Chapter 201 - Dr. Malachi – Exiting The Mind

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Abraham Malakai

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I am done here now. There was nothing else for me to see. I just needed to leave Ocean's sea of memories and return to his safe place inside his mind. From there I would be able to end all of this hypnosis stuff.

I needed to start by swimming back to the surface of the water. I needed to be out of the stream of memories before I could do anything else at all. The only bad thing was that it wasn't an easy swim. On the way down all of it had been easier since I hadn't disturbed the memories at all. Now, though, the memories had known that I was here and were trying to get me to see them.

Most of the memories were random and had nothing to do with the things that I had come here to see. I was doing my best to avoid them, swimming out of their way to make sure that didn't damage Ocean's recollection of things.

That is, until there was a memory that popped up before my eyes that caught me by surprise. In the memory, there was a young Ocean. He was probably six or seven years old at the time. He was at the beach with his family, and he kept looking over at a man that was staring at the water with sad eyes. He had his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them in a very defensive manner.

Ocean, not understanding that he should probably just leave the man alone, detached from his little family group and walked over to the man. This man just happened to be sitting in front of Ocean's favorite spot on the beach. And there was something else that caught my eye about the man. He looked familiar. He was the man that had found Ocean on the beach when he was a baby.

"Are you OK, mister?" Little Ocean asked the man when he was right next to him.

"Huh?" The man jumped a little, startled by the fact that someone had called out to him while he was contemplating. "Oh, I didn't see you there." He rubbed the back of his head and laughed in embarrassment. "I am sorry about that, little man. I was just lost in thought."

"You look really sad." Ocean sat down next to him. He was looking at the man rather than looking at the water. "Why are you sad?" Ocean, at this young state, was a very feminine and pretty looking boy. There were traces of the man that he was going to become, but he was definitely cute, and more than a little pretty.

"I am just thinking about things. There was someone that I knew a long time ago. Someone that I was not able to forget about. I met her here, on this beach. And now, when I start thinking about her again and missing her, I come back here. I guess it's to be closer with her. Or maybe I am hoping to run into her again, to see her smiling face again after all these years." The man sounded heartbroken now, the embarrassment completely gone from his voice.

"You must really like her if you're that sad about her." The young Ocean didn't know what he was talking about, he was just saying the things that little kids always say when they start talking. However, he seemed to hit the nail on the head. I don't know if the young version of Ocean ever really realized what he had done there or not, but he had cracked the man's shell. He had opened him up so that he would open up to Ocean more.

"Yeah, I did." There was a painful smile on his face. "I haven't seen her since she ran away about six years ago. She and I had lived together for a couple of months. She was with me almost constantly and it was the best couple of months of my life. I swear, being with her was like being in heaven. She was so beautiful, and so smart. And the conversations we would have, they were so unique and different. I often felt like she was from a completely different world than the one we were living in so when we tried new things together, it was like she was a little kid experiencing something new." The man was talking candidly, and completely as if he was not speaking with a child.

"She must have been nice. I wish I could meet her. But that was before I was born. I won't be six until October." The man laughed and ruffled Ocean's hair then.

"She probably would have liked you. She always talked about kids like they were the best thing in the world. She wanted us to start a family right away, but I just wasn't ready for it. I wish I would have agreed though, maybe she would have stayed." I could see tears in the man's eyes, something that wasn't common in a man that was just talking to a kid on the beach.

"Did you start a family with someone else?" Ocean tilted his head and asked him in true child-like curiosity.

"No, I don't have a family yet. I want one, but I can't bring myself to love anyone but her. It's like I can't forget about her. Her sweet voice, the way that she sang to me all the time, the cute little laugh that she used to giggle at me with. I am still in love with her."

"I'm sorry." Little Ocean looked sad now. "My family didn't want me when I was born. That's why I was adopted. The family I have now is the best. You really should have a family, though. I think it would make you happier. I don't know what I would do without my family."

"I am glad you found a family to love you. That is a good thing, you were lucky."

"Yeah, I am." Ocean smiled at the man. "So, mister, what did you do if you didn't start a family? You haven't been here on the beach the whole time." 

"No, I haven't been here the whole time." The man laughed again, ruffling his hair once more. "No, what I did was go back to the Navy. I was a sailor before I met her. I was on leave for a few months and that was during the time that I met her. After she left me, I threw my all into my work. I have been working in the navy ever since. Even now, I am only on leave and will be sent out again soon. I just had to come back here, though. I had to see if I could find her. It was worth a shot, right?" There was a small sliver of hope in the man's eyes. It was like he knew that he wasn't going to see her and didn't want to be here, but there was that small chance, the small possibility that he would see his lost love once again. And so, he was here just staring at the water.

"What was her name?" Ocean asked him. "What was the lady's name?"

"Her name was Corazon. It means heart and that was what she was to me. She was my heart, and now I am missing it."

"Names are an interesting thing." Ocean smiled at him. "What is your name, mister?"

"My name is Hudson."

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Hudson, my name is-."

"OCEAN, GET BACK OVER HERE!" The boy's mom called out to him and he jumped to his knees, spinning to look at her almost immediately. "I got to go."

"Wait. Your name is Ocean?" The man was confused as he looked at the boy running away from him.

"Yup. Bye mister. It was nice talking to you."

I could see the man was still staring at Ocean as he ran away. He was most likely thinking about the fact that the boy had told him that he would be six in October and then the name that he himself had given to the little boy.

"No. It couldn't be..." He shook his head and looked back at the water.

"Ocean, you don't run off, and you don't talk to strangers." Mrs. Shores was scolding her son when he got back to her.

"I am sorry Mommy. The man looked sad. I wanted to know why and to make him feel better."

"That doesn't matter, Ocean. He's a stranger. You don't know him at all."

"He was nice, Mommy. He misses the woman he loves. She ran away so he is sad and hoping to find her here."

"That is sad, but you don't run off like that, got it?"

"Yes, Mommy." Ocean hung his head. That was the end of the memory. I guess that was the most memorable thing that happened for him at the beach that day.

I was still stuck on the fact that this was the man that found Ocean and that the man met a woman on this beach and was in love with her. A woman named Corazon. Could Corazon be Cora? I was starting to think that it was.

Now that I had seen this memory, I hurried as quickly as I could to the surface of the water. I made quick work of it now, the memories seemingly satisfied with having showed me that added little detail. I was glad too. That was something that might come in handy for me later.

Finally, I breached the surface of the water and moved to shift back into my human self. The good thing about metaphysical travel like this, I didn't have to worry about being naked when I shifted back.. Now, when I approached Ocean on the beach I didn't have to traumatize the poor boy.