Many
Oceans Away
Lightning streaked overhead as the rain
thundered
down onto the little boat. The rumble of the thunder and the rain
caused the boat to shake and spin in the towering waves of water. With
every lightning you could see the scared and wet faces of the ship's
crew. Everyone was at the water’s mercy. The waves crashed
against the ship as if it wanted the ship to go away. It was trying to
push the ship to it's own death. The boat was starting to sink from the
heaviness of the rain. Groaning and creaking it swayed on the towering
waves, as the thunder boomed, like a drum. Slowly, the ship started to
sink, to disappear into the murky, dark water where there seemed to be
no bottom. Soon it vanished as quietly as death.
The sun was beaming down on me as my
eyes fluttered
open. I could hear the waves gently washing over the sand on the beach.
I slowly sat up, confused. Why was I sleeping on the beach? Fear crept
through me as I realized I was somewhere far away. The unfamiliar
beach, the trees, everything. This was not Japan. Tears prickled me
eyes as I tried to choke down my tears. I was so far away from home. I
suddenly remembered the horrors of the previous night. Memories flashed
through my mind like fleeting dreams that I had dreamed before but
since then forgotten. I remembered what my father promised my mother.
“Sachiko, she'll be fine.
We're just going to
go to China, that's not that far away.”, my father said
softly.
He reached out his hand and stroked my mother's soft silky black hair.
“ I don't want her to get
hurt,” my
mother sighed. I knew that she didn't like the idea that I was leaving.
She was very protective and I wanted her to know I could take care of
myself.
“ No one's going to get hurt.
I'll bring her
back safe and sound. I promise. You know I never break
promises,”
my father said trying to cheer her up.
“ I hope so,” was
all she whispered,
brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face, taking a tear off with
it. My mother then leaned over and blew out the candle and the room was
dark. Soon my father’s gentle snores could be heard so I knew
that they were asleep. I had rolled over on my futon and went to sleep
not thinking much of it until now. My father had been wrong, he had
broken his promise. No way was I able to go home. My mother's last
words replayed in my head as a large shadow covered me up. I turned
around, horrified about what was going to be standing there. However it
was a man. The likes of what I have never seen before. He was tall and
had light colored hair that was curling all over his head. His eyes
matched the color of the sea. I stared, for never in my life have I
seen such a man. He was so different from any other human I had ever
seen, father had spoken of these men before. With their weird language
and colors. In his eyes there was a certain fierceness that made him
look like he was capable of anything. However I wasn't afraid, my
sadness took over the fear and blossomed, settling down for a long stay
in my heart. He was gone my father was gone. Forever. That was all I
could think about, my father and my mother. Then the man spoke to me in
a firm and powerful voice, and in a strange language. I looked up at
him, startled. Seeing my confused and blank _expression he did hand
motions, then I knew he was asking for my name.
“Hikaru.” I
said. “Femell.” He gestured to himself. He helped
me up and
started leading me away from the beach. I walked behind him like a
zombie, pale and ghostly. I didn't know it then but I had just entered
the land called Greece, the land that was going to be my home from now
on, and how long know one knows.
We passed many marketplaces. People were
swarming
around buying things and trading things. A man came up to me and showed
me a bunch of vegetables, I stopped to look, a little interested but
Femell tugged on my sleeve and we kept going, right into the heart of
the crowd. People jostled my arm and people were shouting things that I
couldn't understand. I would have been more interested if I wasn't so
sad but grief hits you hard and leaves you weak. I was brought to a
large house, larger then some of the other houses that were nearby.
Great pillars were surrounding a little court yard and a brown building
curved around it. It was gorgeous and so regal looking that I stopped
in awe to look at it. Nothing like this was in Japan, not even the
finest temples. A woman hurried out of the house. She looked young, but
it seemed that stress and lack of sleep aged her. She was wearing a
simple white dress and ran passed me as if I were a contagious disease.
She talked rapidly in that same strange tongue and the man nodded and
beckoned for me to come inside. The girl took my arm and brought me to
a little room where a little cot was folded neatly next to a desk with
a candle on it. That was my room from now on, I started to understand
that I wasn't going to be able to go back to Japan anytime soon, I was
starting to think I was going to be a slave from now on with the girl
who was standing quietly by the doorway, her head bowed as if she were
frightened of my reaction. The reaction that she was met with was a
blank face. I was numb, I didn't care anymore, nothing mattered anymore.
For the next few days I learned that I
had to wake
up when the sun came up and start to make breakfast. Then after the
rest of the household woke up I was supposed to make their beds and
clean up the rooms. Then we had to get all the foods ad clean them and
make oils. On and on the chores went and the mistress of the house
watched me and the other slaves. We had about 250 chores that we had to
do. I counted them on the first day since I was trying to keep myself
from crying and thinking of my many horrible experiences. There were a
lot of slaves that worked with me. Their names were Nella, Agalia,
Phila, Selena, and Pamela. None of those names were their real names
for once you became a slave the master and mistress renamed you. Pamela
and Agalia didn't even remember their real names. Agalia was the girl
who I shared a room with, the more I got to know her the more I felt
that she was a timid girl but one who tried until she died. I came to
love her like a sister, but never as a replacement for Akiko. My
mistress, Kalliope, gave me my new name, Halimeda which means thinking
of the sea in Greek, which is their language. That is because after
dinner when the sky is dark and the stars twinkle up ahead I go to the
ocean. I run down with my bare feet and stand, looking out while the
moon casts a reflection over the still dark waters. Every time I go
there memories of my homeland and of the storm swarmed my mind, like
bees, never dieing for one moment, never letting me rest. I wondered if
my father was still alive of if he went down with the ship and about my
mother. Did she know I was still alive? My black hair would whip out of
it's bun and billow out toward the sea as if it were reaching for my
home. I would let the waves caress my feet as I cried while the ocean
drowned out the sounds of my weeping.
I started to learn Greek as I was living
there
longer. As my Greek got better my Japanese got worse; I was forgetting
things so I stared to write them down so they would never be forgotten.
I was scared about forgetting, forgetting my native language was like
forgetting part of me. Forgetting my family- that thought terrified me
so I tried to remember as much as I could.
My master and mistress were very kind,
they treated
me almost like part of the family. I felt accepted in their household
but I knew that outside in Athens I was nothing. I was trash. I wasn't
even a citizen like my mistress Kalliope. Women weren't allowed
privileges in Athens and I heard my mistress complaining about it a lot
during the day as we sewed our dresses and peeled vegetables. Athens
could be cruel but it was highly more advanced then Japan.
Every night at dinner, my master would
take out this
instrument called a lyre and play it while my mistress sang. She had
such a beautiful voice, just like her name meant. Then the slaves and I
would dance and it was very fun. I taught some of the slaves to make
Japanese food, to add more to the list of things they could make. They
didn't make much rice and they had no idea what miso-shiru was! In turn
I was taught how to make delicious Greek food. I loved the different
textures of the food and the different spices. My mother, who loved to
cook would have loved these recipes. My master loved the Japanese food,
devouring it with such lust that I always wanted to make more for him.
However my mistress preferred the Greek food saying that the Japanese
food was little to much for her. My mistress was a fragile lady and I
always thought that if the wind was too strong she'd just crumple up
and blow away.
“ Tell me about your
home.” Agalia asked
one night as we were getting ready for bed. She was sitting by the desk
and was combing her hair. “ I know that you don't come from
any
part of Greece, you didn't speak Greek when you first got
here.”
“ Well, what do you want to
know?” I
asked her. Agalia had become a good friend of mine since I learned
Greek and I hadn't realized before that she didn't know anything about
my past.
“ Just talk, I'll
listen.”
“ Well, it's very different
from Athens. I
lived in Hiroshima and we mostly ate rice and fish. I lived in a little
house with my mother and father and my little sister Akiko. My mother
sewed kimonos, which are traditional clothes there and my father was a
merchant. I used to help my mother sew and I helped grow crops. I used
to run around in the fields and play games. Those were fun
times”
I said, smiling a little at the good memories. I propped my head up and
looked at her. She looked so beautiful with her hair down i thought.
“Then how come you came here
if you loved it
there so much?” Agalia asked, turning around and looking at
me.
She set her comb down and spread her cot out and then laid down next to
me.
“I.... I was on my father's
ship and, it sank.
You see, there was this huge storm, and well, the ship went down. I
don't remember anything else except that I woke up and I was lying on
the shores of Athens. It's a wonder that I survived....” I
turned
away, my face was growing hot and my throat was burning.
“ Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't
realize.. I'm
sorry,” Agalia stammered, she looked uncomfortable that it
was
against my will that I had come here.
“ It's okay, you didn't know,
you have a right
to.” I said as my eyesight became blurred. I burst into tears
and
Agalia hurried to comfort me. I cried myself to sleep that night,
Agalia at my side comforting me as best as she could. She rubbed my
back and then we both started crying together, her shiny red wavy hair
getting mixed with my straight black hair. She was my only family, my
only friend and I loved her for that.
On and on the days went. Sometimes a
festival came
along and the maids and I had to work all day and prepare a huge feast
but other than that the routine was the same. Wake up, chores, eat,
chores, eat, chores, sleep and on and on again. During our very short
lunch break I often saw the mistress alone. She was beautiful but she
always seemed so sad. Only when Famelle was there did I see her
luscious lips curve up into a smile. One day I went to talk to her, to
give her some company.
“May I sit here?” I
asked shyly, my
mistress nodded so I sat. I was always known to be a little curious, so
soon the curiosity overcame me. “ Why do you always look so
sad?” I blurted out. I blushed. “ I'm sorry, it was
bad of
me to ask you. Forgive me.” I stammered. However, she just
turned
her head and looked at me.
Finally she spoke.“Do I really
look that sad?”
“ Yes..” I trailed
off, not wanting to
say what I shouldn't. I had already probably made her uncomfortable. I
was waiting for her to get mad at me for asking inappropriate questions
but to my great surprise she answered me. Cautiously, as if what she
was saying was delicate and needed extra care.
“ I am so bored, staying at
home everyday
while Famelle goes and does his thinking. I miss him. Also I am sad
that women have no rights here in Athens. We're not even citizens, Here
I am all dressed up yet I do nothing, I don't go out. I mean, you girls
don't even need my help.” She exclaimed. She twisted a loose
string that was hanging from her dress and tore it out.
“ I see, but you do do so
much.”
“ Thank you, but I really
don't. The life of a
rich man's wife is so dreary. I was more of an outdoors kind of girl,
but love can make you do crazy things.” She sighed.
Love, what was it about love that made
you do these
things I wondered. “ You gave up what you loved to be with
him?”
“I gave up the young me, but I
got love in
return.” She paused. “ I would rather die now I
think than
be without him.”
“So he makes up for this
boring time?”
“ Yes.” With that
she sat up and walked
inside without another glance at me. I watched my friends dance in a
circle pretending to be rich ladies and thought if it would really be
that fun to be rich. It seemed fun but from Kalliopes' view it seemed a
sad life to live. I ate the rest of my food, which wasn't very much and
then went to talk to Nella. Soon we were all laughing and talking. Out
of the corner of my eye I saw Kalliope, standing by the doorway with
sparkling eyes that were threatening to shed tears.
For many years I worked in Athens for my
master and
mistress. However one day my master became deathly ill to some plague
that was spreading. Agalia and I cleaned the house quickly and always
attended him. He was delirious and no one could go too close to him for
he was extremely contagious. The best doctors in Athens were sent to
heal him but nothing worked;he got sicker and sicker. I would hear him
mumbling nonsense and laughing hilariously for hours. Kalliope was
forced to sleep in another room, although she wanted to stay with
Femelle. His head was always burning up and a lot of times I saw his
eyes roll to the inside of his head. I had never seen him in such a
fragile state. He was always getting up early and working on these
mathematical problems. He was a philosopher and he loved to sit by the
olive tress close to the ocean to think about equations and the world.
He was like the foundation of the family, seeing him so helpless to
this sickness scared me a little. That night the house was deathly
silent, the silence was ringing in my ears. I knew. That silence, the
silence of death. I had heard it before. The plague took him in two
days, leaving his sickly, skinny body behind as his soul traveled down
to the underworld to be with Hades, forever.
His funeral was big and all of Athens
seemed to come
and join in the mourning. He was buried by the ocean and the olive
trees, where he liked to sit and think. Everyone thought that he would
have liked to be buried there. However Kalliope hadn't said anything
since the funeral, she had locked herself in her room so the maids and
I buried him. When I saw his coffin being lowered into the dark pit I
cried. Here was this amazing person and all he got to be after he died
was in a pit. Servants weren't allowed in any temples and couldn't
really believe in religion, but I knew about the gods. At least I
thought, he would get a good afterlife with Hades.
For many months my mistress seemed to do
nothing but
cry and Agalia and I cleaned the house as always. We made food for her
but she refused to eat. She was always very skinny but now you could
see her skeleton, her skin was just stretched across her face. I always
didn't like to look at her for I was scared for her. We tried to force
her to eat, since her state was terrifying but she would scream and cry
and tell us to leave her alone or else she would whip us. We had to do
as told or else we would get whipped or worse arrested. Slaves are
supposed to do what their mistress and master wish. One day when I went
to wake her up she wouldn't wake up and I knew that she never would
again see daylight. Just like she said, she would rather die than be
without him. She had joined her husband in Hades underworld. Once again
they were together as fleeting spirits, never to be broken apart again.
The funeral was small for my mistress. I
was sad
that she had to die so young and in such an awful way. I slipped the
coin underneath her tongue so that she could get across the river to
meet her husband in the underworld. That was the last time I ever saw
her again for after that I ran to the garden and cried my eyes out.
Agalia hurried after me, her eyes too were puffy and red.
“Don't cry
Halimeda.” Agalia said, even though she too was trying to
suppress her tears.
“All I seem to do is cry
recently. Since the
day I got here. Why is my life so miserable?” I yelled. So
much
emotion was bubbling up inside me. Emotions that I hadn't felt for a
long time, and emotions that I never knew existed inside me. Nellla,
Serena, and Pamela soon came to the gardens too wondering what was the
matter.
“Why?”
“It's okay, shh...”
Agalia whispered,
stroking my hair the same way my father used to. Tears were pouring
down her face and everyone else's as we mourned the loss of our
masters, and of what was to become of us.
Agalia and I were sold to new people and
we were to
become separated. Our last day together we walked to the beach ,
letting the water wet our feet. As I looked at the horizon I wondered
when I could go back to Japan. Everyone I became to love seemed to
leave me at some point. Maybe that was how my life was supposed to go.
Full of misfortunes. The salty ocean breeze blew back my hair as I
stared across the sea. My whole life was lost now. Torn apart like when
I first got swept into Athens. Agalia was staring at the sea next to
me. Her hair blew out of her bun, framing her face. I don't know what
she was thinking but she looked extremely sad and even more timid then
usual. Everything was just so far away. For me and it seemed for Agalia
as well. Everything was so many oceans away I thought as a single tear
rolled down my cheek and fell into the ocean creating ripples going out
and out toward my destiny.