Blissful Mornings - The Net She Left Behind

He arrived at dawn, carrying a net. Not just any net. Hers.

Sonia didn’t recognize the man at first—sun-worn, quiet, standing at the edge of Mar’s

cottage with something swaddled in his arms like a relic. But the moment she saw the

weave, her breath caught.

Genhe’s last net.

Frayed, torn in the center. But still… whole enough to remember.

“She made this one for me,” he said, almost apologetically.

“Said it wasn’t meant to catch fish.”

Sonia nodded slowly. “It was meant to release something.”

He smiled. “She told me about the mermaid.”

A silence settled between them—soft, like seafoam.

“She said it wasn’t just a story,” he added. “She said it was yours. That when you were little,

you believed the sea called you by name.”

Sonia felt her eyes sting.

“It was true,” she said. “In the only way that matters.”

Genhe had spun that tale when Sonia was just a girl—a fairytale of a mermaid who could

only be seen by those who listened with their whole heart. For years, Sonia believed she

might be that mermaid. Or maybe the one who saved her. Or maybe just the listener.

The truth came later. The dolphins. The boat. The moment she’d watched Paulo and Genhe

use a net like this one to free the dolphins that had become entangled near the rocks.

She’d cried that day—not because it was magic. But because it was real.

That was when she understood:

The best stories don’t trap.

They set free.

Sonia gestured toward the porch. “Come. We’ll mend it together.”

As they sat, Paulo spoke of his travels, of the ache he carried for what was lost, of how

Genhe had told him once, “If you ever find yourself lost at sea, follow the girl who speaks to

the dolphins.”

He had laughed then. But now… he understood.

They worked in silence, passing the needle back and forth.

Each stitch, a memory.

Each knot, a letting go.

And when they finished, Sonia folded the net gently, laid it on her lap, and whispered the

name the sea had once echoed—

the same name the river first returned to her long ago.

“Vernardita.”

-Bliss Chains Authors