Quite a bit was cut from this chapter too. It was still Ira and Invi talking about the kids, but going into more detail on Ephemer's budding crush on Anora and even a mention of Strelitzia's pining as well. With those parts, I had about 934 words already written. After taking them out and replacing it with just the headmasters reminiscing, this chapter still ended up being 1,428 words long.
I also was going to name this chapter Hiraeth And Insomnia. 'Hiraeth' is a word that means 'having a fondness or nostalgia for a place you can not return to, or perhaps have never been.' I thought it had reflected the way Invi felt about the beach. But, as Invi and Ira talked it out, the more the phrase 'the more things change, the more they stay the same' seemed to be more prominent. What do you think?
Any ways, thank you for reading!
Something about their yearly trips to the ocean made Invi restless. That is to say, she found it hard to actually sleep once they got there. It was something about the constant shifting of the waves, or perhaps her own excitement to do something other than paperwork all day. And unlike Ava -who was, through and through, an islander-, Invi had never spent her childhood at beaches or near the ocean. But there was just something about this beach, about this ocean, that gave Invi a deep sense of longing.
The summer place itself was nothing more than a few joined cabins on the boardwalk of a private beach. She and Ava had their own cabin that connected to the one Ira, Aced, and Gula were in. The kids were also separated by gender but still connected to the other. Normally, Invi would have seen it as a problem. But the bus trip took all day Friday. That alone was a cause for insomnia if it didn't make you even more tired. Now they had all arrived safely, with everyone's luggage properly unpacked for the month, Invi wanted nothing more than to relax and let the ocean breeze carry her away. Children and their emerging hormones be damned, Invi wanted time for herself.
So that was why -at three in the morning- Invi walked out to the beach in her knee length nightgown with little regard on who saw her.
Invi smiled as the waves kissed her bare toes. She had waited a whole year to feel this again, and it was oh so worth it. Slowly, and savoring every moment of it, Invi started to step further into the crashing waves. When the waves came a little above her ankles, she forced herself to stop; she would have loved to go further if she had been dressed for it. As it stood, she was not, so she only allowed the waves to lap around her ankles.
She let out another contented sigh before she looked down. The water was surprisingly clear at the moment- through the waves she could see something shining under the sand. Curious, Invi bent down and shifted through the sand. Making sure she had a firm grip on the object, she pulled it up and examined it closer. When she realized what it was, Invi laughed.
Last year, Ava had insisted on wearing a charm bracelet Ephemer had given her for her birthday. It was a beautiful thing, made mostly from a sterling silver and an engraved clasp. There had not been a lot of charms added to the bracelet yet- but there was one that Ava proudly showed off, because it had been a reminder of her hometown. If Invi could recall correctly, Ava had called it a 'paopu fruit', the charm itself detailed a star shaped fruit set with five yellow diamonds with a single emerald as the stem. Ava didn't take the charm bracelet off during their entire visit to the beach, and -at some point no one could remember- her bracelet had come off while she was wading in the ocean.
It took the whole group the rest of the day to find the bracelet, and when they did, the paopu fruit charm was the only one missing. Ava was so crushed, she refused to wear the bracelet after that- even despite young Ephemer's claims that it was alright and they could have bought another charm for her. Now, a whole year later, Invi was holding that same paopu fruit charm as if it had been dropped yesterday. Giving another laugh, Invi held the charm tighter.
She planned on giving it back to Ava eventually, but for now, Invi still needed to reconnect with the ocean. Invi took in a deep inhale of sea air and smiled in a content, dreamy way that she never let show to anyone or anywhere before. This place? This was home.
"You're going to catch a cold if you stay out here in that."
Invi gave a small jump as she turned around to see who had spoken. To her relief, it was only Ira. She quickly noticed that he was holding a blanket in his hands, and gave an amused snort.
"How nice of you to care." she smirked. Regardless, she accepted the blanket from him and immediately draped it over her shoulders. Ira only gave a gruff nod before looking out over the ocean's horizon. Invi soon followed suit, allowing a silence between them, lulled by the sound of the waves.
"How long has it been?" Ira eventually spoke up.
"Hmm?" came the confused response.
Rephrasing himself, Ira clarified, "What year was it when the superintendent first brought us here?"
"Oh…!" Invi remarked. "Gosh, I can't remember. Let's see, Ava's 26 now, and that was back when the superintendent was the headmaster of Daybreak, before Ava adopted Ephemer… It must have been…? Oh wow, I really can't remember."
"Neither can I." Ira admitted, still staring out to sea. "And yet, it wasn't that long ago either."
Invi found she didn't really have an answer to this, so she only gave an absent nod of her head. A few more moments of tranquility between them passed before she remembered something.
"Look what I found." Invi then said to him, holding out the paopu charm.
"Well I'll be..." Ira marveled. "It can't be it, can it?"
"Has to. What would the odds be otherwise?"
"True." came the small agreement. "Do you think she'll believe it?"
"No." Invi disagreed with a shake of her head, putting the charm away. "But Ephemer will."
"He's a lot like her." Ira idly noted. His attention turned back to the shoreline, his expression becoming more vague. Invi raised her eyebrow at him.
"Where did that come from?" she inquired. "Does the sea make you become more vague?"
But he didn't answer her, his eyes still trained out over the horizon.
"Sometimes I feel as if the world changes too quickly." he said, more to himself than to her. "And these kids, they grow up even quicker. But then I look at them, and then I realize, some things just do not change."
Invi gave a small noise of confusion. "Ira, I don't follow." she cautiously admitted. She then looked him over with an even more suspicious glance before asking, "Were you drinking?"
Was it awful to say that she was really relieved to see the dark look he gave her? He must have realized that she had only asked out of a genuine concern because his expression eventually softened.
"No." he admitted. "I've just… I've been thinking a lot, since we've come back here. I guess."
"A little bit of insomnia?" Invi teased.
"Yeah..." Ira sheepishly admitted as he scratched the back of his head. "Something like that."
Invi gave Ira a gentle smile before finally turning her attention out to sea. "You might be on to something though," she mused. "Ephemer and his friends are nearing the end of their childhoods. Things will be changing for them soon, whether they're fully prepared for it or not. But it is a small wonder- are they even aware of it? It didn't seem that way on the ride over. They all seemed so happy, so oblivious to the obvious..."
Ira gave a small nod. His eyes tracked back out to the sea as well. "I wonder if they will be that cheerful on the way back home." he added. "You could see who like who by the look in their eyes. It reminded me of Gula and Ava; how it took them so long to realize, and when they did..."
"We were not that much different." Invi reminded him. "You, me, and Aced took off like rockets the moment we could. Aced isn't wrong to find it a small miracle that we still are comfortable around each other after. But I don't think what we did would work for them, of course."
"Of course." Ira agreed. He gave a small sigh in contemplative thought. Almost to himself he said, "It's like I said earlier; the more things change, the more they stay the same. I just hope those kids are able to stay together after this summer. It will be a big one for them, I'm sure."
Invi gave a small nod before pulling out Ava's charm again. She let out a soft sigh in thought. "I hope they're ready." she softly decided as she tightly clasped Ava's charm in her hand. "May their heart be their guiding key..."