The Selkies: The Skin Above the Bed
The hidden thing
Her father kept something hidden above the bed. Her mother searched for it whenever he went to sea.
Two kinds of silence
At the shore, her mother went quiet. The girl held her sleeve and watched the seals watching them.
What he took
Once, her father had found a woman beside an empty sealskin. He took the skin. Without it, she could not go home.
The life she made
Years passed. Her mother made a life with her children. She taught this daughter songs nobody else in the village knew.
A secret witnessed
One night, the girl woke as her father reached above the bed. Something silver slipped through his hands. He pushed it back.
The hiding place
Now his boat was beyond the headland. Her mother searched the bed again. The girl pointed upward.
Something remembered
Her mother pulled down the silver skin. She pressed it against her face. The girl had never seen her hold anything like that.
Another hiding place
The girl wanted to push it back above the bed. Supper would come. Her mother would sing. Everything could stay as it was.
Between them
Her mother knelt beside her, holding the skin. The girl caught her blue sleeve, as she always did beside the sea.
No easy promise
“Will you come back?” the girl asked. Her mother touched her cheek. “I don’t know.”
An open doorway
The girl let go of the sleeve and stepped aside. Her mother kissed her forehead. The doorway stood open.
The sea receives her
At the water, her mother drew the skin around herself. A grey seal slipped beneath the waves. The girl stayed on land.
The empty space
Her father came home and found the skin gone. He faced the girl in the doorway. Why had she let her mother leave?
The question left behind
The girl looked at his empty hands. “Why did you make her stay?” Outside, the tide was coming in.
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