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By river Date: 2007 Nov 27 Comment on this Work [[2007.11.27.21.37.14745]] |
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I was on the high bank of the pond. It was recently dark and I was recently daring, sliding down the sandy ledge to the lip of the water. I looked across the pond and wondered if I could make it. I entered the warm water with the unrealistically pebbled bottom. Two of my friends, much better swimmers than I, took the long way around and started to wade away from shore. I realised that I had some things which I did not want to take with me, but I do not now remember if it was my shirt, my sandals, or something else entirely. She came to the water's edge to take my things and meet me by the docks. She had something that she wanted to give me. It was a gift, and she held out both of her hands, told me to close my eyes and choose. Before my eyes and her palms could close, I caught the glint of metal. As I lifted my hand, I felt something being pressed into each of my palms. I had thought that I was to pick one hand and receive whatever that hand concealed. Spontaneously or premeditatedly, she was giving me both. "Open your eyes," she said, as I was still trying to figure out what my hands now held. I could see them now. Keychains. My left hand had a silvery embossed disc with Pooh and Piglet locked in playful clasp. The right held a blue leaping dolphin. I knew this gesture and these gifts bore significant meaning, although I cannot say exactly what it was. This is not because I'm not exactly sure what it was or because I do not recall, but because it is something so sacred that attempting to put it into words would be sacrilege. The tears immediately came to my eyes. I have the conflicting memory of concurrently moving deftly into the water, crossing the point where it is no longer practical to walk and the body commits itself forward, and also being locked in her arms in fierce embrace. When I awoke, I found myself horizontal between two memories, clutching a life-sized pocket of air. |