Inspired by the song Canoe, a BGM of Key's Rewrite.
Supported by the soft touches of the sand, with gentle waves trying to stroke their feet, they stared at the sun setting onto the horizon, a place no longer impossible to reach. As his five female friends began dancing in joy, he reminisced a memory in which his big dream started.
“Why are we going so high up, dad?”
“If you are afraid, close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you to do so,” His father responded, amazingly climbing the man-made tower of wood with such dexterity. Erasing Kevin’s fear of height was definitely one of the reason he wanted to such extent to climb the tower, but that’s not all: a scenery of something beyond was surely a present fitting for a boy of his age. Kevin did what he was told to do. Little did he know that he might never see the world they way he saw it before.
Not the sea; an island. Another island.
Little Kevin had been living his cheerful childhood life believing that the horizon is the end of the world. He was content with dancing with butterfly among the cherry bushes and challenging a wild boar in a game of cat and mouse. However, the cat’s out of the bag, and little Kevin no longer wishes for moments as trivial as having his mother sung him a lullaby before sleeping or pretending to hunt a reindeer. He was shaking, but no longer from the fear of height, but rather, the surge of new dreams and hope that was barely contained in his small body. The wonders of faraway land, how exciting, how mysterious.
When he was little, he hated the idea of cutting the trees in the island to build a tower that he thought was unnecessarily high. The trees were part of the nature, part of the island, part of what little world he could live in and with, and he could never allow any of it to disappear. He was still a child.
However, when he saw the vast ocean and the distant new world, he couldn’t help but marvel what wonders he could accomplish by such means. He remembered how his little palm tried to reach the world that seemed like an illusion, and felt warmth even when he didn’t physically touch them. It was as if the new world was his destiny, his fate, the place where his should could find comfort. And he thought he needed to be there.
So he constructed a boat so gigantic it could withstand the most devastating of storms. He realized that journey to such a wonderful land could never possibly be easy, and thus he took his five dearest friends and worked together to built the invincible. For a friend who finally found a purpose in life, for a friend whose eyes were burning like the flame that emits warmth in the coldest of night, the five were willing to support him whatever it takes.
For such giant to be born, countless of trees has been used. Kevin definitely felt absolute sorrow upon seeing his beloved island getting its beautiful nature molested; then again he wanted to touch the seemingly untouchable world, and that never came with low price. Many times had he fallen deeper into misery and dilemma; of what’s right and what’s just, of what’s fair to him and to everyone else, of what nature gives and what he ruthlessly take. As he watched the forest he grew up with turned into stumps little by little, he kissed the island as a sign of gratitude.
He grew up with his dream of reaching the world beyond horizon. He grew up with the sound of axes chopping into the wood day by day, day and night. He grew up with the big boat of wood, of what little else the island can spare for the dream of a little child under its protection. He grew up with the rumors of the island slowly getting its life force depleted. He grew up driven to chase his dreams, to see the day the boat drew its first breath.
Looking at the boat, he surely thinks that this is an even greater accomplishment compared to the tower, albeit being still under construction of the last and the most vital part: the mast. However, as he turned to see the remnant of the nature, there is but one big tree. A tree with life flowing down its veins, the core of the island, the one and only Mother Tree. Although its heartbeat is already weak, he is sure Mother Tree alone can bring the island to its former glory. But letting the last sacrifice as it is, to the boat, is never an option. So without a cry, without word of apology, the boat is completed. Thus the journey begin.
As they set sail for the new world, everyone is excited, but never is Kevin more excited than uncomfortable. Looking back, the island begin to look smaller and smaller, as if every inch of it there has been devoured; but by who? Is it the vast ocean that began to overgrow the little island that makes it look less and less grand than he think it was, or is it his own gargantuan desire that eats up the island’s will and makes it look less and less alive?
“It is only us, us who will continue to live on,” he unconsciously whispered as he bid farewell to the island Earth.
In his beloved little world’s final moments, he wondered if the island is telling him to go, crossing the vast ocean full of the unknown. He wondered if the island is cheering as he slowly get closer and closer to the new world he had always spoken of, thought of, wished upon. He wondered if the island is willing to meet its end just to deliver him to this long, long journey to the new world that the island might not even know of. And before the island draw its last breath he wondered if he will remember of the world he used to love.
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