why the waves roll in.

Before me, the oceans were calm.

There were no waves, no thundering storms, just calm ocean water. Ships sailed
without fear and all was peaceful.

I was born from the first storm, born from the dark raging waters that made even the
most skilled sailors stay inland. I leapt from the crashing waves and collapsed on the shore, just
a young girl with lightning hair and thundering eyes.

Papa tells me the story all the time, how he was there that day. Walking the beach every
morning like he always does, he explains there was an electricity in the wind, a sense of
impending loss in the air.

That’s when the first waves crashed against the shoreline, so deafening, the anger was
felt through the ground. The ocean seemed to weep, to mourn, to rage at the loss of its prize.
Who would not cry at the loss of something so precious? And there I was, in a heap of sand
and sea salt, just a child. Just a girl.

Papa tells me what a miracle I am, a gift stolen from the sea just for him. Tells me how
the waves still crash and roar, trying to steal me back. He took me to his house on the sea cliffs,
poured hot water on me till the shaking stopped and purple faded from my fingertips. I don’t
remember those first days. Papa says I barely looked human, all skin and bone, sharp edges
underneath my skin. It took days to finally wash all the salt water from my lungs, enough to
where every breath didn’t burn. He told me stories to pass the time, he tells me now he didn’t
even know if I spoke english. Told me about the town and ships sailing in the harbor, told me
old stories about his wife and how she would’ve loved my hair. My hair was the color of the sand
along the beaches and my eyes the color of the sea when it was angry.

When I finally found my voice, I shocked us both by asking who I was. I had no memory
of my life before the waves. When neither of us had an answer he named me Oceane, a
remembrance of my birthplace. The daughter of the sea, he calls me.

I command the tides, like the moon, I am the oceans prize.