“Why is one human so important to her? She could get another human to install her technology.” Maria’s grumbling resonated with my uneasy thoughts.
“She tries to make amends for losing your father. Has she not told you this?”
Her response came unwillingly. “He was a human fisherman. She does not speak of him to me.”
Again, I found myself repeating a tale Grandmother Sephira had told me. “She came to these islands in a big storm. A storm so powerful the waves washed over the land and claimed it once more. She was swimming in the strong waves, when she saw a little fishing boat overturned. Two men were struggling in the water. One swam with a rope, but he lost it. The other could not swim and the waves pushed him under to where she drifted. She gave him air and took him to shore. She tended to his hurts and shared her warmth with him until the storm died down…”
Maria interrupted with impatience, “And I am the result. A storm child, indeed. What has this to do with the human fisherman today?”
Undeterred, I continued, “After he had rested, she swam him back to his people. His wounds bled and called the sharks. She sent the sharks away, but lost him in the water. When she found him, no air she gave him could bring him back. Death had claimed him.”
“But that was long ago. More than ninety years. How can the loss of one human so long ago matter to anyone now?” She sounded puzzled.
I attempted to explain. “It matters to her. His memory haunts her still, as she mourns his loss.”
Her disbelief was clear in her expression. “Surely not.”
I lifted my head above the surface and waited for her to do the same. “Of course it does. He called her Maria, thinking her an angel. She gifted this name to you, forever a reminder of her time with this man. It is far better than the name she chose for me. At least she did not call you a dragon! See for yourself. She stands on the cliff where his body was buried, shedding salt water for his memory.”
We both watched Vanessa stand on the cliff, her tears glistening in the starlight.
“Are you so sure she does not cry in memory of the pain he caused her, when he used her body?”
I suppressed my amazement that she knew our mother so little. I replied as calmly as I could, “I am certain, for she presses her lips to the stone that marks his head and the words she whispers express sorrow and her desire for his forgiveness. If he had caused her pain that saddened her now, she would not hesitate to give his remains to the ocean. She would feed his bones and the stone bearing his name to the sharks. While she desires forgiveness, she does not forgive.”
Maria reflected before responding. “Perhaps you are correct. It seems difficult to believe, even so.”
I reminded myself that Maria had never known the touch of a man. I tried to be patient. “As you said before, you do not understand the attraction. Presumably, you would not also understand her feeling of loss when the object of the attraction is gone.”
I hid both my smile and my satisfaction as she confirmed my surmise.
“Undoubtedly. I think I do not understand her at all.”