Garnet and Sapphire

The season has changed.
The wind it blows colder now, colder now.
The clouds are raised.
The rain it falls harder now, all around.

 "The Ocean"' by Mae

You introduced me to this song. Unknowingly, of course. I used to frequent your blog and I'd look up the cryptic lyrics you would post, in hopes of deciphering some meaning in the pretty words. 

We arrived at the beach house late last night. I didn't walk to the beach then--it was too cold and wet outside. I slept a little uncomfortably with a pillow and some blankets on the carpeted floor, and then woke up this morning at around 9 am. As I stepped into the shower, a flash of memory swept through me. I suddenly remembered that I had dreamt of you. You were asking me if you should buy certain gemstone iPhone cases -- a sapphire one for you, and a garnet one for your girlfriend.  You told me her name was Garnet. I told you they looked nice, but in reality I didn't particularly care. 

It's a little funny, you know. How someone who once meant the world to you could barely exist in your life years later. But when I walked along the shoreline this morning and stared out into the rippling waters of the Atlantic, I thought about what happened to you and me. How I used to pester you online almost every night, and how happy I was when you told me you could tell me almost anything. And then for some reason, it all disappeared.

I recollect the pieces each time I return to the ocean. Looking out from the highest bleachers, watching the Japanese horror movie on Halloween night, getting sugar highs from green tea ice cream, realizing that the brown streaks across the windshield were dead migrant butterflies. I wonder what you're doing now, though I have no real desire to know. The gravitational pull that once drew me to you is gone. But each time I return to the water, your song comes back to me again.