Part I
– written in 1980 based on a dream, and understood sixteen years later as a mixture of a call to leave and to find my spiritual roots – my Hera-tage, and an escape from dangerous circumstances that had been made in the interim period. Yet I think it is also more than any of these specific events: it has ancient echoes as well, of events that I did not know of at the time of the dream. This is not a linear story.
Elys lived with her mother and sisters in a high house on an island that was but thinly connected to the mainland. Elys was pregnant and soon to give birth.
One day it was heard that the ocean was going to rise and the house of Elys and her mother and sisters would be flooded. It was dangerous to stay. So Elys began to pack. At first she packed three suitcases full of her own clothes and those for her baby, but then realized she couldn’t carry that many, so after a little thought she managed to pack only one suitcase. Meanwhile her mother and all her older sisters had departed for the mainland. Her younger sister remained. Her mother had said before leaving that there was someone with a boat below who would take Elys and her sister to safety.
Now Elys and her sister were ready to go; there was little time. They descended the stairs and found a man waiting, standing near a boat. His smile was more kin to a leer, and it made explicit to Elys that he had a deal in mind. His deal was that he would take Elys to the mainland – “safety”- for the loan and abuse of her body.
Elys was somewhat startled that her mother had left her with this man, but she felt she had little choice now. She agreed to the terms and hopped in the boat, which was so narrow she had to straddle it. Instantly the man pushed the boat off from the shore, leaving Elys’ sister behind. Elys quickly turned her head to see what was happening. Already the boat was some distance out; it was too late to do anything and Elys felt powerless. She saw her sister’s face. She was looking at Elys with eyes that asked deep deep questions, and Elys didn’t know the answers. Her sister’s expression was like the call of ages past, beckoning Elys to return – to dare. Her sister was like her very Self, who had been ripped from her. How could Elys get back to her now? And what about the flood?
Elys sat in the man’s boat drifting towards the mainland for what seemed like years, all the time with the younger sister haunting her in her heart. But Elys feared the flood.
Eventually Elys knew she must say “No!” – with a voice that would re-sound down through the ages, with a voice so strong and clear that great wrongs would be righted at its vibration.
Part II
Elys gave birth to a daughter, and together with their strength they jumped up and pushed the man from the boat. Elys took the paddle in her own hands and rowed it back to the house and land where her sister was.
A flood never did come. Oh yes the ocean swelled and moved strongly, but Elys and her daughter and her sister became surfers. They didn’t have to be afraid. They played all day long in the salty water and bravely rode the strong waves. And truly they knew that this was their home.
Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone