Somewhere Beyond the Sea

“It’s hard.” “What is?” “Being alive.” “It is,” Arthur agreed. “But perhaps that’s the point: the trials and tribulations of life weigh heavily upon us, but we find people to help lighten the load.”

“See me. See me for who I am. I am magic. I am human. I am inhuman. See me. I am a boy. I am a girl. I am everything and nothing in between. See me. You do. You see me. You recoil in fear. You scream in anger. See me. I bleed. I ache. You see me, and you wish you hadn’t. You wish I was invisible. Out of sight, out of mind. Unseen, faded, muted. You want my color. You want my joy. You want a monochrome world with monochrome beliefs. You see me, and you want to take it all away. But you can’t. You want me lost, but I am found in the breaths I take, in the spaces between heartbeats. I am found because I refuse to be in black and white, or any shade of gray. I am color. I am fire. I am the sun, and I will burn away the shadows until only light remains. And then you will have no choice but to see”

“If you go into a situation expecting the worst, it may cloud your ability to see what good can come from it.”

“I’m an adult who does adult things, like taxes and laundry and being sad for no reason.”

“But I believe the greatest weapon we have at our disposal is our voices. And I am going to use my voice for you, and for me. Hate is loud. We are louder.”

“Confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud.”

“There is magic in the ordinary, magic that has the power to change the world.”

“Even the smallest of things can change the world, if only one is brave enough to try.”

“Linus told me something once, and I think about it a lot. He said it’s okay to not be okay, so long as it doesn’t become all we know.”

“See me.See me for who I am. I am magic. I am human. I am inhuman.See me.I am a boy. I am a girl. I am everything and nothing in between.See me.You do. You see me. You recoil in fear. You scream in anger.See me.I bleed. I ache. You see me, and you wish you hadn’t. You wish I was invisible.Out of sight, out of mind. Unseen, faded, muted. You want my color. You want my joy. You want a monochrome world with monochrome beliefs. You see me, and you want to take it all away. But you can’t.You want me lost, but I am found in the breaths I take, in the spaces between heartbeats.I am found because I refuse to be in black and white, or any shade of gray.I am color. I am fire.I am the sun, and I will burn away the shadows until only light remains.And then you will have no choice but to see me.”

“Let them listen to what joy sounds like. Maybe they’ll learn a thing or two.”

“What is this evil place, you might be asking? Great question!” He spread his hands wide in a practiced display of showmanship. “It’s called … Florida.”

“Lucy tilted his head back, staring up at the ceiling. “It’s hard.”“What is?”“Being alive.”“It is,” Arthur agreed. “But perhaps that’s the point: the trials and tribulations of life weigh heavily upon us, but we find people to help lighten the load.”

“When I lived in the city, I dreamed in color, of places where the sea stretched on for miles and miles. [...] But what I didn’t expect was that the color didn’t come from the ocean, or the trees, or even the island itself. It came from all of you.”

“He’s not going to fight Jesus,” Talia said. “Last night, Lucy stubbed his toe and cried until Zoe kissed it, so all Jesus has to do is wait for that, and the fight is over.”

“You are sunlight chasing away the clouds on a rainy day. You are the brightest flower in a garden where color fights to exist.”

“This was hope; the children, love letters to a future that had yet to be decided. Yes,..hope was this thing with feathers, but is was also in the hearts and minds of those who believed all was not lost, no matter the odds.”

“They surround themselves with like-minded people, and it creates an echo chamber that’s nigh on impossible to escape. A feedback loop that never ends.”

“Can you promise he’s not going to split the planet open like an egg?”“Oh,” Arthur said. “I highly doubt it. You see, he’s still learning how to crack chicken eggs properly, so I expect it’ll be quite some time before he’s ready for planetary destruction.”Every dace stared up at him in shock.“Remember what I told you about your sense of humor?” Linus hissed at him. “Now is not the time to try and be funny!”“Try,” Arthur huffed. “Ouch.” He raised his voice once more. “That was a poor attempt at humor. My apologies. To answer your question, Earth will not be destroyed today.”“Or anytime in the future,” Linus added loudly.”

“We have to trust them. And then we have to do the scariest thing of all: step back and hope for the best.”

“You want me lost, but I am found in the breaths I take, in the spaces between heartbeats. I am found because I refuse to be in black and white, or any shade of gray. I am color. I am fire. I am the sun, and I will burn away the shadows until only light remains. And then you will have no choice but to see me.”

“A great man once said stories of imagination upset those without one.”

“But perhaps that’s the point: the trials and tribulations of life weigh heavily upon us, but we find people to help lighten the load.”

“When we live in fear, it controls us. Every decision we make is smothered by it. I refuse to live like that any longer.”

“They’re certainly not kidnapping me,” David told the conductor. “Because I’m an adult who does adult things, like taxes and laundry and being sad for no reason.” Unfazed, the conductor said, “How wonderful! I, too, am filled with an encroaching dread over my own mortality.”

“History is full of different people making the same mistakes over and over again, never learning from the actions of those who came before them. Time can sometimes prove to be a vicious circle in that regard. People in power attempting to tell others how they should live their lives, but only in the bounds of what they consider acceptable. Gatekeepers who believe it is up to them to decide what is morally correct or not.”

“He said it’s okay to not be okay, so long as it doesn’t become all we know.”

“So what do we do?”“We live,” Arthur said.“And if they try and take our children from us?”“Then we fight.”

“Lucy eyed him slyly. “What if I don’t become who you want me to be?”Arthur expected this. Pushing up against perceived boundaries, testing how far they could stretch. All the children did this at one point or another. It went back to what Arthur had said during the hearing, about children being told no and immediately asking why. “I would love you just the same.”

“How could he tell one child he could be a thing, but tell another that he couldn’t do the same? Granted, David’s idea of being a monster wasn’t the same as Lucy’s, but was it fair to hold one person to a standard and another to something else entirely?”