It was a chilly November evening, on a small beach crowned by warm olive trees, that I first stepped on the Mediterranean and did not sink. A gentle orange hue spread slowly over the horizon, glowing dimly with disinterest, and drew a sidelong glance at my still figure. A strong gust blew some cold leaves on my bare feet, then carried them away carefully. I stood on the water. I felt the tide wash over me, retreat meekly, and charge valiantly again, each time taking and returning handfuls of sand to that endless coast in pursuit of some goal unknown to all but itself. I must have stood for an hour or so, because the Sun was already closing its uncaring eye by the time I started walking.

     I don’t know how long I walked, but I eventually turned back to discover the ghastly figure of the coast barely visible above the waves. My feet were dry. I looked around, and I wasn’t surprised to discover nothing but water. Yet the waves seemed to whisper as they broke. They asked me to come, and I came. They asked me to go, and I went. Eventually they stopped whispering, and they left me alone. They left me alone in that big sea that might as well have been an empty parking lot. I grew a little annoyed with the water– it followed me wherever I went, and it followed me wherever I didn’t go. I decided the only sensible thing was to sit and to wait, so I did both. I sat and I waited. So long I waited, in so still a pose, that I eventually fell asleep completely upright, and I slept peacefully like that until the next evening.

     When I awoke, I found a fisherman reeling in his bait a few feet away. He didn’t seem to mind much of anything.

     “Good morning,” he said.

     “Good morning.”

     A long silence ensued. He reeled in his bait, and I sat.

     “What are you doing here?” he asked, tactfully.

     I cocked my head a little, and looked at the fisherman. “I’m sitting”

     “I don’t think you can do that,” he said, drawing his eyes away from the fishing rod for a moment.

     “Why not?”

     “Well, if we could all sit on the sea, then the sea would be full of people, wouldn’t it?”

     I thought about it. The fisherman was right; I liked the sea empty. “I won’t be long,” I ventured.

     The fisherman whistled. He had caught a fish.

     “I’m not here to kick you out,” he said. “I caught a fish, so I’m going back to the shore now.” Then he went back to the shore, and he left me alone again.

     With the fisherman gone, I figured the best way to pass the time was to walk and to think, so I did both. I walked and I thought. I thought about where I wanted to go, or if I really wanted to go anywhere. I thought about being hungry, and suddenly I was hungry. Where would I find food? Where would I find potable water? Where would I find other people? I remembered the sandals I left at the beach. I remembered them because I felt my feet getting wet. I looked down, and my feet were no longer on the water. My feet were in the water, and so were my legs. I was waist-deep in Mediterranean sea. I felt the thoughts slip from my mind, and then I was dry again. The whole ordeal was very exhausting, so I resolved to sit and to rest until I recovered. I was about to fall asleep sitting when a shark came up to talk to me.

     “Excuse me,” said the polite shark. “Could you come down into the water? Me and my friends want to eat you.”

     “I’m afraid I can’t,” I replied. I was afraid I couldn’t. “I can only walk and sit on water.”

     The shark sighed a dejected sigh. “That’s ok.”

     I stared blankly at the shark. The shark stared blankly at me.

     “What are you doing here?” the fisherman asked.

     “What? Shouldn’t you be at the shore?”

     “The shore? I’m a deep water shark,” replied the shark.

     “I’m sorry, I thought you were a fisherman,” I said, with a tinge of shame.

     “Its okay,” replied the shark.

     I was about to stare blankly at the shark again when a second shark came up and whispered something to the first shark, who seemed to glow with excitement.

     “Its okay, you don’t have to come down here anymore,” he told me. “We found a fisherman, and we’re going to ask to eat him instead”

     “Okay,” I replied, and the sharks left me alone again.

     It was dark now, and the Moon illuminated the little fish who began crowding around me. I looked at them with deep curiosity. I wondered if they thought about leaving their sandals on the shore. Then a voice spoke, and the fish left.

     “What are you doing here?” asked the Moon.

     “What? Who is this?” I asked back

     “This is the Moon,” replied the Moon. I turned around to look at the Moon.

     “I’m sitting,” I replied.

     “That’s okay. Do you want to sit with me?,” asked the Moon with a caramel voice.

     I nodded, and I walked to the edge of the Mediterranean sea. I hung my feet over the endless abyss below. The Moon and I sat like that for a while, staring at the same sea and the same stars.

     “I’ll give you three wishes,” said the Moon. “Any three wishes you want”

     “I don’t want any wishes,” I replied, hoping the Moon wouldn’t be offended. The Moon wasn’t offended.

     “That’s okay.”

     I laid down on the water. I felt myself sink a little.

     “Moon?”

     “Yes?”

     “Do you ever wish you could be someone else?”

     The Moon nodded. “All the time. It’s terribly lonely up here.”

     We sat in quiet silence. The Moon asked, almost in a whisper. “Who do you want to be?”

     “You,” I answered. The Moon nodded. I knew it knew.

     I sank into the Mediterranean sea.