Sadier took my arm, Seth took my wife’s arm, and we walked outside. The waves became louder as we walked. We stepped from grass to sand. After a while, the sand became firm under my feet, informing me that we were close to water. They carefully guided us up a narrow ramp onto a wooden deck. Sadier showed us where we could sit while I heard Seth working the ropes in the background. We were moving.
When the shoreline was out of sight, Sadier took off our hoods. We were on a vessel not unlike the one I had journeyed here on. It was cutting through the water at high speed. Now it was a waiting game. Seth, Sadier, and I talked. I asked them a lot of questions but they didn’t answer them all.
The sun traveled toward the horizon and began to set. Seth said that the sailboat would cross the wall in an hour. It was going to be a close call. A half hour later, Seth spotted the sailboat. Light was beginning to fade. We honed in on the vessel. I swallowed hard, trying to be happy that we were going to make it. We glided up beside the sailboat so that my wife and I could board it.
Sadier and Seth hugged us. “Take this with you,” Seth said handing me a necklace. “Just so you don’t have to make the swim to shore. The lever on the machine slowly returns to its original position, so the lighthouse won’t call the sailboat to itself tonight, but this will make it take you right up to the pier.” “I look forward to the day when we will meet again, Cepheril,” Sadier said to me. “How will I find you?” I asked, not wanting the conversation to end. “The day will come,” Sadier replied. “Be humble and be faithful.” I sighed but flashed a smile. Then I turned toward the sailboat. I stepped from deck to deck, arriving on the boat that was about to cross the wall and return to the natural world. My wife followed reluctantly. “Say hello to the lighthouse for me,” Seth shouted as he let their sail go limp, causing their boat to start slowing. We sped ahead in ours as they floated there watching us sail to the wall. I watched them fade away. It was dark, but I do believe I noticed them suddenly disappear. That informed me that we had crossed the wall. I didn’t feel that chilly feeling this time. My wife and I sat against the back railing of the boat, looking out at the sea, taking in the moment. She laid her head on my shoulder. I was happy. She slept but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to miss a moment of this ride. I thought back on what I had been doing at this time last night. I had just pulled the lever and connected the machine to the apparatus. Hours passed as the sailboat gently brought us home. It wasn’t nearly as foggy tonight and I started to see lights in the distance. The sailboat steered parallel with the shoreline about 300 yards out. After twenty minutes or so, I saw our lighthouse’s beacon now returned to it’s normal two seconds on eight seconds off. The vessel edged right up to the pier, so close that we were able to step off comfortably. We sat on the edge of the pier and watched it sail away into the night. Then we went inside the lighthouse and climbed into bed. We decided to find a new home because using the lighthouse again was too great a temptation. As the years passed by, it became hard for us to believe that our trip to the afterlife had even happened. We asked each other if perhaps it was just a dream we had conjured up together. But of course, deep down we both knew it had really happened. My wife was different in many ways after the experience. She longed to see and feel the glory of that city again. I hadn’t seen the city like she did, but I didn’t need to. For many years, I had felt that longing and that awareness that such awe lay just beyond us. We love our lives and we have reached a place where we are not restless. We are thankful for what we have been given. But as we grow older, our hearts leap with excitement as we think on the glorious world that awaits us in the end.
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