We were swimming in the ocean when the tide took him away. I stayed on the beach till they found me, half-frozen, staring at the vast empty expanse of water expecting him to surface, certain he was hiding under the waves, waiting for me to look away so he could startle me.

They took me home and remained for the first few days, denying me the beach and the waves where I knew I'd find him in the folds, in the rise and fall that was once the chest I'd lay my head upon and hear the heart that beat to the rhythm of my own.

Then they left, one by one, leaving me alone with the emptiness of a life half-complete, a mirror to the vast empty expanse of an ocean without waves, a sea without a name.