Fields of Water: A Short Story

“How much longer?” Emery asked for the fifteenth time. Mom looked at her in the mirror. 

“Soon,” she said with a smile. 

Emery bounced in her seat with joyous anticipation. After nine years of living in small-town Indiana, nine years of wondering, she was finally going to see the ocean for the first time. The thrill of it intoxicated her. 

“How big is it really?” she asked, leaning forward in her chair. Her dad turned from where he sat in the passenger seat to look at her, and made a silly face. “I’m serious, dad,” Emery giggled. 

Dad gave an exaggerated sigh and poked her in the stomach. “Imagine you are standing on the edge of a soy field,” he said. “You can see the soy go on for acres and acres. It seems like it has no end. You with me?”

Emery squeezed her eyes shut, and in her mind, she stood there in the heat, surrounded by perfect green rows of the leafy soy fields. “Mmmm-hmmm.”

“Now,” dad said, “Imagine the field is made of water. But not just any water. This water is deep blue and green and grey, and it’s always moving. It seems to go on forever.  Now,” he said, poking her again, “open your window.”

Emery’s eyes popped open and she scrambled to roll down the window. Immediately a wall of ocean breeze hit her face and she was bombarded with so many different smells and feelings that she did not know what to do with them. There was the beautiful saltiness of the wind, and freshness, and fish, and seagulls. 

Then the car slowed to a stop, and she clambered out, and the next several minutes were a flurry of activity. Emery mostly hopped in place, until finally mom handed her a beach bag and said, “Ready, honey? Let’s go see the ocean.”

Her imagination had been big, but not big enough. The actuality of the water amazed her. Standing on the brim of the beach, Emery stood rooted in disbelief. 

“Dad,” she gasped, dropping her bag. “It’s even bigger than the soy fields.”

Dad smiled and reached for her mom’s hand.

 Emery began to run, straight to the water, straight to the endless, restless blue. Reaching the edge of the waves, she paused, toes pointed out to sea. The sun above her, the waves before her, and her family behind her, Emery was staggered by the beauty of the widest thing she had ever known. 

She grinned and leaped into the water.  

Photo by Mathyas Kurmann on Unsplash