In the blue

She lay on her belly, softly suspended in the turquoise waters. She saw her brown toes floating far beneath her, the paleness of her palms hanging lifeless before her. She felt the warmth of the sun hitting the back of her head as she gazed through the mask at the dancing rays on the sand below. A clump of seaweed drifted on the sand, a dark green mass on a bone-white bed. Her breath filled her ears, a slow, measured swoosh that swelled and fell to the rolling rhythm of the waving seaweed.

As she lay in the silence, listening to the sound of the ocean breathing, she felt a  sudden presence and raised her gaze to the surface.  One foot away from her face an ethereal being hung motionless, staring back at her. Four diaphanous panels billowed in soft weightlessness, each marked in its center by an emerald filled circle. A quiet joy flowed through her limbs and tugged the corners of her mouth into a soft smile around the mouthpiece of her tuba. The being gave a gentle dance as lines of tiny blue lights lit up the ridge at the center of the four panes. They floated together for a while longer, each dancing on the ocean’s breath until she said goodbye, let her feet fall to the sand, and walked out of the water.