I sit on my towel, getting sand on my legs. I watch the surfers out on the water. They seem so carefree. Watching the children running along the water’s edge, playing at who would be first to have the water touch them. I can hear their shrieks but I cannot feel anything for them. As I sit, all I can think of is the things the sea has taken from me. It took my father, it took my first love and it has taken my child. I have cursed it, I have pleaded with it but it doesn’t give anything back.

I feel so hopeless but I just cannot do anything about it, except sit here and hope it gives up what belongs to me. I don’t think I will ever forget the day they told me my wife had drowned. I should never have let her go out that night. I knew there was something not quite right about the people she was going out with. I should have listened to that instinct. Of course, I soon found out which one was the culprit. I made him suffer for what he did to that beautiful woman. I think the police suspected something of what I had done but they left me alone. Alone in my grief, except for the one bright spot that was my daughter.

She was just as beautiful as her mother. Blonde hair and eyes that changed colour with her mood. I was so proud when she was born. Her mother glowed for so long. I know she just wanted to let her hair down after being stuck at home with a baby but I wish she had stayed home. Or I had been able to work things out before it was too late. Instead she missed out on so much time with our daughter. Next thing I knew she was all grown up. Such a beautiful and popular young lady. I didn’t have the heart to say no when she wanted to go out with her friends. If only I had been a little more strict, I wouldn’t be sitting here now. She thought it would never happen to her. I think I was cursed by the sea. It has taken so much. The police asked me to stay at home and wait for their call, but I have to be here. There is nowhere else for me without her.
So I sit and wait and hope they will find her washed up somewhere. So far 5 out of the eight kids that were on the boat have been found alive. Why can’t she be among them? What have I done to deserve this cruel twist of fate? Why can’t they find her? At least her mother was found relatively quickly, unlike my father. He was never found. I could not live with them not finding my baby girl. I can feel the hot salty tears trickling down my cheeks.