He had been walking for a couple of hours. In his search for seclusion , he had avoided the usual paths to the beach and preferred to go make his way cross country. Soon he could hear the roar of the ocean and he followed the sound ,
As he crested a dune, he suddenly saw the ocean . His heart leapt with joy at the sight of this vast, deserted beach. There was no one in sight as far as his eyes could see. Alone finally he said to himself.
He reclined on the sandy shore. Before him stretched the ocean, foaming, blue, limitless.. On both sides, as far as the eye could see, was a line of froth, flung onshore by the breaking waves, like a garland of bunched white blossoms deposited on the golden sand, a hair - ointment to adorn the earth's green tresses.
Foaming waves broke the blue surface of the water in a thousand places. Only a storm voilent enough to displace thousand of stars, swirling them against the azure backdrop of the sky, could match the sight of the water churning in the ocean..
He had no idea how long he remained on the seashore, gazing at the beauty of the ocean.At this moment, one segment of the blue water shone like molten gold n the gentle rays of the westerning sun. Then, the darkness descended upon the black waters, the whole horizion lit up with the last gloaming.
He rose to his feet with a sigh!! Time to head back he said to himself.
Why he sighed, I cannot say, for there is no telling what happy memories came to the shore as floatsam and jetsam in the ocean of his memory and evoked a sigh...
Rising he turned away from the ocean. on the sandy shore. At once he beheld an extraordinary appartion (or so it seemed to him later).
At the edge of the wave - resonant ocean, on the sandy shore, in the blurred glow of twilight, stood an exquisite female figure...
Her unbraided locks , cascaded down her back, and were swept across her face by the gentle breeze, her body glowed like a jewel, a picture framed by its backdrop.
Though partly obscured by the hair, her countenance glowed like moonlight glimpsed through a gap in the clouds.
She was a beauty..rather tall, but her limbs and bosom were full and well rounded, Like trees and vines in the rainy season, her body rippled with its own voluptousness. the fullness lending grace even to her tall figure. She seem to him to be In the full flush of youth, like a river surging against its bank.
She was dusky, her skin had the deep hue to molten gold, her locks cluttered about her dark, glowing forehead, like bees about the petals of a newly blossomed flower, her eyebrows arching up to her hair line beneath her cresent shaped brow,
Her eyes were limpid pools of contrasting emotions.. . their gaze was calm yet penetrating. Her glance would instantly make one feel that she had the power to look into one's most secret of hearts. The expression of those penetating eyes would change from moment to moment, now melting with tender affection, now full of sweet langour, as if the god of Love himself lay there dreaming. At times, her eyes would be dialated with desire and intoxivated with romance, and at other times, a hearless sidelong glance would dart from the corners of her eyes, like a flash of lightining.
Two ineffable elements irridated her countenance: the stamp of intelligence, and her self -esteem.
From her posture, the arch of her swan neck, it was clear to him that she was a queen among women..
Youthful vitality made her body restless, as a river in autumn ripples even without a breeze. from moment to moment, this restless energy revealed some new facet of her lovliness and he gazed, transfixed, at this ever evolving display of charm..
Suddenly encountering this divine figure in the midst of such a desolate part of the seashore, , his eyes bore a startled expression, while the young woman's gaze was serenity itself, and was that a touch of amusement he saw reflected in them.
There the two of them remained, on the wave resonant ocean's desolate shore, in the twilight glow,for a long time.
After the pregnant silence the young woman's voice was finally heard.
"O Traveller, have you lost your way? ,
Her voice struck chords in his heart.
The string of our heart's extraordinary instrument sometimes grow too slack to be tuned to harmony , try as one might. But at a single sound, at the musical note in the woman's voice, the dissonance is instantly rectified. All the strings fall into tune.
At such a moment , the journey of life seems to resemble a blissful stream of music. Her voice had just such an effect on him.
" O Traveller, have you lost your way"?
The sound of her the words entered his ears. What they meant , what reply he should offer, he did not know. The sound seemed to spread everywhere, bringing a shiver of joy; it seemed to fill the breeze and murmur through the leaves, falling away to blend with the ocean's booming sound.
The earth, girdled with the sea, was beautiful; beautiful too was the woman, and also the sound of her voice,
the hearts instrument began to resonate with the rhythm of harmony.
"Come with me". invited the maiden, when she received no reply to her question.
With these words, she walked away, she seemed to glide over the terrain like a white cloud wafted on the slow spring breeze, like a clockwork toy he followed this vision of beauty not looking or caring where he was going.
At a certain place where they had to skirt a small wood, the beautiful woman disappeared from his sight behind a clump of trees. Having trudged around the forested area, he found himself alone , there was no sign of the beautiful woman, anywhere. he looked down to see which way her footsteps went and suddenly he felt a cold shiver run down his spine, He moved back over the way which they had come to re check , but there was no doubt about it.
There were just one set of footprints leading from the shore to the clump of trees, and they were his... With invisible footsteps she had come into his life to illuminate it and then as suddenly and mysteriously disappeared..
"Was she a godess, a human being, or merely an illusion conjured up by his mind??
Frozen, immobile, he turned this question over and over in his mind ....uncomprehending....and alone again..
