I let out a sigh as I felt the midsummer breeze stroke my skin. It was just another lazy summer day when the sun is high and the world around you goes faster than your heavy breaths. One of those days that just passes, quickly slipping away like sand in an hourglass.

Heat radiated from the concrete. The harbor reeked of seaweed and salt. The sun was low in the sky, casting long shadows of the trees. The only sound was the breath of my friend Mara walking beside me. We saw a jogger’s lane, long and endless. It was empty and we decided to venture through.

It was quiet down there, with only the sounds of the waves lapping at the shore. Between the water and the lane, there was a small area where the ground was covered with wet sand and rocks.

“Let’s go in,” she suggested, starting to climb the fence.

I squeezed through a gap. It felt cold and smooth like the monkey bars we used to climb. We dipped our toes in the water; it was like rippling glass, so clear and icy. I could feel it start to numb my feet like a shot of morphine, at first painful, then all feeling is gone. I saw Mara flinch.

“After the first shock, you get used to it,” I assured her.

I knew her so well: Mara was scared to jump into things. Sometimes she’d be the only thing holding me back, and in the end she’d be what saved me. Yet I was always the shyer one. The first time I wrote a short story I was proud of, she read it to the class because she knew it needed to be shared. She lent me her voice, and I helped her through her fears. We got through everything complete and whole, together.

I picked up two stones at random; they had the texture of tree bark. I pressed them together – they almost fit. The waves had smoothed their edges to a similar shape. Though they came from different rocks, over time they fit together.

We squeezed back through the fence as the sun began to set, shades of crimson, shimmering gold, lemon, and blue melting together like colors on an artist’s palette. The sea and sky connected at the horizon. I gave our spot one last look and reached for my camera to snap a picture.

To this day, I have that photo and look at it when I feel lonely. I close my eyes and recall that time: the colors of the sunset, the clear water, pure silence, but most of all those two stones. The waves of fate shaped them and brought them together. Even though they were from different places, they fit, held, and supported each other – just like Mara and me.