Call of the Water (COMPLETE)

35. TEARS AND RAINDROPS

Heavy dark clouds filled the sky, hiding every trace of the distant stars. As if they tried to replace the light they took away, they emitted their own. Every now and then, a flash of lightning would reveal the world, and every now and then a thunder would disrupt the steady sound of rain. Drops of water were falling from the sky, creating their own symphony and drenching the town on the shore of the sea.

Inside the house with the yellow door, Ms. Cyan and I were safe and dry. The majority of the storm was behind us. The thunder lost some of its volume, so Ms. Cyan's body relaxed a bit. I didn't feel the tension that was brought on by the forcefulness of the storm either.

She still hadn't lost sight of the window. It even seemed to me that she was trying to restrain herself from blinking. She did not like the storms, that was more than obvious.

I walked up to the window, slouched to lean my elbows on the windowsill and used my palms to support my chin. The distant lightnings looked like bare branched trees made of light. Simply magical.

The lamp illuminating the room turned the window into a semi-transparent mirror. Ms. Cyan's reflection was in it, while on the other side of the glass, I could catch sight of the shore and the open sea behind it. It looked like a double exposure picture.

"It's out there, our kingdom." I turned my head towards my teacher, hoping I could get her to talk to me, but instead of responding, she averted her eyes.

I shuddered when I realized what she was staring at.

On a small desk on the right side of the window sat the book Doctor Kasian gave me. I placed it there earlier, when I was changing into my diving suit. For some reason I felt the need to tell the girl on the picture that the ocean was near.

The Aquantien girl that was staring from the page of an open book trapped Ms. Cyan's attention. Maybe it was the blank look in the girl's eyes, or maybe her desperation, I couldn't tell for sure, but looking at Ms. Cyan, I saw how much the image had affected her. She blinked several times, trying to chase away the tears. However, once she realized it wouldn't work, she closed her eyes and let them seep down her cheeks.

I stood up straight and walked over to my teacher. "She was the first one to survive," I said to fill the uncomfortable silence.

"And she regrets it to this day," Professor Cyan responded. She wiped her cheek and looked straight at me with her tear-filled eyes, waiting for me to grasp the meaning of her words.

How could she know that the girl from the picture has regrets? I wondered, but then an explanation popped into my mind. It was unlikely, however, the words escaped me before I was able to ponder them. "Is this you? Is Aq53 you?"

I gaped at her with eyes wide open. Could it really be her? The little girl from the picture, so alone, so scared. Could she be standing right in front of me?

"I had no choice," Professor Cyan said. She walked up to the desk and picked up the book as if she was picking up a baby. Her cheeks were wet from tears and I noticed her lower lip quivered. "I was taken from my home. Abducted, if you will. They took away everything I had, robbed me of my future, stole my name and replaced it with a number. Aq53. Do you know what it means?"

Her eyes met mine after she asked that question. I shook my head. No, I did not know what it meant, but something told me the truth would not be pleasant.

She looked at the page of the book again. "It means that there had been fifty-two Aquantiens before me."

Another tear slid down her cheek and fell on the picture of the girl, staining it. They are the same person, I reminded myself. Suddenly, I felt like an intruder, like I was invading a private moment. A part of me wanted to leave the room, while another part begged me to stay.