True Love Never Dies

Peter, fifteen, sat on the riverbank, just past the bridge. Nearby were several police officers. Divers were in the water.

A detective said, “You found the body, right?”

“It’s not that simple,” Peter said. “It's beyond understanding.”

“Try me.”

“OK, believe me or not, this is what really happened.

“When I hit the water, everything changed. Like, even though I tried getting to the surface, I kept sinking. When I got to the bottom, there was a guy just sitting there. He was older than me, maybe twenty. And he was talking to me. And I could somehow hear him.”

“He said, Find Emily. Please. Downstream. Please find her. We were in love, but they wouldn’t let us see each other. We couldn’t stand to be separated, so we jumped off the bridge together. Please find her. She’s wearing the locket I gave her on her birthday. It says Emily and Robert. I’m Robert Jamison."

The detective said, “I remember the name Robert Jamison from a case some ten years ago. He was 18, but his girlfriend was just 15. We figured they were just runaways.”

“Anyway, " continued Peter, "I swam downstream and there was a girl there, also sitting up. And she was saying, Where’s Robert? Please find Robert."

“I tried to tell her Robert was OK and she seemed to understand. The she took a locket off her neck and asked me to give it to Robert.”

“The next thing I knew, I was on the surface. I got to my phone and dialed 911.”

“Not that simple is right, Peter. But I think you were just hallucinating from shock, or lack of oxygen.”

As a diver yelled, “We found the second one,” Peter reached in his pocket and gave the locket to the detective.