He looked at her, confused.
"Enamore?" he asked her.
She nodded, continuing to smile. "That is your name. Your true name."
My true name, he said to himself.
He turned to the ocean, the waves better enabling him to contemplate his thoughts.
He wanted to look at his mother. He felt his mother's eyes on him, but he couldn't.
Instead he asked one of the questions utmost on his mind:
"Why did you abandon me?"
He turned, in the silence that followed, to see the look on his mother's face as she came up with some fabulous tale to excuse why she would abandon her infant son, leaving him prey to any external forces that may have wished him harm.
But, she did not. She did not speak, weep, or turn her eyes, meeting his with equal force.
"You listen to me, and you listen to me well," she began, sharply, her tone scolding like that of a...well...of a mom. "I did not abandon you. I was protecting you. Enamore, you are my son, and I love you. I have never left your side, and no harm would have befallen you because the Fates have said so. And even if they had not, I'd be damned, do you hear me, if I would let my only son be hurt."
He looked away in shame.
"Look at me," she commanded. Tears were streaming down her face, but her voice never wavered. "Did you think that there was a single day that passed that I did not regret having to leave you to the care of some village people? Did you think that there was a single day that passed that I did not stand by in anguish as you breastfed from that woman, while my breasts were swollen with milk for you? Did you think that there was a single day that passed that I did not feel jealousy as you came home, growing, happy, calling that woman Mother?"
And then she broke down, heaving with sobs, as her tears spilled down into the rippling ocean.
He understood then, and even if he did not, he was too moved by her words and her passion to let her go on like this. He crossed over to her, held her tight, and whispered: " I forgive you-"
But, what he said next made her smile:
"- Mother."
He held her like that as she gradually composed herself. Finally, they both stood.
She looked up at him, and smiled. "Would you now like to meet your family? They are all eager to see you."
He smiled back and nodded. "But, how shall we get there?" he asked, looking around, and noticing for the first time that they were on an island completely surrounded by water. No palm trees, and the small island he knew could not hold a family of anybody.
"I think I will let you choose. Do you want to travel by sea, by land, or by air?" she quizzed him, mischievously.
"By air," he asked, curious to see what she would do.
She nodded, went to the ocean, dipped her fingers in, and sprinkled him and herself with some water.
Instantly, he felt his mind go blank, and his body was filled with a sense of something and nothingness. He felt light, carefree, giddy, and he silly-ly began to flap his arms, pretending he was bird, really believing that would make him fly.
But not so silly was, he actually began to fly.