THE PIER

WIND & FIRE

The wind whispered his name and she knew. She knew that he was here. She kept staring at the sea though. She sensed the burning in her body. She kept looking at the waves, as if they could extinguish the fire that was spreading with every step he took towards her. Her resolution was failing. Nonetheless she was here because she had wanted it. She had taken the decision to see him one more time. Her fingers pressed the wooden boards under her.

Can stopped when he saw her, at the end of the pier. Was he hallucinating in broad daylight now? The scent from last night still lingered in his mind. He contemplated the vision in front of him for some time. As the sailor is helplessly drawn to the mermaid, Can was helplessly drawn to Sanem. The wind pushed him in her direction, each step lasting an eternity. She looked the same and different. He noticed that her hair was longer, falling down in auburn waves along her back.

She had to face him. She had to look at him at least one last time. Her face shifted towards him, unable to deny the power his presence still had over her. She stared at his face for a long time, losing herself in his brown gaze. There, she saw surprise, uncertainty, pain spiralling together. She had trouble to contain the furnace that had taken over her panicking heart. He was the wind blowing on the embers of her love for him, reviving and feeding the fire within her.

Time stood still. None of them could move, frozen within that moment. The tempest and the pyre of feelings brought back to life at the mere sight of the other. The love between them would never die. However they both knew that love, as grand as theirs had been, sometimes was not enough.

Sanem felt her body shaking. She couldn't do it. She was not strong enough. She couldn't face the tornado his presence had brought. It was too much. She couldn't breathe.

She stood up in a brusque movement, avoiding his eyes at any cost. She went past him, praying that her legs wouldn't fail her.

"Sanem ..."

A soft breeze caressed her skin but she resisted. Another step forward.

"Sanem!"

She was fighting strong gusts that wouldn't allow her to leave the pier. Another step forward and she would be safe again onto solid ground.

"SANEM!"

His last call was her undoing, her feet refusing to move any further. She contemplated the green haven that stood only a pace away. She just needed one more step but her feet refused. She turned back towards the sea, towards him. She had nowhere to hide from the storm advancing onto her.

He was taking painstakingly slow steps. He didn't want to scare her. He didn't stand too close either, before coming to a halt. After a moment of hesitation, he lifted his arm up and reached for her wrist. Her hand felt limp against his warm touch. He didn't utter a word. She could only hear the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks. She could only hear the sound of her feelings crashing against the cold resolution of her mind.

She removed quickly her arm from the prison of his hand. She could feel on her skin the places where his fingers had touched her, as if they had branded his self onto her.

"Why did you come? Why are you here?"

She couldn't control the trembling that had taken over her body nor the tears pooling up. It took all that she had not to collapse on the wooden floor.

"You said you were leaving and you left."

The words were like knives in her flesh. But they had to be spoken.

"Go away. Go away again."

She could read the pain in his eyes but still she wouldn't spare him. Not this time. Not ever.

"I didn't know."

"About what?"

"About you ... That you are here."

"You didn't know."

She moistened her parched lips with her tongue and nodded. She sniffed, collecting herself, her tears dry from the flaring anger rising up within her body.

She took a deep breath, drilling her eyes deep into his gaze. He could see the flames dancing in her glare, burning to ashes what was left of him. She was showing him no mercy. He actually deserved none. Still, her words killed him a little bit more. The ache surprised him for he thought he was already dead ... He shouldn't feel anything any more.

"Then act like I'm not. Go back to where you came from."

She turned her back to him, an air of disgust on her face, heading again towards land. Before her feet could touch the ground, she heard his voice. Emotional but resolute.

"As Ohran Pamuk said, the best love is for someone you have never seen. Loving without seeing activates the other senses, physical appearance becomes unimportant. You remember the scents, the sounds, the tastes, the touches."

She gasped. He was quoting her notebook. He had read it. He had read it. She smiled. She had always carried the secret hope that, despite what had happened on that terrible day, he would have, at least, read what she had written about him. In the end the notebook was HIM.

"I fell in love without seeing you, by imagining your hands, your face with the hope that I will see you one day. Find me. See me. Be with me."

Can had hoped that she would face him after hearing him, hearing his confession but she didn't. She didn't leave either. She just stood still in the shade of a fig tree.

"I won't be here tomorrow."

He saw her head spinning slightly towards him, catching the breath of his words on her cheek. Her fingers clutched her skirt and she disappeared behind the bushes bordering the coast. Never to be seen again.

He sighed heavily. Everything was over. He walked back towards the end of the pier, at the exact spot where she had sat a few minutes earlier. He pressed his fingers against the boards, as if they could pass on to him the warmth of her being. But the wood was cold just as he was inside. After all you can't catch the fire ... You can't catch the wind either. He needed her heat to warm up his cold body, just as she needed his breath to maintain the flame in her heart.

Can bowed down his head, searching for relief in the blue shades of the water. A chiming noise took him out of his trance. It was coming from underneath the dock and he soon discovered a small bottle clinging against one of the pillars. Without a thought, he jumped into the water to get it.

Placing his finding on the ledge, he hoisted himself back onto the pier. Once in his hands, he noticed a bit a paper folded inside. Intrigued by his discovery, he opened the bottle and freed the message from its glass prison. He recognized the writing straight away. It was hers. He smiled. As he was caressing the paper, he took the decision to wait for another 24 hours before leaving. Just as fate had placed Sanem in his life, fate had meant for him to find this bottle. There was hope as his eyes read again and again the 3 words that would stop him from running away:

"C. Only him."