Chapter 14 The Key
“Well, many years ago when I was much younger I sold jewelry at the merchant's market in town. I had just come to America and I sat daily upon my perch selling necklaces made of shells that I had strung on copper wire. There was an old man that I secretly admired who came to the market daily.”
“He toiled at the furnace of a gold press refining gold.”
The old seaman turned his back to her.
“Is something wrong?” she asked him.
“No, continue,” he replied softly.
“Well, as I was saying, I had fallen in love with the old man who toiled daily at the furnace of the gold press refining gold. I longed to see him daily when he came to the market to sell his gold but one day he didn't come. I waited all day and even all night for him but he never came.”
“So the next day I went up to the gold press in hopes of seeing him sitting at the furnace where he normally was but he wasn't there. I found the furnace cold as the fire had gone out. The door of the furnace was open so I peered inside. There laying in the ash and soot of the furnace I saw something shimmering so I reached in to get it. It was this solid gold key.”
“I have kept it with me among my dearest possessions all these years in memory of the love that I had for that old man.” The old man turned around with tears streaming down his face.
“And what of the young man who came to you and declared his love for you claiming to be the older man?” he said.
The old woman thought for a moment, “That's right.” she said. “There was a young man who came declaring his love and saying that he was the old man, but there was no way that he could be, so I sent him away. How do you know that?” she asked the old seaman.
“Because I was the old man,” he replied staring into her eyes. As they stood there silent for a moment suddenly the old woman found the seaman's eyes to be familiar and she could see that behind his full beard was the face of the man she so loved many years ago.
“How is this possible?” she asked.
The old seaman placed the solid gold key in her hand and closing her fingers around it began to tell his story.
“When I was the old man toiling daily at the furnace of the gold press refining gold I too loved you. I so desired you as I watched you sitting daily upon your perch whenever I went down to the market to sell gold. One day I became intrigued by the way the roaring fire refined gold in the furnace of the gold press. I liked the way it melted the gold to remove the impurities and then sent it out all sparkling and shining meet to fetch a high price at the market.”
“So I determined that I too should be refined in the roaring fire of the furnace, going in old and wrinkled and coming out young again. I thought that if I were young again that you would love me.”
“Daily, I began refining myself until finally I was young again and I came to declare my love for you but you didn't believe me when I told you that I was the old man you secretly admired. At that point I thought to return unto the fire in hopes that it would reverse the refining so that I could be older again and you would love me. But when I got to the furnace I too found it cold as the fire had gone out.”
“I tried relentlessly to relight it but I couldn't because in all of the excitement I had lost the gold key that ignited it; this very key that you hold in your hands. So I lay down in the cold furnace hoping to die and be relieved of my misery. That was when I heard the Great One speak to me.”
“ He said that it was my own fault that my heart was broken because I hadn't trusted the way He had made me. He assured me that no matter how earnestly I prayed for death to come and relieve me of the misery, my time was not yet.”
“After a few hours of wallowing and loathing, I decided to accept what He had said and so I got up, dusted myself off and moved on. I've been sailing the seas ever since wishing that you had been mine, and now to my utter amazement, you are.”
The old woman didn't know what to think. She wondered if this man could really be her one true love returned unto her. She too had gone through life wishing that he had been hers. It all seemed too good to be true. But she could see with her own eyes that he was the man. His eyes were the same ones she had longed to gaze into so long ago, and his lips were the same ones she had longed would kiss her. He was the right height and stature and now that she had paid attention, his voice also sounded like her love's did. Like music.
“I don't understand this,” the old woman said clinging to the old seaman. “How could you be old and then young again, and now old again?” she asked him. “It's as if your life were started over. As if you had some how been... born again,” she said.
Just then she remembered a phrase she had read in her special book that gave her hope. It had said, “Verily, verily I say unto you unless a man be born again, he can not see the Kingdom of the Power.” And if the book had said it then it must be true. So somehow it must be possible to be born again she thought to herself, but how?
“This is the best day of my life,” the old seaman said. “In all the years I spent at sea longing for you, I never thought I'd see you again, but here you are. And even more stunning in beauty than I remember,” he told the old woman. She blushed. “That day as I lay in that cold furnace wishing to die I heard the voice of the Great One clearly speaking to me.”
“He told me that he had hidden a love out in the world for me and that I should get up from there and go out and find it, but never did I imagine it would be you. Truly, He has done exceeding abundantly above and beyond all that I could ask or think,” the old seaman continued.
Suddenly the old woman remembered reading that phrase in her special book and she wondered if her love had the same book. However that was impossible she thought as she was sure that her book was the only one of its kind in the world.
“Are you done getting what you want from here,” the old seaman asked the old woman.
“Yes, I'm done. There's nothing else here that I need,” she answered.
“Well then let's be off!” the old seaman said excitedly. “Let's put our pasts full of loneliness behind us, and let's sail to distant lands together knowing that the Power is on our side!” he said. “If the Power be for us, who can be against us? I'm overjoyed that I've finally found you my love,” the old seaman told her holding both her hands. “And neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come will ever separate me from you again.”
“Then let us go now,” the old woman told him starring into his eyes. “Together!”
And having left the house and hurried down to the dock they reached the Yacht. Just as the old woman was about to board the Yacht the old seaman stopped her abruptly.
“Wait!” he yelled. “There's something very important I forgot to do!”
He disappeared into the Yacht for a moment and returned with a bottle of Champagne. Handing the bottle to his love he said, “She hasn't been christened yet.”
The old woman raised the bottle and with all of her might she smashed it against the side of the vessel!
“T.I.L.I.A.!” she yelled as she christened the Yacht! The old seaman was overwhelmed and as tears ran down his face he mustered up enough strength to say, “Yes, T.I.L.I.A.”
The old woman held him close to her and told him that she had waited what seemed like a lifetime, standing at the dock starring out into the distance. Watching the ships from whither they came to hence and back out again, from can see in the morning, till can't see at night,” waiting for him alone.
“Well, I must not keep you waiting a moment longer,” he said. He then helped the old woman aboard, untethered the ropes and lifted his anchor. They climbed to the upper deck and with his love beside him the old seaman started his engine. Before long they were sailing out toward the sunset. They could see it on the horizon.
“I wish I could have spent my whole life with you,” the old woman said.
“Wouldn't it have been grand?” Suddenly the old seaman had an idea....
THE END
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