Lovely Waters

Every year when the first Blood Magnolia blooms, its elegant blossom is plucked by a husband’s quivering hand and laid into the first batch of red dye made that year. This has happened from the start of time, each year, each first blossom. The dyes are crafted into the most exquisite wedding gowns by the mourning mother and sisters of the chosen girl, their tears mixing with each seam sown. The gown is then dressed onto the chosen girl, her body slipping into the celebratory clothing of marriage for the second time in her life. But unlike the first time for most of these girls, when their eyes were sparkling with the anticipation of a new chapter in their lives. This time was different. Some girls scream and cry, thrashing at their fate, some are completely silent, the dullness in their eyes so hollow it could swallow the world. But all the girls screaming were always soundless when they reached the top of the temple overlooking the ocean. Some were forcefully gagged but care was taken not to bruise their face which held beauty divine. There the ceremony began. The priest made a marriage bonding ceremony and the girl was escorted to the open balcony by her sisters and mother, then thrown into the ocean. The village people were all witnesses of the marriage. The glittering in all the young women’s eyes turns to the glittering of the ocean every mid-summer noon or end of winter midnight.

The legend reads that there is a father of the ocean, who saw a beautiful woman on the shores, he fell in love with her as soon as he laid eyes on her. Yet, when he reached out to embrace her he drowned her. The father of the ocean was enraged. In anger, he ordered his sisters who were mermaids out to kill all sailors that ventured into the ocean so that they would never be able to marry just like him. The mermaids would charm the men with their beauty and siren song only to drag them into the deep, drowning them. After that, more and more sailors disappeared to their fate, and the people who relied on fish as their main source of food made an agreement with the father of the sea. Each year when the first Blood Magnolia blooms the youngest and most beautiful woman in the village is thrown into the ocean to be his bride. Fewer sailors went missing after that but also fewer people wandered the oceans each year. The names of all the brides were carved into the stones that spiraled infinitely up to the top of the temple. The temple was unclimbable all other days until this day when a new step appeared with the fresh bride of the ocean. Yangjin, Chuni, Songyu, Hujia, and all the prettiest women spiral up the tower as they are dragged into the deep.

One year, when the first Blood Magnolia bloomed, a girl named Sunjia was picked. All her liveliness and charm left her body when the priest knocked on her door. She sank soundlessly into her family's arms. Weeks passed and the flower was thrown into the dye and the most intricate gowns were made. Her husband, unlike all the other husbands, refused to pick the flower that would dye his wife’s last dress. He fought when the time came to pick the flower and for the first-ever time, the old rules were broken. He was as loud as Sunjia was silent, his voice could be heard from the front of the priest’s house. The screams challenged the crashing waves spraying the shores whispering the names of the brides. Every night he screamed until his voice gave out but the ocean never gave out and never will. Night after night passed until it was the time of the sacrifice.

On the day of the ritual, the man ripped and tore at the wedding gowns of his wife but he could not enter the temple. He saw her last on the open balcony with her mother and sisters, her ragged gown flying around her face and body like tentacles. He could not bear to look at her fall so he closed his eyes and the splash seemed to explode in his own body. As if he were the ocean, how he wished he was the ocean. His insides rippled with the goneness of his wife. He could not scream.

That night he ragged with the hurt of his wife forever gone. An instinct seemed to carry him to his boat through the cutting rain. It seemed to bear down on him, the weight of water. He seemed to embody it, daring it to drown his wife. He cut through the waves as they seemed to rise around him, throwing his boat inward from both sides. The wind screamed the loss, ripping the world apart. The man screamed his wife’s name over and over again louder than the ocean, the wind, the rain, and the world. Suddenly, he saw his wife’s face among the waves. He opened his mouth and the salty wind and rain water flew in. “Sunjia!” He cried. He couldn’t trust his sight. His wife's face seemed to be reflecting the moonlight and her hair floated around her half-submerged face. There was an unexplainable grace about her, she seemed to dance with the ocean. The storm thronged as her orchestra. The man rowed as hard as he could toward his wife as she seemed more beautiful than he had ever seen her. The ocean seemed to fall back and spots of light emerged in the dark ocean. To the man's surprise as he looked at them they were Yangjin, Chuni, Songyu, Hujia, and more he faintly remembered from sacrifices in his childhood. But most of them he could not recognize and there were millions of them turning the ocean white. The man looked around and tried to row away. That’s when they opened their mouths and began to sing.