Oceans of Hope - Sample

São Paulo, MMXXIV

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here had been a time before the boat and the sea, before they had found each other and fallen in love, when the world had seemed a shadow of itself; half Tthere, frightfully ambiguous, never fully saturated with form and colour. 吀栀ey had been di昀昀erent creatures in seclusion, rudderless, dri昀琀ing alone in the listless currents of their private sadness. In the interim, time itself seemed to have eluded them; there was no night or day, no sun or moon, bioluminescent stars slipped like hourglass-sand between their 昀椀ngers and faded from the sky. Once they were 昀椀nally united however, they could somehow endure the world together and 昀椀nd some hope where there previously had been none. 吀栀ey had subsequently not dared imagine if those elusive maritime currents had drawn them towards each other by chance or design. Irregardless, and by some mutual agreement, they had relinquished their old lives to abandoned shores and formed themselves anew. Together they believed themselves greater than the sum of their parts, an entirely new creature untamed by their mutual wills and appetites. United in their new guise together, they both felt their mutual love with a burning passion which they were convinced eclipsed the very stars in the cosmos and reached the fundaments of the deepest ocean trench. Hardly had they found each other, when they could no longer set foot on solid ground. Fate - or some other preordained arrangement of the stars - did not allow for them to conceive together, so their mutual dream of a boat, became their mutual dream of a child. 吀栀ey had found her sitting on a ramshackle constellation by the harbour, all but obscured underneath a grey plastic awning. Unveiled, their hearts had warmed to a forty-foot ketch with two sturdy masts, weathered canvas sails, and a cabin adequate enough to serve their modest needs. 吀栀e rudder and spars needed work and the underside of the hull would need to be stripped and new coats of paint and sealant applied. In the end they chose to believe that alms had been extended towards them for their childlessness. Agreement done in blood and paper, they applied everything of themselves 07