Maelstrom: A Short Story

Maelstrom: A powerful whirlpool in the sea or the river. (Wikipedia)

Whirlpool: A quickly rotating mass of water in a river or a sea into which objects may be drawn, typically caused by the meeting of conflicting currents. (Oxford Dictionary)

He never thought it would come to this.

The sea was dark blue. The sun was bright orange. The sky was clear. The clouds were beautifully collected above him.

Nothing to his right.

Nothing to his left.

Nothing behind.

NOTHINGNESS is in front of him as his eyes faced the impending doom, welcoming him aboard .

A monstrous whirlpool. Magnificent in its width and depth. Enormously amazing if you see it from atop, immensely devastating to whoever is witnessing and experiencing it. Mankind has never seen such great and grave force of nature. Mankind in all of its fallen civilisations has never beheld such dangerous and yet magical power.

But he saw it.. He is beholding it..

He was not naïve enough to call for help, certainly not for a human-like creature’s one. Who would help him; if ever there was anybody to help him in the first place? Maybe ask for God’s help? Why, he thought, would God put me in such abandoned position? He never suspected his faith, only doubted his sometimes unanswered requests and questions in his already passing lifetime. He concluded, rather quickly, that God would not have put him in this abandoned position unless there is something larger than what he had expected; even if it required his mortality. He firmly believed that. He had to.

He was not naïve enough to depend upon his swimming skills either, expert as they may be, but relatively helpless in his dire situation. His legs, arms and body gave in to the sucking force of the whirlpool. He had no control over them. He had no command over his physical body. He figured it was a fair trade from the sea. A bargain even. The sea only took away his fading body and left him with two main and everlasting instruments; his mind and soul. People can live without external limbs. People can go on with their lives without the need of mortal entities. It is their hearts. It is their minds. It is them that could carry on people’s legacy forever.

“Mother,” he cried out loud to no response but the sound of the rustling water surrounding him. Tears dropping down his face, not being able to identify them from the already salty water embracing him. “Please forgive me for not saying goodbye to you,” he mumbled and spewed the words while some water entered his mouth. They say that when people are on their deathbeds, they often think of their mothers who bore them. He was not different. In the past couple of years he has had a rife relationship with his family; his mother in particular. As he was going into this unspeakable black hole, he imagined; what if I did not do what I did to her? She did not deserve it.  He guessed it was too late for him to connect with her again. Maybe on the other side he might. He only wished.

He could not fathom the idea of being distant from his life and arriving into another one. Change is inevitable perhaps, he assumed. But that is not change. That is something else, something inexplicable and daunting to even think about.

As he commanded his mind, his body was in another place. Cold and damp. His shirt was glued to his skin as if they were one. His shoes, which he already took off to give himself less water resistance, were floating beside him as if they were telling him “Hey, at least it is not smelly here.” His already tired legs were struggling to keep his head above the water. It soon will be under. Very soon.

As his life will shortly be changing, the weather caught up with him. The sky is now growing darker as clouds are narrowing closer above him, bright colours playing through them. Lightning he believed. He is now closer to the center of the whirlpool. He can see it. He can see through the sea as if it is parted down the middle. It was a live model of a big vortex. As he is now within the force field of the whirlpool, he found himself going in circles. Obviously he couldn’t fully use his muscles to fight it. It was stronger than him. He ultimately gave in to it and realized that he has to accept his fate.

The whirlpool’s radius was large as it grew in size, taking all the water surrounding it and pouring it down into the abyss. He was still midway between the farthest point of the whirlpool and its center. He still had time. He still had time.

Thunderstorms began to crush the sky, sounding electrified fear into his heart. He usually was not afraid of them, looking at them from his room’s window at his family home. When he looked at them when he was a kid, he was amazed by their beauty. He was astonished by their presence. His mother used to come to his bedside trying to comfort and ease him, only to be surprised to see him refusing her hug. Not because he hated it, on the contrary, but he wanted to watch the thunder glow and liven up the sky. He loved it. His mother would smile and join him, never leaving his side.

Black rain started to drop on his face. He can clearly see into the sea now. He thought of it as a portal that is going to take him into another dimension. A more beautiful one. A more hopeful one.

He started to descend gracefully into the void. His head is facing upwards to the gloomy sky. Maybe he was praying to God, but most definitely he was trying to breathe in a lungful of air to aid him into the abyss. The sea is a harsh mistress, he thought. He had to be prepared.

He felt relaxed while he was going under. This way, he assumed, his fall would be easy and without pain. “It is only water,” he thought to himself.

The maelstrom’s magnificence finally pulled him in to its embrace. He was still looking upwards towards the surface, only now to say his goodbyes to the world he left behind.

His mind and soul gave in too. However, they did not wither as his body did. They only were transported into the other unworldly life while he was falling away graciously into his blissful demise.

“To her, the one and only. Mother.

 I promise when I see you, first I will smile to you a most recognizable smile that you would instantly know it is me. Then I would run at you as if I am haunted by a demon, only to be rescued by your sweet and shielding embrace. We would look at each other. I would be lost in your warm eyes, trying to hold on to you for dear life. I would never think of what happened between us. I would only think of this moment in which I can live forever and ever.

I Am Sorry.”