The ocean emitted a low rumble as the tide rolled back into the depths of the green-blue water. A sound, a low moan, in tandem with the ocean's calm growl, reached out in frustration, as if asking for a response; looking of an answer. The voice of a man, old and tired, as he contemplates the value of his life, listening to the vast waters as they recede back to their place of origin. Even the ageless waves could not provide the answer which he sought so desperately. He was beginning to lose faith in the man in the white coat and the gold hat. The man in the white coat had come to him on a spring day not too long ago. He had asked the old man if he had led a good life. The old man answered yes. He was an average man'he had never done anything too extraordinary, but he was content with the way things were around him, and he had no reason to complain. The man in the white coat, however, felt differently. He declared the old man a fool and asked him what had made his life so good. The old man began to take offence, and he demanded to know who this man was and why he was asking him all of these questions. The man in white smiled and shook his head. 'Why does everything need an explanation for you people?'� he sighed an understanding sigh and relinquished his answer. 'Very well. My name is Gabriel. Someone very important has asked me to remind you of the reason you are where you are. Remember what you gave up, and when you do, come and find me. I will help you to find it again.'� A flash of light sprung from his fingertips, and he was gone, leaving the old man in a haze and full of more questions than he could find room to account for.

The old man lied down in his bed, contemplating the meaning of the stranger named Gabriel. Upon this questioning, he looked at Gabriel's own question'what had he given up to become who he was? He pondered this question for a long while before reaching a conclusion'the man he had dreamed of being had been destroyed by his fears, and now he could not find it. He needed to find some way to discover what it was he had wanted to be and then he would find his answer. His thoughts still raced, but fatigue prevailed and the old man drifted into a deep and sound sleep.

The old man awoke to the sound of car horns and the smell of smog and trash. Yet for some reason, he felt a cool brisk air; he smelt crisp, fresh, salty water; he heard the crashing of waves and the calling of gulls. He saw the ocean. The old man saw these things and recognized hope in this vision; the ocean, he presumed, was the key. His thoughts flew once again, and he was overtaken by feelings of excitement, anticipation, apprehension, and fear. He was torn in two places; terror and felicity were locked in battle for his soul. Victory for the latter came from a surge of will; he would not let fear control his life again. He started down the road, determination set in stone on his face. His feet hit the pavement to the sound of the call of the gulls. His heart beat to the rhythm of the ocean.

Now, after a full day's search, desperation settled in. As the tide receded, so did his hopes, and his disappointment showed. He valiantly tried to maintain his determination, but his attempts were all in vain. Fear took hold again, and he turned to head home. Gabriel appeared and in a scalding voice reprimanded the old man. 'Where are you going, you old fool?'� he said. 'Why do you lose hope? You have forgotten the most important part of the dream'the gulls.'�
So the old man stopped, turned, and listened. The sound began at a volume almost indistinguishable from the crashes of the choppy waves. In an attempt to better hear them, he closed his tired old eyes and lifted his calloused old hand to his wrinkled old ear. His eyes closed, he entered a world of silence and pitch darkness. A sound fought its way through the blackened silence, and came forth in as a crashing blow. The cry of the gulls erupted all around him, and enveloped him in past remembrances. A little child playing on the beach with the gulls, wishing one day to soar as they do. A young man, fighting on the beach of Iwo Jima with dead gulls falling all around them. A lost man, living on the street and digging through the trash with the gulls for food. A new man, lost to the gulls, hiding in a blank cubicle, living a blank life. The old man opened his eyes. Gabriel was gone, and the gulls had encircled him. What began as a tear snowballed into a torrent of sobs. The old man fell to his knees and wept. His gulls, the gulls that loved him, the gulls that had followed him and lost him and finally found him again, surrounded him and lifted him up with their talons. They beat their wings in unison and lifted the old man up into the sky and away from his past life. Lost in a sea of white, the old man was truly content, and as he soared with the gulls he felt the sins of his past life drifting away into nothingness. His happiness would never end, and he would soar with the gulls for eternity.

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