Sitting on the cold hard rocks, over looking the Trinity River, the girl watched as the morning fog rolled over the water. It was daybreak now, and yet the sky only shifted its value from black to gray. There was no sunshine. Sitting on the same rock as she had been for hours, she could no longer feel the rock beneath her, losing all feeling in her ass soaked in cold wet mud. She could not recall how long she had been there.
In the night she could make out the ripples of the current flowing down stream, around the bend, disappearing into nothingness. The water itself was thick, the reflection of the moon giving it the appearance of liquid mercury. All she could see was darkness poring out, leaking into the spaces between the tree branches that cast their distorted shadows on to the river. The girl gazed at the calm and peaceful upper section of the river to her right, noticing its gentle and noiseless quality. To her left, the riverbank narrowed and the current intensified, creating a dangerous undercurrent that trashed against a tree jetting from the side of the river bend. She could not form a thought, her brain only allowing her to take in her environment, her mind still processing.
Now that it was morning, she could barely make out the things beneath the murky river. The random little explosions of water where the fish had come to the surface visually directed her attention from one splash to the next. She spotted the large scrap of metal hidden in the dark depths of the river, which sent a single but significant shiver up her spine. She never realized how deep the water was, passing by this river so many times as a child. She stared transfixed into the darkness of the shadow in the water, losing herself in it.
Suddenly, the sound of traffic and cars jolted her out of her hypnotic state, ambulance sirens off in the distance. The girl flirted with the idea of leaving but after realizing that there was no one left to miss her, she remained on the rock. She expanded her view, looking at the large gray buildings, restaurants, roads, and bridges that beset the water. She noticed the twenty-story power plant across the river and saw the pool of oil oozing from the building, creating a silver rainbow of sludge floating atop the surface. Looking over at the adjacent hill, her eyes scanned down from the tear in the guardrail, to the tire tracks, to the river. The water flowing over the smoothened rocks trickled down the brook just as the tears trickled down her face.
The wind began blowing, forcing the trees to lose their red autumn leaves. They fell down in front of her, grazing a pool of water formed in the crevice of a rock. She realized she was unconsciously gripping clumps of dirt in her hands. When she finally opened her palm, the blood rushed back to her fingers, returning the pink pigment to them. The dirt overflowed onto the ground, leaving her hands completely filthy and revealing the number of scratches she obtained. She began taking swipes at her hands, attempting to rid herself of the filth. She continued to rub them raw until she noticed that there was a left over shard of glass perturbing from her forearm.
Shocked that she hadn’t noticed it all this time, she removed the single shard of glass carefully, making sure it stayed intact. As the redness overtook her arm, she stood up struggling to find her center of gravity. After allowing her body to gain consciousness, the girl proceeded to walk down the hill to the edge of the water.
As the entirety of her arm sunk underneath the surface, the chilling water pierced her skin, pouring heavily into her flesh wound. All of the grime and blood and filth that covered her skin were no more. It all too was now lost in the river.
For the first time she stood up straight, water dripping down off of her extended fingertips, the wind tangling her soft brown hair. As she turned to leave the place where she would never return, she whispered to the river, “you’ve taken everything from me.” Slowly turning her back from the waters edge, the girl disappeared into the early morning fog.
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