SERAYA OF THE SKY

The news spread. After all, Seraya’s mother and father were not greedy about what they knew. They shared it. Seraya didn’t try to talk to people anymore. She knew they would just stare at her like some kind of a thing.

But the people had a different take about everything. They thought Seraya’s family was always experiencing the miracles of Seraya firsthand and that they might only getting crumbs from it. They had to do something. They believed evermore that Seraya was one of the light from above. They wanted to keep that light and beauty for themselves.

The villagers talked among themselves excluding Seraya and her family. With the help of the elders, they planned to trick Seraya into a marriage. The villagers who wanted to pursue Seraya for a long time already agreed for a fair fight. They all helped to design a plan to make Seraya marry one of them. They did all these so that one of them could keep Seraya for their self.

They contacted the eldest person in their village, the midwife who assisted Agata’s labor. Together with the midwife, the villagers devised a story to tell Seraya, a prophecy that would make Seraya chose to be married by herself.

The midwife went to Seraya’s house one afternoon. The midwife’s eyes were covered with forming white clouds at the center, an eye malady that hindered her to see anything if not clearly. She could only discern a person by their shadowy form. She reached up and felt Seraya’s face after fumbling to the air, Seraya’s shoulder, and Seraya’s hair.

“I have something to say Seraya,” the elder said. Seraya, her mother, and her father listened and waited for the words to come out from the midwife’s mouth.

“I saw a vision about you, Seraya. The strongest heat of the time is coming for you and for us. You need to marry to prevent it from dawning in our island. It is fated to get you. You’re beauty calls for that heat, the heat that you vanished when you were born. That heat is equivalent to gone by days that we didn’t use lamps for fishing. If you don’t marry it is going to get what’s important from you.”

“Why must I marry? Is there no other solutions?”

“The decision is yours Seraya.”

“I don’t want to marry anyone! I won’t marry anyone! This is unfair. Why do I need to sacrifice myself for that heat? I don’t understand.”

“It’s for everyone Seraya.”

“I don’t need to sacrifice myself for everyone. I don’t see a reason why I need to sacrifice myself for anyone.”

“But you just have to marry.”

“No, I won’t.”

There were villagers eavesdropping in Seraya and the midwife’s conversation, but these villagers’ loud and frantic heartbeats because of excitement were more audible. They gave-up and just waited for the elder midwife to come out from Seraya’s house and hear the news from her.

They waited outside and they felt that years had already gone by. They anticipated to have a glimpse of Seraya or even just her faint silhouette. They also await for the name of the lucky owner of the light above to be called.

The midwife appeared at last. Their mouths were open and they gazed intently at the midwife expecting for the good news to be announced already. The midwife shook her head at them. The ardor in their eyes vanished.

Days passed. The village experienced tyrannical heat, but no one deduced that the prophecy they invented came true, except for the midwife and Seraya. The great heat came and stayed for many weeks. It dried the leaves of their trees. It caused for the fruits of the trees to be overripe and impossible to eat. The fishes became smaller. Their fresh water almost ran out. Rain even abandoned and forgot about their place.

When the great heat left their island everybody tried to live normally again. Each of them replenished their spirits. They gulped down jugs of fresh water as if their thirst couldn’t be satiated. A few of them bathed in the rain they dearly missed. Everything seemed to be normal again.

Seraya regained her spirit when she went fishing again with her father. Seraya took charge of rowing for the other side of the boat, while her father took charge of the other one. They sang a song together that made them forgot the tiring work of rowing paddles and slashing waves.

When they reached the fishing locus, Seraya was happy to find a big school of fish swimming in the shallow. It was as if the sea remained untouched by the great heat. The clear water made the fishes’ black color pop out and scales shine. Seraya jumped into the water immediately. She tried to capture them in her arms. When she couldn’t, she just swam deeper and deeper.

Seraya loved how the water glittered under with the fine dusts drifting aimlessly. She was fond of brushing her feet to the seagrasses. It was ticklish for her. What she didn’t like about the sea were the sea urchins that pricked her.

Seraya followed blue fishes everywhere they went. While following them she stumbled upon a part of the sea where the corals were broken to shards. The coral’s colors and life were flushed out from it and it turned very pale black, gray, and white. There were no fishes in that part of the sea. The once living village of corals were now crumbles of pale bones.

Seraya swam to the surface of the water. She called the attention of her father to tell him about that part of the sea. She never saw something like it before. Seraya asked her father how the corals ended up in that way.

“The sea is not untouched after all. The helpless beings living under the sea suffered from the heat. The life, beauty, and color of the corals fade.”

Seraya’s family talked to the people about the ruined part of the sea. They had to do something to bring back the life of the corals. If not, just to replace the dead ones. But no one seemed to be interested in the topic. No one listened to anything they said.

Seraya sought comfort in the night sky. She wondered why it remained peaceful while the sea suffered the face it becomes at night. While she focused at the sky she could hear the beat of the stars that became louder and louder a bursting sound like a crumbling thunder she was not sure. But from that, she knew that the sky was angered when the sea suffered. Something was brewing beneath the surface of the water, at the same time, a heavy aggression formed beyond the clouds.

One morning, Agata recalled to Seraya the miracles that happened when she was born.

“Did you know Seraya that the lights only started to appear when you were born? I was afraid that time that those lights would fall on us. You were just born that time, we couldn’t die like that. But they just signaled to every living man that you will be extraordinary like them.” “Really mother?”

“Yes.”

“Mother? How can I reach the sky?” “Why do you want to reach it?”

“For the corals. No one cares here. Maybe, up there, I can do something to save them. Or maybe, I can stay there in the sky for good so no misfortune will befall on our island again. The sky will accept me for sure. After all, everyone here said I belong there. If only I believed the midwife none of these would happen.”

“Don’t think like that Seraya. And no one has ever reached the sky Seraya. How do you suppose to go there?”

“Ride the waves, maybe. Big one. Or, in a time when the sky and the sea become one, I could swim the sea and be at the sky at the same time. You know it, don’t you, mother? That the sky and the sea becomes one at night.”

Seraya and her mother talked the whole night, until their voices became softer, their eyes became heavier, and finally fell asleep. The lights in Agata’s story were real outside their house and inside Seraya’s dream.

The next morning, Seraya felt the water tremble.

“A storm is coming,” Seraya said.

Agata noticed Seraya’s black hair slowly turned to silver. A few locks of Seraya’s black hair already changed its color from root to ends.

“Look at Seraya’s beauty. Look at her shining hair.” The rapid change of her hair color made the people think that Seraya was really something not human.

Seraya warned the people every day. Storm is coming! The twinkling lights were fainter than before. The fishes were becoming thin and small. But still, no one seemed to hear her. To be continued…