It is dark, the welcome coolness brings new strength to the digging man. The hole is large now, six foot deep and almost as wide. He will carry on digging till his task is done, sleep will just have to wait.

The turtle rests from her journey from another isle, happy she found a mate there. The light from the digging mans lantern alone keeping her from beaching.

For five years the couple neither met nor spoke. The man's powerful arms never protecting, holding his family, her smile never bringing joy to her family's crushed hearts. It must have been a terrible thing that had happened, but those that knew never told. He lived alone on the south of the island, tending a herd of goats as if already he was old, he spoke to none, his eyes no longer dreaming but defeated. She brought the children up alone, no other man came to fill his footprints in the sand, the sea had washed away more than their mere marks.

Sitting each night on her porch watching for his return, often she would sleep there awaiting his passage by.