Elizabeth

Without Anyone

Without anyone to comfort him or offer him an explanation, Wesley was able to accept finding his mother's body on the floor without a hint of emotion. He did this by busying himself with the practical aspects of bereavement.

First he cleaned up the remains (which was how he decided instantly to think of the corpse, like it was roadkill), which involved the digging of a ditch in a grove that his mother had taken him to once when he was a child but which no one else ever came to, as far as he knew. The reason for this was that it was a rather unattractive little wood, with a higher quantity of stumps than trees, which was merciful because the trees that did stand were rotten and dying. His mother loved the grove, though, or had memories there or something in that vein, because on occasion she would refuse to shut up about it. During these occasions, Wesley was quite successful in pretending to listen while contemplating the ceiling.

He did not tell anyone she had died because no one would notice if he didn't, but if he did he would have instantly become a suspect it what was obviously a murder. Unless she tripped and fell on a knife. Although then she would have been face down...

He decided not to think about it. He focused on his hope that Elizabeth had left him after he fell asleep, and didn't just evaporate permanently. He didn't love his mother, hadn't in years. He didn't love Elizabeth either, of course, but at least there was a strong possibility that he might one day.

He was on his way to the stables when he heard the shouts. Apparently someone was drowning. He ran over. He was a strong swimmer, and had actually saved his father, who was a rather large man, after he had fallen into a lake, drunk and unconscious. This had been challenging, since Wesley was slight in his build despite his height.

By the time he made it over to the circle of dying grass that served as the site for the commotion, however, the scene he discovered was not one in which anyone seemed to be in any kind of danger. He quickly identified the drowning victim as a boy that was no wetter than anyone else was because it was raining but who was lying on the grass in the middle of a huddled crowd. Wesley, like the observant boy he was, concluded that someone had saved the child.

"Someone saved me," the child insisted. "I didn't see them, but I felt them dive in after me, and I felt their dress. It must have been a girl. I felt her grab me and shove me out of the pond. She's still down there!" This compelling speech's received no responses from the crowd save for a cynical expression from an old lady armed with two knitting needles and what was either a half-finished scarf or a completed hat for a baby that doubled as a potholder.

"I don't see anyone down there," the old lady claimed. Though she was looking straight up at a rather unpleasant storm cloud as she said it, everyone must have taken her word for it, because they murmured their agreement in the way that crowds will.

Wesley shoved his way through the throng of people and peered into the pond. Sure enough, he saw a billowing, emerald green skirt and black hair sinking slowly. Without wasting any time to consider his options, he dove in and found swimming down effortless due to the nonexistent current. He grabbed the sinking girl, and pulled her up to the surface, where he hoisted both of them up on top of the grass.

And then he found himself on top of a gasping Elizabeth.

"What is wrong with you?" Wesley asked, his voice filled with something between barely contained rage, concern, and relief. Clearly she couldn't swim - that was the only way she wouldn't have been able to fight her way to the surface of the pond. Why would she have jumped in after some boy she didn't know? "You could have died. Like, actually died."

Rather than applauding him for saving her life, the crowd began to mutter amongst themselves. Elizabeth whispered to him urgently, "They can't see me, Wesley, only you can. They'll think you're crazy." This made sense now. She was a ghost, after all. Perhaps she didn't have full control over who could see her and who couldn't. But now he would have to find a way to not look like he was balancing on top of someone..