A bag of rocks and a bottle of Jack was the way to go. Martin Eldridge was done with the world.

Three years of living with the haunting memories of his wife, Laura, and their six-year-old Melanie, was too much. Their ghosts plagued his nights and shadowed his days.

“I’m coming to you. We will be together again.” He raised the near empty fifth and toasted the sea’s swelling waves. This was where their boat went down, taking his soul with it. The whiskey burned as he swigged a triple shot.

Martin threw the bottle into the sea. He reached down and heaved the bag of rocks—technically a net of stones. Tied to his waist with a towline, it would remove any options once tossed overboard.

His arms grew weary as he took one last gulp of air. “I’m on my way babies.” He dropped the weight into the water and followed it in.
Martin wasn’t prepared for the shock of icy coldness. He sucked in a lungful of water.



“What is he doing?” The voice of the child seeped into Martin’s brain.

“I believe the humans call it suicide.” A parental tone answered the youth with a note of irony. “This one thought he could join his loved ones. You may not remember the human woman and her guppy. They left this world bravely—unlike this one.”

Martin opened his eyes. He was on the bottom of the ocean. The bag of rocks was settled deep into the seabed. He inhaled and breathed air instead of water. In front of him, two orange fish looked at him as if he was the aquarium exhibit.

“He looks so sad, Mommy.”

“It’s what happens when our loved ones die. Most cope with it. This man has chosen the easy way.”

“Will he join the mother and child?”

Bubbles erupted from the larger fish as she let out a fish sigh. “It doesn’t work that way. He’s made a mistake.”

“So he will die for nothing.” The little fish’s eyes looked down. If they weren’t underwater, Martin would have guessed a tear fell from an eye.

“The Turtle will decide.”

“The Turtle is wise.”

Martin tried to respond. He wanted to know about the turtle, but couldn’t speak in the depths.

“Martin Human, what is your business in the deep?” The voice was deep and boomed with authority.

Martin looked up as a sea turtle as big as a whale descended before him. Martin tried to speak again and still found his talk stilted. He wanted to explain to this being his plan to reunite with his family.

“Your loved ones are not down here. They have moved on to their new existence. It is not your time.”

A cry of anguish was swallowed up by the blue—soundless.

“You must finish your life on land. There is much to accomplish. The physical is no longer yours to embrace. They will live in your heart.”

Martin’s mind flooded with all the joy of life with his wife and daughter. He smiled as understanding dawned.
“The Turtle is wise.”

“That he is. That he is.”



Martin opened his eyes to the sun rising over the endless ocean horizon. Two ripples of movement caught his eye. He swore he saw a blink of an orange tail.