Sea Salt Stories

Part 3

The love of my life was Hunter. He was a wild kid. Always up to treacherous activities: swimming in lagoons and climbing trees. He was always running, camping and just plain out enjoying life. He had reddish brown hair, freckles and an upturned nose with a wide reckless smile and the kindest most beautiful greenish eyes you had ever seen. He was also my best friend. And in a way he became my mentor, even if he is no longer here with us.

I can hear his voice, in small whispers, sometimes. Speaking from a distant, much cooler place than where we are today. I hear his voice at sunset and when I am close to the ocean. Maybe it is because that was his favorite place, or maybe it is because, now it is my favorite place.

I met Hunter when I was a kid because we were neighbors and our moms were best friends. And we were always playing together. When Hunter was not outside, he was in my house. His indoor time was with me. He always said that and he made me feel special. I was homeschooled, loved reading and writing, and riding horses. I was afraid of the ocean because I had nearly drowned when I was a toddler and so I always stayed far away from it and didn't go out much. I was also chronically shy, too sensitive and preferred to live in the world of dreams that deal with people. Except Hunter. Because I loved Hunter dearly.

Hunter was the opposite of me. He was not afraid of anything. He was the brave strong gladiator and I was the quiet archer, always shooting from a distant corner, half hidden in the shadows. I admired his bold attitude and his golden heart.

He also had a wild imagination and so did I, and that is where our worlds collided and my days became magical. My world became better when he came to play at my house. We conquered foreign lands, discovered unknown chemical compounds and vanquished aliens. We were king and queen of our own little worlds. And life was pretty good back then.

And as time passed, I became more interested in reading and writing, and sharing love stories with my online friends. And he..well he was the same. Skating and surfing and trekking. That was his life. We were no longer kids, and he went out to the world, you know. Looking for real adventures.

And he did have them. I would follow him and like all his stories online of skiing double black diamonds, surfing the wild waves and binging on sunsets. While I sipped coffee and wrote in my journal about silly little things. I was always eager to hear when he would return home from his trips, because he was as you know, living the nomad life. He would Facetime me from time to time. And my heart would constantly yearn for him for him to come home.

And when he did, it would be the best days. He would come and tell me all the wild stories and I would relive them all in my head. It was almost as if I had been there with him. He would give me the polaroid picture of his adventures and I would make cute fun scrap books with them. And also add pictures of us. Like the dire and hopeless romantic that I was I always thought that I would marry him someday, and that I would get to follow him on his adventures a little more closely. I would never surf on the water, but I would stay inside and read until he came home. And he constantly hinted that he did. My friends thought I was crazy. That we were just friends. But to their surprise and none to my own he did propose. He said that he did want to marry the weird girl who never left the house. He only gave me one condition to be his wife, he only gave me one condition. He only asked me one condition, that is when one of my novels became famous he was to get 30% of lifetime royalties. I agreed, joyed that I did have a soulmate, and in fact, he had chosen me.

And after he proposed, he left for his last adventure before it would be an adventure. I said goodbye to him at night because he came to dinner with his friends. I hugged him and took in his salty smell. I did not think of much that night as I hugged him goodbye.

I went to sleep because I was tired and did not think much about it. However, I was woken up by terrible crying from my living room. I was half awake, half asleep and I would hear hush voices, there were a lot of people in my living room. I heard my mom's voice and my dad's voice and Hunter's mother's voice. My life had been super calm until this terrible disaster.

I groggily went down stairs and when everyone saw me on the top stairs all eyes turned on me. An immediate hush befell the entire room, and it dawned on me that Hunter would not be coming back. I fainted. And even when I would wake up I would desire to continue to sleep... oh to be an endless sleeper, a sleeping beauty and be awakened by the kiss of my lover.