The Daughter of Chronos

She walked on the quiet shoreline, barely aware of even the hushed sigh of her footsteps sinking into sea-stained sand. Her gown wrapped around her in the breeze. It had attracted some odd looks from passers-by on her way here, but she had paid them no heed. Once, a dress such as this would have been the height of fashion. It was a pity how quickly these things changed.  She pulled her carefully woven shawl, now frayed and yellowed from the dust of the years, about her shoulders. Underneath the gathering clouds, she stared out at the waters before her, waiting to hear the voice of a visitor she knew was coming.

“Sister.”

It was not an exact term for what they were, but it was the closest any of them had been able to find – two people who were at once one, and yet so very different.  She turned around to reluctantly face the woman in front of her. Her features were both familiar and unknown, and she walked with the smug surety of one who knew how this meeting was going to go. 

“Sister,” she kept her face serene, but her heart sank at her arrival. “How have you been?”

“You know I cannot answer that.”

“I know.” The woman in the dated gown looked once more towards the waves lapping up on the shore, though she was uncertain what it was she hoped she would see. “It was just a formality.”

Her sister stared with her, both looking out towards the gently whispering sea. This was her older sister to be sure – how much older she could not be certain, although a sideways look at her features suggested some time had passed. Crows’ feet perched in the corners of her eyes, yet aside from that, it was almost like looking at a mirror of herself. Almost. She pulled the shawl tighter around her shoulders, a nervous habit she had yet to break, and her sister smiled at the motion as if at an old friend.

“I had forgotten I used to have that.”

Something about those words, although well-intended, made her want to snatch the shawl away, but she forced herself to maintain her smile, and simply nodded politely.

“Do you have nothing to ask me?”

Mirth laced her sister’s voice, and she felt a muscle knot in her jaw. She always hated when family visits worked out this way around – she never cared for being cast as the younger sister.

“If I did, would you answer?”

“Probably not.”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes in exasperation, she pulled her gaze up to the sky for a moment, and watched the clouds meander above them, before glancing back at her companion with the sincerest composure she could muster.

“You have grown greyer.”

“Yes, I have noticed.”

Both women stood in silence for a moment longer, each fully aware of the others’ furtive glances, but pretending not to see. Her sister’s outfit made little sense to her – a pair of breeches, and a shirt that seemed to be laced with delicate metalwork. Around her neck sat a silver pocket watch, one that, without looking, she knew to be identical to the one concealed in the pocket of her own dress.  It was nice that some things would stay the same, at least. 

Having finished her appraisal, she found herself gazing instead upon the distant crowds at the promenade. Of course, they would not notice the sisters. No one ever notices time. People would not be coming to the beach that morning. It was made sure that such meetings were left uninterrupted. A small blessing in the stead of a generational curse. The people were silhouettes, for now, isolated in their own moment just as she was in hers. She felt her sister watching her once more while she spoke.

“How are the children?”

Her sister sighed and said nothing, although what that nothing meant she could not ascertain.

“Never mind. I will find out some day, I am sure.”

A seagull soared overhead, and the pair stood momentarily united while they watched the pair of dull grey wings cut through the unmoving clouds. The sisters could not meet often. Perhaps she would not meet this sister again. Perhaps next time it would be her younger sister, from a past she remembered well. Maybe she would see a pair of even older eyes. 

But it was not hers to know – she could only watch the waves of each day breathe in and out onto the sand. 

The chime of her sister’s pocket watch broke the spell.

“It is time for me to go.” 

Her sister stood taller now, some of the discomfort easing from the air between them. A look of pity, or perhaps something more personal swept across her face when she looked at her once more. It was an expression she knew well. She had seen it before, in both her sisters and the mirror.

“Good luck. Remember this, for the future.”

And so she was left to watch her sister make her way down the beach, feeling no more prepared for what may come after their meeting. Instead, she gripped her shawl as if the growing winds had threatened to carry it away. In a few minutes, the tide would come in, and she too would have to go back. But, for now, it was just her and the endless mysteries of the ocean ahead.