Underwater (2 page)

And then she did, blinking a few times until her gaze locked on his.

The boy couldn’t breathe. Her eyes were so green. They reminded him of the emerald gemstone his mother used to wear. The color was so vibrant against her dark skin, he couldn’t look away.
Those are eyes I will remember forever
.

Not knowing where that thought came from, he cleared his dry throat and said, “Hey there sleeping beauty, you okay?”

“Who are you?” the girl asked with a trembling voice.

She was scared. The boy could understand that, although deep down it bothered him. He had hoped she wouldn’t be afraid of him.

“It’s not important who I am right now. How do you feel? You got hit pretty hard.”

“I-I’m...” She brought her hand up to her face and touched the wound that was still bleeding. When she saw the blood on her fingers, her eyes widened with fright. “What happened?”

“You ran toward the road and almost got hit by a car. I had to do something.”

“You saved me?”

Warmth spread across his cheeks, and he knew that his face reflected the same heat that he felt simmering deep inside. Sheepishly, he said, “I did.”

The beginning of a smile began to form on the girl’s face, but then her expression changed into one of pure terror, looking even more scared than she had a few seconds ago.

“Where is Ace?” the girl screeched.

Alarmed and confused, he looked frantically around him.

What the hell was she talking about? Who was Ace?

“Ace?” he asked.

“Yes! Ace, my puppy! Where is he? He didn’t...”

She covered her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. He was sure that any minute now she was going to cry.

Realization suddenly dawned on him.

Oh,
Ace
.
The puppy she was chasing.
With all that had happened, he had completely forgotten about the dog.

A sense of guilt twisted his gut.
How could he forget?

“He was a gift from River,” she cried. “He would be mad at me in the sky.”

She was talking in riddles and he didn’t understand a thing. But he gathered there was a guy named River who had given her the puppy, and he
died
.

And now, he had lost her dog.

What a clusterfuck.

He imagined the worst. He began looking for the puppy frantically, his eyes jumping in every direction, while he shielded the girl’s eyes with his body by drawing her head against his shoulder and holding her in place when she tried to pull back.

He didn’t see any trace of the dog on the asphalt.

Thank god for small miracles.

Then he heard a low wail. He searched around for the source of the noise until his head bent low, looking under the car on his right side. There, he saw the frightened puppy lying on the ground, shivering.

“Found him!” he shouted while he delicately pulled her head back. Their eyes clashed and his heart clenched. “He’s safe,” he said in a whisper.

“Really?”

She looked at him with eyes full of hope, her feelings written across her face. The boy knew this puppy was very important to her.

“Yes, let me bring him to you.”

He helped her sit up and waited a few seconds to make sure she wasn’t dizzy. Once he was sure she was okay, he stood, and went to get the puppy out from under the car.

After several failed attempts to lure the dog out by calling to him and even whistling, he reached for the puppy and pulled him out. The girl’s green eyes were bright and happy. The smile that had barely touched her lips a few minutes ago now found its way back to her mouth.

Cut and bleeding, she was pretty.
She will be such a beautiful girl when she grows up
, the boy thought. He couldn’t help noticing. It was like she shined without even knowing it. He felt calm and serene just being near her. And that felt crazy.

What was wrong with him?

When he reached her, the girl stood with open arms. She took her pup from his hands, and then hugged the dog tightly to her heart, like a mother embracing her child.

The fact that he literally held the reason for her happiness in his own hands, gave the boy tremendous joy.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Anytime.”

But he was still worried about her. Although the blood had stopped flowing from the wound, she still looked pale and weak.

“Um, are you sure you’re okay? Maybe I should tell my parents to take you to the hospital?”

“No!” the girl shouted, her big eyes widening.

That struck him as odd. “Where do you live?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“And why is that?” he asked patiently.

“You’re a stranger,” she told him. “My papa told me not to tell this stuff to strangers.”

“I just saved your life. I’m not a stranger anymore.”

“My Daddy told me a stranger would say stuff like that too.”

What the hell?

He just saved her life. Held her in his arms. Saved her dog.
He wasn’t a stranger, damn it!

“Okay,” the boy said slowly, trying to regain his composure. “But how can I get you home? I live there.” He pointed to his house across the street. “I can ask my parents to look at your wounds and clean them so they won’t become infected. They could take you home after if you want.”

The boy rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him. She was just a kid. He also didn’t want to cause her more discomfort after she had almost died. All he wanted was to get her safely back to her house and return to his normal, boring life.

“No, it’s okay,” she shook her head. “I need to go. Ace ran away and I chased him without telling my parents. They’ll be angry with me if they find out I ran away. They’re sad and I don’t want to make them even sadder. They can’t lose...” She took a deep breath and continued. “Could you keep what happened a secret? Please?”

The girl brought her hands together in a prayer gesture while looking at him with eyes so trusting and scared, he had no choice but to nod in agreement.

Who did they lose?
Who is River?

He had no idea how she was going to pull this off, looking cut up and bruised. Her parents would surely notice that she was injured.

“Hold on. I’ll be right back.” The boy turned to run toward his house. He spun around and said, “Don’t go anywhere.”

When the girl nodded and he was satisfied she wouldn’t disappear on him, he ran to his house, up the steps of the porch, opened the door and quietly went upstairs to the second floor bathroom. Once there, he opened the upper closet and pulled out a first aid kit. He took the supplies he needed: gauze, disinfectant, and a few bandage strips – put them in the pocket of his jeans, and then crept quietly outside without anyone seeing him.

The boy mentally patted himself on the shoulder.

He rushed toward the girl. When he saw her in the same position he had left her, standing with the puppy wrapped and protected in her arms, he felt a sense of happiness unfolding around his heart.

He breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.

She didn’t leave
.

The boy walked tentatively toward the girl and pulled the supplies from his jeans pocket. “Let me sterilize the wounds and cover them. If someone asks you what happened, make something up and tell them you put the bandage strips on yourself. Got it?”

The girl nodded and muttered, “No one would notice anyway.”

He didn’t ask her what she meant even though the boy was dying to know what was going on with this mysterious girl.

“Here, let me.” The boy reached out his hand, grasped the side of her face and tilted it up. He put a few drops of iodine above her eyebrow and patted them carefully with the gauze. Then he covered the wound with the bandage strip. He did the same thing to the wound on her cheek. When the boy finished, he clutched the leftover gauze and bandage wrappings in his hand and took a step back.

The girl brought her hand to her face and brushed her fingers over the covered wounds.

“Well...” he said.

“Thank you for saving my life and not letting me die.”

The boy laughed. He couldn’t help it. She was adorable. “You’re very welcome.”

The boy patted the puppy, ruffled the girl’s hair and turned around to go home. He was tired and emotionally unsettled from the last few minutes. He had only taken two steps forward when he felt a strong impact hit him from behind. He almost lost his balance, but caught himself at the last moment. Then he felt the girl’s hands slip around his sides, hugging him. He felt her head rest across his lower back while her arms held him tightly. The boy closed his eyes and squeezed her hand.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “River sent you to me from the sky. Thank you for saving me and Ace.”

He felt a lump form in his throat. He wanted to say something, anything, but he didn’t know what to say. So he didn’t say a damn thing. He just held onto her tighter, standing in comforting silence.

Then, when the time to part came, the girl slipped her hands away and ran back to where she’d come from – on the sidewalk this time. He watched her go until she disappeared from his sight, all the while fighting an internal battle: let her go or run after her.

And do what?

There was something about her. He didn’t understand the pull, yet something about her called to him. He felt drawn to her light
.

Was this some kind of big brother feeling, due to the fact she looked so alone, and needed protection? His protection? Or was it something more?

He didn’t know. And maybe he never would.

As the boy made his way home, he wasn’t aware of how significant this encounter with the girl would be or what places in his life this meeting would lead him.

“Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.”

— Dante Alighieri

T
he world crashed down on me like the ice cold waters of the Arctic. I was unable to breathe, but too numb to care.

A tumor
.

Why him? Why us? He was my best friend, the bright sunlight that illuminated my world. I couldn’t picture my life without him.

“Miss Maier?”

I looked up at the doctor sitting in front of me. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t make sense of his words. I held my father’s hand tightly, afraid to let go even for a moment. I swallowed back the tears that wanted to escape and asked with a tremble in my voice, “Is it cancer?”

“Without the biopsy test results I can’t say for sure.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “When we know exactly what we’re dealing with we’ll know how to proceed.” Looking me in the eyes, he said, “All we can do at the moment is wait.”

Wait
. Like it was that easy. If there was one quality I lacked it was patience. I hated waiting.

Turning my head, I looked up at the deep green unfocused eyes of my father. They had to sedate him for the examination and he was still not aware of his surroundings. I prayed that he hadn’t heard what the doctor had said, but deep down I knew he had. He heard every word.

When we got home my dad went straight to bed. He didn’t want to face anyone. I understood that. I didn’t want to face anyone either. I felt helpless and all I wanted to do was crawl into my warm bed, embrace my dog, Ace, and sleep forever without having to wake up and deal with the new reality and the unknown.

I wished I had the ability to take away my father’s pain – take away his fear.

But who was going to take away mine?

I still had to tell my mother. How does a daughter tell her mother that her husband may have cancer?
 
It wasn’t something I was eager to do.

I tucked my father into his bed, kissed his forehead, and braced myself for the task at hand. As I closed his bedroom door, I could feel my mom watching me, waiting for me.

I sighed and walked towards her. “Hey mom,” I said with a forced smile, trying hard not to fall apart and scare her more than she already was. I could see that she sensed something was off. She had no idea how off it really was.

“What’s going on? How was his exam?” she asked, sitting on the sofa and patting the seat next to her. She hadn’t been able to get time off work to come with us to his colonoscopy test. Deep down, I was glad. I just didn’t like the fact that I had to be the one to tell her.