The Island

How did I know she was the one? She completed the dream. Almost a year ago I found a small island off the coast of Greece that has one resort on the island. The entire resort has 14 suites. And the suites are spread out enough so one can’t even see the another. No TVs, radios, computers. None of the distractions. Just calm.

Each suite has an individual swimming pool and the pool starts in your room. You stand up out of bed and dive in the pool. Then you swim outside. You can walk out the backdoor too, but who’s gonna do that when you got a pool? Anyway, I’ve had this dream for a year. I’m lying in bed; I stand up and stretch and then jump in the pool. I swim outside and turn the corner...that’s it. Sometimes I stop to admire the view, sometimes other random things happen.

I have imagined the end of the dream so many times, I’ve lost count. I imagine I turn the corner and a beautiful woman will be sitting there in her bathing suite, with a cover over her shoulders and a hat. Sitting at the edge of the pool looking off into the distance.

The thing about this imaginary ending is it became a weird sort of test. I’ve had a few dates and each one I imagine sitting on my island, staring out to the sea. It never felt right.

But then...

Even before I could imagine her, she finished the dream. It had been a while since I had dreamt it, but there it was as if I had woken there every morning of my life. I swam out and took in a deep breath, such a beautiful place then I turned and I didn’t wake up. There she was. Not looking up, reading a book. Sitting on the edge of the pool with her back against a wall and her knees practically to her chest. A glass of wine next to her and the slightest smile on her face as if the story she read matched perfectly to the paradise that surrounded her.

My breath caught in my lungs.

I didn’t say a word. I waded in the pool, watching her. Admiring her beauty, her grace, her calmness. It felt like I was frozen in time forever. The only evidence of progression was a slight breeze that swayed the water around me and her soft movement as she turned the page. I can still hear the sound of the crisp paper sliding across the book before she lifting to turn it.

The dream finished itself better than I ever could. With the woman I never would have imagined. My eyes opened slower that morning then I can ever remember waking before. As if I was still stuck in time. I have never been so calm.

I relive every moment of that dream when I close my eyes, but it has never come back to me. So many times, I wondered and longed for an ending. Now I long more to go back. I don’t know which torture is the worse, having the end live so long in darkness or disappearing so quickly after seeing the light.

At least I can imagine. I close my eyes and see it again.