?  It was probably just a bad joke.  He's letting me see my family.  He said he loved me... She could feel her tether tighten as she reached the beach.  Her sister had been waiting for her and looked concerned when she saw the dark circles under the woman's eyes from lack of sleep.  "Are you all right? You don't look well."   They held hands as they walked the shoreline and the woman confided in her sister about what had happened and her confusion.  Her sister said that it was clear she should come home, that she was not a creature of the sea and belonged where the earth was firmly under her feet.  But the sister's words were lost in the sound of the waves crashing against the near by rocks and the woman felt the tether pull.  She knew it was time to go back to the man in the sea, and she begged her sister, "...perhaps you will come and live with me?"  "No," her sister replied, "I will not leave the land, nor will I stand helpless on the shore and watch you be pulled under.  However, when the day comes...," her sister looked deep into the woman's eyes, "... when you are ready, come home and I will be here for you."   The woman confused about the sister's statement, hugged her good-bye and returned to the man in the sea.  

After that visit, the young woman did not return to the shore for a long time.  She spent her days treading water and trying to understand the new life she lived at sea.  She also spent a lot of energy trying to recover from the young man's "jokes".  He would now routinely pull her under the sea and although it happened so often, it seemed she was never able to prepare herself for the shock. Each day she practiced holding her breath longer so she wouldn't feel as if she was drowning when pulled so far under, but the man from the sea would seem to note the level of her desperation and, if it eased up, would simply hold her under longer.  She slept very little because of nightmares and soon each day just bled into another. Some were good days, dependent upon the whims of the man from the sea, most were bad.  The woman took solace in menial tasks and the every day routines became a place of peace and meaning to her.  She worked during the day to assure that the man from the sea was content hoping this would somehow soften his actions.  It never did - but each day she hoped things would change. At night she laid awake, her weary mind searching for how to make sense of it all.  She felt alone for she saw no one else like her in the sea.  No one to understand.      

Only after her children arrived did her life take on new meaning.  She loved them and they were precious to her. Now her days were spent caring and teaching her children about what she knew of the sea.  When the young man would arrive at home, she would hold them above their head so they would not be splashed by the announcing waves.  Other times she would sing them to sleep and let them drift out a bit beyond the roughest waters.  

One day, when the children had refused to drift to sleep, the man from the sea arrived home amidst a fury of waves.  Before the woman could turn the children's eyes, she was pulled violently under the water.  When she was returned, as she gasped for air, her eyes raced frantically above the surface looking for her children.  She caught their eyes and her heart faltered as she saw them sobbing, terrified, desperately reaching out for her.  Before she could reach them, the man from the sea surfaced between them causing a wave to lift them away from her outstretched arms.  He turned on the children, scolding them for making such a scene.  He turned back to the woman, angry, "This is your fault. Stop crying! You are upsetting them!"  She closed her eyes tight and used every ounce of energy she had to focus past her fear for her children in order to compose herself, "I'm sorry,"  she said to the man, "I will try to not cry next time."  His glare softened and he said, "Good, now go take care of the children."  Never in her life had the woman been more grateful for someones permission.  She swam to her babes and comforted them.

Months passed and the children grew under their mother's careful watch. They found their own routines and ways to maneuver the rougher waves. Still the man from the sea would play his games and the woman and the children would do their best to endure.  One evening, after the children had fallen asleep, the woman recognized a turbulence on the surface.  Instinctively, she prepared herself by taking a deep breath.  Within seconds she was pulled under, but something was different this time.  She felt a sharp pain from her calve, but her mind quickly moved to her aching lungs.  When she was returned to the surface and breathing again, she relaxed to think her children were asleep and had not seen the incident.  She felt a stinging and remembered the pain.  When she examined her leg she saw that she had been bitten and that the blood was swirling beneath her into the water below.  She showed the man from the sea and he was annoyed, "You are so clumsy, you must have hit it against a rock."  She asked if she could go to shore and have it attended to but the young man refused saying it was nothing and would heal on its own.

The wound did not heal, and as the days continued, more wounds appeared.  The woman became weaker from loss of blood and she found it hard to carry on the routines needed to secure her children.  She cried every night instead of sleep. One morning she awoke to find a dove nestled on her shoulder.  It's feathers were soft and comforting, it's heart beat clear and strong.  The dove turned it's eyes upon hers and asked, "Are you ready?"  The woman immediately remembered the words her sister had said last time they had met.  "What do you mean by ready?" she asked.  The dove repeated, "Are you ready?"  The woman paused, her mind raced, her tether pulled tight at her waist.  She heard her children awake and turned to begin her daily routines.  The dove flew away.

One month later, the afternoon was calm and the children played. The woman was quietly bandaging her wounds.  She had become accustomed to the pain in her legs and often wondered if she would be able to walk on them still should she ever return to the shore.  She remembered her home and her family, the little beach, the warm sand beneath her feet. So immersed in her thoughts the woman had not noticed the large waves moving in until she heard her child scream.  Before she could respond, she felt the pain and was pulled underneath.   Then she saw, under the water, the most horrifying thing of all -  the terrified faces of her children who had also been pulled under, struggling, drowning.  NO! She forgot her own collapsing lungs and frantically kicked her feet and arms trying to reach them.  Nothing else mattered.  They were drowning before her eyes!  She had to reach them!  Suddenly there was a mass of bubbles and current and her head snapped back as her body was thrust upwards.  Her children were coughing water from their lungs when she surfaced. They all grabbed and held tight to each other.  The children shivered and did not loosen their grip until well after they had fallen into a turbulent sleep.  The woman did not dare leave their side not even to assume the nightly routines.  She did not sleep.  She could no longer cry.  She wondered whether even death would be better than this life at sea...and then, for the first time, she knew.  She raised her eyes to the sky.   She sought the dove.  "I'm ready."  whispered the woman, "I'm ready."

The next morning, when the man of the sea dove into the deep, the woman took her children and swam to shore.  Her sister was waiting for her when she arrived.  The tether around her waist was so tight she could hardly breathe and she immediately began to shred and tear it from her.  Her sister found some sharp rocks on the beach and handed one to her as she joined to quicken the process.  When the tether finally snapped off, the woman took a full, deep, breath unlike any she had taken since the day she first walked into the surf.  For a brief moment she felt free, but before she could exhale, she heard screaming, "Help, Momma, help!"  When she looked up, she saw her children being dragged by their own tethers back out to sea.  "NO!"  The woman shouted.  She ran to them and grabbed them by the arms, but the tethers were strong and the sea pulled hard.  She would not let go.  She struggled with all her will and might to free the children, but she alone was not strong enough and they were now all three being dragged back out to sea.  Then, the woman saw her sister grab one of the children's tethers.  "HELP!" she heard her sister call out.  Yes! Yes! For the first time the woman saw that there were people on the beach with them.  "HELP ME!  HELP MY CHILDREN!"  the woman cried out at the top of her lungs.  People came running from all directions.  Good people who cared about her children, and who cared about her.  They grabbed the children's tethers.  Some pulled against the sea while others ripped and tore at the fibers until the tethers snapped wildly, free from their restraint and disappeared into the raging surf.  The woman and her children held on to each other unable to comprehend that they had truly been freed. The good people of the beach did not leave them until they were able to stand on their own.  The woman returned to her family and they took her and her children in with open arms.  From then on, she and her children would spend their days learning what it meant to be free, to be safe, and what it meant to be truly loved.