The Dive

The sky turns bright red as the sun hides behind the mountains, another day is over, and Madeline is amazed. She likes to be alone in this place; she tries to avoid memories as much as possible. In between the Rehonne River and the Liachi mountains, Madeline finds the only place where she can feel relaxed. She used to swim in that river, back when tragedy was inexistent. Tragedy arrived in her life like a black cloud invades a shiny summer day, and it never left.



         Sitting on the grass, Madeline has vivid memories of her long summer days three years ago in which she swam in the warm clear river and ran through the countless forests of vivid green leaves and infinite varieties of fruits. Her days started at 9 AM, when she hopped on her shiny red bicycle and met up with her friends. She never learned what their names were; they were the local people from the town of Rexohna. Names didn’t matter back then; a lot of things didn’t matter in the simple life that Madeline longed to have again. She knew that was impossible, and all she could do in that cold afternoon was remember, and grasp on to her memories for as long as she could.



         On a normal summer day, Madeline rode her bike with the hot summer hair rushing against her face and lifting her hair up in tangles. Her sun washed golden skin seemed to shimmer as the rode past the river, the forest, the nature that surrounded her.  She screamed in delight as the elephants splashed water at them as they passed by the pond. She would then swim in the river, jumping from the high mountain cliffs and plunging into the ever clear waters of the Rehonne River. Of course she couldn’t go near that river now, not after what happened.



         One day, Madeline decided to take her little sister to her exciting summer adventures. They got along very well, but her parents didn’t let little Gilly go along with Madeline until that day. Everything was going well and little Gilly proved to be just as adventurous as Madeline. The troubles began when the group started getting restless and bored. They decided to go to dive from Death Mountain into the river. This was a complicated dive because if they didn’t jump far enough, they were in danger of hitting the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. They all did it except for Madeline and Gilly. Madeline had only done it once to prove herself to her friends but she didn’t let Gilly do it, even though she wanted to.



         Madeline went out to the forest to have a bathroom break and once again warned Gilly to not take a dive. Gilly was mad but nodded her head to her sister. It all seemed to happen too fast, but when Madeline returned only five minutes later, her sister was gone and the local boys had worried looks in their faces. “We weren’t paying attention to her and she just jumped Maddie!” one of the boys said. Madeline seemed confused for a moment, she wondered why  they have such worried looks on their faces. And suddenly, it hit her. Time froze as she felt her heart drop into her stomach. She knew what had happened, but hearing it made it a fact. “Madeline, I’m afraid your sister jumped too close, she had an accident.” As she heard the words, she wanted it to be a lie, a sick joke of some kind. She wanted to believe that Gilly couldn’t be hurt, that it wasn’t possible.  Nothing ever happened at Death Mountain, not really. The name was meant to scare little kids like themselves. Right?



         Without thinking, Madeline ran with all her might and plunged into the river, she then began swimming to the edge of the river and that is when she saw her sister--a bloody mess. The rocks were covered in blood and pain. Madeline started crying as she stared at her sister. The blood made her almost unrecognizable. Her once blonde hair was covered in blood and her blue eyes were staring blankly into the sky. Madeline knew then that her sister had died. When her sister died, a part of Madeline died as well.  All of a sudden, she hated everything, she didn’t want to be in this river anymore, and she didn’t want to be friends with the locals anymore. Madeline carried her sister home and a few days later, she was buried in her funeral. Madeline never shed a tear for her sister’s death, but the pain was there. Before the earth was placed on top of the casket, Madeline threw in a keychain that Gilly had made for her on her birthday. As she saw the earth being placed back, she buried her own childhood as well.



         A few days after the funeral, her local friends came to her house and asked her if she wanted to go play with them. She said she wasn’t ready to go out yet and they kept coming every day until one day when she never answered their calls. After this, they slowly walked away and never came back. Madeline knew she was drowning in her own pain and she wasn’t doing anything to stop it.



         As she sits in a spot in the grass, she experiences “Déjà vu” countless times. Sweet maple scents bring her memories of running through the forest with her friends. Light showers remind of the rain dances. Mockingbirds remind her of swims in the river. Every once in a while, she catches a glimpse of one of the local boys she used to play with before Gilly passed away. Sometimes she feels an urge to go up to them and ask them to take her back. However, she thinks it through and knows that even though she wants to, she can never have her simple life back. As she stares ahead at the sunset every day, she catches a glimpse of death mountain and the memories come back to haunt her once again…