The sea is my mistress, and she is cruel beyond the loneliest bone-strewn beach. I met her while a storm obscured a sunset I had seen only in a dream. This happened on my boat, Alacrity, before I scuttled her off the coast of Shud's Rock. The sea stood in the green light, her eyes glowing, her breath a mist.

I took the dripping fisher's net from her cold skin and dropped it unceremoniously onto the deck of my boat. In her nudity, the sea felt cold and helpless. That is when I put my warm coat around her shoulders and led her below to get warm. Then I made the sea my mistress. The glimmering moonlight cast its gaze upon us as we warmed my bed together.

"I must return to my realm; but I will always come to you, my love." She promised. And she left me there and went without a splash.

When I returned to my village it was dawn. I went to my cottage and rested there. It was a thought about myself that kept me awake:

"Why me?"

And to this I had to question my life. I had always done things my own way. I have swept every moment of joy into my laughter, which I give freely, along with all of my stories. But I do not bother with money or women. Those do not satisfy me. Money doesn't belong to its holder and women do not accept my independence. And I am independent. I built my cottage and as soon as I had amassed enough money I bought a boat, Alacrity, and I have fished and sustained myself ever since. My adventures take me far and wide. I cannot be tamed.

Loneliness can be like a drug. It can overwhelm and it can distort the mind. But it can also be very satisfying. I have earned my loneliness. It belongs to me.

And as I sat at sunset drawing in an empty net, that is when she came.

When I met her again she was different. This time she climbed into my boat, starboard, wearing a dress cut from a jib, and a flower from the bottom was in her hair. She smiled excitedly to see me, her eyes sparkling with merriment. Again we spent the night together. When I awoke she was gone.

I stared out over the glassy waters filled with the clouds above. My eyes were watery. I missed her.

As I returned to shore I felt my passion's true desire was now to get some sleep. So I went to my cottage and slept. I dreamed.

Night was a cloak she wore, here in a dream. She emerged from the midnight waves as I lay upon the sand on my back, waiting for her. The moon watched our lovemaking with a silent jealousy that summoned back the waves to wash the beach. And again I woke with my arms empty, on one side of my bed.

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As the moon would rise and the wind would come, I fished as I always had. Lapping and tickling Alacrity she hid in the shadow of my boat, waiting for night. I knew she was there, I could feel her gaze. Admiring my work from beneath the waves. Soothing feelings made nightfall a distant time. But one I knew would come.

And so she did. I had somehow drifted into the sleep of a man who is too patient for his lover. She woke me with her kisses. Urgent, needful, hot and insistent. When she was finally satisfied the sun was threatening her dwindling form. And I watched as the sea slid back over the side of my boat without even saying goodbye.

I recalled things she had said during the night. Some of those things were words and I remembered them now:

"Only now, and never again." As well as: "This is our last night together. I cannot again for the world. All of it, for you."

I had heard this but it had not meant anything while she was still with me. Now I wept bitterly and fell naked onto the deck of Alacrity. I would never see her again.

Days went by and I fished. My loneliness was very different now. I yearned for her, the sea, my green-eyed lady. My heart ached as I reeled in full nets. I always caught fish wherever I cast. No storm would touch Alacrity. I returned one day to the village, having sailed under a sky that wrecked every other boat but mine. Those winds had turned from harming her sails and those waves had passed me without noticing her at all.

"How is your boat untouched? You the man who has no wife? I know what pact you have." An old man sitting by the sea said to me as I loaded a new net into my boat.

"You know nothing." I glared at him and he looked away.

"There is a way to bring her back." He laughed. I paused and turned to hear this. I gestured for him to speak and he smiled toothless and said: "Go out to Shud's Rock. Where criminals are marooned. Stand among the bones. If you have no way to escape your fate, she will come for thee."

"You say that if I am doomed, the sea will claim me?" I asked. He nodded.

The thought of that conversation haunted me. It was not long before I stood dripping and cold, where bones lay upon the rock. I had swam here from Alacrity. She was sinking.

"I will die here if you do not come for me." I said, shivering.

Then I saw her. She was standing upon the darkening water amid the jagged rocks. She was dressed in a robe of kelp, a sagging hood hid her face. She walked slowly toward me. I could not see her in the darkness of the cowl. Her hand beckoned for me and I waded to my calves out to her.

"My love, what have you done? I could not leave you to die this way. But now, I have broken my word, the moon shall be very angry." The sea spoke slowly and with sadness. I was filled with remorse and regret. "No man may take the sea."

"What?" My eyes filled with tears. I had done her wrong!

"But the sea, she may take any man she wishes." She said deliberately. Then the waters rose up around me. I knew then, only darkness.

Darkness in the deep, together forever.