Gardena High School - El Arador Yearbook (Gardena, CA)

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forward, toward the edge of the cliff— toward the tossing, menacing, black sea. A cold, unthinking terror gripped me. My impression did not form into thought before I could think I had seized her arm- I felt surely that she had meant to throw herself into the seething, eager waters. At my touch she turned, and her eyes were wild and black and stormy— like the sea. Her eyes held me. I knew that she could shake off my puny human strength lightly, if she would. She was, like the sea, omnipotent. Then the moment was gone. Her intent had passed from her, leaving her rather bewildered, dazed. We ' d better go home, I said, awkwardly. She did not answer. We w ent back silently, as we had come; but there was a difference. She seemed more human than ever before, in her bewilderment. Now 1 knew that she did not understand herself, that she was, for the first time, even slight- ly concious of herself. And I knew that she was alarmed and frightened at what she found. I was rather reluctant to see Seena again the next day, but I was also curious. I wondered whether she would be changed. As it happened, I did not see her the next day. My uncle, having collected enough material, folded his tent.s and silently stole away, taking me with him. I never saw her again. Some years later I came back to the village, purposely to see her She was not there- Her mother told nie that she had married, and living in Nebraska. The news stunned me. Seena, the child of the sea, living in Nebraska! It was ludicrous and ridiculous and unbelievable, and I would not believe it But when I realized it, when it became true tome, I saw the bitter tragedy. It would have been better, 1 thought, if she had cast herself into the sea that stormy night. I know she would have lived then — now she is dead. Seena away from her sea! I hope never to see her again- I want no other picture to take the place of the vibrant, living figure in my mind. Seena torn from her sea— her life! If she had been as I knew her, she would not have gone. She changed, I know. That night changed her; it revealed her to herself, and the realization frightened her. She went, thinking to break the bonds that bound her to the sea. She has found, I am sure, that it is impossible. Living things must fade— living things must die - - but what a cruel death ! I cannot quite under- stand why such people are born but to die. But perhaps they they do not die. Perhaps there is something of them that exists, in a way we do not know, afterward. — Throla Bach ' 32