Red and White

        “To love red, you’ll be in dread;  to love white you’ll be shrouded in light.”

         That’s what they said in my town.  But how could anyone hate either color? Red was, in the eyes of my neighbors a color of sin; of evil deeds. And once again, in their eyes, white was the color of clean; pure, even. But that’s their thoughts and not mine.

         So when I saw her, while diving, with both dress and hair pure white, and eyes redder the that wonderful fire over at the Gordon’s  house, I loved her. Of course when I tried telling someone, though, they just shoved me off. Folks in this town just don’t listen to people who see in a different perspective, or rather, color scheme than they do.

         I was determined to see her again, as most young ones are when they have a crush on someone they might not have,  but still have a chance at getting. Swimming was getting to be dangerous, with it becoming winter and all, but still I went. This time with proper scuba gear.

         Diving into the water, it didn’t take long for me to reach her. She had the same outfit on as the last time I had seen her, and though it was I who swam around her, it was she who paid me no mind.  I finally stopped swimming and put my feet down in front of her long enough to check my air supply. While I did this something gray touched my arm. I looked up to see that the woman had turned her eyes on me. Beautiful, red. Perfection.  Since I could not breathe under water  I simply stood and stared.  She, in return, said nothing, but stared at me in the same way I looked at her.

         Never breaking our gaze, I saw  water rapidly turning into ice. I was confused, as I felt rather warm but glancing up, I could tell that the top of the river was starting to freeze over.  I glanced at the lady, trying to say sorry for having to leave, and drifted up to the surface, where I scrambled out of the river. There I saw a phenomenon: the river had completely covered itself in a thick layer of ice, but it had a fire on it. I had only heard of ice so cold it erupts into flames, and to see red dancing upon white was a spectacle I long awaited to see. Now, I witnessed it,  and felt blessed to have brought a camera. I recorded the skilled dance of flames with the sturdy posture of ice as its partner.

         While returning the gear, Tim Huter remarked that I must’ve seen that I had seen something that was a shining white  star to be lookin’ as happy as I was. I didn’t tell him about what I saw; he wouldn’t believe me, especially if I mentioned the color red. So I thanked him and told him to have it ready again by tomorrow .

         Though I had my heart set on going, the weather was hell bent on me staying home.  But I didn’t want to be separated from my treasure, so I went the next morning to Scuba Diver’s swim home and got and paid for my gear.  This time it didn’t take nearly as long for me to set up my gear. I didn’t double check as one should; everything would be fine.

         I swam down, deeper  and deeper, closer to the white and red beauty that was all mine.  This time,  when I got to her I simply stared.  In the deep recesses of my mind I heard stay with me…

         I of course, had no way of responding back besides nodding my head. And once again, we stared.  Whenever I was in danger of drifting away, her arms kept me standing. I happily devoured the pools of  blood that stared at me and the white cloth and hair flowing graciously around her. I had no idea of the amount of time I had spent staring, but I did know that I needed to breathe. I broke  our gaze, long enough to notice that my air was going in the critical. Also, I  noticed, that the river was freezing over again, so I needed to leave.

         But the arms wouldn’t let go.  I started struggling for air, and she smiled at me. I shook me head, and looked up, the river was almost completely covered again. She let go, and I swam as well as I could, for I was intoxicated with her presence,  To the top of the river. When I got there I touched the top, hoping to break the ice. It hurt. I pulled my hand back, noticing it was red.  I was too busy trying to crack the first layer of ice to realize that  A second layer was forming under me. this layer burned as much as the first, and it had froze my legs. I screamed, but that didn’t help. My air supply went  out, so now I had to battle for every last breath. Between the two  sheets of  ice,  another layer raced toward me. this one filled the  gap, encasing me with it.

         I thought this was it but, unfortunately, that’s when the first layer erupted into fire. My hands were the first to burn.  It was painful, but it still enchanted me. The ice was burning quickly, and soon it started near the top of the second layer too; but I could tell because it caught fire near my leg. So I just watched, frozen and burning as my legs were burned of.  I was  dying in red and white, through all my pain I smiled.  My face caught fire, and I couldn’t see any more.  I was dying In a red heat that filled me with dread, surrounded by a white light keeping  me quite bright.