This Same Sea

100-word flash fiction based on a Surreal Saturday picture prompt from Alicia at A Storyteller’s Substack.

Thanks, Alicia.

The water ahead widens where the river pours into the sea.

Looking back over my shoulder it threads down through the valley, winding between old hills and sharp peaks.

Clouds—made of this same sea—tower at the headwaters.

Having been lifted up then spilled out, the water has now returned.

The river brought me here but it was always this same sea.

I cannot see into the darkness ahead but there can be no fear. I understand it is not departure but rejoining.

Sails billow and the current surges. I turn back forward. I am becoming what I have always been.

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