A dark-skinned man with dark hair sat among the boulders strewn like pebbles on a cliff above the above the sea. His gaze was vacant, his hands lay loosely in his lap, he seemed not to care for the discomforts of his stony seat.
"Uncle Flax! Uncle Flax!" A childish voice rang out among the stones.
Flaxom blinked as if emerging from a dream and looked about. "Here!" he called to the child.
A wild, red haired nymph skipped to him from out her hiding place. She ran to him and plopped herself in his lap.
"What were you doing?"
Flaxom smiled and tweaked her nose. "Just wondering what it would be like to have a brother."
"Silly," she laughed. "You did have a brother, mamma says. Don't you remember?"
"Not a thing about him," Flaxom sighed. "Your mamma says they pulled us out of the waves but couldn't save him. That might as well have been the day I was born for all I remember of anything."
The child tucked herself into his lap smiling happily over the ocean. "Tell me your first memory again."
"You act like its a fairy story."
"It's my fairy story - tell me!" She hugged him in delight at the idea.
"Once upon a time..." he started, but she stopped him with a pout and a declaration of: "That's not how it goes! Tell it right!"
Flaxom smiled down at her and tucked her brilliant hair behind her ears. "It seemed I came out of the dark into a room filled with books and light," he said. "I remember the dust motes sparkling in the air."
"And there I was?" She bounced in glee.
"And there you were, cradled in my arms, looking up at me with those deep sea blue eyes. At first, I was afraid, but then..."
"I smiled at you!" and she beamed a toothy grin at him now, far different but just a beautiful as the sleepy baby grin he'd encountered that first morning.
"You gave me this quizzical baby look," he corrected, "and then smiled at me with such delight that it calmed my heart."
The child hugged him again. They sat for a while listening as the ocean breathed in and out.
"Have you ever wondered what it must be like to live under the sea?" Flaxom asked, his eyes and tone far away. "Like a strange creature of the deep...an eel..."
"No, no! A mermaid!" The bright child clapped her hands and danced to her feet. "But we can play that another day! Pappa says we can see my new baby brother today! Come on Uncle Flax!" And she grabbed his hand, pulling him from his strange revelry and to his feet. Together, they walked back home.