Let me know what you think about it :D
Tears of Jurate
The wind strokes my face like a loving mother’s hand, and tiny grains of sand fly with it. My face is turned towards the burning sun, a searing gold coin far up in the crystal-blue sky. The breeze is crisp and I can taste the salt in it. I lay in the sand, white and soft and hot against my skin. A smile spreads across my dry lips as I run my hand playfully through it, the crystals sticking to the sweaty palm of my hand. I the distance, I can hear a child laugh, joyful and pure. Remembering the old days, I shake my head. I have come to this beach in the north since I can think, and I do not plan to break the tradition. With my eyes still closed, I let the sand run through my fingers and inhale deeply. I smell salt and fish and algae and the waves, the raging sea and the calm days, and if I listen closely, I can hear Odin’s call sound far in the distance. I decide to take a walk and leave my book at the spot in the dunes where I sit and read so often, in safe distance from the world.
It takes me a few minutes to reach the shore, and I am roaming across the hard beach where the water has left its unique mosaique in the wadden ground, like a fingerprint. The closer I get to the water, the softer the sand becomes. When I look back, I can see my footprints from my sitting spot, the impressions glistening in the heat of this beautiful morning in July. After walking on the shore; I just enjoy standing here in the shallow water, which is whistling around my feet. Spreading my arms out as far as I can, I let the wind hit my chest, the light dress that I am wearing fluttering and playing in the gusts. My hair comes loose from its braid and drifts behind me in a cloud of caramel wisps, and I am free. I am one with the sea, one with the wind. I am as much a part of this beach as the piece of wood washed to the shore, as the crab wandering in the wadd and as the mussels you can find almost everywhere. My toes dig in the sand, and suddenly, I can feel something hard scraping just along the edge of my foot. Curious, I kneel down to reveal what the sea gives me as a present today. My present turns out to be of a rich, golden-brown color, like an almost-circular stone, fitting easily into the small palm of my hand. The surface is rough, and the true color shows off at some edges only, the rest of it is dull and from a greyish-brown color. It is surprisingly light and cool, like a feather or a breeze, just the faint imprint of a stone. The voice of my father calls me back to our sitting spot, and I hurry to go and get my book from my hideaway to join my family for lunch. We are going to eat fish today, at the “Captain’s Cabin”, an exciting meal for the 10-year-old that I am, and I can remember it to be the best fish I ever ate. The strange stone is tucked away safely in my dress pocket, and when we get home to the house we rented for the two weeks that we are here I hide it in a pair of my socks, the blue ones with the white clouds on them. The two weeks fly by, a whirl of fresh air and grass and salt and endless beach, sand and fish. When we are returning to my city, I proudly present a lot of conches and a sunburn to my friends, who are impressed with the white shells and the bright-red skin on my shoulders. I still keep the stone a secret, not wanting to give it away, a treasure the sea uncovered for me just in that perfect moment. It stays that way. Until I am at my grandparents’ house at the last week of summer vacation.
Since my grandparents live in another city, I don’t get to see them very often. My days at their house fly by, but I still have plenty of time with them until school starts. I miss the beach. It makes me long for the sun, and for its endlessness, like a long-forgotten home. My secret stone reminds me of that, I still haven’t found out what it is. Sitting on my nightstand, I can watch it every night before I go to sleep, tucking it away under my pillow so my grandparents don’t see it. Not that I don’t trust them, but it is great to have a secret all for myself.
One day though I forget the time while watching the light break in the sparkling edges, which are twinkling like little stars in a dull sky, casting tiny light spots which dance across the walls of my room like lilliputian fairies.
I am lost in my train of thought and don’t notice my grandfather coming in, even if the old wooden parquet creaks under his steps. I flinch when he sits down on the edge of my bed.
I guess he just watched me the whole time, his granddaughter scrutinizing a stone in her hand. “Let me see that,” he finally says, he is whispering, as he does it so often when he talks to me, and he extends his hand. I am skeptical at first, but I know he is not going to tell anybody, so I slowly, but thoroughly set the stone in his palm, where looks so much smaller, it almost seems it shrank. He studies it very carefully, his fingernail scraping across the rough surface and he smells it. Why would you smell a stone? I had no idea myself. Finally, he comes to a conclusion. Opa takes my hand and places my treasure in it, crosses my fingers around it and says in his conspiratorial tone: “You found something very fine right there, dear. Really, you are lucky.” “But what is it? Tell me, please!” A smile spreads across his features. He has me exactly where he wants me. “Well you know, if you go to sleep right after, I guess I could tell you the story…” “Yes! Yes! Please!” I am excited and not tired at all anymore.
“What you found has a long story, so I better hurry, before you fall asleep while I tell it… Once upon a time, there was a beautiful mermaid called Jurate. Her hair was from the lightest blonde you can imagine, and her eyes were as blue as the water she swam in. She was friendly and loved to swim fast through the water, racing with the fishes. But at night-“ “Did the fishes talk and sing to her, like to Arielle?” “-No , they didn’t, they are fishes, they don’t talk. Anyways, at night Yurate loved to come to the surface where she would sit on one of the rocks sticking out of the water and comb her long soft hair, which was always tangled with algae, and she would sing to the stars and the moon. Sometimes, when a fisherman heard her, they would be amazed and hypnotized by her voice, and not pay attention to their boats. They would crash against the rocks and… umm… well… they would… live with the fishes as well. Yes, have lots of fun with the fishes. But that was not the best part of Jurate’s life. The best part was her castle. It was underwater, and it was made thoroughly of amber. Pure, golden amber. They call it the gold of the sea, but in ancient times, amber was worth far more than gold. She loved her house, and she would live in it with all the fishes. She had a crown and precious jewelry made of amber. She was the queen of the sea and an immortal goddess-“ “What’s immortal, Opa?” “It means that you can’t die, and Yurate was as old as the sea itself.
One day, a bold young fisherman named Kastytis was catching a lot of fish, and Yurate was very angry at him because he had caught 10 of her favorite racing competitors. Duty told her to swim up and take Kastytis down under the surface to teach him a lesson, but when she saw the handsome face and the bright friendly eyes of the young man, she fell in love. She took him with her, but didn’t feed him to the jellyfishes, which she had intended to do originally, no, she lived with him in the castle and made him her king. On the day before the coronation, however, Pertunas, the lord of thunder, came by for a cup of algae tea and a piece of sea-lentil-cookies and foamcake. When he saw her new husband, he was furious , to say the least. You have to know it was strictly forbidden for gods to love mortal people, and everybody knew that. He dragged her out of the castle by her hair and destroyed it with a flash of lightning. Yurate begged Pertunas to save Kastytis and spare his life, but his heart did not soften. Kastytis died in the ruins. Jurate was very sad, and her wailing made the ruins of the castle crumble and spread wide in the sea, in millions of tiny amber pieces. Pertunas also punished Jurate and banned her from her realm by making her human. She died soon after from a broken heart, because she cried to much, but her tears became amber and fell to the ground, and you can still find them among the beaches of the north. Yurate and Kastytis met again after they died and they were leading a happy life, but the amber would always remind the people of their love. They call it ‘tears of the gods’. And that is what you found, a tear of Jurate.” “Really? That’s so cool!”
“Yes it is. Tomorrow, I will show you what we can do with it, but for now think of our deal. Bedtime! Goodnight.”
With that, Opa stands up, and closes the door behind him. Tonight the amber stays on my nightstand, and I fall asleep dreaming of mermaids, and princes, of blinking crowns, and castles made of amber.
The next day Opa takes me out to the shed with him, and he tells me to bring my amber piece. Oma comes with me to watch as well. In the shed, Opa grabs a hammer and a nail and makes a hole in it! At first, I am scared that he broke my precious stone, but after he explains, I laugh. That is a great idea. He gives me some sandpaper and tells me to soften Jurate’s tear with it. I do it with dedication for the whole day, I make it smooth and the rough surface transforms into a beautiful gemstone. That evening, Opa takes a leather band and we make a necklace out of it. I still have it, and it always reminds me of that beautiful day on the beach, where the sea let me discover the tear of Jurate, the mermaid who died for the man she loved. It reminds me of the wind, and the sun, and the sea water, as salty as the tears which turned into a piece of amber washed to the shore, worth far more than gold.
Das war's auch schon fuer heute, es ist meine letzte Woche hier an der Lee Academy, am Freitag geht es nach NYC und dann nach Hauuuuuuuuse :D I am so excited :)
Liebe Gruesse, Cara
