Have you ever been awed by the sight of the world from just beneath the surface of the water? Its light; which should be familiar in every way; seems as far off and different as people would never have been able to imagine. What appears to be the exact same world we’ve lived in and gone about has only been seen in a millionth of what’s possible–if only we were able to see this ‘small world’ through any of the numerous different perspectives, it’s quite possible that we wouldn’t consider it a single world at all.
Small, wondrous glimpses of these different perspectives can be experienced in the strangest of ways; for example, if you’ve ever found yourself doing a somersault underwater:
If done in just the right way, you feel something that’s likely indescribable in common words. Like an impossibly quick burst of excitement followed by a quiet and eternal-but-not wish to do nothing more than float softly down, farther and farther, until one reaches the bottom of the whole world.
But of course, by then it’s all over and you’re trying to do it again and again, just to try again to feel and figure out what the emotion is… but it really is impossible for us, in reality…
Though only if you believe that kind of reality.
The uncomfortable and ambient wet heat of the late afternoon hung pressingly on the last rays of the sun’s light as they shed glimmering hard-to-look-at sparks aflame on the small clear spheres that floated skyward above the motel pool.
Natalia, a thirteen-year-old girl with chestnut hair like late-summer maple leaves and clear opal eyes, sat by the pool with her legs absentmindedly swirling around in the shimmering cool water.
The day was nearly out and Katelyn, Natalia’s four-year-old sister, was sitting on the hot asphalt with her feet hanging just above the surface of the water; her small feet dabbling at it with only her toes as she blew happily (with about as much spittle as air)at her sticky bubble-wand.
Ignorance really is bliss. thought Natalia wistfully from her spot next to Katelyn, She doesn’t know how lucky she is to not understand.
Natalia’s mother had bought the bottle of bubble-solution for Katelyn on the way to the motel, and though the reasoning behind coming to the motel at all was still unclear to Natalia, she didn’t think she’d get an explanation.
Earlier that day, Natalia came home from school to angry screaming and the crash of thrown ceramics. Dread and fear had filled her then, and she didn’t know what to do. She could hear Katelyn begin to cry, but her sister’s climbing wail was ignored.
Natalia stayed in the foyer, the house key still in her sweating right hand as she tried to stay still and silent. Her blood ran icy and her left knee began a spasmic, uncontrollable twitch.
The rage had continued: more glass was broken and tossed, the yelling and wailing was reaching its crescendo, and Natalia’s mind was a wildfire of panic.
Time went on in a strange way then, the moment of chaos wore on and didn’t seem to take a second, yet it ate into hours.
At one point, Natalia’s father shoved her aside, threw open the front door and stamped out wordlessly.
There Natalia stood, her chest hurting where her father had pushed her, her lungs feeling as if they’d been flattened and couldn’t get enough air, the blood in her veins as cold as ice and stiff as metal: unlivable.
Then her mother, red-faced and quiet, her messy pale-blonde locks falling over to cover her eyes, finally saw Natalia. She took a deep breath and sighed heavily.
‘Get your things.’, was all her mother had said in her hoarse, sad voice. And Natalia did as she was told, too shocked to question anything.
About twenty minutes later, Natalia and Katelyn were in the second car with their bags; each containing a set of pajamas, water bottles, Katelyn’s two favorite stuffed animals and no more.
Their mother stepped into the car with her own bag, setting it down in the passenger seat before sitting down herself. She’d wordlessly took the wheel and started off to an unknown somewhere.
Now they were here, as lost-feeling and confused as they thought could ever be possible.
Natalia subconsciously dragged her feet back and forth through the cool water, staring at its rippling surface with detached eyes. She was still in a kind of mental shock and couldn’t fully process what’d happened, let alone what she should do next. All she could do was sit and think, sit and wait for her mind to wake up.
Though Natalia was oblivious to it, time wore on and into the hot mosquito-prone evening. The bugs’ attacks left her feeling numb and miserable, so all she could do was try not to cry.
Natalia’s head snapped up as she heard Katelyn cry out in surprise and dismay. Katelyn had her right hand clapped over her left wrist; she’d probably tried to swat a mosquito.
“I dropped the bubbles!”, Katelyn squealed, her watering eyes shimmering in the dim dusk-light.
Natalia squinted, trying to see the fallen bottle of bubble solution in the deep, dark water.
She couldn’t find it in the gloom, but the task began to wake up her mind a bit as her dull trance was broken. Random, useless thoughts clouded her mind then; pointless observations and questions on the most minute things before she could really take in all that’d happened.
Why?, Natalia thought suddenly, Why is it like this? Why am I like this?
Natalia couldn’t clear her head of the lost thoughts, her mind continued to beg for an impossible answer–a solution to the enigma of her current existence.
To her growing dismay and confusion, the puzzle only seemed harder and harder to even process. The world began to fade away around Natalia, her senses stolen by a doomed search for a cure.
Natalia’s legs stopped moving through the water. She would seem to be sitting still and silent to any onlookers, but her heart raced and her mind raged with panic.
Why?, she begged, eyes wide with crazed desperation.
Natalia couldn’t make herself move on from the screaming thought. A tear hung on the brink of falling from her right eye.
“Why?”, she whispered faintly, and soon the sounds around her began to slowly break through her walls.
“Natalia?”, called her mother hoarsely. She had Katelyn’s hand in hers.
Natalia’s aching throat allowed her to do nothing more than look up at her mother and Katelyn with the sad, searching eyes that she was left with.
Natalia’s mother looked as though taken aback at first; as she thought Natalia never really was one to cry. Her eyes then softened and lost their surprised spark.
“I’m taking your sister inside now. I suppose I’ll just get a room for tonight…”her mother said tiredly.
Natalia didn’t respond.
Her mother and Katelyn disappeared inside the old building with all of their things.
Natalia remained motionless for a long time. She stared down at the water with empty eyes, not knowing what to think, so ultimately not thinking at all.
The pool was lit only by a single light near the gate and the far-off glance of the moon. Night had risen.
Natalia looked towards the heavens with wonder. She’d never seen the stars and moon to be as bright and gentle as they appeared tonight. The sight of the sky made her feel like flying.
Another tear rolled unnoticed down her cheek. Natalia looked back down at the now-stagnant water. She thought she saw the shadowed shape of Katelyn’s bottle of bubble solution far below.
Why hasn’t it floated back to the top?, she thought calmly.
Natalia stood from her seat on the edge, though her eyes remained trained on the still, flat expanse before her. She poked her leg out and touched the tip of her foot to the surface, causing echoing ripples to resound across the night-water. Almost melodically the small waves rang out, soothing and strangely ethereal in Natalia ́s mind.
She withdrew her foot but continued to watch the ripples until they again faded into their glassy, calm flat form.
It’s getting late, she thought indifferently, maybe I should go inside…
Suddenly, the soft wingbeats of a night-bird broke the divine silence. A black feather, striped with softly saturated tones of glowing berry-blue, glided down to Natalia. Just as the water was about to catch the wondrous article, Natalia dove for it and plunged forth into the absolute dark.
(WIP)
Fantasy
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