Come Sail Away
You know how sometimes, a person can spend a lot of time at one place as a child, and then not go back to that place until it's just a memory almost. Like you don't even remember you've been there, but when you're there again you just have the strangest feeling of déjà vu? Well, I have that feeling now.
Let's start the story at when I first arrived. I'm in the passenger seat of my history teacher Mr. Oz's 08' Cobalt. I've got my headphones in and I'm staring out the window. I've been at Carter's and Stephens Academy for boys for the last few years now, but this summer, I'm being sent to my great Uncle Sylvester's beach house on the Isles de' Dream. This whole place is just a big island right smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Ocean is almost everywhere you look. It's bright and sunny here, and very peaceful by the looks of it.
I can't really remember my Uncle Sly. Or this place at all for that matter. Principal Pittman said that in my parents wills, I used to come here all the time as a kid. The last time I was I was probably 5 or 6. I'm 15, now. Oh, your asking if I said my parents wills, and wouldn't that mean that they're dead? Well get this through your thick head mate, my folks ain't dead they're just,…. Missing. Few years back, they went on some sort of mission trip safari studying the Ancient Mayans and other old and dead folks you'd see on National Geographic causing unexplainable things to happen. They actually worked for National Geographic. This trip they were researching interdimsional travel. And they haven't come back or made any contact since they left. Everyone else in the world, believes them dead. But I don't.
Mr. Oz, who is like I said, my history teach at the Academy, has basically been like my guardian since then. I lived in the school year round, and he was always there with me. When they said they were sending me off to some far off island, he had to check it out. He's a cool teacher, real likeable guy. He's in like his mid twenties and is pretty funny. He's kind of like my cool older brother I've never had. He didn't really like the idea of leaving me with a stranger relative, so they let him be the one to drop me off. I wasn't quite fond of the idea of leaving Oz either, but I would sure as heck ready to get out of that AWFUL academy. I was sick of it. Which, who wouldn't after living in it for 5 years straight. It felt like a prison.
"So you ready to meet your Uncle?" Mr. Oz asked, he wasn't making eye contact with me. I could tell he was secretly wishing that my Uncle would turn out to be a whack job so I would have to come back to the school. "I guess. God, this place looks amazing." I said. "Yeah look at them waves, hey maybe you could learn how to surf while you're here." Oz said. "Maybe."
"You know what else waves mean?"
"What?"
"Beaches."
"No, really?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yes really, and you know what beaches have right?"
I went blank, "um,… Sand?" I tried. Mr. Oz sighed and rubbed his head. "You've been at the boys academy way too long." he said. "What do you mean?"
"GIRLS! Beaches, have GIRLS!" he shouted.
"Ooooh,"
"Pretty girls, wearing bikinis. Come on there's gotta be a few on this island around your age." Oz said. "Yeah, no of them would probably be interested in me."
Truth be told, I've never had a girlfriend. I've met a few girls now and then at town near the academy, I've met my roommates girlfriends and sisters. All of them, find me odd. I don't have any cool talents like, playing an instrument or being totally good at a sport. I'm a pretty good singer though, which is a talent not looked highly upon at an all guy school. I also like to draw, a lot. And I write, and read, like crazy. It's almost like an addiction. But I've never really had the chance to talk to a lot of girls, so I would have no clue if I was good around them or not.
"That's not true, you're a pretty cool kid. And may I say without being gay, you my friend, are a pretty good looking dude." Oz said. I looked at my self in the side mirror, he wasn't wrong. I have my fathers face, strong looking, and my mothers hair and eyes. Light brown, and eyes the exact color of the ocean outside my window. "Hey looks like this is your Uncles drive." Oz said turning into the driveway. Uncle Sly's house looked pretty cool. It was really big. It was in the shape of a giant octagon, with a huge light house sticking out through the middle of the roof, standing at least 100 feet tall.
I let out an impressed whistle as I shut the door. "Yeah this place looks nice." Oz agreed. The front door opened and a man with a short gray beard walked out. He wore tan beach shorts and a red Hawaiian shirt with orange flowers on it.
He opened his arms wide as he came towards us, "Cody! Your Finally here! How wonderful!" he bellowed. "Uncle Sly." I said and he gave me a hug.
"Oh, look how much you've grown. I haven't seen you in person since you were, well, as tall as the statue." He put his hand on a manatee lawn statue that was really short. This man had tan skin and life lines, he looked like the kind of man who was always smiling.
"Ahem," Mr. Oz butted in. "Excuse me, Mr. Rains, Hi my name is Oliver Oz. I just want to that everything is you know, ok for Cody to stay here." he asked. "Sure sure, here help me get Cody's bags and I'll show you around. Oh, Cody, I have some old friends of yours here actually waiting for you that you'll see in a bit. But first, you'll have to come inside to see your room." Uncle Sly said.
Old friends? I had know clue what he was talking about. He walked us through the house, and it was just as amazing as the outside. He took me up to the second floor to my room. It was pretty sweet. I had a desk, a king sized bed, flat screen, PS3, and everything was set up how I would like it. I looked out the window, I had a great view of the ocean. Oz and Sly were talking about all this boring junk that I wasn't listening to when I spotted her through the glass.
From a far, I couldn't see much at all. But what I could see, I enjoyed. I saw a girl running down a narrow little path down into an out of sight cove. I'll I really saw was her running, or, should I say dancing from the docks at the bottom right of my uncle's property, across the path, down a hill and out of sight. She was very cute in her bright sundress. A small dog was following her.
"Oh, Cody, you can go and walk down to the decks if you want. Oz and I here are talking about things that I don't think you'd be to interested in, so why don't you go look around." Uncle Sly said. "Ok,"
I walked outside and down the wooden path to the docks. Uncle Sly had a few boats tied to the docks, and I was admiring them, when a huge man came out of one. "Hey hey, Cody! Your finally here little buddy!" he said and came and wrapped me in a bear hug. "Whoa, hey!" I said. I looked the dude in the face, it was staring at a memory. "Gus?" I said. The man looked stunned. "YOU REMBERED ME!" he cheered.
It was true. Moments ago, I had never seen this guy in my life it felt like. But now, I somehow remembered his name, and that I knew him. But that was it. I didn't know how I knew him, I just did.
"Vaguely." I answered. "I don't know how though."
I admitted. "Here lemme clarify it for ya." he said. "Me in you's, we used to be best friends here. I was a couple years older than you, and still am haha, but we used to play on the boats and make forts," he said. "Yeah, yeah, and camp out in uncle Sly's backyard!" I called out. "Yeah!"
It came flooding back to me, "Buddy!" we yelled at them same time and hi fived. I use to play all sorts of games and fun stuff with this guy and someone else. I remember even seeing pictures of us together in Uncle's house. It was me. Him, and someone else.
"Hey, Gus, by any chance, have you seen a girl around here? Brown hair, wearing a green and white sun dress? Had a dog?" I asked. I couldn't help it ok, I had to see if he knew her. "Yeah, Chloe? She was here not 5 minutes ago. She in her dog Scrappy were going out seashell hunting again. Come on follow me I'm sure she's close. Boy will she be glad to see you again."
Gus smiled. "Again?" I asked. "Yeah, Chloe used to be like our old third musketeer. She's younger than you are, but you couldn't tell." he stopped and smiled at me, "She really stole ya heart the last time you were her boy-oh".
"Oh really?" I asked. "Yeah, so what you been up to for the past ten years?" he asked me. We talked as we walked the same path I saw the girl go down earlier. Gus is 19, and works for my Uncle tending for the boats. He was a really big, muscled guy, with black hair and a growing scraggly black beard on the tip of his chin. He and I were friends again pretty quickly. We were getting along really well, when we spotted the first signs of Chloe on the ground.
"Up, here's where it starts. Right Flip flop," he said pointing to it. A few feet away was it's mate. "Left flip flop."
A few more feet away, "Sun dress," he pointed to it in the grass right to the side of the path. I looked at it perplexed. "What was she doing randomly stripping off her clothes and leaving them on the ground?" I kept thinking. "Shorts," Gus called pointing to them a few more feet away. We were coming closer to the water now. "Over there, Here Scrappy!" Gus called.
The little tan and brown Yorkie stopped yapping at the water and ran across the bank to us. I looked down into the water, it was crystal clear. I looked deep down into it, I thought I saw I fish or something big move. The water really did look inviting.
"Hey why don't we go for a swim?" I asked. "You go right ahead." Gus said. I stripped down into my bathing suit and dove in. It felt good to be underwater. I liked being underwater in the pool at the Academy, but this was much better. Being a singer and all, I can hold my breath for a while, and I used that to my advantage. I looked at all the colorful fish and the reefs. And then I saw something big, move again. I looked at the end of the reef where I saw it. It had rounded the reef, but I caught a glimpse of what looked like, hair. I turned around the reef, and was shocked. I saw the upper body of a girl. A pretty girl, a very pretty girl. Wait a minute, I can't see her feet, and she's admiring a shell! Omigod! A Mermaid! I swam to the top amazed and breathless. A Mermaid!
I dove back down to see her again, this time this she noticed me, she cocked her head, half smiled and waved. I waved and swam over to see her tail. That's when I felt like I true idiot. She, had, legs. We swam to the top together. "Hi," she greeted. "Hi," I replied. She was pretty. "My name is Chloe," she said. "Cody, um, wow." I really liked looking at her. "Chloe, you are a very pretty girl." I said straight forward. "Your not so bad yourself." she replied. "When did you get here?" she asked. "20 or 30 minutes ago. And Lemme tell you it is good to be back." I stared into her eyes, the were the color of the ocean during a storm. A raging blue gray. Her skin was pale ivory, her hair dark black while wet. Lips, like an angel.
"I'm not really one for romance, but I'm a come out with it, do you want to be my girlfriend?" I asked. I figured now would be a good moment, while she's nice and infatuated with me. "Hmm, that was impulsive, and…. Very romantic actually to me, and I like that. Yes, I would."
"Brilliant. I'm not here an hour and I'm already happier than I've been in years. Hey look at that in the water."
So we swam and swam looking at shells. Mr. Oz would be proud of me. I learned a lot about this girl. As kids, we were great friends. With Gus, we played castle. Her a princess, me a knight, and Gus a king. And we would listen to my Uncle's stories.
I found out that my Uncle made a lot of money writing novels. Some of which were in my schools library. All about 3 time traveling teens. But they didn't have real names. They simply went by Captain, Dancer, and Crewman. What they did was there names. He first told the stories to us, before publishing them. Beginning every tale with this.
"Prophecy foretells,
of the glistening sails,
of the boat from the Island of Dreams,
manned by a very unlikely,
crew of teens,
So listen up children,
And you'll be surprised,
Because this little boat,
Takes to the skies
People who can sail it,
is a seldom some,
But you three are special,
Your day will come.
ONCE UPON A TIME
After spending hours and hours outside of just me Gus, and Chloe, oh yeah, and Scrappy, we finally retired to Uncle Sly's screened in back porch. He and Mr. Oz were enjoying a steak dinner. They seemed to make quick friends, because we found them laughing and talking about history and fiction books.
"There you are Cody, oh and Gus too lovely. Aha, I see you've met Chloe." uncle said.
"You could say that," I said holding her hand.
The sun had already set when we all sat down. We agreed to let Mr. Oz stay the summer if he wanted here with us. He was happy about that. Then they continued with a question, "So tell me Mr. Rains," he said. "Oh please, call me Sly," Uncle said. "Ok, Sly, how did this Island come to be? I mean this place is, simply beautiful, and on our way in here, we didn't see a single tourist."
"Not one," I added.
"Well, this island has simply something about it. The old folks say that you don't come to the island just to sun bathe or be on holiday no. The island won't allow it. You come to the island, because it wants you. It almost knows that your going to be part of something great." Uncle Sly explained. "That sounds like a fairy tale almost." Oz said.
"Yep, I just think it's because the island is very small and not 20 miles away is an area with a lot of storms. Very bad for flying." Sly explained. "Ah, that makes more sense." Oz agreed.
I thought back, I never saw any storms.
"Hey Mr. Sly, since Cody's back, why don't you tell us one of your old fashion stories." Gus said. "Yeah like when we were little," Chloe added. "I think that's a good idea." Uncle Sly said getting up. "Course we can't do that here, we have to go to the story telling room." He said happily.
So we followed Uncle Sly down to the basement. It felt like I was walking into Gepetto's Workshop. Little wooden figurines and puppet's on strings were everywhere. It all flooded back to me. A certain three stood out to me, Gus, and Chloe. The three of us took the figures in our hands. They were wooden and masterfully painted. What shocked us though, was not how life like or to scale the were, but how much they looked like us. Gus's looked like him, arms crossed and smiling, his beard was thicker though a little bit. But it looked like someone had just took his picture. He was wearing a blue and white sailor suit with matching hat.
Chloe's resembled her at her best and most common pose. She was spinning, well, In mid spin. Her curls floating and her leg in mid air, like a ballerina. The sweetest smiled graced her face. She matched Gus's outfit in blue and white sailor suit with a flowing skirt. And finally mine.
Now I can understand how uncle Sly could make Gus's and Chloe's so life like. He's seems them everyday. But he hasn't seen me, in ten years, and I was looking down at myself, standing about 8 inches tall. Like the others, I was wearing a blue and white sailor suit. But my jacket stretched down to my calves like a trench coat, and I wore a three point pirate hat and boots.
Each figurine stood on a pedestal, that read a name on a gold little plate. We read each a loud. "Crewman," Gus said. "Dancer," Chloe fingered the figures hair. I stared down at mine again, and looked up at Uncle Sly, "Captain."
Easy to say, I was bit well. How would you put it? I was kind of scared, and a little shocked. But also happy, and, ok this is really weird. I felt like I was ready. For what? I have no freaking clue. But one things for sure, I was looking forward to Uncle Sly's story. Maybe it would bring an explanation.