Blind Faith
Ever since she was so little she could barely moveinside her mother’s womb, remembered Joire. Joire was her twin, her exact likeness. Today however, Joire was gone, she couldnt find her.
Maera never believed her mother, what her mother said abou Joire being different. She figured she was just as different. Just her and her twin, two parts in a union that thought different from everyone else, did things differently, and now living differently.
For quite a few months now, Joire and Maera had lived on their small ship, drifting about in the pacific ocean, living off the rations they stored. Just he two of them. They watched the dolphins as they trailed the moving ship, caught fish, and watched the seagulls as they swooped low to gather scraps the twins tossed off the side of the ship in the evenings.
Joire was a birdlover, and the birds were drawn to her. She always had a few gulls she fed by hand. At one time she’d cared for a falcon, which had returned to her daily, though the bird wa long lost now. Maera loved birds as well but her passion was painting. She would sit on the deck of the ship, her feet dangling off the edge, mving her brush in wide sweeping strokes. When she was done, she would show it o Joire and then wash the egg tempera from the canvas board in the sea, hang it to dry, and think abou what she would paint the next day.
Maera sat on the deck, he brilliant vermillion of the setting sun on the water in bright, entrancing dances. Drawing her knees to her chest, she nearly fell asleep when she felt a tapping upon her shoulder.
"Maera, it’s me." She looked into her living reflection and smiled.
"Where have you been?" she asked in suprise.
"I had to leave for a few weeks, that’s all." Joire said and hugged her.
"Is it? I just worry so much , I’m afraid that.. I don’t know what I’m afraid of."
"Nohing, there’s nothing." Joire reassured
"But the shadows, I see shadows wandering he deck a night, not midless, but as if they have a purpose." Maera began pacing the wooden deck as I rocked ever so slightly.
"It’s the clouds on the moon, they cast strange shodows in this part of the Pacific."
I suppose so" Maera settled….. "How did you disappear, we’re in the middle of nowhere."
"I have my ways" Joire smiled
"Joire, with your ways, you could stop the world from turning." Maera laughed.
"perhaps" Joire agreed mildly.
They were finally reunited. It was evident they missed eachother by the wy they passed idle conversation as they ate from their storage. It drew towards the eve and the two settled to their small darkening cabin, lighting the latern. Maera sat crosslegged on her small cot, carefully running the tip of her penicl across a piece of parchment in wide circling movements. Joire idly braided Maera’s hair, humming a song under her breath.
"Where do you go, when you leave I mean?" Maera asked, Joire stopped humming a moment, her fingers still flying as she braided Maera’s long dark hair. She sighed and thought a bit.
"I look into something—" she didn’t go any further.
Maera shook her head as she continued to shade the texture of the parchment. "Things are getting darker." She muddled into a metaphor.
"They are… Like I could never let you know." Joire finished and tied her own hair back, being finished with Maera’s, and settled into her own bed. She looked over at her twin sister still studiously rubbing the charcoal for a reason only she knew.
"Perhaps it’s best you get to sleep too… we’re both tired."
"I don’t want to be awake when night falls." Maera said, nodding, putting away her things. She settled into her blankets and blew out the lamp.
"I know something’s up, something I don’t understand." Maera called quietly into the dark.
"There is, there is, but nothing for you to be concerned about… goodnight, my sister."
"Sleep well, sister" and with that slumber assailed them.
Maera tossed in her sleep, mumbling to her dreams when a chill stole over her. She opened her eyes and stred widely into the dark where her sister should have been. It was silent, the only sound was the rythmic lpping of the waves on the boat’s side. Her eyes adjusted and she found the cot empty. She whispered her sister’s name into the pitch; no reply came. She upright quickly, flustered, and looked at the door frame, lit ominously by the moon…. Then came a small spot of dark. It drifted slowly, quietly across the plank boards outside the door. She drew her knees to her chest, holding the blanket around her tightly. Stifling a scream, Maera could only whimper in rigid fear.
Maera? A soft telepathic voice rang in her head, almost lost in a wave of fear.
"O, my God.." Maera finally spoke. The shadow began to crawl into the cabin, slinking silently.
Maera the voice came again just close your eyes… it will go away.
Joire??
Close your eyes! The voice demanded. Maera did so, small sounds of fear rumbling in her chest to match the quick, syncopated beating of her heart. It seemed an ageless eternity before she felt her sister’s warm hand envelope hers.
Maera opened her tear-stung eyes, staring her sister in her lamp-lit face.
"What the absolute Hell is this?" maera nearly screamed as she pulled her hand away from Joire.
"Maera, please…" Joire turned away and strode outside. For a moment, Maera was still to afraid to move, but a better sense took over. She grabbed the lamp and followed her. Joire sat on the bow of the boat, looking up at the full moon, her feet dangling in the water. Maera looked up as well… no clouds graced the clear star pocked sky.
"I know… no clouds." Joire muttered, still looking upwards.
"I don’t understand what’s going on, but I’m scared, but—" Maera was cut off by sound, distnt t first, hollow like wind over a culvert, but the pitch grew steadily deeper. Up above a speck of drk glided through the midnight sky. Maera inhaled deeply, as if to scream, but her voice stopped. The phantasmic dark descended upon the pair quickly. Maera felt it’s warm weight upon her shoulders, ore like a welcome embrace than anything to fear. The shadow moved to Joire and seemed to envelope her small form. Joire patted the shadow affectionately and turned to Maera.
"This is the shadow… Shen, he has been trying to take me back for a long time now."
"Why did you te—take you back where?" Maera stuttered in bewilderment.
Joire held a face of sterness, casting the shadow away from her. She tried to explain but all she could do was weep. Maera embraced her, feeling her sister’s shoulders shake with sobs.
"What’s the matter?" Maera crooned.
"I have to tell you…" Joire said.
"I’m in no hurry. when you feel like it" Maera said sitting down by her. Shen resumed his place on Joire’s shoulder. She stroked the shadow quietly.
"I’m sorry Shen, I love you." She said, kissing Shen deeply. Maera now than ever felt the need for some explaination.
"It was a long time ago" Joire began, her head cocked to one side. "Before we were ever born. We lay nestled safely in the womb but safe was never a guarantee. When you were born, you came into the world kicking and screaming, but when I came I was silent."
Maera listened carefully, it not quite sinking in completely.
"I was born dead.. I never existed." Joire clarified, Maera’s eyes widened in disbelief.
"but you’re here with me… I mean, we grew up together."
‘I am… there’s no doubt of that, but I am only a spirit. When I lay alive, dying, I was so jealous that God had chosen you to survive, and me to be disontinued. Adamnant, I refused to pass on.’
"Then I’m really here alone, and I have always been alone.’ Maera finalized. Joire shook her head and knealt to her feet.
"No.. it’s not like that, never. I love you, Maera. I wanted to grow up with you, live with you. I know it can’t be forever, but I have always been here for you, with you. All a person is is a soul with a physical form."
"Where do you have to be?"
"I don’t know. Where ever I was supposed to be 23 years ago."
"Why didn’t you go then?"
"Because, I—we were meant to grow up together, and we did." Joire said and stood. Maera looked up at the sky, tears streaming freely from her face.
"Blind faith. Isn’t that the only guiding force we’ve ever had. It ws just faith that you, or I ever existed. That there is a heaven you’re supposed to be in instead of this mediochrity of the Earth. You need to be there." She pointed to the sky, Shen seemed to nod in agreement, cooing quietly. In the distance, they could hear the tinny whine of dolphins splashing about around the boat.
"I shall" Joire said and embraced her twin sister. Before Maera had time to react, Joire dove off the bow into the moonlit ocean. Maera gripped the edge, bending her head, calling her sister’s name.
"I want to say goodbye." She cried out, but her voice was lost in the clamourous sound of the the dolphins which circled joire. Maera dove into the water, into the throng of dolphins, still calling Joire’s name. A beam of ghostly light beat down from some point in the sky and Joire was lifted, her arms upraised, crying, the dolphins serenading her passing. clouds closed in, and thunder crashed loudly.
Maera woke to a spattering of rain on her forehead. She found herself floating on her back in the water, the daylight nearly blinding her. She looked all around her and saw nothing but the expanse of water. Her boat was gone and very near lay the heavy grey clouds of a fierce storm. Before she let panic set in she felt a cool firm entity fall into her hand as she swam. Then she heard a zipping whine and the dolphin set to guiding her. She wasn’t exactly sure where she was going, or if she would get there before the storm would toss her and drown her, all she knew is that by some divinity, all she needed was blind faith.
