The Drowning Girl

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We found her at the base of the waterfall under the spring runoff. She was draped in a blanket of red grass and wilted brown leaves beneath the rushing waters.

I was ten, a little younger than my brother and his friends and as long as I didn’t slow them down, they let me come along.

I thought she was beautiful, gently swaying beneath the current, her hair weaved with the river grass like golden threads.

The older boys had decided to hike to the waterfall on the first morning of spring break. My mom made my brother take me with him.

I wanted to touch her, even had the other kids not been prodding me to do so.

We hiked for an hour or so and the sun was almost overhead. I heard the shouts for my brother to come see what they had found before I could even see the cataract.

She was naked. It was the first time I had ever seen a woman naked. Her skin was pale and smooth, her open eyes stared up at the sky, the brown of her irises not quite occluded by the clouding. She waved with the current, her ankle caught in the fingers of a moss-covered branch under in the deep end of the creek.

One of the older kids said someone should touch it. Her, I insisted.

A stick was pushed into my hand and I was told to poke her to see if she was real.

I leaned out over the bank of the river and the stick nearly reached her. That’s when I felt a shove from behind.

For a second, time was frozen, and the world was as serene as the woman. She looked into my eyes and a warming smile played on her lips. Her arms opened to welcome me in an embrace. I broke through her world and everything shattered into cutting shards.

She was as cold as the water, and at first, I didn’t realize I had touched her. Then I felt her fingers grasping at me, her arms wrapping around me. Her teeth showed, jagged and menacing through her lips and I saw that her smile wasn’t warm. I knew she meant to keep me there, with her. I screamed but only a lung’s worth of air escaped. She pulled me closer, my cheek to her breast, and I fought to find footing.

The shimmer of the sun through the water began to dim, and my lungs felt like they would burst. I could smell the water—rotting leaves, mud and snow—as I took in a deep breath. My back shot rigid and then I felt a hand around my waist. I was dragged away from her grasp, and she reached for me one last time as she faded into the dark waters.

My brother leaned over me, cursed, and gave another heave at my chest. I could feel the return of my hands and feet, and the crushing weight of the air that strangled me. When I choked, no one laughed. When I stood, I looked back at her, but she had floated along without me. They had seen her drown me. Two minutes, thats how long they told me I had been dead.