It was a full moon that night. The entire house and the entire beach were silver white. She looked for the spot where she had seen the lady in her dream and stood there.
‘Ask the sea for help,’ she remembered.
So the young wife stretched her arms out to the sea and, losing herself to her wish, started to chant:
«Mother of all things
Help me carry the seed
Waters of the sea
Make a mother of me.»
And she repeated these words until the sun began to break through the horizon.
Her husband found her in the morning, lying on the beach. He couldn’t tell if she was unconscious or just sleeping but, relieved as he was, he didn’t understand why or how she was there to begin with.
Nine months later the young girl went into labor. A very painful and difficult one. A midwife had been called for to assist the mother but, alas, she died giving birth to a baby girl.
But the baby wouldn’t cry. The midwife did all she knew, but the child wasn’t breathing at all.
Heartbroken, the father wrapped the stillborn girl on the best blanket his wife had knitted for the occasion and carried her to the beach. He placed her in the waves and prayed to the sea to take good care of their child.
Pardel stopped for a moment and looked at the other pirates.
They were all teary-eyed, some even sniffing and rubbing their noses against their sleeves.
‘What happened next? Did the father give himself to the gods? Dear me, I know I would, havin’ lost me wife an’ child…’
‘He buried his wife and left. To the East, some say, or maybe the desert lands. Anywhere that was as far from the sea as he could. Which means he has never known that his daughter survived.’
The whole ship gasped.
‘Alive?’, the pirates asked.
‘Why, of course,’ Pardel replied. ‘He begged the sea gods to take care of his daughter. And take very good care of her they did.’
Isidora Works 