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The note from Lukas helped to ease the pain and the longing in my heart. And the birth of my baby boy, our baby boy, whom I named Jonathan, managed to fill my empty, longing heart with so much love, that life became bearable - liveable.
Because I had somebody to live for.
And though I didn’t see Lukas again during my time in Marin, each year while I slept, I received a new note inside my ring, which brought me great comfort. Because although I couldn’t see him, I knew he’d been to see me. Which means he had seen his son.
Our son grew to be a wonderful, beautiful, loving young man, so like his father.
I was so proud of him when he stepped up to the throne, after Frano became too obsessed with creating mermaids to be able to look after the citizens of Marin.
But even more proud when he married his beautiful wife and produced my three beautiful grandchildren, Damir and Sylvia - twins, and little Marko.
Poor Marko who never got to know his mother after she died giving birth to him, and whose older brother shunned him for being born.
I took pity on Marko, perhaps because of Damir and Frano’s aversion to him. I’d always wondered if it was because Marko looked so much like his true grandfather, Lukas.
Marko is my special one, my little soul mate, and it was on my deathbed that he sat by my side and held my hand as I rested in the shuttle before take-off.
I had known for some time that a sickness had been growing inside of me and had decided that before my time came, before the disease had laid its claim on my life, I would go out on my one last journey to sea – the one place that I truly belonged.
I chose this moment to take off the sun ring, the first time I’d removed it since the day Lukas had slipped it onto my finger. I’d already taken out the last note he’d written.
‘Come to me,’ he’d written, while I’d slept. ‘I’ll wait for you at Island 27, my love.’ He must have noticed that my time here was short and wished for us to meet one last time.
I placed the ring in my youngest grandson’s hand.
‘No,’ said a solemn faced Marko, his blue eyes widening at the sun ring resting on his palm. ‘Don’t go yet. I need you, Baba.’
Tears stung my old eyes but I held them back.
‘I have my next adventure ahead of me,’ I whispered, stroking his soft cheek. ‘We all have to pass on into the next world, my love. It’s a part of life.’
Tears pooled in Marko’s dark blue eyes and spilled down his cheeks. He brushed them aside and pressed his lips together, trying to be brave.
‘I will miss you, my little Marko,’ I whispered.
I gently closed his small fingers over the ring.
‘One day you will give this ring to the woman that you love.’
‘But I love you,’ he said, not bothering to wipe the fresh tears streaming down his face.
I smiled.
‘You will love another one day, my darling. You will love as I have loved.’
I closed my eyes as my breathing became laboured.
My mind was at peace.
I had said my most important goodbye here in Marin, now I would go to Island 27 and say the most important goodbye of all.
‘Send me off, my darling,’ I whispered and Marko nodded, trying to be brave. He closed the lid to the shuttle and pressed the coordinates.
I took one last look at my beautiful grandson, who I was certain would one day be king, and a grand one at that.
Then I pulled the lever.
Sometime later, when I reached my destination and was spat out into the sea, fear seized my heart and made my head light.
Perhaps he won’t come, I thought. Perhaps I’ll die alone.
But I didn’t have to worry for too long.
Strong hands reached for me and my heart leapt. I was unafraid.
For this was my Lukas; who had come to see me one last time.
He wrapped me into his strong arms and pressed his lips to mine, my beautiful Lukas, who did not appear a day older than when I’d last said goodbye to him.
But it did not matter that mermaid magic had kept my lover eternally young, for shining in his dark blue eyes was a love that was greater and more everlasting than the depths of the deepest ocean.
And so finally, after an eternity of searching.
I had found my real home.