Closing her eyes, Marylin Beaumont breathed in the fresh sea air as she grasped the railing of the luxurious ship "Poseidon's Bride". Her husband, James, had sponsored her trip across the Mediterranean through the Ligurian sea. He was well aware of her equal love for adventure and had thus sponsored a trip to bring her to his new work base in Tunisia all the way from their cozy home in Paris.

The winter of the previous year,, 1971, had been a hard one for her. She had received the news of her mother's demise in England and , having been pregnant at the time, Marilyn had been unable to make the long journey to her birth home. The pain and loss had unfortunately resulted in her losing the baby.

It had been a hard time for her but James had been very supportive. When the time came for him to move to his new base he had made arrangements for her to join him. So here she was, ready to turn over a new leaf.

She turned away from the railing and walked away from the deck and made her way to the inner lounge to the private bar than she somehow had access to because James had pulled a few strings and gotten her a VIP ticket. The ship had set sail at sunset and as they sailed past the Ligurian, she couldn't help but feel a sense of forbidding.

Settling onto the comfortable bar stools, she accepted a glass of the rare Chardonnay from the bartender. The crisp acid flavor was something she quite enjoyed, being a wine person, hence the chance to taste the golden nectar of this rare grape made her giddy.

Marylin had no doubt the chardonnay grapes would become quite popular within the decade. If those rich pompous arses that determined those kinds of things could get over their love for whiskeys and those god awful brands of wines they love.

What was so unique and wonderful about Penfolds Grange? Maybe Italy's Piedmont was a little remarkable. France too had some outstanding wines, she wouldn't have been quite knowledgeable if her country of sovereign didn't produce atleast one such brand. The chardonnay grapes were quite promising indeed. She could see some world class wines being made from it.

Shaking her head, she decided she would not indulge the critic in her for far longer than she should. After all, she was here to enjoy the voyage.

Dinner was, in all its fanciness, quite cold. Marylin figured it was attributed to the fact that of all the passengers - of all the women - aboard Poseidon's Bride, she was the only one travelling alone.

As she savored the creamy flavor of mushroom soup, she imagined her husband sitting there with her. Oh how she missed him. This trip was finally giving her the chance to be with him for an extended time and it couldn't have come at a better time than when she was still nursing her grief.

As she continued reminiscing of her days with James, she felt the presence of someone as they took the seat right next to hers. The man had shaggy blond her and by his mere body language, Marylin could already tell that he had come to try his luck.

"Hello there, I hope you don't mind if I join you by this little spot?" He asked nicely.

He was trying to use his gentleman wits. The thought made her want to laugh but she merely bit down on her lip to keep herself from doing so.

"It's a public area. I don't get to mind anything." She told him, looking straight ahead as she took a sip of her wine.

"I'm Leo, by the way." He said as he held out his hand for a handshake.

She regarded his hand before blatantly ignoring it and returning her attention to her mushroom soon and the medium rare fillet that was her main course .

"Why, good sir, downright bold of you to assume we're acquaintances." She said with a smirk as she helped herself to a piece of steak.

"Ha! I was hoping to make yours anyways. The name's Leo Covinsky. pleasure to meet you, Miss." He replied with a nervous laugh. "So tell me, why is a capable woman such as yourself lacking in companionship? I doubt it's because you lack in charm. I can tell you're quite charming."

"You're not wrong." She said as she downed the remainder of her wine before placing the glass gently back onto the table and finishing off her dinner. "In fact, I'm a married woman. I'm meeting my husband in Tunisia."

She saw Leo take in this information with surprise. She could tell he was trying to determine if she was joking or not. Silly guy, but she felt pity for him. He'd have to have horrid luck with women if he was trying his luck in the middle of a voyage. Or maybe he was quite promiscuous.

Taking her leave of him, she decided to turn in for the night.

The small cabin she had as her sleeping quarters was comfortable enough. As she shut her eyes, she imagined what kind of new environment she would find in Tunisia. She wondered how the indigenous people were? If she would learn something wonderful from them. She could already imagine all the adventures she'd have when suddenly she was violently thrown off the bed onto the wooden floor.

Waking with a start, she looked around her at the chaos that had become her bed cabin. The entire ship shook violently and the hauntingly creaking sounds warned her that the ship was in danger of being torn apart.

She was careful to keep her palms on the wall to balance herself as she decided to go investigate what was happening. Although going outside was a bad idea, she knew that she had to atleast try. Maybe the crew would initiate an emergency escape.

When she got to the outside of the ship, everything was a mess. She could see crew members rushing everywhere as the rain pelted down on them. A dark electric whirl cloud surrounded them and the lightning it shot out struck the ship's sails, setting them on fire.

"Miss, head over to the rescue boats at once!" One of the crew members shouted out at her over the loud thundering of the strange storm around them.

"What's going on?!" She asked him as she allowed him to lead her towards the evacuation boats.

"We're caught in some strange lightning storm. I've never seen anything like it!" The man replied as he gave her a life jacket and tightly fastened it onto her. "We thought it was some rain cloud but the next thing we knew, the cloud turned into some sort of electric twister and descended onto us. A freak storm if you ask me.

We have to abandon ship at once or else..."

Before he could finish the ship jerked to the side and Marylin found herself falling to the cold grey water of the sea below.

The only thing that drove her as she kicked and flayed her hands around her was fear. Fear that she was above to drown in the middle of nowhere. Fear that she'd die all alone without even the comfort of her loves ones and fear of the unknown.

As the water filled her lungs and suffocated her, she let out a final kick of desperation before the cold dark ess took her.

....

When she came to, Marylin found herself lying on her back inside a strange and yet beautiful cave. The roof was made of stalactites that glistened and created beautiful hues of color when the sunlight shined onto it.

She was no longer wearing her fancy dress and corset. Rather, she was now wearing a simple and yet elegant white silk gown that had a slit that went all the way up to her mid thigh. This made her feel a little uneasy knowing that someone had undressed and then subsequently dressed her.

The thought dissipated when she suddenly remembered how she had been tossed overboard and pulled to the depths of the Mediterranean. She shouldn't be alive right now.

She looked around trying to see if she could find her rescuer.

Right next to where she'd woken up, a crystal blue pond flowed right into the cave, disappearing into the very rear of the cave. She figured the stream flowed into some waterfall out back.

Slowly, she stood up and began to explore her surroundings. Upon exiting the cave, she found herself in the middle of a breathtaking tropical island.

"Hello?!" She called out as she spun around on her heels as her eyes scanned the horizon that stretched for miles upon miles over the green sea.

"You'll make yourself dizzy spinning around like that." came a woman's voice from her left.

Turning towards the source of the voice, Marylin was startled to find to find the most gorgeous woman staring right at her.

The woman, who was dressed in an Ivory silk gown like hers had glistening bronze skin that had a golden hue, luscious black curls that fell to her back and brown doe eyes that pulled in all that looked into them.

Despite the woman's surreal appearance, she had an air of loneliness about her. Like was reserved to her fate.

"Oh, hello. Are you the one who saved me from the sea?" Marylin asked in interest.

"Saved? No dear child, you are not saved." The woman said, confusing Marylin.

"What do you mean? I was surely going to drown if you hadn't pulled me from the cold ocean waters." Marylin said, hoping to understand the woman's words a bit more.

"Look around you, dear child. This island is a prison. No one leaves and no one gets in. Well, except you. It's a wonder you washed onto the shore still very much alive." The woman said thoughtfully. "You're a fighter. Perhaps that is why Zeus allowed you to find this island."

"Zeus? As in the Greek god of the skies? Are you speaking in riddles or is this some sort of philosophy?"

" 'Tis no philosophy or riddle. King Zeus has brought you to my island. I assume in his own twisted way he wanted to save you." The woman continued.

"Ri-ght. And you are?" Marylin asked. At this moment she was convinced that the woman was downright bonkers. Who wouldn't be hearing all this?

"I am Calypso." She replied. "I was imprisoned on this island eons ago by Zeus because my father was a Titan. He would have killed or thrown me to Tartarus but because I did not take up any arms against the Olympians when they fought against Kronos and the Titans this was the only sentence they saw fit to give me. And now, unfortunately, you have been doomed to share my fate. Tell me, child, what is your name?"

"I am Marylin. Marylin Beaumont." Marylin replied as she tried to make sense of what she had heard. Maybe if she took a nap and rested she would wake up and the world would have gone back to normal.

"Well, Marylin Beaumont. You are not saved. It would have been better for you had you lost your life to the sea."