Thank you, Mother Nature.
Watching my thunderstorms and wind curve away from North Carolina had been a dream come true. I now just shred apart in the cooler North Atlantic waters and choose a cluster of clouds to become on my journey home.
You’re free now, Erin, explains my inner voice. I’ll ensure you get home safely.
The journey is long because I cross the Atlantic and the Contiguous US to reach the Pacific, but it lets me reflect on my adventure.
I started as a low-pressure Elemental Spirit off the coast of Cape Verde, who didn’t know right from wrong, but now I’m a Spirit who spares instead of killing. I can’t stop the humans, but now I realize that not all of them are evil. It only took weeks as a hurricane to prove this to Mom, Mother Nature, and me. I won’t forget the horrors I saw, but I also won’t forget the good. I think it’s a mix of these two things that makes me feel the most at peace I have in a while.
I drift across the blue skies of the Pacific and look down.
Large, light blue figures appear in the water, followed by whistles. A humpback whale breaches and splashes back into the ocean, flapping his tail.
A second whale breaches after him, then a third, and a calf who’s still working on it. It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen, and the memory lingers in my mind for the rest of the day.
When nighttime falls, thousands of stars appear in the sky, and I remember when Mom, Dad, and I would measure them to navigate the ocean on our sailing trips. They were good distractions from the fear of losing our island.
A shooting star skims across the sky, and I keep my focus on it until the sun rises and covers it in pink, red, and orange.
Finally, after a long journey, I see a flock of seagulls soaring across the ocean toward a few reefs and an atoll.
The closer I get, the more I recognize the low-lying island and the small cluster of buildings in only one corner of it. Funafuti was always Mom, Dad, and mine’s go-to spot for a vacation, and now I remember why. It’s still warm and beautiful, and if I could cry, I would, seeing Funafuti again. Mom and I were on our way here after losing our island, but we never made it; instead, we woke up as Elemental Spirits.
Now I’m back as a cloud Spirit and slowly pass over the atoll, admiring the reefs and sky-blue water as I go.
I never thought I would be home again, but here I am, a Spirit who was once a Category 5 hurricane.
A green sea turtle pokes its head out of a reef and examines my towering form, and that’s when I finally decide to ask.
Mother Nature, may I be a turtle in my next life?
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Final Word Count: 5,000
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and then Add to home screen.